This week of travel was full of danger, risk and uncertainty. Reading back through these logs I can understand the stress we’ve all been feeling through the week. The events include a vanishing kid, as BC disappears into the thin air of manila (12/12 log). BC also encountered a creep on the playground (12/8 log), and to add to that we had to deal with getting stranded in BGC (12/10 log). It was a brutal week of managing the risks of Manila.

Travel Log: Day 164 (12/8), Philippines

Productive Day

We accomplished quite a bit today, and as a result I was inside nearly all day. Our Vietnam visa applications were the first thing on the agenda, and it took much longer than anticipated. There were many things on that form that we had to research the meaning of. It was just things like random checkboxes with weird wording effectively asking you to agree to certain things. Occupation also wasn’t required and it gave limited choices, so I had to decide if I would fill that in (I didn’t). We had to submit four separate applications, and if/when they are approved we’ll have to physically print the visas. That will be another minor headache.

The other accomplishment is that we really narrowed in on where we want to go in Thailand, which is Chiang Mai. It’s in the far northern part of Thailand and looks great for food, culture, elephants, etc. We even narrowed in on a specific Airbnb that we are likely to book.

Not All Attention Is Good

The day took a weird turn from there. We all went out in the evening because AC had been messaging the boy she met here, and they wanted to go for a walk. BC went and played while JC and I walked, and while AC and her boyfriend walked separately. I predicted that AC would only last mere minutes due to the language barrier and I was right. She soon broke off from him and joined us. That wasn’t the weird turn though.

We all went over to ask BC if he wanted a snack from Alfamart. A slow buildup of people started to grow around us. I was very much on edge but it didn’t seem like AC BC And JC were having their defensive alarm bells going off. There were about 7-8 kids around us, and a few adults lurking around too. One guy in particular was noticeably hovering nearby. This was similar to the day when BC got man-handled by the lady rubbing his face and hair telling him how handsome he was. Once a few people are talking to us, it emboldens others to come join. From there it becomes a magnet for even more people.

To break it up I told AC and JC that we needed to go to Alfamart. AC it turns out was actually enjoying the attention from the girls she was talking to and wanted to go play volleyball with them. That was fine with me because it broke her and those girls off to a different area. BC peeled off to play, and JC and I walked away to Alfamart. There was a line at the store so JC and I turned right back around and decided to get the kids and go in.

BC was over with two kids and the lurking dude. I went and told him we had to go, and told him to get AC. He took several minutes and I assumed he was wrapping up a conversation. When we got inside JC asked what he was talking to the guy about, and he wouldn’t immediately answer. When he did, he said the guy was asking what building, floor, and unit we were in. BC told him the first two but says he didn’t say the unit number. We’re trying to figure out if he actually told him all three pieces of info. We’re trying to assess how alarmed to be by that, and whether we should get out of here early to be safe.

Travel Log: Day 165 (12/9), Philippines

JC and I both slept really good last night despite the weirdo from the playground on our minds. It was a topic of conversation of course in the morning, and we considered what we should do. We ultimately came away feeling like we should stay. My point of view is that nothing has changed. There have always been people in this complex who would like to know where we’re staying, possibly with theft in mind. There are people in the complex who already know more than our floor number. Many people have seen us unlock our apartment.

The only difference now is that we have directly laid eyes on a guy that probably has bad intentions. If we rush out of here though, the question is where are we going and why is it better. Another part of Manila would likely have the same risks. BGC is supposed to be safer, but there are no places available in BGC proper. Since this could happen anywhere we have just decided to up our guard around here and stick through it. The kids will no longer be able to stay inside our apartment by themselves. BC will have to deal with us hovering close on the playground. We’ll take our usual precautions of hiding things and using decoy items in our condo as well when we’re not around.

We went to the SM mall at lunch today and ate the pizza place again. It wasn’t as good this time because our pizza was doused in olive oil. Everything was a bit different as well. They brought us bottled water, and I had to go up to the counter to pay. I just found all of the little differences to be strange.

It rained the rest of the day and we ended up with a major shortage of steps. BC and I watched Trent The Traveler and then AC and I watched Stranger Things.

Travel Log: Day 166 (12/10), Philippines

Looking For Something Different

Today we woke up wanting to do something different, so we decided to look for tickets to The Mind Museum in BGC Manila. The tickets were available, however their site only took billing addresses for the Philippines so we couldn’t buy them. We figured we’d just take a chance and go there to see if we could get in.

