The Philippines

 At the time we booked our flights back to China from the US (June 2023 trip) you needed a PCR Covid test 48 hours before landing.  Because of the cost of those tests and the headache of slow results from our Oct 2022 visit, and the high cost of flying directly into China from the US ($4000ish each ticket), we opted to go to some place cheaper to go through that process.  The Philippines and Vietnam were the cheapest choices. Because my grandparents had served a mission in the Philippines in '82-'83, and because they had a temple, I opted for there.  (The approximate cost to fly to the Philippines was $1050 per ticket + $250 from Manila to Shanghai.  We could have taken the budget flight out of Manila for only $70 each, but Tom's boss told him not to take the budget flight---which we were very grateful for after take off in the non-budget air craft.  We were very concerned about the air-worthiness of the plane, it shook and rattled in ways we had never experienced.)

We could have landed in the Philippines, taken a Covid test and hopped a plane 24-48 hours later, BUT, then we would have missed the temple.  So we stayed 5 days so that we could go to the temple.  

In those 5 days we:

1) Visited Intramuros in Manila and learned about Philippine history.  The little that I learned and have read since then, my compassion for the people is great.  In their history since the era of exploration (Magellan was the first Western man to land there in 1512) they have been under Spanish rule as well as Britain, the US, Japan and since WWII and independence, they have ebbed and flowed between eras of marshal law, coups and of relative peace. That type of government definitely shows in their lifestyle.  

This tour ended up costing us WAY more than they divulged at the beginning, but given the heat, the distance and the limited availability of information on a tour, it was nice to have rides and guides to show us around the complex.  (They told us $3 per person, but didn't explain until after that it was $3 per person every 30 minutes, so in total, it cost us $108. Tom had to be taken to an ATM to be able to pay up.  My. My.)

China's rat's nests of wires has got nothing on the Philippines!  I could take pictures of wiring headaches every way I turned.

2) Went to church!  We had learned prior to going to church that the Filipino people are very cordial and friendly, but at Church it was even more so.  Nearly everyone in the congregation greeted us and shook our hands welcoming us to the Pasay 2nd ward.  After Sacrament meeting, the youth swallowed up the girls and made them feel very welcome and showed genuine sadness when they learned we'd not be back for a 2nd week.  It was like a whole ward of Cheryl Wildes.  Very awesome.

This was a happy sign to see!

An extra large basketball court in the complex.

View from the upper level towards the street.

Inner court.  All of the bishop's offices  and classrooms are along here.

Outside of the church on the street.

It was Father's Day the day we were there and they had all of the fathers stand during the meeting (while the youth/Primary were singing a song) and distributed these handmade gifts. In the wrapped one is a handkerchief. It was so sweet.

3) Took a day trip to the Hundred Islands at Alaminos.  Looking at the map, the travel to Alaminos didn't look too far, but it was a 5 hour drive!  Our driver picked us up at 2:00am.  😴💤 He told us he was a safe driver and that we didn't need to buckle up, but then he proceeded to drive like he was on a high speed chase.  In the back of the bare-bones 14 passenger van we were jostled all around.  It surely seemed like he had a well-trained eye for hitting every bump.  The seats had little padding and I question whether there was a shock at all on that vehicle.  It was quite the ride that caused more prayers from me than I usually say in an entire week! (however the ride back was 13 times worse since at that time of day, there was other traffic, pedestrians and animals he was dodging) Quite the experience.

Here are a few photos taken on that bumpy ride:

Rice fields.

This was a happy sight!  We actually saw a couple of meetinghouses.

But in between those van rides was awesome!  We saw gorgeous scenery via a motorized paraw boat, visited many islands, hiked a little, swam, snorkeled and cliff jumped.  Unfortunately the zip line was closed due to thunder. Sadly I didn't take many pictures on this fun adventure because our guide took several, but we never received them from her.😔

On one island, an older lady made us lunch.  It was quite the spread and quite tasty.

4) Went to the temple! Delightful!  And it's always fun to see a new (to us!) temple.  This was Tessa's 23rd temple and Greta's 21st.  (Tessa got to do baptisms in SLC before it closed as well as on a trip to San Diego before Greta was 12.)

Notes:

Traffic in Manila is so heavy. It was 8.8 miles from our hotel to the temple and it took an hour to travel there.  The ride home was a little less, but not by much.  It flows a little bit like China's with everyone just trying to nose in regardless of available space or there being in a lane to go into--but much much worse.

On Saturday evening after our visit to Intramuros and Rizal park we tried to get a car back to our hotel.  We had successfully been using the Grab app to get around, but no cars were available at that time of day in that part of the city.  We kept waiting and waiting and we could tell with the lowering of the sun that we were becoming increasingly in danger.  There were many jeepneys we could have taken, but not knowing the city, we had no clue which one to get on or where to get off.  There were many tricycles drivers that were begging us to ride with them, but it was such a far distance for that mode of transportation.  It soon became apparent that we needed to be on the move so we decided to take a tricycle as far as we could to the hotel.  As Tom was bartering out a price, Tessa saw an empty taxi and I waved him down.  We climbed in and the driver locked the doors.  He was an interesting chap who I didn't trust completely, as he drove us through very interesting parts of town to get around the traffic, so I was thankful when we got near things we recognized.  He ended up charging way more than he said he would, but we were just thankful to be back to a safe spot, that we paid up.

I didn't really get any pictures/videos of traffic, but I did catch this gem:  There are 6 riders in this 'tricycle' besides the driver!  

 China has very few motorcycles and all electric scooters, the Philippines is the opposite. 

Poverty:  It sure seems to be a struggle to make enough money in the Philippines.  Those who speak English seem to have more opportunities.  There are many areas for 'squatters'.  These areas are free to live, you just have to construct a home--and if there isn't any space you can build on top of another.  The poverty was much more difficult to witness than it is here in China.  Poor areas of China seemed wealthy compared to poor areas in the Philippines. So heartbreaking.

These homes are built on top of each other.

Women and children just sitting along the streets.

This woman is collecting garbage--presumably to sell recyclable items.

This boy (but we saw much younger) is walking in between lanes of traffic on a busy road washing windshields and then knocking on the windows asking for money.  One taxi driver told us that sadly many parents don't have their children attend school and instead go out and beg for a living.  At one place in the city, boys were tugging on my sleeve saying "Mum, mum, I'm hungry."

The airport:  Wow. Not organized!  After we landed at 10:50pm (and a long travel schedule of leaving at 4:00am Utah time, flying to Seattle, layover, Korea, layover and then Manila) we had to wait more than an hour for our luggage to be removed from the plane. It took just as long to get a car to get to our hotel.  We were so wiped out!  But all in all, it chalked up to interesting experiences that we were glad for.