northern Luzon tour: Subic Bay

After preparing for our big northern Luzon trip, we took an afternoon break to see The Fantasticks — a long-running show on Broadway. It wasn't quite as good as The Spelling Bee but still entertaining if you last through the first act. After dinner, we turned in early so we could get on the road by 6 a.m. Monday morning.

A couple hour drive took us to Subic Bay. It was pouring, but we waited out the worst of it in a little restaurant over breakfast, and what Didy had planned for us was mostly indoors. First up: Zoobic Safari. Zoobic Safari, located in an old US military base, is a zoo of sorts, mainly focusing on tigers. The biggest attraction is a ride in a customized jeepney through a large area with lots of adolescent tigers. For a small extra fee, trainers will feed the tigers chicken from inside the jeepney so the tigers come up and even jump on the vehicle. We got some great photos and video!

A few other highlights were feeding crocodiles with a fishing pole and seeing the adult tigers in their cages. Our guide, Jay-wel, warned us that tigers like to mark their territory, so "rule number one: don't let the tigers pee on you." We also got a kick out of the Zoobic guide mannerisms. For example, when you hear "please remember" you think what follows will be an important instruction such as don't put any appendages outside the vehicle so the tigers don't eat your fingers. However at Zoobic, "please remember" was usually followed by some fact like "these snakes will only feed once a month because of their slow metabolism."

After lunch we headed to Ocean Adventure, similar to Sea World but on a smaller scale. Despite it's size, they did a great job. The little aquarium had tanks representing various areas and depths of the ocean, and the sea lion show was great. However, the highlight was the dolphin show, as I was selected to be the lucky audience participant. They prepped me before the show started so I'd know what to expect. I got to feed Zac, a bottlenose dolphin, dance with him, and then I gave him the command for a trick, which apparently was swim away then come back and spit on the person giving the command. Afterwards, he slid up on the platform for a photo opportunity, so now I've hugged a dolphin!

After the excitement of the day, we were ready to check in at the hotel and relax, however things didn't go quite as expected. First, we couldn't find the Crown Peak Hotel. After two phone calls, we found out that Crown Peak was a campus of hotels and none of the buildings were actually named Crown Peak. Our reservations were for Tiara and Garnet. While they looked a bit like run down barracks, which they were, it looked nice through the front door into the lobby. Walking in, however, was a different story. Vestiges of a clean hotel remained, but it was beginning to deteriorate, bugs ran amok, and the beds felt like box springs. During our two-night stay, we saw several three-inch ipis, i.e. cockroaches. Thankfully, the following day was much better than our night in the hotel.

Tuesday morning we started off with a visit to an area popular with the bat crowd. We took photos of a whole section of trees laden with bats the size of squirrels (at least!).

After the quick stop for bats we headed to Pamulaklakin Forest Trail for a jungle tour with an aeta — the indigenous Filipino people of the area. It was incredible to walk through a rainforest, and we only walked in the outskirts of the jungle. Danny was a great guide, pointing out various plants and their uses. He also showed us an 1800-year-old tree. I feel even more committed to the cause of creation care. God's creation is amazing! (One note though, I think mom is still adjusting to her role as translator. She kept accidentally speaking English to Danny and Tagolog to Ian and I, and we all had a good laugh.)

Following the jungle tour, another aeta, Miguel, demonstrated jungle survival: how to make fire and cook using only a giant knife and bamboo, as well as how to trap jungle chickens and monkeys for food. It's really amazing to see how well people can adapt to their surroundings and resources.

Olongapo Beach was our afternoon activity. It wasn't the dreamy white-sand-blue-water beach in postcards, but it was still fun to swim and kayak in the ocean, and the view was amazing. Green mountains surrounded the bay. Ian said between the lush scenery and our stark and deteriorating hotel, he felt like we were in the Dharma Initiative (that's for all you LOST fans out there!). We finished the day with dinner at a great pizza place. Who knew you could get such good pizza here!

Next stop on our tour is Vigan, an old Spanish settlement. As usual, see additional photos on our Flickr site!

