After some 35-36 years since the last time I went to the Philippines, I finally had a chance to visit the old country and reunite with my relatives and meet new ones. Should I consider this a travel blog post? I only had two weeks. If I visited the country as a tourist, I would have plenty to snap, show, and share. But I didn’t see the Philippines as a tourist. I visited as a balikbayan 1.
I have photos to share, but not exactly “tourist”-worthy. The photos I have are more of daily life in a highly-urbanized city that used to be a town in the Philippines. This trip is more of reconnection and wellness for me, but nevertheless, it’s still part of traveling. Two weeks in a country encompassing of some 7,100 islands is not enough. If you truly want to see the real beauty of the Philippines, you’re going to need a lot more time, a lot of planning, and choose the places and islands that are safest to travel. 2 I would say a month or two. Maybe more if you plan to do a whole 7,100 island hopping adventure. There are cases where some foreigners even choose to migrate there. Check out the many travel vlogs on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean.
But if you’re a balikbayan like me, 3 with the purpose of visiting your relatives and extended families that you haven’t seen or even met for many years, then two weeks is enough. In my case, my brother and I visited to pick up our mom and return her home. At the same time, it also became a trip of reconnection, reminiscing, and exploring of the childhood town and how it developed into a highly-urbanized city, high-end malls, restaurants, and business establishments, high-rise towers, you name it.
A Trip of Wellness
Before traveling to the Philippines, I have been somewhat experimenting in health maintenance. My diabetic A1C level went up high and close to the danger zone again at that time. Keep in mind, because I haven’t been to the Philippines for some 35-36 years, the Philippines that was in my mind was the Philippines I experienced back in the 1980s. Sure, I’ve seen some YouTube videos of Philippines travel vlogs, seen some clips of Filipino TV variety shows, seen some clips of Filipino dramas, movies, etc. But those did not really warrant how the Philippines looks like today versus how it was when my family and I left for the U.S. back in the ’80s, let alone Las Piñas. 4 Along with my vision also came the traditional Filipino habits, as well. As far as I know, we were known to eat a lot. That means, we eat a lot— and when you are about to leave a party filled with food, you’re also expected (?) to bring some of the food with you home. Yes, we love eating.
But as a diabetic, I have to be more conscious about eating, now that it heavily affects my health. At that time, I had a phone appointment with my dietitian for advice. 5 All she said was to do the same thing as I’ve always been doing, and maybe look around for places near me where it is safe to do some physical activity, such as walking. Luckily for me, there is a huge shopping mall not too far from my old childhood home. 6 I thought it’d be a lot of fun hanging out in the mall not doing anything but walking and exploring.
When we finally arrived and met up with our cousins, I learned a lot of changes in the “typical” Filipino lifestyle. Though none of them are diabetic, they’re also as health-conscious as I am when it came to the art of eating. Brown rice instead of the typical white rice, carefully-blended instant coffees that contain very little or no carbs, a wide variety of restaurants and other eating establishments that serve locally-grown fresh dishes, and a whole lot more. In addition, my cousin and his wife would wake up very early to beat the traffic, and after dropping off their daughter to school, they would head out to the gym and/or yoga class for their daily workouts.
My bro and I decided to join them during those early hours. The jetlag somehow helped us with waking up during those very early hours. 7 I joined my cousin-in-law with the yoga class for the first week. 8 Then they introduced us to pickleball in the local gym too. All I could do then was walk around their cemented track, but I enjoyed watching them get very competitive in pickleball at the same time.
Looking back, I thought about adapting some of my experiences here. Unfortunately, winter is almost here and it’s quite difficult to apply those experiences right now. First, the high costs of going to the gym and the difficulty of waking up during those early hours. Second, I go to work four days with 10-hour shifts, and by the time I get home, my energy has been depleted and would rather sleep. I want to start learning how to cook and actually cook healthier dishes, but the low energy and motivation are overwhelming me. At least, I get my high does of workouts at work by walking and lifting packages.
I’m still trying. I’ll get there, eventually.
A Trip of Reconnection
There are a few things that I discovered about the Philippines that are new to me or wasn’t aware of in the first place. Here are some of them below.