We booked a grab which got here pretty quickly. The elevator was tortuously slow, making multiple stops on the way down and back up to us. Then as we rode it down it stopped at probably five floors. A weird old lady rode almost the whole way down with us, doing arm calisthenics, or having a mental break.

To BGC And The Mind Museum

The Grab ride was much like the ride from the airport to our complex, chaotic, slow, taking over an hour. Our driver picked up a phone call and was talking to I assume a friend. I caught some pieces of what they were saying in Filipino that would probably turn out to be foreshadowing of coming events in the evening. I heard them laughing about something related to Urban Deca Homes and BGC.

When we got there we had no problem buying tickets. We ate at Starbucks before going into the museum. The museum turned out to be more enjoyable than I imagined it would be. There was an entire space area which BC and I loved. There were other science oddities scattered throughout as well like lighting tricks, electromagnetic gadgets, an earthquake simulator, stuff like that. We were in there for a couple hours before leaving.

After we got out of the museum we talked about going back to our condo, or staying in the area longer. We knew traffic would get steadily worse than at that time (3pm), but we decided to stay and walk around. There was no particular destination, we just started walking. We went through a really upscale area with nice restaurants, walked through what seemed like small mall but was actually huge with five floors, and then just generally walked around until dinner time.

Finding Food And Brewing Problems

We ate shake shack which was pretty expensive for here (~$40). By then it was 5:30pm and we figured we’d try to get a Grab ride. There was a park nearby that looked like an easy pickup area with low traffic. We went over there and tried it, and nobody took our ride. We tried it again with no luck, so we decided to go cool off back in the mall area that Shake Shack was attached to. Before going back in there we tried Grab again by Shake Shack and still nothing.

We sat inside until 7pm figuring things might die down by then. My phone was rapidly dying, with only about 15% remaining. I stupidly left the condo with it at 50%, and didn’t bring a charge cable. During our time in the mall waiting, we scouted around at different stores to see where we might find a charge cable if worse came to worse. To add to this issue, JC’s phone didn’t have data most of the day, so ordering Grab via her phone wasn’t practical. By this point her phone was also under 50% charge. It was feeling like we got ourselves into a situation.

At 7pm we went out and tried Grab again repeatedly for almost half an hour with no luck. I saw people around us getting Grabs, so I was starting to suspect none of the drivers wanted to go to Urban Deca Homes. There were some obvious reasons why that might be. One is they have to brave Ortigas Avenue. If you told me somewhere else in the world has worse traffic, I would dare you to prove it. The second reason is that once they get there, they aren’t getting a return ride.

We Have A Situation

At this point two paths forward were becoming clear. One was getting a hotel room and buying a phone charger to hunker down and regroup. However that wouldn’t ultimately solve the problem. Even if we attempted to book a Grab in the overnight or early morning hours, I’m not sure anyone would take it. We could at least buy some time and relaxation though.

The second option was flagging down a Taxi. We saw some different kinds of Taxis but had no idea which were reliable. We ended up making eye contact with one guy who pulled over near us, and I asked him if he would go to Urban Deca Homes Ortigas. His response was how much are you paying? I told him we had a grab for six hundred something. He said eight hundred and I agreed. I felt like we were in a bit of trouble and would have agreed to 1,800 pesos honestly.

The Ride Home

I saw him put the correct destination in his map, which was good because there was some confusion about which urban deca homes (there are two of them I guess). He was really personable and spoke pretty good english. The first thing he asked once we were driving was did you have trouble getting a Grab? He had a smile on his face, revealing he knew exactly what we just went through. He confirmed that it was because of our destination, that nobody wants to drive there. It may have taken a few hours to get a ride he said.

We also talked about CO traffic and how it’s nonexistent in comparison to the gridlock in Manila. He even brought up a video showing someone driving on an open road and we laughed, because yeah that’s what we’re used to. Great music with videos were playing, he had a million fans blowing cool air, and he even broke out strobe lights and a karaoke mike when I complimented his music. He was a ninja driving, cutting through the gridlock in 45 minutes. I gave him 1K pesos and a big thank you, because he saved us from a hard night.

