Easter in the Philippines

Easter, or Holy Week, is a big thing in the Philippines.  So big that even all the shops and most restaurants close.  For 2 whole days.

Greenbelt is a big mall near to where we live.  It is a mixture of buildings and green space, with a large semi-open-air chapel in the middle of it.  On Ash Wednesday the chapel is so full that people have to stand outside to be part of the service.

It's a long time since I went to Sunday School, so my memory is a little rusty regarding the significance of the various days around Easter, but I do remember that Lent takes place between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  During Lent here in the Philippines, a number of restaurants offer special 'Lenten menus'.  A great way of commercialising the occasion and something I've never seen anywhere else.

For Easter itself, the holidays are slightly different to those we celebrate in the UK.  In the Philippines, it's called 'Holy Week' and the holidays are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday.  The Philippines is a predominantly Roman Catholic country, so Christmas is celebrated too.  But at Christmas all the shops and restaurants remain open.  On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday all the shops and most of the restaurants are closed.  It's quite eery wandering around the normally thronged Greenbelt.  I captured some photos of the occasion.

Enjoying the brrrr in Baguio

Eilidh in her car seat

The weekend before Easter we ventured out on our first family holiday.  We hired a car and a driver from Viajero Rent-A-Car and set off on our adventure to Baguio.

Baguio is about 240km North of Manila.  The drive, with about 1.5 hours break, took roughly 7 hours.  For the first hour, we were hostage to Manila traffic but after that we flew along the various tollways (NLEX, SCTEX, TPLEX) at a decent speed.  The last hour or so was a windy climb up the mountain road to Baguio.

Everyone I met who had been to Baguio only had positive things to say about it: Baguio's so lovely, the taxi drivers are so honest, the air's so fresh, it's cooler than Manila...  But other than that I didn't really know what to expect.  I was surprised when we first entered Baguio - it's very hilly, and very built up.  But not built up in a Manila-skyscraper kind of way.  Built up in the sense that all the hills seem to have buildings clinging to them.  But there are lots of pine trees and lots of parks too, so it didn't feel stifling (other than in the very busy city centre).  The air is much fresher than in Manila, and it was definitely cooler than Manila is.

View from Chalet Baguio Hotel

We stayed in the Chalet Baguio Hotel, located on Upper Military Cutoff Road.  Another building built into the side of a hill, you enter effectively on the 4th level and a lot of the rooms are on 'Lower Ground' levels.  The best views were from the rooms on the 4th level - below that, whilst you still have windows looking outside you can't see much.  The lower rooms are also loud as the karaoke room (de rigeur for hotels in the Philippines) is on the lowest level.  On our first night we were slap bang right above the karaoke room.  Luckily it didn't go on until 2am, even though it could have done as that was closing time.

Sunflowers in Baguio Botanic Gardens

Whilst in Baguio we explored the Botanic Gardens, Camp John Hay, Wright Park and The Mansion.  It was great to be able to walk around in green open space.  The Botanic Gardens are small, but have lots of pretty plants and flowers.  They are not the most manicured Botanic Gardens I've been to, but people were very happy wandering around.  The terrain is pretty rough, even the paths.  Luckily our buggy has big wheels, and Eilidh seemed to enjoy the 4x4 bumpy ride by going to sleep.

Camp John Hay was a former US Military base, and now has lots of open space, hotels and some shops & restaurants.  We only had a small wander around there as it started bucketing with rain.  We did discover a great restaurant inside Le Monet Hotel where we had lunch on both days we were there.  The seats were more like sofas so Eilidh could lie on the seat between us, which she enjoyed, meaning we could have a relaxing lunch.

The water feature in Wright Park

Wright park is very small, with a long body of water, and at one end, over a main road, there is The Mansion.  The Mansion is the official summer residence for the President of the Philippines.  Maybe they were trying to recreate the Taj Mahal effect of having the building reflecting in the water of Wright Park?  Anyway, it sort of works.  But the water was a very rusty brown colour.  I had someone ask me why it was that colour.  I thought he was going to tell me, but it turns out he didn't know either.  Rust?  Dust?

So it was a good trip, even though the journey there and back was long.  It was refreshing to get out of Manila and great to see another part of the Philippines.


Travel information

We hired a car with driver from Viajero Rent-A-Car:
+63 918 948 21 91
+63 905 288 21 56
+632 836 79 97 / +632 890 01 68
Rm 401-B 4/F RCI Building
Rada Street, Brgy. San Lorenzo
Legaspi Village
Makati City, Philippines
reservations@viajerorentacar.ph
www.viajerorentacar.com
https://www.facebook.com/viajero.carrental

The route from Manila took us on the North Luzon Express Way (NLEX), and then onto the SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway), then onto TPLEX (Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway), and then the MacArthur Highway onto Kennon Road.  Baguio is well signposted.

We stayed at the Chalet Baguio Hotel (http://www.chaletbaguiohotel.com/)

e-nesting

Whilst I was pregnant, I read a lot of pregnancy related information.  Probably too much.  But then there is a lot of information out there.  One of the phenomena I read about was the 'nesting instinct'.  Apparently, as labour approaches, many women get this instinct.  It can cause strange behaviour like cleaning your home from top to toe with a toothbrush.  This didn't happen to me; I thought that labour would never come.

But something else happened.

Just a day or 2 before I went into labour, I started furiously organising the music files on my computer - removing duplicates, making sure that they were correctly organised by band, album etc.  Is this e-nesting?  Did the phenomena happen to me after all?!

I still haven't finished this organisation by the way... maybe it'll never get done.

Where does the time go?

