October 9, 2006 Shanghai to Singapore, Singapore to Manila

It's my turn to post again (Wes), Lisa and I are alternating days blogging. Blogging is pretty time consuming, but kindof a neat concept. We'll always have all the memories for future trips!

We flew the red eye from Shanghai to Singapore, and the flight was pretty nice. Singapore airline flight attendants are hot. They all look like porcelain dolls. And the service on the plane was awesome. Only problem was, the seats weren’t very comfortable, so I didn’t sleep all that well on that flight. After arriving at Singapore, we had to go through customs, get our luggage and basically head to our next flight which was to Manila. Seems like we’ve been living out of airports, but that’s okay… they’ve all been nice so far. It was HOT in Singapore. We got there at around 5AM, and it was humid and about 30 degrees… the humidity makes it feel like high 30’s. No big deal though, cause we were really only stepped outside for 5 minutes while heading to our departure terminal.

This time, we had to fly in economy… yeah yeah, we sure are spoiled, but the flight on JetStar Asia was actually really nice. Nice, because Lisa and I both got our own row of seats to sleep on. I slept a lot better on this flight…. Go figure.

Once we arrived in Ninoy Aquino International, we had to go through customs again, but it was quick and easy. Lisa’s Dad picked us up from the airport (yeah, Lisa’s parents left Shanghai and went to Manila a day before us), and we headed to Cheryl’s (Lisa’s cousin) house. Let me tell you, the drive to her house was definitely an eye opener. The city is cleaner than I thought it would be, but there is a lot of poverty in and around the city.

Yet at the same time, the people seem happy and in good spirits. (I personally think the Filipino people are very upbeat, friendly and happy in the first place) There sure are a lot of people here, the drivers here in Manila are actually a little more subdued than in Shanghai, but that’s not saying much, because it’s still pretty crazy. Somehow, there’s method to all the madness here in terms of traffic… people always get to where they want to go even though the traffic is brutal.

After that, Lisa’s parents, Lisa and myself went to a mall called Tutuban. There was a lot of fake stuff, lots of the same stuff, and it was cheap! Lisa bought 2 tank tops for 4 bucks Canadian. After that, I got to experience some fast food at a restaurant called JollyBee.

It’s the only place in the world where there is a fast food chain that is more successful than McDonalds. They serve dishes that are specific to the Philippines, a dish called Palabok, which was good! We also had fried chicken with rice and gravy. It’s kind of neat that they serve rice instead of fries. (Oh, a side note, it turns out that my father-in-law’s cousin owns JollyBee!)

After JollyBee, we headed home and I met the rest of the family. Dinner was potluck style, kind of reminded me of back home at Lisa’s house. Then after dinner we played a dice game with the whole family. It’s kind of neat. You have 5 dice, and you try to roll as many 4’s as possible. The higher combination of 4’s you achieve, the better the prize you receive. Lisa mentioned that prior to the dice game, that Cheryl’s family usually cleans house in terms of getting all the good prizes. Low and behold, they won all the big prizes.. hahaha, just as Lisa predicted.

Anyhow, that was the day…. Tomorrow is a new day, and Darren, Becky, and Anth should have arrived by then.

Till then!