Update #3
Well that was a quick two weeks. Does that mean I started having fun? Figures cause everything just passed by in a blur. I've been spending a lot of time with my mother who has been spoiling me and my wife rotten. I feel kinda guilty and yet I don't cause we rarely get to see each other. She hasn't been in Vancouver since 1998 and I haven't been back to Manila since 1992 so I'm taking the spoiling in stride.
An aunt of mine finally got back from one of the southern cities so she took it upon herself to make sure we got to move around. Last weekend she organized a trip to a house in Punta Fuego so that my family can spend an afternoon lazing at a beach. We left on the Sat morning and it rained all the way there but stopped as we got there. Just in time for a quick lunch and headed straight for the beach. Sure it was overcast with small sunny periods but given this is the rainy/monsoon season here I'll accept that gladly. As it is, we went down one more time to the beach on Sun morning even though it rained but it didn't really matter. The rain was warm and I don't know why but it felt really cleansing as I lifted my arms to the sky. Heh almost like Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption if I had to equate a similar cinematic moment. On the way home we passed through Tagaytay whose major draw is its majestic view of Taal Lake and the volcano nestled therein. Unfortunately given our luck, it was foggy at the time we passed so we made up for it with a fabulous lunch at Antonio's Grill whose dishes made up for our lost viewing opportunity. I'm glad to say that after three weeks here and that weekend of pigging out, I am only up by 4 lbs so I've managed to limit the potential damage I would have to deal with when I get back to Vancouver. Otherwise until I leave on Sat Aug 5, I will eat as much fruits and other local goodies that I can't find in/won't be able to bring to Vancouver with me.
I must say the foodie in me is VERY HAPPY as I've managed to relive a lot of my taste memories. Most of all I've managed to prove an uncle of mine wrong. He warned me before I left so that I wouldn't be disappointed and said not to expect things to be the same as my tastes have probably changed after living in Vancouver for so long. (Quick rehash, I left Manila in 1985 and the only other time I was back was a quick trip in 1992) True, some people's tastes may change over time but I found most of the things I liked before I left were still the same except for some things I mentioned in the last update. So I think I will correct my uncle and say that more often than not People's tastes don't change, it's the recipe.
These last couple of days have been busy ones for me and the wife as we are getting the last of the personal shopping done as well as looking for souvenirs to bring home. Shirts with naughty/witty remarks, indigenous food products that aren't available elsewhere even at the Filipino stores in Canada, and jewelry. I must say that my wife has impressed me with her knowledge on the latter subject. If she wasn't with me at the Tiangge, I probably would have been suckered into buying something so not worth the price. Just a quick info note, the Tiangge is a bazaar/flea market that runs daily at the Greenhills Shopping Center and it is made up of literally hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of goods and the two most important things you'll need are: knowledge of the item/s you are looking for and a good skill at haggling. Sure money is important too but that's where the haggling comes in. Needless to say my wife had both the knowledge and haggling well in hand. One part of the Tiangge deals with nothing but jewelry and those stalls number at least a hundred. Everything from cheap fancy jewelry to some rather gorgeous high end items. Trust me to find the latter. But most of all, the number one item you can find are pearls. I don't exaggerate when I say EVERY stall in that area HAS pearls, set or unset, and even if it were the latter, they could quickly string something together of your choice. And again these run the gamut from cheap artificial stuff to really high end pearls. I think my wife made a killing on the latter and I'm wondering if Canada Customs will believe we really paid that good (i.e. low) a price on them. Anyways, a friend of mine asked me to look for something interesting to bring back for her and given that her birthday is coming up in October, I thought I would look for her birthstone. Well I certainly found it in spades. One stall had this absolutely gorgeous set of green blue (like a bright turquoise) opals made up of a pair of earrings, a ring, and a pendant. I could have gotten it considering the price they asked for it (and I probably could have haggled it down further) was easily less than half of what you could get it for online or in North America. However that would have still put me over my limit coming back into Canada and I don't like paying extra duties. That and the look my wife gave me. (As in why are you thinking of buying that for her...) :P We won't even go to a similar set of Mystic Fire topazes which is the other stone my friend asked me to look for and was easily double the price of the opals! However even I knew that was just too expensive especially for an artificially enhanced stone and a topaz at that. I could easily get the same set for a fifth of the price in WA state. Only reason it was so expensive here is that the guy had to get it from Thailand where the dealer there had ordered it in from the US. And he was the only stall that was offering those stones. Yes I did look through 95% of the stalls before I found it. Nice to have a monopoly eh?
