I Go Half-Way Around the World to Experience Exotic Cultures and These Guys Want to Eat at Hooters.......

I'm almost done with the first week of work and it's gone well. Tomorrow is Friday and then I have a three-day weekend. Today we went north of Manila to get away from the traffic and ended up eating at an upscale mall-style oceanfront area that was really nice--especially when compared to the oceanfront in the downtown area. And yes, they wanted to eat at Hooters--here's a picture of the van with diplomatic plates sitting in front of the place.

Saturday I've signed up for a day-trip to Corregedor Island to view the site of the famous battle leading to McArthur's return to Manila near the end of World War II. It's supposed to be a nice outing with a tram that goes around the island stopping at various places.

Sunday I'm scheduled to take a day trip up to the Taal Volcano and the village of Tayaytay south of Manila. Almost everybody has told me it's a "must see"--it's a volcano with lake in the crater and the crater has an island in the lake that has a second volcano: A lake within an island within a lake within an island. It's supposed to be beautiful with visits to a pineapple and coconut plantations.

Monday is an Islamic holiday so I have it off too and it is the day I'm looking most forward to. I'm signed up for another day-trip to Pagsanjan Gorge and Falls--a canoe trip up the side of the mountain followed by shooting the rapids back down through jungle and folage--some of which was filmed in the movie "Apocaylyse Now."

But to this point it's been mostly work and back to the hotel. I'm sure I'll be posting some fantastic photos this weekend.