My Philippines Adventure

Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial

After finishing Jun's passport renewal on Friday 5/2/08, we decided to drive around and see one of the sites. While on our way to "Fort Boni" one of the fairly new and trendy places in Manila, we came across The Manila American Cemetry and Memorial. I had heard about it before actually from my Mom who wants to go there, but no one we knew had been there, which is kind of suprising, because a lot of the Moog visitors from the US would really find it interesting.

Entrance

The cemetery was absolutely beautiful and pristine. We just couldn't believe there were 16,000+ soliders buried there. This was a wonderful place, and I hope to take more of the Moog visitors there, so they could experience what we did.

Amazing View

Another Trip to Manila

At the beginning of May, Jun (a fellow Mooger) invited me to join him on a trip to his province, Mindoro, for a family reunion so that I could experience a new place in the Philippines. Since 1 of my 2 goals while being here is to travel, I jumped at the chance to visit a new place.

We left Baguio on Thursday 5/1/08, which was a Moog Baguio holiday, and drove to Manila. Since Mindoro is about 5-6 hours from Manila, we decided to stay over in Manila that night and also to do some sightseeing on Friday before heading to Mindoro. Jun also needed to get his passport renewed, so I was looking forward to see what that experience would be like. Not sure if I have mentionned this before, but nothing is easy here, so I figured this would be interesting. On Friday 5/2/08, we left early to meet the Moog travel agent who would help Jun with the passport renewal. I just assumed we would be going to a government building downtown, but I was shocked to see the first building he had to go into. Can you believe this was the "office" where he got his passport photos taken? It was a wooden shack. I couldn't believe my eyes. :)

Passport Photo "Office"

To be continued in the next post...

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Lito's 40th Birthday

We found out at the last minute on Saturday 4/26/08 that it was my good friend Lito's (from Moog Baguio) 40th birthday, so I arranged an impromptu lunch with the team we work with. He was suprised, and from what we could tell really happy that his friends care so much to do that for him.

Amanda, Ed, Ruel, Lito, Bles, MC, & Ester

Ferdie, Rommel, Brian, Robert, Lito

During lunch, I snuck over to "Everything Nice," a great bakery, and bought 2 cakes for all of us to share. Lito was totally suprised.

Lito with His 2 Carrot Cakes

Baby Woodcarver

This is my favorite picture that I have taken so far since living in the Philippines. Therefore, I felt it deserved its own blog post. :)

In my most recent trip to Woodcarver's Village on Sunday 4/20/08, there was this little boy (about 3 years old) walking near his mother carrying some sandpaper. Next thing you know I see him sit down on his little chair with this freshly carved bowl, and starts sanding. His mom was sanding right next to him. It was so cute! Here's the baby woodcarver. :)

Woodcarver's Village

I had always heard of Woodcarver's Village from the Moog Baguio folks, but I never knew what to expect. When I first went there during my 1st trip in 2006, I was amazed, and I continue to be amazed each time I go there. There are so many amazing woodcarving's and I'm just in awe of the talent of the woodcarver's. I also can't believe the pieces are being sold for such little money. The greatest thing about Woodcarver's Village is that they can pretty much carve anything for you. You just need to bring them a photo or a sketch, and it's usually ready in 1-2 weeks. Here are some pictures from my most recent visit there on Sunday 4/20/08.