Vibrant.
That was not the adjective I thought I would use to describe the Philippines. I’m not sure I could have put a word to it before our visit; it was mostly feelings of discomfort – because of the unknown – and fear – because of the reports of kidnapping.
We loved it! Philippine Airlines provided us a voucher for a hotel room (they called it a wash up visit) and transfers to and from the hotel.
We walked the blocks around the hotel looking for an ATM. It was bright, colorful, and noisy. Spencer said it reminded him of Bolivia. We attracted lots of attention, especially from tour guides and cab drivers.
We found a cab driver named Robert who we were very thankful for. We told him we wanted to see the temple and showed him the picture and address we had printed out. Originally we just wanted him to drop us off at the temple. He explained that the temple is in a wealthier part of town, and that it would be hard to find an unoccupied taxi. (He was correct.)
Robert took us to the temple, waited for us, and then took us the Mall of Asia. Michenna received lots of stares; one little boy actually walked into a sign because he was looking at her.
We wandered around the mall for 2 hours, covering perhaps one-fourth of it. Robert picked us up and took us back to the hotel so we could catch our transfer back to the airport.
Tomorrow: Sydney, day 1
2 comments:
Cute new blog background.
My dad served his mission in the Philippines. I'm not sure I ever heard him use the word 'vibrant' when telling his stories. Looks like a lot more fun than sitting in an airport for 12 hours. Can't wait to 'hear' more adventures. :)
Cool! I was hoping you were going to post something about your trip! The temple is beautiful. I guess I expected that, though. So Michenna is already taking after her mother---boys staring at her and walking into things. (Ah, the memories. Good times!)I'm impressed the airlines were so considerate. How long was the flight from Guam to the Phillipines?
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