Manila Night of Cockfight
The heat is oppressive. I start to sweat the moment I walk in. I don’t notice it yet, though, as I am deafened by the sounds.
Men screaming, yelling, flailing about with mad intensity. Words reduces to shouts, repetitious, guttural, filled with hope or despair. Hands always in motion, signaling, gesturing, figures up, out, curled, then wrists dipping in unison, a match made in sign, owners still yelling, but now to each other.
This a cockfight in Manila and I haven’t even seen the ring or the birds yet. This is just the stands, where action is overwhelming, then silent.
Read MoreNice shoes, Imelda!
There in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, the hero to all shoe-fetish women worldwide with her quote “I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty,” was none other than Ms. Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
Read MoreThe Peninsula Hotel, Manila
As strange as this may sound, when I travel, I rarely stay at fancy hotels. If I am paying for the trip myself, I stay at cheap local hotels, place where the nationals of that country would stay when traveling.
Clean, cheap and basic, they suit me just fine, for they offer a clean, dry place to sleep but not much more. When I travel for fun, I want to be out with the people, not sequestered in a fancy hotel.
Read MoreSwimming in Sweat
See that sheen on my face? How it looks like I just jumped out of a pool?
While I may be soaked as if I went swimming, that’s all sweat. Hot, man-sweat from a 10km run in downtown Manila. Downtown Manila after a thunderstorm, which means its only around 110% humidity, enough that I soak through my shirt before I even get around the block.
Read MoreMy Machismo in Manila
The Peninsula Hotel, Manila pool is breathtaking, a clear blue oasis that calls to me irresistibly after a week in Typhoon Taipei. The sun is warm on my skin, and I yearn for a day of pool-side bliss. Into this perfect vision, I find a deck chair positioned just right, and start to recline it for maximum sunage, when…
AAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!
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