week one: the philippines
visiting my family's hometown (& home country) and meeting my older sister in person for the very first time!
The first leg of my family’s Southeast Asia trip is: The Philippines! Our motherland. It’s been a really long time since I got to visit the Philippines (and Asia in general, last time being 2016 when I went to Korea with my family after finishing my first year student film at CalArts). And I got to do one of the coolest most anticipated things I’ve been wanting to do for a long, long time…
It was sooooo nice meeting my older sister! I grew up as the eldest child (it’s giving eldest daughter in an Asian household) and I still have that ingrained in me, so it was a different experience to have an older sibling that I call “ate” (ah-teh) that isn’t just an older cousin. She’s my older SISTER! I’m sorry, I’m just so gassed about this haha. For the non-Filipinos out there reading this right now, ate can be used for any female figure older than you. Whether that’s a cousin or a friend or your actual older sister, you’d call them ate, followed up by their name sometimes. My younger brother only refers to me as ate- like, he doesn’t say my name at all. It’s actually really weird if I ever hear him utter my name. Kuya (KOO-yah) is the word for older brother! Not sure if there’s a gender neutral term for these… if anyone knows, lmk!
We spent the beginning of the week in Manila, and then took a p2p bus to Pampanga cause a lot of my family on my mom’s side is in San Fernando (a city within the province of Pampanga). Then bussed back to Manila in preparation to fly out to Vietnam. I got to hang out with my ate once each time we were in Manila! We walked around SM mall of Asia and she joined my family for dinner, so my mom got to meet her, too. After dinner she showed us (me + lil bro) the stores she helped design since she’s an architect. They scanned my feet at the Hoka store and I got $150 shoes for around $80… very cool and epic. We got froyo at ilao ilao which is now my favorite place to go get dessert in the Philippines- and when we got our froyo, we ended up with the same toppings!! My brother tends to get the same thing as me (familiar feeling) but for me… to get the same thing as my sister… kind of funny actually. We are truly siblings. After I left for Pampanga, Berlin (dropping the honorifics for the readers’ ease) flew out to Cebu for work, so when I came back we exchanged pasalubong. She got me dried mangoes, dried squid, and otap! We gave her some macadamia nut chocolates and dubai chocolate stuff from the US. I met her mom and her two kids- my niece and nephew! And we got… ilao ilao again LMAO. And walked along the seaside. It was nice! We’re planning to meet up again when I return to Manila for week four of our SEA trip, before we finally fly back to the US.
My mom told me it would be really hot and that I should pack super lightly. So I prepared shirts and tank tops and a bunch of shorts- only to end up spending most of our time indoors. Mostly in malls! I really wish I brought more pants and at least 1 jacket!!! I ended up buying pants and one light jacket since we visited the uniqlo at least once a day. Also because I didn’t have enough clothes for this trip ahahaha. My mom had us pack 4 weeks of clothes cause we aren’t doing any laundry. I don’t actually own like 4 weeks of clothes (for the same weather anyway). And idk if any of you remember when I did that underwear poll on instagram, but I sure don’t own 4 weeks of underwear either (I have 2 weeks worth). The average person that voted had around 2 weeks of underwear, which totally makes sense if we’re assuming people do laundry basically every week. I’m still fighting to get enough clothes for the rest of the trip (I’m definitely gonna run out at the beginning of week four at this point) but we are at least washing our undies. :P
My window view was of the giant IKEA in Pasay City which I thought was funny cause I live really close to the IKEA in Burbank which is the biggest IKEA in the US. I was making jokes about how I never left home blah blah only to realize that the Pasay City IKEA is the biggest IKEA in… the world. I was gagged. And there’s a bridge that directly connects you to it from the mall that is also connected to our hotel. I’ve never been to Chicago, but that kind of reminded me of Chicago in a way. You never even have to go outside… but technically some of the mall has outdoor space, but it still feels you’re inside a bigger structure. And the malls here are freaking HUGE! Endless stores, endless snacks, endless restaurants. Endless people, even! I feel like so many of our malls in America are dying, it’s crazy to come to the Philippines and every mall I step in is crazy packed. I get it though- it’s hot outside and being in a mall with AC is free (until you buy something)!