Mall Culture
Las Piñas is, in Californian/American terms, is a suburb of Manila. However, as of this year, the population is about 660,000. This means that it is now a highly-urbanized city, not just a suburb. Just a few blocks from the house 9 is SM Southmall, ranked as the 7th (?) largest mall in the Philippines. Whatever it is you can find here in the U.S., it’s all there. And anything that doesn’t exist here in California (at least), they’re all there as well. It wasn’t just SM Southmall. Just some blocks away from it are other shopping centers, strip malls, and more malls.
Why are there so many malls, you ask?
Just keep in mind that the Philippines is a tropical country. Sun, rain, clouds, the humidity is always the same. You can barely see anyone tucking themselves in thick sweaters and coats. But just like everyone else, no one likes daily high temperatures. And since malls have a high amount of air conditioning throughout the building, they provide comfort and cooling spots for everyone. For travelers, depending on the currency exchange, the prices are quite affordable. You can get a luxury item you’ve always wanted far cheaper than the one sold back home. With this in mind, shopping is a must.
Because we are balikbayans, we rather shop for the local products to support the economy and the people making these products. There may be a lot of Filipinos living here in California, there are still many local things not available here. I spent more towards the food and the (diabetic-friendly) instant coffee than anything else, like clothes.
Speaking of coffee…
Coffee Culture
The Philippines is one of the top coffee producers in the world. Sure, Indonesia may be more famous if we’re talking about Asian coffees, but the Philippines is there, as well as India. The country produces four types of coffee beans, and back in the olden days, 10 the Philippines was the top coffee producer then. I bought quite a number of locally-blended instant coffees, such as Black Rice Coffee, Turmeric Coffee, Green Coffee. And then there’s the coveted Kapeng Barako, known in non-Filipino as Liberica coffee beans. Barako is only grown, produced, and sold in Cavite and Batangas, two neighboring provinces just about some 30 miles south of the childhood hometown. I got a sachet box and a ground coffee bag of Barako so I can brew some here at home.
To add to this, there is no shortage of coffee shops in Las Piñas. In every neighborhood corner, there is at least one. Some streets have a whole block of coffee shops. Very small, very local, but at the same time, very unique. Every cafe has their own blended recipes for coffee, so the choices are limitless. When we arrived there, we requested to the relatives not to bring us to Starbucks. We’ve got way too many of those back in the U.S. anyway. We asked to take us to the best local coffee shops (in their opinion, of course), and so they did.
It’s quite interesting how a tropical country with high temperatures could also be a large producer of coffee. Indonesia and India are quite humid too. So does South American countries like Brazil and Colombia. But the humidity and the weather do help in growing many types of coffee beans. I love coffee, even though I only drink it once or twice everyday. But if you’re a serious coffee connoisseur, do come and visit.11
Conclusion
Maybe one day, I’ll write about some of these places in separate posts, but I’ll end this right here.
Of course, I wouldn’t end this post without sharing some nice shots! It’s mostly food, coffee, malls, local places.
- A homecoming for someone who used to live in the Philippines[↩]
- Unfortunately, there are some islands there that are deemed unsafe for tourists, so please do your research carefully.[↩]
- Just a sidenote – the Philippines is quite diverse in population. Maybe not so much as with the U.S. or some parts of Europe, but diverse nevertheless. IF you were born or raised in the Philippines before you moved somewhere else outside, Filipino or not, and decide to return for a visit or other reasons, you’re considered a balikbayan.[↩]
- my childhood hometown[↩]
- Luckily, she’s also Asian, and her culture is also heavy with eating too[↩]
- my aunt and cousins live there now[↩]
- in California, that would be around lunchtime to early afternoon[↩]
- Unfortunately, I tripped and had a slight sprain on my left foot, so I’m unable to attend yoga classes anymore. I did some chair yoga at home instead.[↩]
- due to the very small roads and very crowded streets, we still had to drive there[↩]
- we’re talking about Spanish colonial period here[↩]
- Read more here, here, and you can find more articles about Philippine coffee culture by searching around the interwebs.[↩]
