I heart Baguio!

The number one reason I love Baguio is because it's probably full on 20-40 degrees cooler than Manila. For that reason it's called the "summer capital of the Philippines." It gets so cool at night you even need a hat and jacket. It's not unusual seeing people over compensate (well in my opinion anyway) with full winter coats on. At about 70 degrees all of Lena's family was complaining about how cold it was.

Nina in her hat and jacket

Baguio sits about 5000 feet above sea level. It looks and feels higher though. Baguio's population is about 300,000 according to a 2007 census, so while traffic is still congested it's not nearly as bad as Manila. Most people catch a taxi to where they want to go. The altitude and steep hills are problematic for the famous jeepneys that populate Manila so they are not as prominent. It's also called the ghost capital of the Philippines. Man I love this place! I asked if Lena's family could move there. Then I found out it was practically destroyed by an earthquake in 1990. Yikes! That makes me a little less enthused but still hard not to fall  in love with the place. After leaving the mountains it didn't take long for the muggy, hot and humid temps to return. Ahhh Baguio how I miss thee.

Bad Boy

Rommel Grajeda

Lena's cousin Rommel "Buddha" Grajeda is practically a living legend in the streets of Cubao. If you want someone who can traverse treacherous cliff hugging mountain roads and go where other drivers fear to tread, Buddha is your guy. He's like a cross between Takumi Fugiwara from Initial D and Speed Racer. He'd be the perfect Transporter.

Zip Line

Yes I will kung fu pose with your kids for 150 pesos per photo

Manila Bay at sunset

One more sunset photo

Manila Bay at sunset

Because the world can always use one more sunset photo

Mall of Asia Globe

Spam Jam!

I know some are thinking "Terrell photoshopped that little spam guy" but no, Spam Jam is an actual little food kiosk inside Mall of Asia where you can get spam burgers,spam sushi and just regular old spam. Spam is very popular in the Philippines usually served with a breakfast of eggs and rice. Sarap nito!

The monstrously huge Mall of Asia

Tilapia

I meant to take a photo before they tore into it but i wasn't fast enough.

Transmogrifier

All she needs is a stuffed Tiger.

Seeing my niece Nina playing in the discarded balikbayan box reminded me of Calvin and Hobbes and his Transmogrifier. The Transmogrifier could do anything from morph people into different shapes to travel through time.

Scrape Scrape

Fail

My niece Urielle asked me if I wanted to video Lena baking brownies. It's from a mix! There's nothing to video it's not like she's making it from scratch.
Well Lena burned it. When I asked Urielle how the brownies turned out she replied "scrape scrape." They scraped off the burned layer and put the rest back in the oven. Sarap nito!

Vodka, no I.D. required

750 ml bottle of vodka for 69 Pesos! That's less than $2

Your neighborhood sari-sari store carries a number of amenities including rum and vodka. Woo hoo! Largely unregulated you only need a permit to operate a store and they don't check I.D.  Woo hoo!

I was told if you mix it with juice you don't even get drunk. It's 50 proof which is pretty low in terms of alcohol by volume. Why so cheap? Possibly it has something to do with the distillation and filtering process. It's probably not filtered multiple times hence the 50 proof versus being double or triple filtered which increases alcohol content.

Tonight we're getting f'ked up!
-Katt Williams-

Opening the Balikbayan Box

The boxes beat us here by two weeks. We shipped them early to avoid the airline fees.

Smoked fish

Lena is hooking up the smoked fish with tomato and egg. A common Philippine breakfast.

Magandang Umaga (Good Morning)

There are roosters crowing

Looking out the bedroom window in Marikina City.Taken at 5:46am local time. Haven't been to sleep yet.

Welcome to the Philippines

Took an hour to clear immigration

I had forgotten how the heat, smell, noise, the sheer amount of people and traffic hits you when you step outside Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport but I was quickly reminded. After taking one hour to clear immigration, it didn't take long before a begger jumped onto the back of our moving jeep as we were leaving. Lots of yelling in Tagalog ensued,(sorry I can't translate) then he let go and ran over to my window and stuck his arm through to hang on as the jeep slowed down to take a turn but is still moving. I drew back to hit him but Lena grabbed my arm. After more yelling in Tagalog someone in our entourage (we were 12 deep in the jeep) passed forward some money. He yelled "salamat po" (thank you very much) and jumped off. Welcome to the Philippines.

We're all living in Amerika. Coca Cola Sometimes war

This is the back of a Japanese guy's hoodie in Minneapolis airport. I missed the crazy anime graphic on the hood. Gotta love Japanese fashion.

UPDATE:

I actually sat next to him on the plane. He's actually from China as is his fashionable hoodie.

Allyn Bongat

My sponsored child, 11 years ago. Will she kill me for posting this? Yeah, probably.
Allyn is no longer my sponsored child though. She's 19 now, and no longer eligible for assistance from Children International. Currently she's working and going to school so she's doing great.