Part III: The Smiles of Locals, Jollibee, & a Tuk-Tuk Joyride
- A group of local kids of after a swim behind the Quinta Market and Fish Mart, Manila, Philippines.
The First Part:
After our day in Korea with Jayden, my sister and I commenced on our journey to Manila and headed to the airport at the ripe time of five in the morning.
We checked into our Cebu Pacific flight and found little to no difficulty navigating to the international departures. Only a quick pit-stop to grab a coffee interrupted the fluidity of our morning in Incheon, and we were boarding our slightly delayed flight before we knew it.
A midnight-meal and late-night walk near our hotel in Seoul the evening before caused me to quickly fall asleep on the flight, which may have been the most uncomfortable sleep 30,000 feet in the air that I’ve ever gotten. I managed to fit in about 63 neck cramps and multiple muscles in my leg that I didn’t even know existed in the duration of the four-and-a-half-hour flight.
However, alas we had arrived at our destination; The Philippines.
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Customs were a breeze and we headed off to our hotel in the private-car-shuttle.
This was also a pivotal moment for my travels this year thus far: I now only had one remaining empty page in my passport.
Getting a new one was an issue to deal with back in the States.
30 minutes down the winding streets of Manila led us right to The Hotel Celeste in the region of Makati.
You can check out a review of all the hotels I stay at in the “Reviews” section of this site that I’m still currently working on.
The hotel was splendid and would make for a cozy home-base over the duration of the next three days.
Gracie and I each took a 20-minute nap after we got settled and it was now time to complete a very important mission: Locate and eat at a Jollibee. I have had Jollibee before so sadly I was not participating in abstinence from eating the fast-food cuisine until I made it to its mother-country. There is one only about five minutes down the road from my house in Plano, Texas which I’ve eaten at twice and I also had it once in Vancouver, Canada on a layover on my way to Taiwan.
I had embarrassingly even tried to ask where the closest Jollibee was when I was in Jakarta, Indonesia earlier in the year- as I had mistaken which mother country belonged to Jollibee for a moment… and of course, they had no clue what I was talking about and there were zero Jollibee’s in Indonesia.
My expectations were to the moon and I was very excited to finally be in the correct country to make-up for my mental blunder from March. And I was very prepared; as I had already gotten walking directions from our hotel ready to go two weeks prior, right after we booked the reservation.
There are establishments practically everywhere you look, but this particular one was at the mall about a four-minute walk from the entrance of our hotel.
We ordered the basics:
- Some chicken
- Some rice
- And a palabok fiesta, which is a pasta/noodle dish served with specialty gravy and small shrimp scattered on top.
Along with our Jollibee, beforehand, we also got some Filipino snacks to try from the grocery store that was right next door.
After over 24 hours of traveling this feast was well worth the wait.
Although the snacks we picked somewhat lacked in flavor, the Jollibee was phenomenal and probably made me the fullest I had been in a month. The food sat perfectly in our stomachs to allow for a comfortable and slightly accidental sleep time of 6PM. The most awkward aspect was waking up at 12:30AM and not being able to go back to sleep because I had gotten about my usual 5.5 hours of rest suitable for my recent life schedule.
This day pretty much consisted of only Jollibee and jet-lag shenanigans so there is plenty of room for both of these first two days in a single blog; and do not fret, the second day is more exciting.
The Second Part:
After a blue light filled six hours of mindlessly scrolling on my telephone, it was time for breakfast and for whatever reason, and lucky for her, Gracie’s body clock allowed her to sleep for a full 12 hours and awoke promptly when it was time for breakfast.
We opted for the simple hotel breakfast in the lobby with Asian, British, or American options; you can never go wrong with a coffee and some eggs though, and that was the route we took for this meal.
Breakfast concluded and it was now officially time to conquer the first full Filipino day.
Some interest in finding a local and authentic market led us conducting some research, and before long we found ourselves taking an uber to the Quinta Market and Fish Mart.
Our ride took about 45 minutes despite our hotel only being about 5km away from the market. - This was due to one of my favorite new phenomena of the Manila traffic that seemed to never stop no matter where in the city you were or what time you were traveling. The almost hour-long journey was well occupied, however, as our driver explained to us his entire backstory about when he was a personal driver for over a decade for an American couple once he found out where we were from. Although the man was very kind and thorough during his campfire story, arriving at the market finally now had double meanings of a success.
