The Paper Trip That Never Was

It started off like this... A friend said that she and her aunt are going to go to the Philippines to source for some items for a shop the aunt was planning on setting up, paper and ribbons. The items were right up my street and I figured, hey, I've never been there, I'll come too, thinking I could pick up some nice paper along the way. So, here are some images that struck me, although one or two is missing that I feel I should've included them in but I couldn't be bothered at this point in time...

This was the hotel where we stayed at in the Philippines, near a place called Green Hills which has a pretty good shopping area which I quite like, and a big supermarket too.

This was the balcony to the room at the hotel. Pretty nice set up I must say. I spent every night sitting outside reading and listening to the night sounds because...

...right behind the hotel was a shanty town of a sort. Half built buildings and homes pieced together like jigsaw puzzles. The blue roof on the left, the guy was just painting it when I took this shot. The building on the right, it has holes for doors and windows but there are no actual doors or windows in those holes, yet people were living in it. I was watching people doing their everyday life.

I was already tucking into this yummilicious blueberry pancake when I remembered I wanted to take a shot of it. This was considered small. I could only eat half. It was a place called Flapjacks where we went for breakfast, that was about half nine or tennish and I wondered why there were still lots of people at the tables. And that's when I realised the big chasm of the affluent and the poor in Philippines. They could afford to lounge around and yak all day.

Behind where I was sitting at Flapjacks was this. Just this little bit made me think that I was in the USA. Look how loud that police car is.

One of the many places where we went to eat, this has to be my favourite interior. I love the display area at the end of the wall, the oval tray like mirrors on the wall, and the general ambiance of the place. This restaurant was serving local dishes and I liked the bangus spring rolls, it's fish.

On the menu was bottomless ice tea and I don't know why but it taste really nice over there and I kept on asking for refills. Worth the money. Oh, we also went to a buffet at a place which was famous for where over 50 dishes were available. It was most interesting, they gave away hand puppets whenever you order a drink.

When I saw this guy, I thought it was really cute. It reminded me of a sculpture I did of an elephant with wings. When I had a closer look it was actually a teapot with a mustache, wings and an old style aviation helmet and goggles. I took back cute and replaced it with quirky.

This is us, Auntie Linda, Elaine and me. We stopped at the flying teapot for a rest and quick drink from all the shoppings and having checked out the many shopping malls. In the end, we still liked to shop at Green Hills area, plus the open market was there and I picked up quite a bit of stuff there too. Great bargains in my book.

On our last day we stayed around the hotel area as our flight was in the evening. I spent the day wandering around and came across this fantastic book store. It has all the pop up books I always wanted and several other books like this one. I want this book. Unfortunately, I had already spent the budget I set aside for the trip and I don't think my luggage can take anymore. So this book is on my wish list. I take pictures of books I want including the ISBN number so I can look it up in future.

Did I come back with paper? A few, but those were picked up from stationary stores and gift shops. Would I go again, I would and this time do the tourist thing and check out attractions. It's really affordable, easy to move around, communication no problem since they speak english anyway... I wonder if it's because we were in the city... I'm still reeling from the knowledge of the big divide of classes... Most of all what I didn't know was, according to future-to-be father-in-law, I should've picked up book binding tools there because they are big on hand made books. Damn it!! I wished I knew...