If you recall, I landed in the Philippines August 21. Evidently, so did three typhoons. Simultaneously.
So my first weekend here, I decided to give my new boots and raincoat (the best gift ever from my mom. Well, aside from, you know, life) a good workout and explore the neighborhood
Come with me as I take a walk around the block
The Jeepneys are like the public transportation system. It says on the side of where they run, like Baguio Plaza – Lokan v.v. The v.v. means ‘vice versa’ or ‘round trip’If you’ve been paying attention, there’s no traffic lights. This is in front of a school to let kids cross the street.This is in front of someone’s houseFor such a respectful people, I wondered why they needed constant reminders to not spit on their moms. Turns out ‘momma’ is a leaf similar to tobacco but leaves red stains everywhereGotta remember to come back to this restaurant The foliage here is beautiful! This is like their National Weather Service. I wanted to pop in here and ask them to turn off the spigot The PAGASA is heavily guarded. I guess a lot of people want them to turn off the spigotThey’ve taken COVID very seriously and just recently dropped mask mandates Across the street from the weather center, and o on the way to Triage, is the Baguio Convention Center Tree ParkThe Triage is in the parking lot of the Convention Center but I don’t think it’s active anymore. Back of the Convention CenterFront of the Convention Center
From the Convention Center, I turned to corner and found myself in a neighborhood
A neighborhood at the top of a very steep hill/mountain.
For someone who organizes their apps by color, I appreciate the aesthetic
Old knees: You’re kidding right?
New knees: Let’s do this!
Instacart is very dedicated here
The road came out right next to my office!
So I headed home
I’m still kind of afraid to cross the street in the rouge traffic, so the doorman came out and crossed me 😂
So I’ve spent five weeks in Baguio and I needed some sunshine. There’s two ways off the mountain – back down that scary road or take a plane. There’s only one flight out of Baguio and that’s to the province of Cebu so that’s where I headed.
The Baguio Airport is the cutest airport I’ve ever seen
That being said, it’s the tiniest airport I’ve ever seen. I got there early because I wasn’t sure what to expect. Well I got through security, and checked my bag in about a minute. Didn’t have to empty my water bottle, take out my laptop or even take off my shoes (they made a face when I asked like ‘ew’ which, same). Then they told me ‘You’re at Gate 1’ – as if there was any other gate!
More people did eventually show up, including a couple of nuns, so I’ll be perfectly safe
They were checking their Facebook on their smart phones while we waited for the plane – nuns – they’re just like us!
Eventually, my ride arrived
View from the runway Everyone’s just standing around the plane taking pictures – the TSAs head would explode
The flight was an hour and they served us packets of peas and mango. It was actually pretty tasty
Not peas and carrots like I originally feared
The Cebu airport is actually in the city of Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island . Since I still have no idea what’s going on, I confined my lodging searches to that area and decided on the Costabella Hotel mostly because it was close and cheap.
For once, my ill-informed choices didn’t not bite me in the butt. The property is beautiful! I’ll shut up here and let the pictures do the talking:
I dressed to match my drink. As one should
This drink is called ‘Heaven and Hell’. They serve it to you on fire
One of the activities here is called ‘Island Hopping’. As always, I have no idea what I’m in for, but I’m in! (To be fair, it’s on me for just not understanding. They alway try to explain but I can tell when I’m just not getting it when their ‘ma’am’s’ become ‘ma’am 🙄s’)
To begin with, I get a boat and a crew. We load up in a rowboat and head out to the ‘cruising boat’
The cruising boat:
We transfer from the rowboat and head out
Our first stop is Caohagan Island. We anchor a bit off the beach and have to wade through the low tide to get there.
The island’s sole industry is tourism holy cow these guys! Shouts of ‘ma’am, ma’am, I give you discount’ ring out as soon as I step foot on the beach.
Our first task is choosing our lunch
I chose shrimp, prawns, and crab (and regret passing up the scallops). While they prepared our seafood, my captain, Raji, gave me a tour of the island. The main theme is colors and chickens and dogs. Dogs wandering around everywhere but they aren’t aggressive at all and don’t even come up to sniff you.
This is a preschool. The kids were adorable
A basketball court
And the local Catholic Church
This path leads to the elementary school
The school hosts children from several islands – they have to come by boat every day! The high school is on a different island
Raji: Do you need to use the turlet?
Me: What?
Raji: The comfort room
Me: What?
Raji: *sigh* gestures –
‘What’s with all the chickens?’ I ask. ‘Cocks!’ Raji says, ‘Cock fighting!’
Oh.
Papayas and Little Jerry – Seinfeld in one picture
I have to say, this was my absolute favorite part of the day
After the tour, we collected our seafood, grabbed some beers and headed to the next destination
Yeah it’s basically just bamboo
I think this is the Below Deck yacht of the Cebu Straight
And this one is the Captain Sandy yacht with all the toys out
More fancy pants boats
Our next destination – snorkeling!
I didn’t take any underwater pictures but it was amazing! Zebra fish, and bright blue fish and real life rainbow fish. Kind of like this:
After swimming it was lunch time. Remember the shrimp, the crab, and the prawn? (The lesser-known of the Narnia chronicles)
Our last stop was swimming with sardines. Again I didn’t take any pictures but at one point I was in a sardine tornado.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel
Back in the kayak, so he can drag my ass to the beach
While this is an adventure, I’m actually here to work. I need to on board our new associates. So after getting settled, I was ready to dig in!
I got into Baguio Tuesday afternoon, and they weren’t expecting me in the office until Wednesday. But after taking a nap, I was ready to find out what this was all about and decided to just pop into the office and see what’s up.
I guess I should mention that I, and the team I’ll be training, will be working North American hours. Baguio is 12 hours ahead so I will be working 9:00 PM – 6:00 AM. Which is why I was ready to head to work after getting in at 3:30 in the afternoon. I should also mention MRI isn’t actually licensed in the Philippines yet, so we’re contracting with a company called ThoughtFocus to get us up and running.
There’s two ThoughtFocus offices in Baguio and on my first day, I showed up at the wrong one. Of course. Here’s the story:
Like I said they weren’t expecting me, but I just thought I’d pop in for an hour or two then go crash at the hotel. I went down to the lobby and who do I see but my driver from earlier, just hanging out. At first I thought he was just available for the hotel guest, but it turns out he was waiting for me. He asked me if I was busy and I told him I was going to work, but he wanted to introduce me to his daughter who was also just hanging out in the lobby with her son. He tells me she runs a Virtual Assistance company and wants to work for me!
I’m like, ‘I have no control over that, we’re working with ThoughtFocus’ so he offers to drive me over there anyway. Creepy, no? (told you he did not have a happy ending).
Of course, it’s the wrong office. And they were not expecting me at either office until tomorrow so at this point they just assume I’m a moron and not only call a cab but put someone else in the cab with me to make sure I get to where I need to be.
Nice first impression, no?
ANYWAY —-
The office I’ll be working from is actually just down the street from my hotel. It’s about a three minute walk once I knew where I was going
This is the building I’ll be working (and eventually be reporting) from
The floor looks surprising similar
Solon? Is that you?
And just like everything else here, it’s the same, but different
Someone messed up and gave me the corner suite. I ain’t gonna complain
Don’t you dare ever confuse me with an Executive
But the view’s not so bad either
They welcomed me with lunch. And while I’m extremely appreciative and not one to judge, especially since I’m the outsider, I’m not sure I’m down for chicken gizzards at 2:00 am
We’ll work up to it! Everyone here is so welcoming and kind, I’m already excited to be working with them!
Mickie Goes 