The Fort Santiago was closed as it was already 5 pm so we headed to the Sofitel hotel to watch the sunset. Adore raced us there and it was 5:16 pm when we arrived at the gate of the Sofitel and we were quite sure we would miss the sunset as we were again subjected to checks and frisking. However Adore simply and calmly said “It will set at 5:22”. And guess what? It did!
At 5:22.
Exactly! Wow.
sunset from the Sofitel poolside
The Sofitel has a lovely poolside where we decided to stay for a couple of drinks and were pleasantly surprised when at around 7 there was a cultural show of Filipino Dances.
It was the regular regional-costume-drama which seemed like it was specially prepared for expat tourists. Not sure if it was really authentic Filipino though.
Especially when the girls began to dance with whiskey highball glasses balanced on their heads (see pic below).
the Filipino?? whiskey-glass dance
I have many Filipino friends and like us Nepalese, they too are very fond of their drinks but I am not sure their cultural history had them dancing with glasses on their heads.
The 1 fun ‘dance' was when a group of boys came out wearing coconut shells on their busts, back, knees, hands etc and then proceeded to dance with a rhythmic clanking of the shells. Again not sure if ancient Filipinos danced like this but quite fun nevertheless.
the coconut-shell dance
Monday 18th June
The “You-Are-In-Philippines-Not-UAE-Anymore” Moment NO# 2
The newspaper headline was about a group of mothers protesting about some controversy regarding baby feed and they decided to do that in front of the Supreme Court by….here it comes……
Baring their Breasts! The newspaper even had a photo of the same. In colour!
After another sublimely meat dominated breakfast (sorry mum) we headed to the agency for the first day of interviews.
Interviews began at 9am and ended at almost 6pm.
Very tired but quite entertained with my colleague and fellow interviewer who began to believe that he had supernaturally instinctive powers of observation. Candidates who entered the room nervous and scared were further confused when they were accosted by the interviewer ‘telling’ them about his ‘observations’.
One of them was told he had 2 wives and another was told his daughter was 2 years old.
Its another matter that the first one wasn’t even married and the second had 2 children and both of them boys.
Went back to the hotel had a bath and decided to checkout the Glorietta Mall next door.
Glorietta is actually a collection of inter-connected malls with security checks and frisking at every entry and exit. I can understand the entry point checks but am still not sure why they were frisking at the exit. I mean, what do they think people were doing…
“I have managed to smuggle a bomb into the mall in my bag and the Mall is busy with lots of crowds and easy targets but NO, I will go and detonate it outside in the deserted road. I was just passing though the mall for fun with a bomb in my bag”
Strange!
After another round of heart breaking interviews (rejecting poor candidates who really need the job to support their families is emotionally draining) we reached the hotel. Y&A said they’d pick us up at 7 pm for dinner.
Decided to watch a bit of TV while waiting for Y&A and that is when came…
The “You-Are-In-Philippines-Not-UAE-Anymore” Moment NO# 3
There was an ad on TV which went somewhat like this.
A single guy walks into a nightclub and goes to the bar. There is a girl sitting there alone too. He smiles. She smiles. He nods to the door. She nods back. They both get up to leave. At the car park he uses his key-remote to unlock his car which happens to be a Porsche. Next thing you know the ‘girl’ says “Hey Nice Car” in what is unmistakably a man’s voice.
For the ones who are interested to know, it was an ad for a program called Wheels on the (hold your breath) Discovery Channel.
Dinner was at a place called Abe’s in Serendra Complex in Bonifacio Avenue.
Abe (ah-beh), of course, was the nickname of Emilio Aguilar Cruz, who was born in Magalang, Pampanga, in 1915. Abe was well known in Philippines as a journalist, painter, diplomat and bon vivant. He died in 1991. (i researched my history see??)
Abe's restaurant
The food in this restaurant is authentic Filipino and esp from the province where Abe came from, Pampanga.
Not knowing anything about Filipino food (except that it involves a lot of pork) Val & myself just gave up and asked Y&A to order what they saw fit and boy, did they choose well.
Apart from the prawn curry (delish with jumbo sized prawns) and two delectable looking veg dishes (which I did not touch, mum sorry again) there was 3 dishes that stood out.
(i) A fish whose presentation (see below) was only bested by its taste.
the fancy fish at Abe's.
(iii) Bamboo Rice. Having grown up on long grained Basmati, the only thing I hate about Filipino food is the sticky glutinous rice. However this was a dish of rice with shredded chicken, shitake mushrooms mixed with local herbs and cooked inside a bamboo. The flavours were neither too strong nor too light. Still Sticky but quite Heavenly.
To round up the meal Yolanda suggested we try Halo Halo (see below) which is a local Filipino sweet dish and Halo in local dialect means ‘mix’.
I Have to say that I’ve never had a dessert like this.
Say Halo Halo to what must be the craziest dessert in the world
Checked its recipe and found that it is basically a mixture of sweet preserved beans(red beans, chick peas), coconut meat, jackfruit, pounded dried rice, sweet yam, cream flan, shreds of sweetened plantain, filled with crushed ice, milk (or coconut milk) and topped with ice cream.
Try getting your tongue or mind around that. Wow!Interviews as usual and after the culinary feast of yesterday we decided to take the evening off. Went for a swim in the hotel pool ....
.... and had a simple club sandwich (unfortunately the worst I’ve ever had) from room service.
Interviews as usual but along came a candidate who was well spoken and quite smart but very, very thin and whose hobbies, as mentioned in his CV, included acting and body-building. With no evidence of the latter on his thin frame we asked him to show us proof of the acting.
The guy was GOOD!!!
He could cry, laugh hysterically, get angry etc at the drop of a hat.
Got another candidate who was a designer (and who proved it) and another who was a dance instructor (who too proved it). Interviews not quite boring after all.
In the evening we went for a very early dinner as we had planned to go dancing afterwards.
Japanese was decided as it would not be quite as heavy. Wrong! See spread below. All that was just for me alone.
the spread at Tanabe.
The restaurant was Tanabe at Remedios Circle where the waiters/waitresses would scream Hajime mashite as you entered and Arigatou-gozaimasu as you left. Regardless of what they were doing or who they were serving if any one entered or left the door they would all in unison, quite literally scream out the greetings at the top of their voice. A different form of customer service but a little unnerving too, esp when you are trying to balance a slippery piece of raw fish on a pair of chopsticks.
acting like i'm eating with chopsticks. did not. used a fork afterall
Great food though. The only other place where people are so fond of eating is probably Thailand and maybe my family home.
Dancing was to follow but again all that and more in Part III
Ciao
Vishal
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