Chris and his sisters were off for a river rafting adventure, which I declined. It might have been fun, but I hate water things because of my contacts. My contacts will pop out if I get water in my eye. If I took glasses, I'd risk losing them. I can't go without because I am so near sighted. Also, I don't really like being splashed, and hate cold water. The sights would be pretty and the adventure fun...but not worth it to me. Instead I was going out for some pampering at the "parlor". This means I didn't have to be up as early, but I still was up fairly early and shared breakfast with my in-laws inside the main house. I was savoring my beef tapa, knowing I only had one more of this meal.
We left for the mall around 10:30 or so, where the parlor was...this is the word used in the Philippines for a beauty salon. They were busy and could only handle one mani/pedi at a time, so while my mother-in-law got her nails done, I went shopping - really more window shopping. Many of the stores we have in the states, and the sales weren't that good, nor are the prices really any better. I did see a swimsuit in Debenhas that I wanted. I had wanted to get a new one before we left, but winter in the states is not the best time to find one.
I returned to the salon, and we ended up going to lunch with the rest of the family at Cafe Laguna - another Filipino restaurant. I ordered beef calderata, which was very much like a stew. It was tasty and the meat so tender, and I put it with some garlic rice. I had a watermelon juice - so sweet and refreshing. We had more bibinka (also some kind of rice dessert) which was very tasty.
At 1:30, I had my manicure and pedicure, which was to cost around 350 pesos. The girl first brought me a little foot spa (like the kind you see in Bed Bath and Beyond for you to use at home). My feet soaked in there for only about 5 minutes. She then took it away, and proceeded to work on my hands. No soaking the fingers, just straight to the cutting away of cuticles. She painted them an aqua blue (I am usually a red, purple, pink nail girl, but in honor of the island, I chose this color). Only one coat was applied, so you could actually see through it a bit to the nail below. Then she worked on my feet, doing the same color. She was very gentle, and did a good enough job, but not as good as I'm used to. You can't complain at that price though.
I finished about an hour later, but my mother-in-law was getting an extensive treatment, so I went back out to the mall and actually did some shopping. I purchased the swimsuit top only, a cute little dress (of which I couldn't come close to fitting in a 3 (large here) and had to get the 5. This particular shop is only in Southeast/Island Asia, so I am definitely bigger than the average girl, so my 5 was probably what they consider and XXL (do not mistake our size "5" with theirs...this is a completely different 5 than in the states). But, the dress was cute, on sale for about $10, and it fit, so I bought it. I bought a little black belt to go with the purple dress I had bought at Chinatown (in some of the pictures it made me look HUGE, so I thought a little belt would be helpful). I stopped and bought a buko (coconut) shake - which is fresh coconut made right there. I went back to the shop, read my book until we were done around 6. I had literally spent the whole day in the mall.
A few things about the mall that is different than what I am used to. Here after they put your belongings in the bag, they either staple, tape, or tie shut the bag and often attach the receipt to the outside of the bag. I'm not sure why - if this is to make it harder to shoplift, for pick-pockets or just because. Also, you will see a lot of people walking around with blue masks over their mouths. They maybe workers outside or even people just walking around the mall. I don't know if they are sick, if they are afraid of getting sick, or maybe have a compromised immune system? I saw this in China as well.
Our ride home was uneventful, but one thing you will often see are people begging that come up to the cars. They stand at the window, and I saw our family here would knock on the window to tell them to go away. All too often, it is little children that are out begging. One intersection had some boys that would come up and play little hand drums. We had some little cookies that we weren't going to eat (they weren't what I thought they were when I bought them), so sometimes we handed these out to the kids. They seemed pretty happy to get them.
A few things about driving that we noticed - they use the horn not because they are upset so much as just to let people know they are coming, they are passing, etc. The road rules are more of "friendly suggestions" here than anything else. There may be two lanes and people drive in the middle or make three lanes. Passing is frequent, just about anywhere. Rarely did we go fast on any roads, so the accidents we saw (two I think) were very minimal, no big crunch ups. I think part of the craziness here is that in the US, we are used to space. If people get in our space, pull out in front of us, we get angry and honk. Here, you are already going slow enough that when people pull in front of you, you just slow down more. People pull in so close to you, we Americans think they are going to hit us, but they never did. They just don't use space...they take advantage of every little inch and are going slow enough that they can (I think they don't go so slow when the roads are empty, that's just not very common though).
Jeepneys are a main mode of transportation, and people pack in those as much as they can. Some Jeepneys are very decorated and festive, with a theme. Some are fairly plain, but they are fun to see. Basically it's a small type of truck/van (enclosed) with two bench seats stretching the length of the cab. Another form is a tricycle. This is a motorbike of sorts with a cab on it. You'd guess these cabs could seat maybe 4 people, but we are told some get up to ten on them! They are for shorter distances though. Many people ride motorcycles, and you may even see a family of four riding on a motorcycle. I think I even saw one that had four men (of small stature, but still...).
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| Buko Shake |
A few things about the mall that is different than what I am used to. Here after they put your belongings in the bag, they either staple, tape, or tie shut the bag and often attach the receipt to the outside of the bag. I'm not sure why - if this is to make it harder to shoplift, for pick-pockets or just because. Also, you will see a lot of people walking around with blue masks over their mouths. They maybe workers outside or even people just walking around the mall. I don't know if they are sick, if they are afraid of getting sick, or maybe have a compromised immune system? I saw this in China as well.
Our ride home was uneventful, but one thing you will often see are people begging that come up to the cars. They stand at the window, and I saw our family here would knock on the window to tell them to go away. All too often, it is little children that are out begging. One intersection had some boys that would come up and play little hand drums. We had some little cookies that we weren't going to eat (they weren't what I thought they were when I bought them), so sometimes we handed these out to the kids. They seemed pretty happy to get them.
A few things about driving that we noticed - they use the horn not because they are upset so much as just to let people know they are coming, they are passing, etc. The road rules are more of "friendly suggestions" here than anything else. There may be two lanes and people drive in the middle or make three lanes. Passing is frequent, just about anywhere. Rarely did we go fast on any roads, so the accidents we saw (two I think) were very minimal, no big crunch ups. I think part of the craziness here is that in the US, we are used to space. If people get in our space, pull out in front of us, we get angry and honk. Here, you are already going slow enough that when people pull in front of you, you just slow down more. People pull in so close to you, we Americans think they are going to hit us, but they never did. They just don't use space...they take advantage of every little inch and are going slow enough that they can (I think they don't go so slow when the roads are empty, that's just not very common though).
We came back to our last dinner at the main house, and then after gathered round to share our gratitude for the amazing hosts our family in Davao was. It was really nice, because the two families had never really been able to fully get together like this. Plans were being made for the families to visit each other. Our family really had been amazing taking us around to all kinds of places, planning activities for us, and being so welcoming I was particularly grateful since I am not a blood member and not Filipino, but I was welcomed and considered part of the family right away without question. It shows the warm hospitality of these people.
We were taken on a tour the upstairs of the main house. We loved it with it's beautiful wood flooring, detailed ceilings and wall panels, and the patio that overlooks the courtyard. It was so amazing to hear about how many generations had lived in that house.
We were taken on a tour the upstairs of the main house. We loved it with it's beautiful wood flooring, detailed ceilings and wall panels, and the patio that overlooks the courtyard. It was so amazing to hear about how many generations had lived in that house.
We went back to pack our bags, which was a bit of a fiasco, since the airline will only let you have 10kg (about 20 lbs) in your check on, or else you pay more. Our carry on was limited to one, but only 7kg. We packed as best we could, thinking maybe we would just buy more weight.
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