Here is our first missive from Manila on this trip to the tropics during February, 2007. We will be posting all our photos on our Google Picasa photo album.

Mainly we have been just relaxing while we recover from jet lag. The trip from San Francisco to Manila was 14 hours, non stop on Philippine Air Lines. When we got bumped last year on our return to the US, the airlines gave us free round trip tickets and $100 per person. We arrived in Manila Saturday, Feb 3 and took a bus to where Mitz lives.

We are staying with Mitz, the husband of Maitri's sister Beck. He lives with a coworker in a 2 bedroom condominium on the 26th floor of a high rise fairly close to the center of the city. We have access to the rooftop recreation area with a small swimming pool and observation deck.

Today we went shopping in two nearby markets. In the morning we shopped for breakfast items: mangos, pineapple, guayabano (soursop), pan de sal (literally, "salt bread", but actually it tends to be a little sweet), cinnamon rolls, rice cakes, and bananas.

Then this afternoon we went to the nearby SM MegaMall to look into getting an inexpensive cell phone, belts for Krishna, earrings for Shanti and Kamala, and lunch. We ate at Bodhi's, a vegetarian health food restaurant. We got a 3 course meal for $1 each. Later we got several more for dinner and got an extra one for Mitz and his roommate. While we were wandering around we came across this hat stand that embroiders hats so we each had one made for us. We also got a cute day back pack to replace the one stolen in Lima, Peru last summer.

Later we went to another mall and checked into cell phones. One can purchase full featured, second hand phones, for almost nothing. (These are so-called GSM phones that use radio bands shared all over the world, so they can be used in other countries as well as here. Actually they can also be used in the USA by the ATT and T-Mobile networks.) Then you spend a few dollars more to enable calling and messaging with your own personal number. To send text messages costs $.02 each. That is how most people communicate with cell phones here since it is much less expensive than the usual $.10 per minute charge for voice. We also checked into getting a cell modem for our laptop but it requires signing up for a two year contract or buying a rather expensive modem. We will pass on that one since we can usually find internet much less expensively at internet cafes and it works very well for doing all we need, like email, sending photos, and getting the news. We are also able to get free internet in many places, as we have in Mitz's condo.

We have been doing intensive research in our guide book and on the internet to figure out where we will travel this trip. We are still undecided but making good progress.