This was my second trip to The Philippines ("P.I."). During the week, I
stayed at the
"Discovery Suites Hotel" in Pasig City. (The
city is located south of Manila and halfway
between Makati City and Quezon
City.) It is a very nice hotel, located within walking
distance of
many mall, restaurants, bars, etc. I highly recommend staying there if
you're in the area.
Here are some of the day-to-day highlights of the trip --
1) January 9th --
I arrived at the airport at about 3:00pm. Even though I had only
made the plans for the
trip two days beforehand, my friend had a friend
meet me at the gate. About 10 minutes
later, my friend picked me
up. He had his own personal driver/chaffeur, something
that's
practiced by the more affluent citizens of P.I.
As I mentioned above, I stayed at the "Discovery Suites Hotel ".
After dropping off my
things, we went to a salon to get our haircuts --
"Signature Cuts". For about 1,000 pesos
($20 at 50
pesos per $1 at that time), they did a lot of additional things. (I
know what
you're thinking, but it wasn't THAT type of shop.)
While the head barber -- Renee
Onita -- was cutting my hair, a woman
was giving me a pedicure (with a foot message), a
manicure (with a
hand massage), and then a neck massage. Last, Renee treated my hair
with a deep treatment gel. You couldn't ask for more,
especially at that price!
Afterwards, we met his cousin at a Filipino (It's actually spelled
"Pilipino", but I'm
American, so what am I going to do?) restaurant in
one of the nearby malls and had
dinner together. After that, he
took me back to the hotel and I was so tired that I went
to bed right
away at 10:30.
1) January 10th --
Based upon arrangements from the previous night, my friend called me at
6:10 to go
golfing. He picked me up about 45 minutes later.
We played at an executive-type
course named "Camp Aguinaldo
Golf Course. (It is located on an army base in Quezon
City.)
We both had one caddie and also one woman who carried umbrellas for
us. The
umbrellas were used for two things -- (1) Protecting
us from the sun, and (2) Protecting
us from stray golf balls.
(Many of the holes had narrow, adjacent fairways. My
friend's
caddie was missed by one ball by about one foot!) As we played, I
noticed that
the smog in the direction of Manila was increasing.
(It reminded me of pictures of
mushroom clouds resulting from
nuclear explosions.) The locals laughed and said that
it
happened every day. I said that someone would be in big trouble if
the pollution got
that bad in any of the cities in The United States.
However, I have never been to New
York City, so I cannot speak
for it.
Regarding my game, I started off fairly well, being on the greens in
regulation on the
first 6 holes. But then I woke up and started
hitting balls astray. However, I closed
strong with a birdie on
the final hole, a par three, by sinking a 30-foot putt that broke
about
15 feet from left to right. That's the kind of stuff that makes you
want to go back
and play again!
Some things of note --
1) I noticed was that there were more American sports utility vehicles than I
expected;
especially Ford Expeditions. I imagine that they aren't
as prevalent in non-metropolitan
areas of P.I. I never had a chance
to do that during this trip, so I'm not sure about it.
2) At the time of my trip, The United States had a travel warning to Americans.
It stated
that Americans should not travel there because of the
safety hazard regarding terrorism.
This is excessive. It is true
that there are unsafe places there, but they are restricted to
the southern
parts of the country; in particular Mindanao area. I went to the types of
places that The United States government spelled out were dangerous --
malls, bars, and
crowded areas. (I didn't do it intentionally, but
did it because these were the places that
I planned on going to.) I
felt just as safe there, if not safer, than in many places in The
United
States. I appreciate the government being concerned about its citizens'
safety,
but it is overzealous. If you are considering going to The
Philippines, don't hesitate.
It's very safe and will be one of the
most interesting places that you have ever visited.