Well, as many of you know, we just returned from the Philippines. It was so much fun, and we were there for two weeks. When we arrived it was Thursday night, so we hopped into a taxi and went to the hotel. It was a nice hotel, but not the best. Then we adventured out of the hotel to explore that area of Manila. We found a Chow King, which is a restaurant that serves Chinese food. It was so good, and just a block away from the hotel. However, to get there you had to cross two of the busiest roads to get there. Now, in the Philippines, they don't care if you are a pedestrian or not. If you are in their way they won't slow down but will honk at you to get out of their way as fast as possible. Therefore, crossing those roads was an adventure. It was raining as well, and they think that any one without an umbrella is crazy. So, they kept trying to have us buy umbrella after umbrella. Needless to say, we never bought one.
The next day, we were flying up to Laoag, which is where Brandon served his mission. However, the flight was leaving at 6:50 pm and checkout at the hotel was noon. So, we needed to find something to do with all that extra time. We hopped into a taxi, which proceeded on hitting another taxi while trying to pull away, and we headed to the temple. If you thought that driving in L.A. is bad, go to the Philippines. No one follows the rules of the road, and they try and fit into any spot they can on the road, even if they have to push another car out of their way. Even just being in the back of the taxi was scary at times, and this drive to the temple was the scariest of all. We almost got hit more times than I could count, and many of those times it was a big bus versus the little taxi we were in. Brandon was laughing at me the whole time there because he just thought it was fun.
Once we got to the temple we asked the people at the visitor's center if we could leave our luggage there while we did a session. They were more than willing. It was a wonderful experience to be in the Manila temple. The session was in English so I was able to understand everything but it was just simply amazing. After that, we went to the airport and waited for our flight. We had the hotel that we were going to be staying at in Laoag pick us up, and that was so nice after the taxis that day. The hotel we stayed at was amazing. It was so nice and comfortable that I thought I could live here.
We traveled around to so many different places, and were able to see so many awesome things. In one city we were trying to decide whether or not to take a ride in the house drawn carriage. Finally, we decided that we would because we would probably regret it later. The town had cobblestone roads, and old Spanish architecture. It was so amazing to see that town. I am glad that we did it!
After about a week in Laoag, we head back down to Manila. We decided to come home a week earlier, and since the airlines didn't charge us to change our flights, we did. After checking into a different hotel in the Manila area, we hated it. The hotel that is, not Manila. It was so trashy and the room was disgusting. We told hotel management about it, and they said that they would switch us to a new room about 2 pm. After spending the day out, we came back around 5 to find out the new room was not ready yet and wouldn't be for a few more hours. We were sick of that hotel so we called around and found a very nice hotel in the Makati area, which is the nicest part of the Manila area. As soon as we walked into our room we were so happy that we had left the other hotel. It was the most expensive room in the hotel, but not at all expensive to American standards and a massage came with the room. Not just one for the whole stay, but one per day! That was pretty amazing.
When it was time to leave, we were both very sad, but excited to be returning home. The people in the Philippines are just so nice and caring, and they are missed. Brandon suggested going back next year, but we will see what happens...
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