It's been a while since I posted on my blog. But I've been a little busy with something else. Our daughter, Eilidh, arrived on 31 January. There should be little excuse in the weeks leading up to Eilidh's birth as I did have some maternity leave... But somehow those days were busy too. I was still working 2 days a week and was trying to fit in as many chores, pamper sessions and social engagements as I could.

Eilidh is now 5 weeks old and it's difficult to remember what life was like before she came along. Life now is taken up with feeding and nurturing Eilidh along with the daily household chores that build up. Making lists of 10 things to do in a day (ha!) now seems a completely alien concept. I'm sure it won't be like this forever, so I'm trying to enjoy every minute that I'm completely focused on Eilidh. 

So the blog will suffer. I used to aim for a post every week, but perhaps every fortnight or month is now more realistic! So I will still write, but not quite as often. Until next time, adieu. 

A year in the Philippines... and some other adventures

Christmas in Manila

Enterprise Center's Christmas tree

When we first arrived in Manila, back in the first week of January 2013, we noticed that there were still some Christmas trees up around where we lived.  2 thoughts crossed my mind; either Filipinos love Christmas, or it's like I've seen in other Asian countries where the Christmas decorations just stay up all year round.

It turns out that Filipinos love Christmas.  In fact, it appears that whenever there is an event to celebrate (Valentines, Easter, Summer, Halloween), Filipinos really go to town for the celebrations.

But Christmas is the big one.  Christmas in the Philippines starts in September.  September, October, November & December are referred to as the 'Ber' months.  Can you see why?  Anyhow, if you're in a 'Ber' month it must mean that you're ready to celebrate Christmas.  Back in September Christmas trees and decorations started popping up in shops, Christmas music started playing in the malls and shops... Christmas really was on its way.

For someone like me, who can be a bit Scrooge-like about Christmas, I really tried to ignore it.  But as time went on, it became impossible.  Every office block has at least 1 Christmas tree in its lobby, and probably exterior decorations too.  Some of these trees and decorations are very impressive and very beautiful.  Poinsettias started appearing in outdoor spaces - lining staircases or replacing whatever greenery had been in plant pots before.  And the music became louder and more pervasive.  Christmas street lights were put up on the main road through Makati.  The upmarket department stores switched to beautiful Christmas window displays.  For some, it was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Gift giving is a big thing over Christmas.  Every employee at the company I work for was given a huge Christmas package filled with food and 4, yes 4, hams.  Gifts are given to people who have helped you throughout the year (household staff, condominium staff), to your boss, to your staff if you have staff and of course to friends and family.  As it was our first Christmas I was a bit stumped as to what gifts were appropriate for whom.  I went for homemade gifts (delicious chocolate brownies, if I do say so myself.  In fact the receivers seconded this) for colleagues, a food hamper for our part-time cleaner and a small gift of M&S biscuits for each of the 30 or so staff in the condominium block where we live.

The 'Christmas Package' given to all employees where I work

The big day in the Philippines is Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day.  The feast families share together is called Noche Buena, eaten at around midnight on Christmas Eve.  I believe some families will also have a meal together on Christmas Day.

The Christmas tree in our condo lobby

Our Christmas Day meal was taken at the New World Hotel, right next door to where we live.  It was an international buffet and the food was pretty good.  We gathered with a fairly international crowd to enjoy our meal - a Spaniard, a Swede and a Chinese guy.  It was very different from the traditional Christmas meal we have at home, but there weren't the hours of preparation, nor the dishes to do afterwards!  It was also a glorious, sunny day.

Boxing Day was not a holiday in 2013, so sadly it was straight back to work after Christmas.  Still, it was an interesting experience to have Christmas in the Philippines and it probably meant that I ate less than is sometimes the case!

Bringing in 2014, Manila style

We are led to believe that, most years, there is a big fireworks display in Makati to mark the end of one year and the start of another.  This year it was cancelled, and the money saved was being donated to victims of Typhoon Haiyan.  We weren't sure, then, what to expect in terms of NYE celebrations.

Mr H and I didn't have big plans for New Year's Eve, but I'd read that the 50th floor Sky Deck on our neighbouring apartment block would be open for the evening.  But before that, we decided to go and see if there was any action in the bars in Greenbelt (the shopping mall area right next to where we live), but it was decidedly quiet.  A number of restaurants were closed too.  I guess lots of people spend the evening at private parties with friends and family.  So we came back to the apartment and rode the lift to the Sky Deck.

En route, we met a Filipina lady and her Australian partner.  They had been out celebrating the early part of New Year's Eve with their daughter in Alabang, but were persuaded to come up to the Sky Deck too.  They brought wine later which went down very well with Mr H!

It was one of those nights, where you don't expect much, but end up being wowed.  Fireworks had been going off around the city since it got dark.  It didn't seem that there were many organised displays; these were families who put on their own shows.  There is a custom, passed down from the many Chinese families in the Philippines, that the more noise the better for chasing away evil spirits at the start of a new year.  There was certainly a lot of noise as the fireworks wheezed and banged.  The fireworks continued throughout the evening reaching their crescendo around midnight.

I say 'around midnight'.  I came across an article recently in which the Filipino government urged Filipinos to sync their watches for the start of the New Year.  Being on time is not a national strength.

We had a fantastic view, being so high up.  There were fireworks going off every which way you turned - bright colours and loud bangs.  It was like nothing we'd ever seen before.  Sadly, my still photos didn't catch the fireworks and for some reason I couldn't upload the videos.  Anyhow, some great views of the Metro...

Looking towards Manila Bay

Looking towards Rockwell

A great way to see in 2014.  Happy New Year everyone!