Daez: past and present

Filipino culture 101: family relationships
Family in the Philippines is much closer than family in the States, generally speaking. It's very common for children to live with their parents even after getting a job. When they get married, they don't usually move far away. Relationships feel closer as well: great aunts and uncles get the same title as grandparents, and when you have kids, your siblings AND cousins are titled aunt and uncle. For example, I have lots of older cousins here who are married with kids. Ian and I are Tito Ian and Tita Anna to those kids. (Does this mean we can enter the cutest nephew contest, Megan?)

Showing respect is also a big deal in this culture. As it relates to family, when greeting elders (aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.) you give them the sign of blessing — putting their right hand to your forehead. You also give older cousins the titles kuya (guys) and ate (girls). It does get more complicated than that, but those are the basic guidelines.

vocabulary
lolo: grandfather
lola: grandmother
tito: uncle
tita: aunt
kuya: nickname for oldest brother as well as title for older cousins
ate: nickname for oldest sister in the family as well as title for older cousins

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

After a relaxing morning which included a manicure, lunch and a large dessert spread...

Tito Nilo (Mom's bachelor brother and youngest of the family), Tita Gerts (mom's older sister), and Didy (Tita Gert's daughter, roughly my age) drove us the 1.5 hours to Meycauayan, hometown of our Daez clan. The first stop was the family business, Sacred Heart Memorial Park. Yes, that's a cemetery.

After a nice merienda (afternoon snack) in the office building with Tito Jun over lots of legal papers for Mom to sign, we headed to Tito Dan and Tita Baby's, where we met Sean, the son of my cousin Ate Happy and her husband Kuya Wilfred, before turning in for the night.

The next morning, Ate Happy took us on a tour of the compound. Most homes are enclosed with gated entrances, although building materials range from branch fences to tall cement walls with broken glass along the top to deter intruders. Per family staying close (note, all of this is in the city of Meycauayan), Tito Dan and Tito Armin's houses share this compound.

Ate Ella and Kuya Alan were both home next door (although Tito Armin wasn't), so we got to visit with them for a bit. Ate Ella showed off her doctor skills (she's a dermatologist) by fixing up the cat scratches on my foot — apparently our arrival scared the cat, which took off the porch like a banshee and happened to land claws first on my foot mid-flight. I worried about rabies until Ian reminded me that it's saliva, not claws, you have to worry about.

After "picture picture!" (in Tagalog, lots of things are repeat words — turo turo, or "point point" refers to eateries where you point to food you want) we headed out for a tour of my mom's childhood neighborhood and home. Lolo and Lola's house is currently unoccupied, but most of the old pictures, awards and decorations are still up — we saw some great photos of a much younger Mom and her siblings.

It also brought back so many memories of staying in that house on our previous visits: taking the still chicha (gecko) I found in the fridge outside to bury it, only to discover it just needed warmed up, heating bucket-bath water next to the old typewriter, seeing mosquito larvae in Lolo's denture water (Mom laughed at him for that), saying goodbye to a bedridden Lolo... Dad said "I hope the next time we see you, you will greet us standing up" while knowing full well we wouldn't see him alive again. Although I've only stayed at Lolo and Lola's house three times in my life, it sure made it's mark in my childhood.

The chapel where Mom and Dad got married was next on the list. Dad said they don't do wedding rehearsals, which was a challenge since he'd never seen a Filipino Catholic wedding. Mom said he did great even if he didn't know what he was doing. While we were at the church, the tide came in and we got to see baha (flooding).

After the tour, we went back to Tito Dan and Tita Baby's house and Ian got to experience what I remember most about visiting the Philippines — watching TV while the adults talk Tagalog.

Later that afternoon, we left for Sean's birthday party at Shakey's. It's like Chuck E. Cheese minus the games: instead there was an emcee who coordinated games with the kids and family members. Ate Happy selected a Toy Story theme, and they went all out.

Sean's cake/cupcakes (which were very tasty)

they had a photobooth-type setup for guests

The Shakey's mascot even entertained the guests by dancing Jai Ho, the bollywood song from the credits of Slumdog Millionaire. We were all impressed at how well that person moved, especially considering he/she was wearing a giant chicken costume.

We also got to see/meet most of the rest of my family. We both have lots of names and face to try and keep straight still!

