Movies, Farmers Markets and Chinese New Year in Manila

I had posted on Facebook that I saw the movie "We Bought a Zoo" the other day.  What I didn't mention is that for the movie ticket, a bottle of water and some gummy bears, the cost was right around $6.  Woohoo!  I'll be seeing lots of movies here I think.  The only thing is the smell in the theater - which I've noticed in a few other places.  Musty.  Ick.

Yesterday, thanks to a couple of new friends, I was finally able to explore outside of our little cocoon here in Rockwell!  Mel, our driver, took me about 9 miles north of here to Quezon City... It took us about 20 minutes, the traffic wasn't too bad.  Sundays definitely have less traffic.

I met up with a fellow ex-pat (that's ex-patriot, one who is from one country and working in another) who has been here for a couple of months and is familiar with some of the area.  We wandered around a farmers market, which is right by the infamous Araneta Coliseum where the third and final boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship in 1975 - known as the "Thrilla in Manila" -took place.

Here are a few shots from the Farmer's Market.  As most farmers markets go, everyone is basically selling the same thing:

There's a whole other area where they have the meat market.  But there's no way I was going to go check it out - for one, it STINKS - BAD.  Like death.  And for two... well if you know me, you know I have absolutely no interest in seeing a lot of dead animal flesh - I don't care if it's part of the "experience."

It was pretty hot, so we found refuge in yet another mall.  This one isn't nearly as fancy as the Power Plant mall, but there is a supermarket and it's got a train station attached to it.  We had a late lunch at a Thai Restaurant where I had some yummy tofu vegetable curry.  The malls are all decked out for the Chinese New Year - here is where you could find your Chinese animal symbol and read your horoscope for the year.

You can only walk around a mall for so long, so we stepped back outside to wander around and people watch.  Actually, I should say, to BE people watched.  I'm still getting used to the stares I get here - a white girl in a swarm of Filipinos is apparently an unusual site.  There was one little boy who was so in awe, he didn't take his eyes off me for several minutes.  Adorbz :)

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea what the area is like.  If it seems a bit dreary, well... that's because it is.  The buildings are all dirty and with the gray evening sky... it seems intensified.

Not sure what's up with all the scooters in one place, but I had to get a picture of it-

I bid ado to my new ex-pat friend, and headed off to meet another new friend - Ramon (a local Filipino dude) at a mall called Greenbelt.  Ramon took me to an Indian restaurant (Kashmir I think it's called) outside the mall area and we had a lively conversation about our cultural differences. Then we wandered back to the mall - which is BIG, so they divide it up into Greenbelt 1, 2 ..up to 5.  Since it was dark, I didn't take any pictures - but I will definitely go back because I really liked it.  It's much cleaner, has a lot of outdoor eating areas, and I saw many other ex-pats there.

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night on account of the Chinese New Year celebrations - fireworks!  I stood out on my balcony for a while watching.  Then this morning around 9am, I heard this odd drum beat that kept getting louder.  At first I just thought it was noise from the building going up across the street.  Nope - it was a little parade - if you want to call it that - for the Chinese New Year!  They walked around for a while like this.  Check it out -

I snapped this pic, then I grabbed my phone for a video.  Sorry for turning it sideways, I thought it would flip over for me when I uploaded it...