Mall Zombies

Manila Trip Day 3
(June 6, Saturday)

Like any family on an expensive vacation, we are trying to squeeze in as many activities as we can without falling down in exhaustion. Still, we have a lazy and leisurely breakfast at the Sampaloc apartment's penthouse before heading out to Robinson's Place Malate a short drive away.

Atch, "the cooker"

Waiting for "the cooker"

Too impatient to wait

Before we leave, my sister Deedee, a BPO lawyer and staunch Manila denizen, drops by from her midnight shift laden with goodies, and we haul her with us into our uncle's Revo for the day's fun.

As Atch's geographical memory of Manila thoroughfares kicks in, he drives us through practically empty streets free of the horrendous start-of-weekend traffic the night before. The sun actually manages to hail a weak "how do" from her cloudy perch in the sky.

Even the mall is quiet, but the kids, armed with a short night's sleep and the natural hyperactivity of the very young, swarm all over the electronic toys exhibit, while we adults sprawl on lounging chairs at the Wi-Fi area. All too soon I am awoken by mall security

"Ma'am, bawal pong matulog dito" *

without my realizing that I have actually fallen asleep. Ah, the signs of progress...




To get me conscious, Atch drags me to one of the gadget stores where he makes a very brave purchase of a much-coveted iPod, while I try not to clap hands to my mouth in horror at the cost. Still, the extravagance sufficiently rouses me enough to respond much more efficiently to handling frisky kids during a very loud and messy lunch at one of the mall's Filipino-themed restaurants.

My first taste of the Ilocano bagnet: deep fried pork with a spicy vinegar-garlic-pepper dip. There go my cholesterol levels.....

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* "Ma'am, you aren't allowed to sleep here."

Wanders

Manila Trip - Day 2
(June 5, Friday)

Two traffic-filled hours and rain-flooded highways later, we reach the Sampaloc apartments. The kids are bouncing off the sofas and climbing up the walls, and Yaya Rose is at her wits' end. We console them with our 168 loot, and Yaya Rose proudly struts around in the blouses we bought for her.

In the evening, we are scheduled to attend Wanders, an international-class extravaganza at the PAGCOR casino in Paranaque. Inday is the physician-retainer at their branch back home, and she has scored a total of 10 complimentary tickets. We are excited despite our exhaustion, panting to attend a show with free tickets that the casino has been selling to the public for 3,000pesos each.

By popular demand, and because we are loathed to repeat our sweaty public jeepney experience in the smog and rain, Atch heads off to Pasay City to borrow my uncle's car while the rest of us spoiled mortals put up our feet and snooze.

By 5pm, Atch textes us to grouch that he is still stuck in traffic. To save time, all eight of us pile sardine-like into a cab to PAGCOR Paranaque. We make plans to meet up with Atch there, as well as Nat's husband Eric, who has flown in from Bacolod that noon.

Two hours later, we are wedged in horrendous traffic in the pouring rain. The kids have thankfully buried their collective heads in various cellphone games, while Yaya Rose moans fretfully into a paper bag

"Mapatay ko! Indi na ko magliwat di!" *

in one of her bouts of car-sickness.

We are provincial hicks who have forgotten that this is Manila. It is the weekend. And the rain is drumming us out of our minds.

It is a quarter of 9 in the evening when we finally reach our destination. We shudder into the arctic air conditioning of the Philippine government's answer to the rich and pseudo-rich's quest for gaming and gambling amusements.

The government monopoly on the millions of pesos sucked each day into this nation-wide gambling franchise doesn't solve any of the country's economic problems or endear its public officials to the poor and working classes. We shamelessly venture into the casino anyway: wide-eyed with wonder and eager to experience what well-heeled gambling enthusiasts see, hear, taste and smell on a daily basis.

We buy hundred-plus peso club sandwiches (they are the cheapest food items we could find) in the luxuriously appointed lounge, and duly present our tickets to the tuxedo-clad ticket inspectors at the entrance to the casino's auditorium, where the musical circus is set to take place at 8pm, or so our tickets say. However, once inside, we are bombarded with socio-political advertisements in large screen format for more than an hour, as the show's organizers wait for the rest of their 3,000-peso and 5,000-peso ticket crowd to make it in from the traffic and the rain.

It is in the middle of this maddening lull that Atch and Eric, waterlogged and rush-hour cranky, finally arrive to help us calm the restless kids, who are themselves cranky with the stupendous wait. It is 10pm and they have watered every stall in the restrooms with their urea-filled impatience.

The show finally starts with sudden darkness and the earth-trembling vibration of drums. The thundering progress of acrobats across raised wooden platforms startle us, and we surrender ourselves to the sights and sounds of people twirling on ribbons in the air right above us; natives in loin-cloths brandishing clubs, their heads bristling in feathers; the sun, the moon, and bird people in flight; punk kids playing synchronized basketball; ballerinas piled on bicycles, and the story of birth, growth, and decline presented in a musical score ranging from primordial chants to full-blown arias.

Our chests resound with the beat of drums and the clash of cymbals, and our feet chatter on the floor in time to sambas and rumbas and the rapid-fire skipping of steel-toed tap dancers on the wooden stage.

That we have waited for centuries and missed our dinner has become irrelevant. Even Yaya Rose has forgotten her nausea and is hard-pressed to keep drool from escaping her gaping mouth. A free pass to a world-class show will do that to anyone.