We finished the long day back in Makati watching The Spelling Bee, which is a great musical about several unique and entertaining kids in a county spelling bee. It was entertaining: "your word is runway — can I have a definition please? — the area models walk across during a fashion show or the pavement airplanes use for landing and taking off — can I have it in a sentence? — The model was walking down the runway when she was sucked into a jet engine." Yet it also had depth: each of them was dealing with very deep issues, like emotional neglect from parents or the pressure of high expectations. It was a little awkward sitting next to Mom while listening to an actor playing a prepubescent boy lament misspelling a word because he was distracted by "my unfortunate erection." But those moments were few, and overall we'd recommend seeing it if you ever get the chance!

Next on our agenda is a weeklong tour of northern Luzon (main island containing Manila). Didy, one of my wonderful cousins, planned the trip for us and will join us as tour guide and second interpreter. In the meantime, there are more photos on our Flickr site. Trust me: you don't want to miss seeing more of Mom's younger years!

airports, airplanes, Japan and jetlag

Eight hours in four airports and seventeen hours in three airplanes and we finally made it. After lots of packing and preparations, we drove to Denver on July 5, and got beautiful rainbow to send us off.

Because our first flight was at 7:15 a.m., we woke up the next day at 4 a.m. to catch a 5 a.m. airport shuttle — I never want to get a hotel wakeup call that early again.

Our first flight wasn’t terribly noteworthy, but the 11 hour flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo was memorable not only because it was Ian’s longest flight, but also because we saw Alaska (and thought of our friends from and currently in Alaska!) and Japan.

Alaska.

Japan.

Mount Fuji.

Although we only experienced Japan via the airport, I think it portrayed the country very well: ultra-polite people, clean places, and lots of technology. In fact, you can experience all of this just from their bathrooms.

There was quite a line in the ladies' restroom, but don't worry, they had a map outside the door so you would know exactly where you were.

Once I reached a stall, the toilet below greeted me and I grew worried I wouldn't know how to work their technologically advanced toilets.

However, the Japanese were kind enough to provide an instruction sheet for their toilets with "equipment to cleansing the buttocks with warm water."

Push a button for "washing the rear," another for "rear washing stopped." You can even adjust the water pressure (I wasn't brave enough to experiment with any of this). There's also a button for an adjustable flushing sound — these ultra polite people don't want to offend anyone with certain embarrassing noises. The final button provides extra deodorizing. Thankfully the flush was still a lever on the back of the toilet behind the lid.

We said sianara to Japan and mabuhay to the Philippines. We arrived at 11 p.m. July 7 and passed through a health inspection. They checked Ian's temperature since he had visited a doctor in the past 10 days (for his hepatitis A+B immunization) and they had a monitor that scanned body temperature to notify them if someone had a high fever and should be quarantined. We spent almost an hour waiting in line for our visas.

We finally got stamped and through customs and were met by Tito Nilo, Tita Gerts, and Didy. We loaded up our luggage next to a blocked off area — someone had forgotten their luggage and they were treating it like a bomb threat. A short drive later, we arrived at Tito Nilo's condo.

The past two days we've been relaxing as we recover from jetlag. We've been swimming at the pool here at Tito Nilo's condo, watching movies, and trying new food. As a special treat, we even went to the spa ($20 for a 75 minute traditional Filipino Hilot massage, gotta love it).

But don't get too jealous — today we're going to visit Meycauayan — where my mom grew up, and it is definitely far from a tropical resort. Stay tuned! (And we've got more photos on Flickr).

16 hours to takeoff

image from Wikimedia Commons

Mabuhay!

We're (almost) all packed up, and we're heading to Denver tonight so we're ready for our 7-in-the-morning flight out of DIA. Ian and I are planning to blog when we get the chance, and to post our photos on our Flickr account (photos will show in the right-hand bar here on the blog as well). Just think, the next time we post, we'll be halfway around the world and 14 hours in the future. Stay tuned...

lessons learned from moving

1. It's common advice to say double the time you think you need. When it comes to packing, quadruple it.
2. Ask for help ahead of time with the heavy stuff. If you don't, your only shot is if you have Ian, Ben, Storm, and a church dolly.
3. Don't try to do a full day of heavy labor on 5 hours of sleep and 3 doughnuts.
4. No matter how bad your moving day is, a great husband and fireflies make you feel better.