LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN: July 2014

Saturday, July 26, 2014

JUNE 15-22, 2014: MANILA PHILLIPINES Part 4

MANILA PHILLIPINES PART 4

JUNE 15-22, 2014

SHOPPING DAY

We have tried to decide how to spend our days here in Manila. I have been sort of a “party pooper” and just wanted to chill and sleep. Amy has looked into several options, but we really haven’t been able to figure out logistics with cost, etc. What we are gathering is that tourists don’t come and stay in Manila. Manila is a transfer spot to other places or you go to the temple. There are lots of beautiful places to go but not realistic from our hotel location.

So … we adjusted our wishes and plans from there.

Today we took a taxi to the Greenhills Shopping Plaza. It was good. We walked that entire complex. We bought a few things for ourselves and for the other kiddos. We an area where we could haggle and Amy bought a purse and I bought a couple of toys for David and Mason.

We found some Nachos for lunch

There was a guy singing Karaoke to attact customers! He gave us a smile as we took his picture.

They eat baby chicks here.

You have to pay for the toilet.

We treated ourselves to an eclair as we admired the "Ms. OCD" booth.

We came back, walked and found the mega mall by foot and ate dinner at Shakey’s pizza then came home and watched a movie.

Amy's new purse with the gorilla key chain.

Some local pictures near our hotel

The local bus called "a Jeepney"

We tried 3 different times to eat here. Never worked.

A view at the mega-mall

We stood and watched these towers for literally about 15 minutes waiting

for the multi-colored pattern

We were in Manila for their Independence Day but didn't figure out how to see any celebration. We did see a small parade out or window in the afternoon!

JUNE 15-22, 2014: MANILA, PHILLIPINES Part 3

MANILA, PHILLIPINES Part 3

TEMPLE DAY #1

JUNE 15-22, 2014

When we woke up this morning, we found this on our door step and the headline just asked for a photo!!

Tuesday morning, we woke up when we woke up and we went down to eat the breakfast buffet at the hotel. We had a buy one get one free coupon so it was $5 each – not too bad for all the food they had. We took our time and had fun trying different things. I think the little chocolate filled croissants were the best!

We had a good morning just talking and then we went back to our room and got ready to go to the temple. The driver of our shuttle to the mall from yesterday was at the desk and he remembered us asking about the Mormon temple. They helped us call a taxi and off we went. It was great to be at the temple!!!

The hot chocolate was like a thin pudding!!

We then headed out for a visit to the temple.

It was beautiful, of course!

As we were leaving the temple, we saw some missionaries and offered to take their picture to send to the parents! Just last week, I got a surprise email from the wife of the ward mission leader where Melissa is serving and she had sent some pictures. It was so great and I loved it! I wanted to make another missionary mom’s day like she made mine so we took pictures and I sent them as soon as we got back.

Within an hour, I had 3 replies and I think the parents enjoyed the pictures!

After we arrived back at our hotel, we went out to find some dinner.

It was a little tough to find out what was "Philipinno food."

They seem to eat a lot of meat.

We walked up the road from our hotel. We were brave and we walked into a local lot where we could tell there were little eateries. We walked up close to the opening of the tin shacks and no one smiles or said “hello.” We took this as a hint that we were probably in the wrong place. We chickened out and left.

We walked up the road a ways and found the McDonald’s and had a hamburger. We haven’t quite figured out what is considered “Filipino food.” What we have noticed is that everyone serves spaghetti!!! McDonald’s, KFC, pizza places, etc. all serve spaghetti. We also went into a “Jollibee” and had a peach mango pie that was delicious!!!