SOUTHEAST ASIAN BLOGGERS NETWORK

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

ONE BIG FILIPINO-STYLE WELCOME

Tuesday, our 3rd day -- I’m beginning to think this Manila trip is pre-empted. I mean, we can’t go out on our own. We have schedules to go here and there, visit this and that and we are always driven home early! I really wish they would lend us a car to go around without a chauffeur. So, we planned to break our way out! Ha!

Akihiro phoned a taxi because we wanted to go to P. Burgos St. and visit Jools or Mogambo to see a hundred girls in bikini. But the governess told us that the taxi was turned away at the gate. And if we try to walk our way out the village, we might be turned away too on our way back! *Whadda?!* This is not good. No siree!

So what’s for us to do? -- We called Trouffles. The youngest member of the XXXXX clan (our hosts) and asked her if she can drive us around. And what do you know – she said yes, BUT – after she parade us in front of her friends and classmates on a nearby mall! *This little girl needs some serious spanking, I tell you*

“Ok, ok! Just get us outta here!” I yelled on the phone. I planned to manipulate her to ditch her friends and bring us to P. Burgos instead. Ha!

A few minutes later, here she comes with her full entourage of 5 cars! OMG! What in the world?! I thought the classmates would be at the mall?!! “Oh! They don’t want to wait, kuya.” Trouffles said. (“Kuya” means big brother in Filipino). “Ok let’s go, LET’S GO!” I’m not really sure about this – I wanna call it off! It turned out that all of the 5 cars have a personal driver-slash-bodyguard on it! *sigh* There goes Jools and Mogambo…

The girls (and boys) in the car knew a lot about us. I’m not sure if they have been reading our blog or Sofia is being a big mouth donkey again. A few minutes more and a couple of “wave-your-phone-in-the-air-and-say-cheese”, we were on this mall called Market Market to meet some MORE friends! *Oh! C’mon! Akihiro, do sumthin’!*

The excessively hospitable Trouffles and her friends took us to Dusit Hotel Nikko and for some reason, picked a Thai restaurant called Benjarong Royal Thai. *yeah right, don't we like eat Thai food like everyday?* Afterwards, we went to a nearby mall and we were also “showered” with Selecta ice cream which they said is a local brand (we actually have it in Thailand but its called Wall’s). What happened to Magnolia, by the way?

Just as you are beginning to think this is already the icing on the cake well, you’re wrong! -- The parents started to show up one by one (I mean, pair by pair) to say hi! The girls and boys called them to meet us! *Ugh!*

And they didn’t come empty handed -- We got miniature jeepneys, a rosary *huh?!*, 2 teddy bears wearing Barong, 3 peuter ashtrays with “Philippines” etched on it, a small clock with seashells, a mini Bible *huh?!*, a box of polvoron sweets, 4 packs of dried mangoes…what elseah! The Maria Clara Barbie doll for Sofia. I think there’s more, I just forgot the rest.

Akihiro and I was in total awe!… Here we are, complete strangers whom maybe they just heard about from their kids, meeting us for the first time and we were showered with gifts! We never felt so welcome in our whole lives! This is “Welcome”Filipino style.

****


* We later met Sofia and Morgan to go to Malate District. I think Sofia blogged about it already, yeah?




You liked this post? - Subscribe to BISEAN.

14 Comments:

Anonymous said...

(I've been reading your blog everyday but this post prompted me to leave a comment.)

I was laughing so hard after reading this artik. I mean I can just imagine how things happened. What can I say? Welcome to manila!haha

Qtheconqueror said...

Of course! We just love to parade our foreign visitors around and shower them with gifts :))

Far from manipulating trouffles, she manipulated you guys! Great job. :)

Akihiro... *sigh*

John Halcyon von Rothschild said...

Yup. I receive the same treatment from family members. It gets suffocating at times. You're situation happened to me once when I stayed with my Aunt in Manila. Everything was scripted. I couldn't go where I wanted to because it was 'dangerous' and she insisted that my cousins follow me everywhere and she lived in one of those villages where you're currently staying. Talk about a gilded cage. I'll have none of that.

I ended up staying at the Intercon.

Sanne Dee said...

What's going on? :)

travelphilippines said...

whoa lotsa gifts.

Laibeus Lord said...

It's really like that hehe... we who belongs to "clan families" live in a world like that. Some have a choice (I chose not to live like that), but when it comes to security, we do not have a choice.

It's scary, it's annoying, but hey, have to embrace it.

And your host's clan is really like that ;)
Again enjoy your stay :p And pardon the tight security, it is indeed for your own protection and your host's protection. :)

Anonymous said...

Without sounding ungrateful I think that its horrible to treat your guests like virtual prisoners !!! I think its not hospitality at all !!! But Filipinos do that coz they think they are responsible for your safety and its for their own peace of mind. The best they could do is to lend you a car with the driver as what my relies did for us! And the driver was quite discreet and knew all the right places !!! LOL

Pisanu for BISEAN said...

@ Hanee...thanks for supporting our blog. It makes us proud that we kinda unite SE Asian youths in one blog. That's our main purpose, cultural awareness. :-)

@ Q the Conqueror...LOL. Yeah! But we actually enjoyed treated like this. Somethin new. Akihiro got a blog too -- but it's private. :P

@ John...hey dude! Welcome back. I think you're one of Sofia's few blog mate, yeah! Cool!

@ Sanne...I left a note on your blog.

@ Travel...yeah, lots of it. Every day strangers come by to give something to us! LOL. We're like celebrities! Really funny.

@ Laibeus...hey man! We haven't checked the ASEAN Citizen blog yet. We'll do it later. Cheers!

@ Jesse...o'cmon man, why so silent these past weeks? The reason we don't post McDonalds here is mainly because of you. LOL

Anonymous said...

hey kuya pisanu, im sorry abt the thai restaurant. i shld hav been more thoughtful. i jst thnk u might want to hav thai food. hehehe.

Unknown said...

yea, we luv showering our guests with gifts. ;) hehehe.

Pisanu for BISEAN said...

@ Riain...thanks dude for your first comment. We appreciate it. Anything you would like us to feature in the future?

Anonymous said...

this really made me laugh..

well, it's very natural for filipinos to welcome you that warm.. hahahaha

Brent a.k.a. yourkidatheart said...

This is so true! Even with relatives in the provinces! This is how they, no, we do it here!

Anonymous said...

lol.. Bibles and rosaries?! I think that's a bit too far off. haha

Sometimes it gets annoying, especially when relatives do those!

I guess this one serves as proof of one of the Wow Philippines tourism ad about "more than the usual greeting" haha.

Related Posts with Thumbnails