Ladies who lunch

I think I am becoming one of those ladies who lunch....at least in the Manila scene! I remember when I used to encounter people shopping or lunching or playing tennis mid-day/mid-week and wondered how they did it. I guess I have found a way to do the same myself...and it is fun! I woke up this morning with a midnight club invitation and not much else planned to kill time in between. Letting the day unravel before me is one of the most fun events these days. In the end, I got swept off my lounging post breakfast mode to "do lunch" at a nearby Pinoy (Pilipino) restaurant owned by friend of a friend. The food was VERY GOOD. Hospitality here is superb. I really feel like I am welcome in their circle. Tomorrow there's another party being thrown to "launch me" into their society of other friends! I feel like I am coming out for my sweet 16! I really don't know what garment I will find in my 6-month-and-still-going-strong backpacker sack that will honour such an event.

Well, this is all fairly recent...in fact a matter of 24 hours because I have spent the past week touring the near Manila locations with my friend Gai. Our whirlwind introduction to Pilipinas started with a culinary tour of the nearby province of Quezon, where we began with a wonderful breakfast in a rural hacienda perched over a creek, owned and decorated by a local artist. Pinoy breakfast: local "longanissa" (sausage), fried rice with fried eggs sunny side up, carabou beef steak, a local salad, grilled fish, another beef cut, more rice, more eggs, an omelette with pork, more rice, more eggs, more meat....phew! My latest thirst quenching discovery: fresh calamanci juice - a local version of fresh lemonade made with a minute but very sweet green lemon local to the islands. We then went on to another artist's studio and home to see his works and watch him make a tantalising appetiser for us: Banana flower caviar with the essence of barbecued coconut. FABULOUS! Lunch was over floating bamboo cottages, and included the staple pork chops, "Jardinera" which is a delicious quiche-like tart made of eggs and pork. BBQ Tilapa fish and local steamed rice. Local sweet desserts were left for later but as we were running late, we did not have time to try them all. All throughout, we visited traditional Spanish colonial churches and mansions, heard stories of beautiful women having to hide out in the basement during the Japanese occupation, and were even serenaded by a local playing Spanish guitar.

The history of the Philippines is quite something. My friend Gai graciously offered me the gift of a local book (The History of the Burgis) with an abridged history of the Philippines told through comics, photographs, newspaper articles and narration from the author...a bit like a scrapbook. During this trip, I seem to be developing an interest in history that I never thought I had. I suppose it is unique to be in an Asian country with so much latin influence....and American, and Malay and Chinese. It is hard to see the rich and the poor so starkly while walking in the old fortified and once grandiose Spanish enclave in Manila. It is hard sometimes to understand how Spain, and the US, and Japan and so many other nations managed to screw other countries as badly as they did. It is sad and sometimes even embarrassing, because as much as the nation is now independent and has it's own self governing problems, I cannot help but think that today's politics and the nation's psyche is in direct effect to the hundreds of years of having been taken advantage of, colonised, occupied and what not. Nonetheless, it is my first visit to a country previously colonised by Spain and now fully independent, and that of course has it's shocks to the system. I can honestly say though, that this is what makes tavelling such a fulfilling and enriching experience for me. The world is a complex and baffling place at the best fo times. However, the beauty of the people one encounters along the way also reminds me of the resilience of the human spirit in the face of hardship, past or present, and that always brings hope and joy to my heart.