I have today and tomorrow to do all my last minute stuff before I leave on Saturday. At least it is nice and sunny here for a change. I better get some pool time in. Hopefully I can meet up with some of my old buds here on Fri night for a last get-together. Anyways y'all take care and the next time you hear from me will be when I am back in Vancouver. Mabuhay!!!
An aunt of mine finally got back from one of the southern cities so she took it upon herself to make sure we got to move around. Last weekend she organized a trip to a house in Punta Fuego so that my family can spend an afternoon lazing at a beach. We left on the Sat morning and it rained all the way there but stopped as we got there. Just in time for a quick lunch and headed straight for the beach. Sure it was overcast with small sunny periods but given this is the rainy/monsoon season here I'll accept that gladly. As it is, we went down one more time to the beach on Sun morning even though it rained but it didn't really matter. The rain was warm and I don't know why but it felt really cleansing as I lifted my arms to the sky. Heh almost like Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption if I had to equate a similar cinematic moment. On the way home we passed through Tagaytay whose major draw is its majestic view of Taal Lake and the volcano nestled therein. Unfortunately given our luck, it was foggy at the time we passed so we made up for it with a fabulous lunch at Antonio's Grill whose dishes made up for our lost viewing opportunity. I'm glad to say that after three weeks here and that weekend of pigging out, I am only up by 4 lbs so I've managed to limit the potential damage I would have to deal with when I get back to Vancouver. Otherwise until I leave on Sat Aug 5, I will eat as much fruits and other local goodies that I can't find in/won't be able to bring to Vancouver with me.
I must say the foodie in me is VERY HAPPY as I've managed to relive a lot of my taste memories. Most of all I've managed to prove an uncle of mine wrong. He warned me before I left so that I wouldn't be disappointed and said not to expect things to be the same as my tastes have probably changed after living in Vancouver for so long. (Quick rehash, I left Manila in 1985 and the only other time I was back was a quick trip in 1992) True, some people's tastes may change over time but I found most of the things I liked before I left were still the same except for some things I mentioned in the last update. So I think I will correct my uncle and say that more often than not People's tastes don't change, it's the recipe.
These last couple of days have been busy ones for me and the wife as we are getting the last of the personal shopping done as well as looking for souvenirs to bring home. Shirts with naughty/witty remarks, indigenous food products that aren't available elsewhere even at the Filipino stores in Canada, and jewelry. I must say that my wife has impressed me with her knowledge on the latter subject. If she wasn't with me at the Tiangge, I probably would have been suckered into buying something so not worth the price. Just a quick info note, the Tiangge is a bazaar/flea market that runs daily at the Greenhills Shopping Center and it is made up of literally hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of goods and the two most important things you'll need are: knowledge of the item/s you are looking for and a good skill at haggling. Sure money is important too but that's where the haggling comes in. Needless to say my wife had both the knowledge and haggling well in hand. One part of the Tiangge deals with nothing but jewelry and those stalls number at least a hundred. Everything from cheap fancy jewelry to some rather gorgeous high end items. Trust me to find the latter. But most of all, the number one item you can find are pearls. I don't exaggerate when I say EVERY stall in that area HAS pearls, set or unset, and even if it were the latter, they could quickly string something together of your choice. And again these run the gamut from cheap artificial stuff to really high end pearls. I think my wife made a killing on the latter and I'm wondering if Canada Customs will believe we really paid that good (i.e. low) a price on them. Anyways, a friend of mine asked me to look for something interesting to bring back for her and given that her birthday is coming up in October, I thought I would look for her birthstone. Well I certainly found it in spades. One stall had this absolutely gorgeous set of green blue (like a bright turquoise) opals made up of a pair of earrings, a ring, and a pendant. I could have gotten it considering the price they asked for it (and I probably could have haggled it down further) was easily less than half of what you could get it for online or in North America. However that would have still put me over my limit coming back into Canada and I don't like paying extra duties. That and the look my wife gave me. (As in why are you thinking of buying that for her...) :P We won't even go to a similar set of Mystic Fire topazes which is the other stone my friend asked me to look for and was easily double the price of the opals! However even I knew that was just too expensive especially for an artificially enhanced stone and a topaz at that. I could easily get the same set for a fifth of the price in WA state. Only reason it was so expensive here is that the guy had to get it from Thailand where the dealer there had ordered it in from the US. And he was the only stall that was offering those stones. Yes I did look through 95% of the stalls before I found it. Nice to have a monopoly eh?
I have today and tomorrow to do all my last minute stuff before I leave on Saturday. At least it is nice and sunny here for a change. I better get some pool time in. Hopefully I can meet up with some of my old buds here on Fri night for a last get-together. Anyways y'all take care and the next time you hear from me will be when I am back in Vancouver. Mabuhay!!!