This area was much more worse off than the one where our hotel was located, even though distance-wise they were relatively close to each other. But almost immediately you could see direct correlation that the poorer someone was, the friendlier and happier they actually seemed to be.
We did not go into the actual Quinta market right away and went to a side-street with unnamed and extremely traditional street carts and locally grown food.
The people were bubbly, honest, and had some of the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen.
The lady with fruit table in front of her in the image above sold us two pieces of her “Rambutan”, a Southeast Asian specialty, and it was very sweet and delicious. The outside skin was a bit tough to rip off, but getting to the fruit inside was well worth the battle.
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We then officially headed inside the highly recommended Quinta Market.
This market was similar to the one in Seoul two days earlier in that they were very hard-working people wanting to perfect their craft and what they were selling. This one focused mostly on fish and meat products and less miscellaneous items that you could have found in the Korean market. What set this place especially apart, however and again, were the grins seemingly tattooed on just about everyone’s face. They were happy to get dirty and practically completely dissect whatever meat of choice they were working on at the time. They also didn’t pester us and beg us to purchase their products; rather they noticed the camera around my neck and asked me to take their photograph. About ten people asked me to take their picture in that market and I think that was only the second time anyone had even asked me to do that on my travels (some ladies with a cat in a village in Jakarta took advantage of my camera back in March).
Walking through that market was also super cool for Gracie as it was the first time she had really experienced markets or local places like this; along with the Korean market. We were able to get into small conversations with people and there were just happy vibes all around in this entire spot.
And funny enough, the best thing we experienced here wasn’t even the market itself; it was through and behind the market right next to and in the Pasig River, that runs through the city of Manila.
Here we found something neither of us had ever been able to see before.
There was an entire group of local boys, probably ranging in ages from six to eleven, all swimming and jumping into the water together from either the riverbank or the vehicle-covered road bridge that crosses over the width of river.
No phones, no tablets, no drama; just pure fun. This was one of the most wholesome activities I’ve ever been lucky enough to encounter in the whole world, let alone Asia. I could go into a year’s long speech atop my own soap box on how The United States’ youth could learn some things from this culture and activity. I’ll save that for another day.
This could be viewed as a simple group of kids partaking in their own respective culture and what they know; and then you could say the USA does the same thing and they just have a different set of things they indulge in. This would also somewhat invalidate and pump the breaks on Gracie and I’s fascination on the matter. However, I still found such a simple and innocent sense of contentment in what they were doing. I also truly believe some of them might not even know what a cell phone is. Many Americans are not content with what they have and always desire more or something else, even if someone else from somewhere less fortunate would kill to have what we do: or in this instance, maybe not. The ability to be content with whatever cards you are given in any situation is something I feel all people can strive towards.
This was also one of the experiences that represent a huge element of why I travel to a tee.
That is finding and discovering things I would have gone my whole life not knowing about if it were not for traveling. If I hadn’t seen whatever it was with my own eyes.
Nobody has ever filmed the niche event of local Manila boys playing together behind the local fish and food market in the Pasig River; at least to my knowledge. I wouldn’t be able find that on YouTube, in any movies, or even on the discovery channel. There are variations of children playing around the world in different areas that have been filmed, but this one with the boys in the river and seeing and learning the specifics of what we did is definitely one of one. One of one for Gracie and I and one of one in relation to anyone- for the uniqueness in the event and situation.
Travel is very special in the way it naturally creates a completely unique experience in some way for whatever individual is going somewhere other than their own house. It can be going to Zambia, Yosemite, or even Oklahoma. Maybe if you’re going to Disneyland then yes, you will have the same experience as Sally Smith did when she also rode the Matterhorn Bobsleds. It was the journey to Anaheim, California, however, in which you created different experiences than any other human will ever have.
Seeing a different perspective on how things are done and having unique experiences can assist myself to attempt to improve pieces of my own life, and how to maneuver them. Maybe I can turn off my phone for a while. Maybe I can get even better at balancing out my social media intake. New habits are always difficult to form at first for anyone, but at the bare minimum this puts the idea into my head- and the simplicity of an idea is how any action can start. I would never even get any ideas or see the true benefit of the alternate ways to do things without these extremely fortunate experiences.
