First Friends

My first friends to come to the Philippines and visit us have come and gone. Evan and his girlfriend Aleessa arrived here a few days ago and only stayed in the Metro Manila area for one full day. Their goal is to spend most of their holiday on the Philippine island Palawan enjoying all the awesome diving sights they have there.

During the day it was shopping for bargains (like fake name-brand bags) at a place called Greenhills. Greenhills is notorious for its pirated DVD sellers. They're not allowed to sell them but they'll go up to any tourist and whisper in your ear, "DVD Sir, DVD". If you say, "yes" they will lead you off to some secret location in the mall (or outside the mall in a Shanty Town) where you can buy them. Evan and I thought it was so funny having these guys whispering these "DVD" sweet nothings into our ears that we decided to start a running count of the number of times these sellers came up to us. By the end of our stay at Greenhills the count was up to 22! I always thought it was funny when DVD sellers came up to me trying to sell pornography when Aimee is staying right beside me. It's also amusing to note that most of these pirated DVD sellers are Muslims. So daytime was fun! By night it was dinner, drinks and fun at the restaurant and bar spots Serendra and Greenbelt 3. At Serendra we had snacks at a restaurant called Chelsea's. Although the service there is always deadly slow the food and atmosphere more than make up for it. At Greenbelt 3 we took them to our favourite Thai restaurant People's Palace. The weather was perfect, not too hot, and definitely not cold. We sat on the restaurant's patio on huge confortable leather couches. To end the evening we went to Martinis bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the city of Makati. Apparently there was a dress code there because the waitress made an issue about Aleessa's footwear (standard woman's open-toe shoes), she didn't notice Evan standing there wearing beach-style flipflops. Dress code or not, we were finally allowed to stay.

Te next morning we all awoke at 5:30am; tired and hungover. Evan and Aleessa's flight to Palawan was at 7:30am.

But now they are gone. Although it was a short visit it was nice having two friends from Vancouver coming here to see us. I hope next year more of our friends can find the time. Like Evan and Aleessa, we'll treat you like the Kings and Queens you are. Pinoy Kings and Queens of course!