The other thing that boggled my mind, was OUR Cafe in San Fernando. Tell me why this cafe was mall sized?! Multiple floors, tons and tons of seating, and a giant tv screen in the middle. You could get lost in this cafe. And it was packed with people! They had food, but we only got their drinks. We wanted to treat our younger cousins to some cold bevvys so we took them. The matcha was very OK!
While we were in Pampanga, we stayed in Clark and rented two cars. My stepdad’s from Manila so he drove for us and my uncle drove for his family. I learned a lot about our family history since I was meeting more of my extended family, my mom’s friends, and visiting places they all grew up in. My mom’s friends drove us around one day and showed me the school they went to. We took lots of photos! Crazy to think they were in school there like 40 years ago. A lot has obviously changed since then, but they showed me the road they all used to walk down and the cafes that they used to frequent- and the Tollhouse cafe they went to as kids is still there!! They used to split 1 drink amongst like 3 of them haha.
I also learned that my Lolo Benny worked in the city of Clark, I think for the military or something? Not like in the military, but for them. Clark was a former US military base, but now it’s just a big international hub with museums and casinos. Lolo Benny was one of my grandma’s siblings, so more of a great-uncle for me? I was born in America but was sent to the Philippines as a baby and came back before I had to go to school. My mom was a single mom and it made more sense to send me where our relatives are so they could help raise me. Lolo Benny was one of the people that took care of me- and people often said you could leave me with him with paper and pencil and I’d never be bored. He passed away on my last visit to the Philippines, 16 years ago. I always handed him a stack of my drawings when I visited, but I sadly didn’t make it in time that year. I was told they buried my drawings along with him, and while I cannot confirm or deny that, I want to believe that’s true. His wake and his funeral are one of the most vivid memories I have to this day. From the loose ground we walked on, the feeling of climbing up the hills to bury him, to the food we ate and the clothes I wore (namely a red hoodie). And of course, the wails of grief I heard, and the mourning I felt in my own little heart. I loved him so much.
For the first time in my life… I got my nails cleaned at a nail salon. I was incredibly tired that day and fell asleep during the process (and in waiting for my mom since she got her nails painted). I also… separately got a scalp treatment!!! My mom said she’s been wanting to try it for a long time, so she took me and my brother to get it done with Meinas at the mall. It wasn’t expensive, that’s why we’re doing all these treatments I would never do otherwise. The scalp treatment lowkey hurt but my scalp was soooo shiny after. My hair was also the cleanest I’ve ever seen it. And my hair was falling in a way it never does. It’s really fun to do these treatments, especially in Asia where it’s way cheaper. Hoping I can get a massage soon….
Anyway, here’s some of the food we ate:
The food at Dispu was really good! Like, nicer traditional Filipino food. The okoy there was the best I’ve ever had- it was suuuuper crispy. I just wish their menu had way more vegetable dishes. I don’t like my meals being mostly meat anymore.
Found out that Din Tai Fungs in different countries have different menus- kind of like the McDonalds in other countries. Which totally makes sense, but I didn’t think about it until I had DTF in the Philippines. Not pictured are the 5 different xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) we got. There were like 10 xlb to choose from!! So much variety!! I think we only have 3 options in the US. The string beans dish is also slightly different! But now I wish the crispy beef dish and the mango shrimp salad dish were in the US, too… those were so good. The shrimp dish was basically if you replaced the walnuts in honey walnut shrimp with mangoes. Peak!!!
We also had a boodle fight spread without the actual kamayan (eating with our hands with the food spread out on banana leaves). And I had the best mangoes ever!!! I wish I had more. I need to be eating more mangoes. I only had 1 (one!!!) the entire week. smh
And that’s all folks! I’m typing this up in Vietnam right now (week two!) and I’m excited to start the next post and share what we’ve been doing and eating. We are NOT just hanging out in malls this time hahaha. We’re doing proper tourist bullshit and enjoying all the food. But since we’re not in malls, it’s been pretty hot. I think the heat is making my swelling worse, and I’ve been in a perpetual swell since I got here. My mom’s friends gave me a coconut based oil-mixture they made for me for all my skin problems, so I’ve been lathering it on in the evenings and I think I’m seeing improvements on my eczema patches on my arms and legs, but the swelling on my eyelids are still a huge mystery… I’ll keep trying, and I’m just enduring with the pain and stinging and the discomfort. :P My knee also feels kind of swollen right now…
See you in the next one! :-)
-nicey