Being Tuesday back in manila had some form of normal civilisation, and after spending 3 weeks in a something between a 3rd world country and developing country does make you forget what a normal day in a city feels like. Being back in manila you are soon reminded that its not a beautiful city by any standard. But what It lacks in beauty it makes up for in shopping. You can literally find everything.
after using a rubber band for the last 4 weeks as a wallet…. due to the fact that the monopoly money economy seems to keep you flush with money that has little to no Value… and the most frustrating thing is the same problem I came across in Serbia.
When withdrawing from an ATM the transaction fee of 250 Peso’s (7.50 NZD) is enough… not enough to make you have a sleepless night but if you were to withdraw multiple amounts over the course of a day because you didn’t get enough….. there is no point it would start to add up quickly.
the maximum you can Withdraw is 10000 Peso’s and that is around 350NZD…. However you get this in 10 x 1000 peso units… or notes……. Then when you decide to go and buy a bottle of water for 40 pesos at a small shop you get politely abused by the nice old lady who owns it…. Or she wont accept that large denomination so you get in a situation of a rock and a hard place… a Taxi wont accept the 1000 usually so your only option is to buy from high cash turnover businesses to split large notes…. This generally means buying a a bottle of water… to get smaller notes.
So for the purchase of 1 bottle of water here is what happens
Water = 40 peso
money given = 1000
Change due = 960 peso
note Split = 1 x 500 – 1 x 200 – 2 x 100 – 1 x 50 – 1 x 10 peso coin
at this point most retailers will accept a 500…… but this promotes a new issue….
you now have 14 Notes in your rubber band wallet….. and in turn you are constantly trying to split 1000 peso notes….. so by the end of your 10,000 pesos you have about 40 Notes in your rubber band wallet and because of this I wanted to get a money clip.
Marge had never heard of a money clip so I had to explain to her what it was and how it worked.
I used to have a Mercedes Benz one that I purchased in Stuttgart back in August 2013 when visiting the Mercedes Benz Factory but over many years of use by about 2016 it was defunct… stretched and worn out…. It was made of stainless steel and I think eventually it deformed.
well in a country of high note usage do you think I could find one….. ahhh NO…. after 3 hours of trudging through multiple malls….that conveniently were all across the road from each other
Greenbelt mall – Makati
Gloriette Mall – Makati
S&M – Makati
The Landmark – Makati
we finally ended up in a Mont Blanc shop…. Who seem to be the only manufacturer….Marge pointed out I would have to have 17000 Peso’s in my clip to make the money it holds worth more that the clip itself… however it does have a 10 Year warranty soooo all in all its built to last…. Why we happened to be there they also had a sale on the Men’s Leather Bracelets so I treated myself to one of those as well because it had 30% off so why not!
after Mont Blanc next stop was a late lunch that consisted of Mall Sushi in Gloriette Mall 4. Mall food in Manila is not traditional to what you find in the meridian mall. Everything is made fresh so if you order sushi the sushi is made to order and this goes for no matter what you order or where you order.
after that late lunch we had one more stop to make and that was to Silver Works. They do a collection of men’s Tungsten and Titanium jewellery and I felt a few new accessories would cheer me up after spending a lot of money at Mont Blanc.
after out day of shopping it was 4PM and we decided to go back to the hotel to see our new drunk friend Jase the Ace. The Hotel bar on the roof top was littered with my favourite type of customer… the out of shape early 50’s male with a Asian girlfriend half his age….. and in most cases to older man would be smoking a cigarette drinking a beer or a whiskey and their arm candy would be on their phone…… healthy in anyone’s eyes… but love is love… don’t forget that when traveling in the Philippines….. or love might be how many Zeros your bank account has…… actually in the PH you only need a 4-5 digit bank account to be “sexy”…. So yeah… love is 4 digits in your bank balance of a currency that isn’t PESO.
Jason was up at this perch and only looked half shitfaced. His Wife had gone to South Manila to go shopping with her family for necessities that her family needed…either that or she got sick of his drunken state… every day
Jason has been at the roof top hotel bar since 10 AM he tells me….. so instantly this is going to be a sinking ship. I sit down and join him and he has made 2 other friends this afternoon at some point.
he is talking to a couple … a young couple at that. The mans Name is Gabriel and he is Romanian funnily enough and his partner is Filipino.
Gabriel is 25 and lives and works in the UK and his partner lives here in Luzon city which is North east of Makati. They have been dating long distance for 3 years.
the late afternoon sun slowly trickles into night and everyone seems to be having a good time… except for Jason who is slowing loosing grasp on appropriate table manner and as each beer he drinks goes down his attituded toward surround guests is becoming racist and dark…….. at one point I’m talking to a gentleman called Lee…. He is a 46 year old man from Chicago and in the background Jason is offending everyone at the table. To my unknown knowledge Jason has decided to call Gabriel’s girlfriend small brained and some sparks were beginning to fly between to males who had clearly drawn a line in the sand of who is king dick….. and with that Marge said she was hungry and I was asked to settle my beer bill and leave.
it wasn’t until I got in the elevator with Marge I was given the full story of what was going on behind me with Jason and Gabriel…… and what is the definition of Loneliness…. Drinking alone at a hotel bar….. I only hope that poor Lee got out of there quick before he was roped into Jason’s black hole of Red horse beer and negativity.
dinner tonight is Turkish… haven’t had Filipino Turkish yet……
the restaurant was called pasha and was located in the centre of the red light district….. our scurry to the restaurant was swift to avoid me getting tempted by the Viagra salesmen …. And I was more curious if it was real rather than if it actually worked….. but we will never know.
the Turkish place was littered with an array of foreign people smoking sheesha or hookah….. or as we know Turkish water pipes. The food was actually only Mediterranean style food…. Which is a good sign.. one cusine on a menu normally means the chef can do one style of cooking well.
Marge orders Hummus and pita bread and I have a Lamb Pozole. The service is fast and the food tastes great. The only side of this meal was ….. is that we are paying Makati prices which mean a meal costs 20NZD opposed to 10.
time for bed… lets see what the last day brings… hopefully no drunken Australians.
Quantum Entanglement 