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We still had lots to see and do during our day, and also not desiring to disturb the bliss of their time in the river much longer it sadly came the time for us to leave. We did, however, have to get a photoshoot with the little stars of the afternoon before we officially left.
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It would be hard to top what we had just experienced, but the day needed to march onward.
Jollibee seemed to call our names yet again, but this time not for food- simply to escape the heat for a few moments and download some photos from my camera.
When leaving Jollibee, our initial photoshoot with the kids by the river turned into a trio of different groups that desired photos with us after just a few moments. We obliged of course and made even more friends in our already friend-filled day.
The amount of people willing to dash a smile your way and the smiles in general in this country are unmatched to any other I have been to. The comfort and warmth we felt when we were treated to a smile or a laugh is something you can hardly explain.
Thirty more minutes of wandering with no more luck in finding locals wanting photos, probably due to the rapidly increasing heat and humidity, we decided to take a tuk-tuk-like vehicle to the national Filipino museum of anthropology.
This was pretty exciting because even through all of my travels in India, Nepal, and Thailand- a tuk-tuk experience in Asia had always somehow evaded me until today, (I took on my first official ride in Lome, Togo in Africa about a week and a half earlier).
The ride could be described as slow and loud; but still super cool and I would say always still worth it. It was extremely cheap and a nice way to see things at a slower pace- as everything was with the traffic no matter what you drove- and with a more “open” feel because of the lack of doors and the many other specialties of a tuk-tuk compared to a normal vehicle. I recommend these rides to anyone at least once in a part of the world that offers them. They are just a staple in so many cultures and you have to check it out for yourself.
The national museum was honestly quite interesting. It displayed artifacts, photos, and information regarding the Philippines’ rich, cultural, and deep historical background that I did not know about. Regrettably, with the fatigue getting to us we did not stay for more than twenty minutes and weren’t too motivated to either because of the free admission of entry. It is still a cool place to check out and they also had a neat and small theater section on the second level showing short cultural films.
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They also do not allow hats so stay aware of the hat-head monster that may give people a jumpscare during the middle of the day.
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We headed back to the hotel from our exhausting yet completely full day of being out and about.
After a couple hours rest, the final event of the evening was going to a dinner spot called Lampara. The main influence for this was our desire to eat at a somewhat nicer establishment at least once while still having authentic Filipino food; and it turns out this was the perfect spot for that.
I actually forget what either dish was called but they were definitely interesting.
The item on the right in the photo with the two bowls is a soft Filipino tofu with pig floss surrounding it. The tofu was a bit bland and while the floss was quite tasteful it was a bit too unique for my pallet to call it scrumptious. The item to the right of the tofu was a somewhat stirfry-esque dish; it consisted of a very thin and different noodle base with pieces of eggplant, onions, and pork throughout. This was definitely closer to being called good than the tofu but still a bit odd in flavor.
My main dish of the duck pictured above was marvelous, however. An extremely tender duck leg with some greens and rice to compliment made up for both of the two appetizers.
I was now satisfied, and I was full.
Arriving back at the hotel, the day had finally come to a close.
In just a single full day, this country already became one of my favorites.
Whether it be the people, the culture, or the food (besides the appetizers from the fancier restaurant), it was all so fun to get to experience; and I was excited to get to make new experiences with new elements of this place as well. I knew the next day was the concert and our last day there, so I had already planned in my mind to come back. I’m not giving myself another option.
This day truly was special as well getting to experience everything I had with someone, considering 90% of my travels are alone, and especially with my sister who is usually away for college. This trip was only her second time in Asia, and it was super cool that I got to be there with her for that and for all of these exciting things.
She was so thrilled about all the new people we met, the tuk-tuk ride, but not so much the food- I still got to witness her many emotions with that though. With the mass amount of traveling I have done myself this year, getting to watch someone else have so much fun and joy in it as well felt like such a cool privilege and it would have been enough to suffice me all by itself. Getting to further have a joint experience was just the cherry on top.
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Daniel Ceasar concert tomorrow. Third times a charm for seeing him.
Feeling extra honored today to get to experience one of my comas in this awesome place.
Until tomorrow.