Travel Log: Day 167 (12/11), Philippines

After last night’s events, I was pretty happy to be back in our condo. We started school at 9am, made a grocery order, and bought water and eggs at Alfamart. After lunch we went outside and BC and I played some basketball on a wet court while the girls walked. We wrapped up the rest of the school day and then did some more walking outside while BC played. It still feels like something isn’t right about walking around here. There’s just too many eyes on us, and we are the only people here who do laps for exercise. Our plan is to start making more mall trips to walk there.

BC got busted by JC clearly going to tell his friend Zip how much money he has. JC intercepted this because BC was trying to do 600 times 60, which we recognize as the amount of money he has converted to pesos. JC told him to stop that line of conversation. When we got back to the condo I explained to him bluntly that there are people here and in the US and the world that if they knew you had $600, and though you had that on you, they would hurt or kill you for it. He seemed genuinely freaked out which is good.

In the evening we medicated ourselves a bit with TV time again. BC and I watched Trent The Traveler, and then AC and I watched Stranger Things. BC and I went back outside later in the evening, but AC didn’t want to go so JC stayed in with her. We don’t plan to leave any kid alone in the condo since that guy asked BC for our room number. Also there are getting to be more and more people who know where the American family is staying. A whole group of late teen to early twenties ladies saw BC and I enter the condo tonight, as they were one door over entering that unit. Not sure what they were up to, no way they all live there.

Travel Log: Day 168 (12/12), Philippines

School started at 8:45am today, as early as everyone was awake so that we could get to the mall quicker in the afternoon. After lunch we made the walk to the mall and did some walking there. We then purchased some off-brand dramamine, and printed our Vietnam visas, and then went to the grocery store. Walking back we found private security people controlling traffic near our crossing. I had read about this and how they tend to fuck things up more than they help. They clearly have an agenda of wanting to get people in and out of wherever they are affiliated. It at least made for an easy crossing because it was like having a human traffic light.

We had FAC as normal and then went out to walk on “the deca” later in the evening. BC pulled a stunt that freaked all of us out. He went down by the lagoon as we passed it, and I turned around to ensure he was going back up the steps and not through the green area, which he was. Assuming he was then right with us I continued walking until about 30 seconds later when AC and JC called for me. I went back by the lagoon and they said he disappeared. We were legitimately freaked out for a minute, and I looked over the railing to see if he went in the lagoon. AC then saw him over on the playground. He apparently sprinted off, I assume back around the utility buildings around to the playground.

I lectured him so harshly for that stunt that I became the bad guy in everyones eyes. I did ask him if he was retarded, but it was a serious question given the lack of awareness he showed in light of recent events.

Travel Log: Day 169 (12/13), Philippines

I had to write this again on 12/14 because it didn’t save when I wrote it on 12/13.

JC and I did some independent walking outside today in an effort to get more steps. We also walked together some when both kids wanted to go outside.

We made the final decision to leave here one day early in order to travel to the airport area on Christmas day when there will be less traffic. I booked our taxi with Klook for the 25th, and I had to choose the pickup location of SM East City because Urban Deca Homes Ortigas was not in the list. I ended up getting a WhatsApp message from the service (JoyRide) asking me to cancel and rebook with the exact address.

JC and I had happy hour, and then we ordered Pizza Hut. All of us watched the movie Holes after BC recently finished the book.

Travel Log: Day 170 (12/14), Philippines

In the morning I rebooked our taxi for 12/25, and it took way longer than expected. I tried getting the exact location into Klook but the web UI wouldn’t take it. I tried some other providers such as going directly to JoyRide (the underlying service for Klook airport transfers), but each thing I tried had something I didn’t like, such as no refund policy.

It was a suggestion from JC that worked in the end, which was to install the Klook app rather than using their website. The software engineer in me scoffed at this idea because the web interface and the app interface should use the same API call to load the list of pickup locations. They were in fact different though; there was an option in the app for the Urban Deca Homes Ortigas Lagoon of all things. That’s the murky water pit out in the common grounds that BC disappeared from.

JC and I were both feeling pretty worn down by Manila today. We agreed to just stop verbalizing the negatives to see if it helps. We spent a lot of time out walking today while AC played with local girls, and BC joined their game as well. They were playing some form of dodgeball but there were just two people on opposite sides throwing the ball at people in the middle.

In the evening BC and I watched Trent The Traveler while the girls watched The Hate You Give. She recently finished that book.