Beauty Amid Squalor

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, with my Mom, sister, and two church friends. It was... an experience. We went during off-peak season, and yet, Manila is already so crowded so I guess there isn't much difference whether we went during peak season or not.

Divisoria

As we traveled through the city, my heart sank as I witnessed the poverty and filth. Traffic was TERRIBLE- it took us about an hour to travel from the hotel to the LDS temple, a distance of only about 13 km/ 8 miles! You would think they would at least make the capital nice and all... Nope. Not to say modernization hasn't taken place, but you just know it could have been so much better if it weren't for the rampant corruption. Once, on a ride back to Manila, we passed a house where reporters were camping outside. The taxi driver told us that the house belonged to one of the three Filipino Senators involved in the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam, and the reporters were waiting for the arrest warrant. It is estimated that the government was defrauded of 10 billion pesos, or US$230 million, in this scam alone! How much more money has been siphoned off by other corrupt officials?
The taxi drivers are also constantly ripping tourists off. Either they will quote you a fixed price that is way above what the meter would have calculated, or if you go by the meter, they will take the longer route. It tells a lot about the condition of living when the taxi drivers are so poor that they have to resort to such tricks. Even the tuk tuk drivers in Cambodia were more honest and upfront. It's just sad.

Still, you can find beauty amid the squalor, such as:
- The lush vegetation of the Philippines. At least, outside of Manila. GORGEOUS!!!

- Taal Volcano at Tagaytay (if I heard correctly, it's pronounced "ta-ga-it-tai") City. Taal volcano is the second most active in the Philippines, and the only active volcano around Manila. Cool fact: the entire volcano is an island itself.)

The boat ride to the volcano. 

The weather was beautiful going there (it started raining on the way back).

Ariel view to prove my point... (hee hee)

Photo by bon salido at Panoramio

It was cool to see an active volcano, even though it wasn't the fire-spewing, flaming-orange monster I imagined it to be. In fact, it looked like a placid, blue lake.

So anti-climatic! Until I found out that it's because the mouth is surrounded by a lake. Seriously, a volcano within a lake within a volcano... kinda cool!

- Horseback riding up to the volcano. This was my first time horseback riding to a destination (as opposed to riding round a pen), and it was fun but harder than I thought! My horse/ pony and guide:

We paid about S$40 (US$32)/ person for the half-hour boat ride to-and-fro, the horseback ride up and down the volcano, and a personal guide. Well worth the money (although my friend later told me she paid even less- urgh!).

- The innocence of the next generation:

A group of children were playing near where the boat landed at Taal volcano, and a few of them were stark naked!  I asked a group of them to pose, and the whole group started clamoring for their picture to be taken.After I took their picture and got onto the boat, a few of them begged for candy or money in exchange for posing. It's just sad.

We were at the local market, and saw people selling bags and bags of rubber bands.

Children (and adults) would buy them to make these colorful bands:

Youth and children at church proudly displaying their creations.

- The friendliness of the local church congregation. These people worship in a very humble chapel, and where the facilities are nothing to boast about. Yet, the people... It was by far the friendliest ward I have ever been too. I have never had so many people, adult and youth(!), come up and introduce themselves. They also made an effort to translate the Sunday School and Relief Society lesson into English for our sake. It was an eye-opening experience.





- The Manila Philippines Temple of the LDS Church. The weather wasn't too conducive for picture taking, but you can still see how beautiful the walls are.

- The pineapple. Seriously. The Philippines is known for its dried mango, but since we didn't go there during mango season, we had to settle for the pineapple... and waaaaah! It was SO GOOD and so cheap!!!

- Mini-figurine display of the Life of Christ within Greenhills Shopping Center. I was so astonished when my church friends took us to this (literal) hole in the wall in a shopping center, and it turned out to be this low-key, absolutely beautiful figurine display showcasing scenes from the life of Christ. The juxtaposition... 

[On the subject of shopping, Manila has tons of shopping malls, and because the Singapore dollar is much stronger than the peso, I shopped like crazy .]

Like I mentioned, it was an experience. Would I go there again? Frankly, I don't know. I didn't feel safe, and that is a huge factor for me. Still, I don't regret going. No matter what, there's always something to enjoy, appreciate and learn.