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Asia, Days 3-5 | Philippines, Days 3-5
Aug. 21st, 2023 07:28 pmWe're slated to spend the next three days on Boracay, a beautiful island that's part of the Philippine archipelago, at a posh resort one of my cousins frequents and at which he's made arrangements. It'll be a lovely respite from the breakneck pace of Day 2. Getting there requires a series of short trips -- an hour-long plane ride to nearby Panay island, followed by a bus ride to the shore, where take a boat ride to Boracay...and then another bus ride to the resort itself.
We spend the days lounging around the pool and chilling with family, although a lurking typhoon limits many of the standard beach activities we might have participated in, and sends us occasional microbursts that drive us inside. The boys get to spend more time around cousins, old and new. And every day at 3pm there's Chocolate Hour, a dessert buffet that J and G absolutely go wild for.
Every single member the staff make sure to greet us when we walk by, which feels weird pretty quickly, and makes me suspect that they're contractually obligated to do so, and/or if they'd get in trouble if they didn't. It doesn't quite feel obsequious, but obviously their livelihood depends on at least attempting to appear hospitable, and I start to feel a twinge of discomfort when I walk past somebody who feels it necessary to pause while doing their job and say some friendly words to an overprivileged stranger.
(A discomfort, mind you, that doesn't prevent me from enjoying being pampered.)
The point of this mini-trip is to do very little that's actually interesting, so there's not a lot more to talk about. I do learn that one of my aunts makes sure that her two sons always take separate flights to ensure that there's someone to run the family business, just in case, which is a level of precaution I never would have considered.
We return from Boracay to a second MySpace hotel. This one is differently incongruous -- instead of rising tall above a shantytown, this one is smack dab in the middle of a residential community (like if a Holiday Inn had somehow sprouted on Orchard Street in Somerville). I get the sense that either Manila doesn't have zoning laws...or more likely, that they're easy to ignore if you know the right people to bribe.
We spend the days lounging around the pool and chilling with family, although a lurking typhoon limits many of the standard beach activities we might have participated in, and sends us occasional microbursts that drive us inside. The boys get to spend more time around cousins, old and new. And every day at 3pm there's Chocolate Hour, a dessert buffet that J and G absolutely go wild for.
Every single member the staff make sure to greet us when we walk by, which feels weird pretty quickly, and makes me suspect that they're contractually obligated to do so, and/or if they'd get in trouble if they didn't. It doesn't quite feel obsequious, but obviously their livelihood depends on at least attempting to appear hospitable, and I start to feel a twinge of discomfort when I walk past somebody who feels it necessary to pause while doing their job and say some friendly words to an overprivileged stranger.
(A discomfort, mind you, that doesn't prevent me from enjoying being pampered.)
The point of this mini-trip is to do very little that's actually interesting, so there's not a lot more to talk about. I do learn that one of my aunts makes sure that her two sons always take separate flights to ensure that there's someone to run the family business, just in case, which is a level of precaution I never would have considered.
We return from Boracay to a second MySpace hotel. This one is differently incongruous -- instead of rising tall above a shantytown, this one is smack dab in the middle of a residential community (like if a Holiday Inn had somehow sprouted on Orchard Street in Somerville). I get the sense that either Manila doesn't have zoning laws...or more likely, that they're easy to ignore if you know the right people to bribe.
