Shopping in Manila

We arrived in Manila on Monday, early afternoon, after leaving Zambales at 4am. We slept at Jesse's uncle's house, or at least, tried to sleep, as the kids and family across the street were blastic Magic Mic power ballads until at least 1 am. We stopped in San Fernando, Pampanga, to buy parols (ground zero for parols). How we are going to pack them in our balikbayan boxes without them getting crushed is beyond me.

We went to Divisoria to pasyal (shop around). It's heaving, dirty, chaotic, and full of all of those Filipiniana giveaways. Want a Precious Moments parachute wedding favor? They've got millions in Divisoria. I stepped in unidentified wet stuff (of course, wearing my tsinelas) and wanted to suka in the street, which, considering the atmosphere, would have made me fit right in. This is the dirty, real, unforgiving, bag-snatching, cut you in the throat Manila that one is warned about. Unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, they didn't have the Filipino crafts, trays, carvings, etc. we were looking for, so we went to Quiapo, under the bridge, which is balikbayan nirvana for shopping. A lot of the stuff -- carvings, baskets, shells -- we had come across in our travels across Luzon and the Visayas was here! We got some great, cheap stuff here, including capiz stars for our Christmas tree for next year, tubaws from the Muslim vendors, etc.

Yesterday, after spending about seven hours doing research back at University of the Philippines, Diliman, (I ran into a colleague there who is working on post-WWII Philippine politics, particularly the Recission Act that stripped veterans of US benefits, also working with the Carlos P. Romulo papers), we went to Greenhills, which is Divisoria and Canal Street (NY) without the bagsnatchers and anti-pirating police. Now, THIS was a shopper's paradise. No wet stuff to step in in the streets, no black diesel jeepneys and tricycles farting in your face, no open sewers. This is tiangge style shopping (like Divisoria), with hundreds of stalls selling everything from fake Prada, Gucci, Chloe and Coach purses to glasses, wallets, Old Navy and Gap overstocks from the Philippine factories, fake Lacoste, everything fake or brandname overstocked you could ask for. We imagined taking Allyson and Leenie here and then joked that we probably would have to leave you guys there for about 8 hrs. I bought two purses. Then we went to the MegaMall in Ortigas, and tried to find some stuff for which some have you have texted or emailed me.

It's interesting what you can and cannot find in Manila, and the city is a nightmare to navigate, especially during rush hour. Now I totally appreciate ten times over every pasalubong ever brought back for me. Mare Donna, I can only imagine the journey you had to make to find me a capiz lamp, that wasn't the size of a toy or monstrous!!! Certain kinds of art and handicrafts my family brought back by the boxload in the 60s and 70s are now considered very baduy (corny) by pretty much all classes of rich and poor: sungka sets, capiz lanterns, narra wood platters and serving items, Weapons of Moroland, Filipiniana wear that is casual (seriously -- I have been looking far and wide for casual, cute and simple barongs and embroidered dresses for Pumpum, Laya and Taytay with no success), woven purses, etc. Items we bought on our trip to Davao in 1997 are so hard to find in Manila -- you really have to go to Mindanao to get kubings, tubaws, a good selection of malongs, and tribal art and artifacts from the South (such as the T'boli bells I bought by the dozens last time), or to the Cordilleras to get Ifugao and Kalinga weaving.

I found a lot of some stuff in Quiapo, but the average mall will not have any of that (except for Filipiniana sections, or Kultura stores). People in the urban Philippines buy and want the same stuff in their malls that we have in our American malls. We went to a Vans store yesterday! For example, here in the Philippines, it seems that the only kind of Filipiniana wear one dons is in weddings. I remember having these really cute, embroidered dresses and shirts folks brought back for me when I was a kid, and am trying so hard to find them for the godchildren, with frustration. When I ask folks in the shops if they have casual barongs or cotton embroidered shirts for kids, or jusi dresses for kids (I had this really cute, embroidered casual dress when I was 3), they look at me like I'm crazy. Why would I want a casual barong?, they ask. But if you want fake Lacoste, a fake Bottega Venetta woven leather purse, plasticware of every shape and kind, Body Shop lotions, or Le Sportsac fake stuff, I can bring it back by the boxload!

Anyway, despite this, we have bought TONS of stuff, and we will have two balikbayan boxes plus bursting luggage. Today, we are going book shopping at La Solidaridad and last minute barong shopping at Tesoro's around the neighborhood we are staying in, Malate/Ermita, then to Sampaloc for University of Santo Tomas, Tatay's alma mater, so I can see it, then in the afternoon I'm going to the National Archives and National Library for some research.

We are set to leave on Friday morning (Feb. 1), but are on a waitlist to leave Sat. Feb. 2. Will keep you all posted.