Manila

In Manila there was a lot of eating. One thing I picked up from the Marines was how to eat like an animal. If you want to make some baby back ribs, a steak, some fries, a molten chocolate cake and some enchilada cheesecakes disappear in 5 minutes, find yourself a candidate on liberty. But I had to raise the white flag in Manila. There was just too much to eat and try. The best food I had was in a kitchen in Baclaran next to the seafood market. We bought some tuna, shrimp, lobster, squid, seaweed and brought it up to be sauteed. Best meal of the whole trip. Despite all the food, I think I lost 10 pounds. All the travelling took its toll. The explosive diarrhea and respiratory infection that I caught on the last few days certainly didn't help. I need to start a new regime to gain it all back.

Manila is a pretty fun city. Nixon took me to Malate, which I guess is the West Hollywood of Manila. We went to a Comedy club called the Library where the comedians were all in drag. I think they had one or two real women up there, just so you'd have some doubt on who was who. It was kind of suprising how many people were out and about on a weekday. There were lots of bars, ktvs, strip clubs, discos and cafe that were all in full swing. Things don't slow down till about 3 am. The other weird thing is that among it all, like a lot of Manila, there were street people everywhere. But its not like here, where if you go to Holywood or Westwood, all the homeless are mostly men. Its usually entire families, the old the young, men, women, boys and girls.

The other things that there's lots of is malls and family. We stayed wtih Juliet and Siso at thier house in North Greenhills. They have a nice pool there for swimming in and the nice thing is the water is always a nice temperature, unlike here where the water always cools off at night. Juliet and Siso have 4 daughters all under 10 so its a lviely house.

Everytime I go back theres more malls and the merchandise is kind of expensive, especially the western stores. The Lacoste and Clarks stores carried stuff that costs more there than I've seen in LA or Paris. Even at the SM, a Nike shoe costs more than here. You wouldn't be able to find the same exact style here since they carry different inventory. Its fun to hang out in the malls, there's air conditioning and you always run into people.