When people heard that I was accompanying my husband to Manila for two weeks they felt sorry for me.
Comments went from "So boring!" to 'Polluted', 'Congested' and dangerous.
'Ah well', I replied, 'even if I were to stay in the hotel I would still be able to entertain myself.'.
With a laptop and wifi I could do lots of 'work', I could blog, etc. And with my new camera I had a lot to study on that.
Then there were books, a pool, spa's....I would be ok.
When we arrived the weather was not really nice. There was still some sun, but it was as if a grey curtain was over everything. And the wind was strong. As we would soon find out, this was due to the arrival of typhoon Pedring, combined with the moussoonrains.
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| Grey... |
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| After Pedring left the Philipines, the still ugly building looked a lot better with sun and a blue sky. |
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| Not that this city will ever look pretty, I'm afraid... |
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| We felt right at home with constructions everywhere;-) |
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| Manila is filled with the hugest billboards. It's like a thick forest of billboards along the roads and streets. The constructions on which they are mounted are often quite flimsy. Not surprising that many accidents have happened with those giant advertisements. Sometimes they come down, falling on cars and people. |
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| Having learnt from other typhoons they took down most of the billboards during Pedring. The constructions remain, but catch less wind without the enormous posters on them. |
Our hotel was about 7 km from the bay and boulevard, so we were safe and did not notice that much from the devastating typhoon. Yes, we had to stay in the hotel. Offices and schools were closed. It rained all the time and the wind was stormy. But we kept electricity (almost) all the time and were comfortable. The floodings happened 7 km away. Poor people in those areas:-(.
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| The boulevard and historic Manila would have been one of the few nicer areas to explore, but got severely damaged. |
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| Water had to be released from various dams, causing floodings for people that lived nearby those dams. |
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| Near the hotel tree branches were broken. |
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| Looking down at the pool on the first day, there was this grey curtain over the view. |
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| After Pedring it looked like this; much lighter! |
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| The staff of the Shangri-La Edsa was gorgeous and superfriendly. |
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| These tiny girls are interns. Only the small ones are selected to open the doors and stand at the elevators. To enhighten the cuteness of it all. The taller ones are placed behind desks. |
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| The main lobby; very spacious. |
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| Hmmm....Very appealing! |
When you are stuck in your hotel and you have a new camera that you have to get to know, you end up photographing about everything...hahaha.
Playing with filters, settings, positions...
Here are some of the results:
"Ok, ok, enough already. Is that ALL you did?!". No, not all. I also went to the quite boring and ugly shoppingmall next door:
But ok, Pedring left us and we could safely leave the hotel. So I took a taxi to Greenhills shoppingmall. A local, lowbudget mall. Just the way I like it. No brands, just cheap stuff and fakes.
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| The inside of the taxi looked promising...hahaha. |
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| Nicely pimped dashboard. |
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| The shoppingmall; Greenhills. Huge. Every two steps: "Hi maaaaam, buy bag!". |
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Bought three tops here. "Remember us, maaaaaaam, tell your friends!".
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As soon as you buy something the bundle of money you hand over is used to touch each and every item in the store. "For good luck, maaaam."
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| First floor: phones, phones, phones.... |
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| Antiques division. |
Yes, they had stuff that I loooved, being the queen of kitsch and fan of lights:
(but no, I did not buy any of this...yet....)
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| Seemed like a sort of Tijuana weddingdress to me; gorgeous! |
Then I decided to take my camera and find a spot on the street where I could take pictures of the Philipines famous Jeepneys. Again: so fantastic for a queen of kitsch and pimpology like myself.
What ARE jeepneys, I hear you ask. Well, read this text coming from wikipedia:
Jeepney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The word jeepney is a portmanteau of "jeep" and "Jitney".[3]
A jitney is a North American English term that originally referred to a vehicle for hire intermediate between a taxi and a bus.[42] They are generally a small-capacity vehicles that follow a rough service route, but can go slightly out of its way to pick up and drop off passengers. In many US cities (e.g. Pittsburgh and Detroit), the term jitney refers to an unlicensed taxi cab.
History
When American troops began to leave the Philippines at the end of WWII, hundreds of surplus jeeps were sold or given to the Filipinos; they stripped them down and altered or customized the jeeps to accommodate more passengers, added metal roofs for shade, and decorated the vehicles with vibrant colors and bright chrome hood ornaments.
The jeepney rapidly emerged as a popular and creative way to re-establish inexpensive public transportation, which had been virtually destroyed during WWII. Recognizing the widespread use of these vehicles, the Philippine government began to regulate their use. Drivers now must have specialized licenses, regular routes, and reasonably fixed fares.
So I stood there for half an hour. Very visible. Very blond and with a big camera. The traffic was crazy: noisy, smelly, dirty. But..... I was able to spot a lot of jeepneys:
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