7:00 am. This is the time I had to wake up to go to the market. Some of you may ask, "well, why would you get up so early just to go the market?"
Through my groggy, sleep filled eyes I saw a different world... totally worth getting up for.
Stall upon stall fill 4 large roofed areas of the Imus palenke. There is a section for meat, fish, fruits & vegetables, bread, and a plethora of other items for sale. Of course, the most interesting areas are also where you will see the most blood and guts, so in the words of beloved R.L. Stein, reader beware, you're in for a scare!
I was absolutely amazed to see all the types of fish. Some already filleted, other obediently laying about with their brothers and cousins, only sometimes on ice, then there are ones that aren't dead yet and are flopping around on their trays. There are bright red fish with yellow stripes, tiny see-through ones, but my favourite was the rainbow fish with blue, pink, green, yellow and orange stripes and scales. You can have your fish scaled and gutted, this I witness, and nearly got all over me...
The meat section, smells like raw meat... everywhere pieces of cow, pork, chicken in various stages of recognition of their original form. At one point, a whole pig was slung onto a counter beside where I was standing and then its legs were labouriously chopped off, it was slightly horrific. Its face peaceful, eyes closed, thankfully oblivious to the huge opening in its belly. At least there wasn't any more blood.
In the street, more pigs were being hauled off trucks. I don't like to be squirmish about animals, but I realized I competely prefer it on my plate, skipping the gruesome aquisition.
Imagine we're being interrupted by one of army of salt sellers in the market. They carry around a bucket full of coarse salt, and have a smaller little can where they have an amount ready to pour into a little bag when someone needs them. During the two visits I've made to the market, I've not seen one person buy salt, so I have no idea how even one of these people could make a living. Never mind a hundred. Regardless, the only thing to do is politely decline, what am I going to do with 50 kilos of salt a week??
Continuing on... The truly most amazing thing I saw, and this ranks in my whole life, which may or may not be really sad, is the HUGENORMOUS tuna that got wheeled to my ninang's favourite fish stall last Thursday. It was over a meter long, its circumference probably another meter, its mouth could have eaten my face and it was just generally larger, and heavier than most of the children I know here. I couldn't believe this thing was in front of me. I must have looked slow because I had the biggest most amazed smile on my face... Oh, there's that tourist again gaping at the big tuna, don't they have fish in Canada?... but then, the inevitable, the cart pusher proceeded to chop its tail and head off, again, right in front of me, and this time I was afraid there would be blood, Kill Bill style, so I continued on our way.
You are probably wondering, where are the pictures?!? The market is tight, packed with people, and I don't want to try to spy cam pictures, so I've decided I will keep going back so people recognize me, then I can take proper pictures of all there is to see, without people getting angry and waving machetes or liver or crabs at me. Plus, at 7 am, I haven't felt adequately prepared to ward off camera snatchers.
On the theme of shopping, I visited two major shopping centres. First stop Makati, a metropolitan city, filled with malls, high end condos, lots of domestic and international businesses; a cool, polished cousin to Manila.
The shopping centre starts at an overpass at a seemingly random spot on the EDSA highway. My cousin Cecille and I disembark our air conditioned bus (which cost about 60¢ each to ride) and took an over pass which led into the MRT system (the public rail system that connects the Grater Manila Area) and into SM Makati (SM - ShoeMart is a chain of department stores that anchors most of the countries malls) which leads into Glorietta, the famed mall of 5 huge sections, bombed by terrorists 2 years ago and still undergoing massive renovations, then after that is Landmark department store which is bargain basement merchandise which leads to.... sigh... Greenbelt. The high end and Luxury shopping destination which simultaneously made me drool, cry, want to leave immediately yet, never be apart from it.
The first stores I saw were Louis Vuitton, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci and a brand new Hermès in progress. I also visited Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc, Paul Smith, Fred Perry, Zara, Mango, and a lovely design store selling Artemide lamps and Philippe Starck Louis Ghost Chairs. The next day, the Rolex store was held up by armed bandits, or pirates, and one was killed.
After hopelessly window shopping, Cecile and I headed to a sale put on by the Street style contingent of Manila and Makati's young people. I met some local designers, bought some hand made necklaces, and gave out my card. It was held on the roofdeck of a building on Ayala Avenue, the main street in Makati and I got to watch a lovely sunset.
If Makati wasn't enough for shopping, and if you know me, obviously nothing is ever enough when it comes to shopping...a week later, Cecille and I, accompanied by two bodyguards were cruising down coastal highway on our way to the ridiculous engineering... triumph? of MALL OF ASIA!
4th largest mall in the world, its pretty big. Wikipedia says it covers 42 hectares, has 600 stores and 150 dining establishments and sees an average daily food traffic of 200,000 people! Part of the stores surround the outside of the mall in an open air concept, which is nice when its breezy and cool, but it's generally not like that in the Philippines during the day, so my make up melted off my face, quite unattractively.
Despite all the hoopla, caterwauling and hubbub, it wasn't actually all that impressive. Maybe I'm getting to be jaded, or I'm loosing my touch... but a mall, is a mall, is a mall... unless its Greenbelt 5.
The nicest part of my visit was the water front festivities as MoA faces Manila Bay. It was there we sat, on the concrete barricade, supposedly to separate one from the Ocean, but no fence, and watched the sunset. I enjoyed a Starbucks wrap and some non-Starbucks squidballs as the ocean wind seemed to exfoliate my face and when it was finally dark there was a lovely fireworks display.
Oh, and yes, those are children in those big plastic balls.
Bayan Luma
Other happenings:
I went to a wake for a father and son (22 years old) who were killed in a hold up... while their mother watched from here hiding place.
A cargo plane crashed in Las Piñas into a warehouse and surrounding homes.
The news here is horrible to watch, they are always showing dead and maimed bodies.
Alcohol is ridiculously cheap... hypothetically, I could buy 2 bottles of Gin and Vodka for $3.50...
Also, a can of Heineken is 72 pesos, but so is a pack of Wrigley's.
The End.
ps. from now on I won't neglect to blog more frequently so I don't have such looooong entries... hopefully you all made it this far eventually.
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Keep up the blog, I love the new pictures. Great that it is not raining alot there at the moment. Looking forward to more interesting info on the Philippines
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