The show finally ends past midnight, and Inday and Sam hoist a sleeping Ia in their arms, while Woog and Eli scamper amongst the feet of the departing audience, picking up the colorful metallic streamers that have rained from the sky at closing.

I pay a jaw-clenching 100pesos to have our picture taken with the cast, wishing I had surreptitiously taken a few prohibited shots during the show with my camera phone.

The international cast of Wanders, with Yaya Rose, Atch & Eli, Woog & Mom

We finally make our way out of the casino, suddenly realizing we are ravenously hungry. Thankfully, we have my uncle's car that Atch has so painstakingly braved traffic for, a thousand eons ago it seems when he went off to get it earlier that afternoon. We grab a midnight snack at a McDonald's in Makati, and make our way home to bed in Sampaloc, still in midst of a thrall.

Smiling in the aftermath: Eric, Nat with Woog, Yaya Rose with Eli, Sam & Inday carrying Ia

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* I'm going to die! I'm never going back here again!

Our Whirlwind In A Tempest

Manila Trip - Day 2
(June 5, Friday)

168

The kids are exhausted. The air of this teeming capital city doesn't quite agree with them, and they are lethargic the next morning. We leave them watching TV at the penthouse of my mom's family's apartment complex in Sampaloc with an equally lethargic Yaya Rose, hoping the idiot box would keep occupied them until we return.

The four of us: Atch, Inday, Sam, Nat, and I head off to 168 in Divisoria, part of our itinerary to acquire as many material possessions as possible without spending a great deal of money. Ah, the wonder of mass-produced China goods!


The sky continues to weep intermittently, like an aging widow remembering her dead. I haven't been here in nearly a decade, and I do some double takes at some of the transformations. The snot-inducing smog hasn't changed much however, and we breathe it all in courtesy of crowded public transportation. I despair that my hair will never be the same again.

We scatter like chaff in the wind at 168, greedy eyes and hands reaching for items sold at half-price. Embroidered throw pillow covers, 3 for 100pesos. School shoes, 200pesos. We haggle and acquire in a frenzy. We only have half a day, after all.

Atch and I get into a fight at one of the shoe stalls, and I head off in a huff, pushing into the thick crowd of bargain hunters, picking up socks, underwear and school supplies for the kids, while employing my sharp glances and even sharper elbows into the competitive fray. I am a more productive haggler when I'm mad, it seems.


Hunger reunites us at the top floor's food court, our earlier argument forgotten, and we lunch on fast food - typical gastronomic fare for the perpetually in-a-rush. By the time we leave the mall, the sky has let out its pent-up torrent of grief, and we make a run in the downpour, squelching ourselves into a near-to-bursting jeepney. In this city, the transportation doesn't wait around for you. Its a chase-or-be-cast-off world.

The First Time

Manila Trip - Day 1
(June 4, Thursday)

The First Time is always one of the most fascinating things to observe. The eyes light up with wonder, and the mouth drops down to gape. A gulp or two, maybe. And sometimes a moment of introspection (is this for real?)

I am so caught up in this observation that I plumb forget to take pictures of Woog and Yaya Rose as they spider-money up the windows of the taxi, craning their necks to behold the glorious skyscrapers of Makati.


Whoah! Says Woog.

Grabe, taas-taas ba!* Says Yaya Rose.

Atch is up front, chatting with the cab driver. Eli is fussing in my lap and longing for his siesta, wondrous city sights notwithstanding. The slight drizzle fogs up the windows, and the goggle-eyed duo on either side of me climb up the windows even more.

We are headed for Eric's family's condo unit at Prince Towers for a long-needed nap. In the taxi behind us is his wife Nat, plus Inday and Sam, who are trying to restrain an equally nap-deprived Ia from throwing a tantrum.

We reach the condo in due course, despite the heavy traffic, and the kids fling themselves into the beds, Yaya Rose included. It seems riding an elevator to vertigo-inducing heights, and viewing the whole city from the umpteenth floor

Whoah! Says Woog.

Grabe, taas-taas ba!* Says Yaya Rose.

is worthy of a whole body bed slam.

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* Wow! So tall!


Atch is impatient to scratch an itch. The years of his fast-paced Makati life are hopping lively back into his head, and he is pulling me off one of the beds. C'mon, he urges the heavy-lidded Inday and Sam, let's go and take a walk.

Translation: I want to relive my glory days. Now, now!

We leave pregnant Nat in charge of the napping kids and head off to the heart of Manila's business district, Atch marching in the lead of three lethargic and siesta-deprived adults.

A few leg-achey hours later, we all meet up at Glorietta 1 where their Auntie Nat has taken the kids for a romp in the rubber-floored central playground. Woog is hanging upside-down from the monkey bars, in animated "conversation" with another boy, despite the dialect-gap. Eli is running up a slide, the wrong way. And Ia it seems, is teleporting herself everywhere.


We have poured five bottles of overpriced mineral water down their throats to prevent dehydration when the inevitable happens: Woog's head connects with some little girl's front teeth. Both youngsters run off to their respective parents in barely suppressed tears, holding on to their offended body parts.

Fiasco over, we herd the kids to the Landmark basement food court for dinner, where Eli gleefully practices his new-found artistic talent onto the floor with pieces of squashed burger steak and a good deal of gravy.