Some sketches of life in Manila

Leather sandals?

Filipina  women take great care of their look. The members of Soph's team are all very elegant. Their make-up is always perfect, colour matching their clothes: green one day, pink the next day and violet another. The same for their earrings. Not that different from some groups in other countries you will say.  But ... shoes .... elegant shoes are available everywhere here : nice sandals, with glitter, semi-precious stone decorations, a lot of high heels ... however, you seldom meet people on the street or at the office with these shoes: in 10 minutes the rain can transform them into unusable pieces of leather ....

Therefore, the national shoes are .... flip flops, plastic and rubber shoes for men and women. But elegant flip flops! You cannot imagine how wide the offer is, also with heels, glitter, semi-precious stones, etc.... and there are many specialized shops that sell only these shoes, on top of which department stores offer hundreds of different models! Soph too has already became an addict!

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Brands

In our countries, young people love brands, for jeans, smart phones, games, etc. Snobbery is often associated with adults exhibiting polo-shirts with a crocodile logo and other clothes with "discrete" symbols which are nevertheless recognized by all.

Here in the Philippines, everything is organized by brands! ... At the office, for any and every item, of whatever sort, simple or sophisticated, people talk about brands: this one is better; this one awful; that one  expensive and of bad quality or the one everybody has/must have ... be it a notebook, a pizza or a tee-shirt...

In all areas of Manila, in department stores and others shops, staff and displays are organized by brand and, nobody could confirm this to me, but I would not be surprised if at least part of the salary of each employee was not based on his/her turnover for a given brand. Therefore you do not go for soap, a saucepan or glasses, you need first to go for a brand, possibly look at several brands to make your choice, without ever being quite sure if you have seen every variety  of cutlery, plates, or orange juice, olive oil .... Question of habit you will say ... maybe, but believe me, you get the impression of always being kidnapped by one brand and it takes time... especially if you do not know the brand you need/want, or do not care, and just want for example 2 or 3 white panties ... they will send you to the most expensive brand (... expats = money ...), from there to the one with the next lowest prestige, etc. ... and each time you speak to another vendor in charge of the brand, explain what you are looking for, and the vendor wants to convince you that what he/she proposes is what you need, must have, the only existing one, which will match what you are looking for ... even if the material, the color, is not the one you asked for, the price totally exaggerated, even sometimes by Swiss standards, etc .... But one gets used to it!

The story so Far (3) - Moving in

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Jeepney "Gift of God"

 Over the next days, while still staying at the hotel, we did some exploration mostly local. The traffic can be impressive at first sight. Pedestrians do not have priority , de facto, even though this is theoretically the case, therefore crossing streets is done with some care. On the main roads jeepneys are everywhere, being the most common form of public transport, together with taxi's. Each jeepney, some shiny and new, some less so, is decorated and baptised, with names such as Gift of God, Makati Star... and so on.




We discovered some of the bars and restaurants in the neighbourhood (Salcedo Village). While at the hotel, Alexa's Deli and Wine Bar became our regular apéro spot. They have a Chilean house wine that is quite acceptable.

Alexa's Deli

We ate at the Indian restaurant , The New Bombay, across from the Hotel that Soph and Natalie had tried when they came for the recruitment of the team in January, and it is one of the better Indian restaurants I have eaten in. It seems authentic, at least to my European soul, with simple decor and excellent food. Soph's colleague of Indian origin say's that it is "quite acceptable".

We also discovered the "Mall Attitude" prevalent here. At least in Makati, about 95% of shops (including supermarkets) are concentrated in gigantic malls. One can walk for kilometres in the cool air conditioning without going outside. Our closest complex was the Greenbelt malls which are connected to the Landmark Department store the Glorietta Malls and the SM department store. All that spread over about a kilometre.

These malls, apart from the practical aspects, are a weekend outing destination for people and their families. They offer the occasion to chill out while (window) shopping  - by far not everybody has air con at home - taking a coffee and pastry and in the evenings going to eat and drink in the numerous restaurants also in these malls.

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Some days later about two weeks into our stay at the Hotel, Soph asked me to visit an apartment with Lourdes, the dynamic administrator of the Service Centre, as she was not available herself , she delegated her full confidence to me to decide if the condo was ok for us. It was further up Dela Costa street in a highrise Condominium on the 26th floor. I decided fairly fast that it would do us fine. Being high up it was fairly well exposed to the light, which can be a problem in Makati if you live on the lower floors, adjacent highrises block out the light of day. Sophie was not disappointed when she saw it (phew!)

The deal was sealed fairly quickly and we were able to move in the following week.

The condominium was furnished and on the day of the inventory prior to moving in we selected things that we did not need and that the owner would remove. Basically we kept the furniture and two bedside lamps and asked for the cutlery kitchenware lamps paintings flower arrangements etc. to be removed. We would replace them with our own choices.

It is a two bedroom flat with two bathrooms and a kitchen/dining/living area with a small terrace. The pictures and paintings/drawings show some aspects after we had put our mark on it.

We still had to get cable TV and internet with fixed line phone installed and these were installed in due course after a delay that is not unusal here.

We bought lamps, including two Japanese style paper stand lamps, we bought cutlery, we bought bed and bathroom linen. We bought orchids and plants for the terrace - We bought a whole bunch of stuff to try and feel at ease here. And surprisingly we quite soon felt at home.

The view from the terrace it quite impressive, and at night even takes on a kind of beauty.

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