The Great Divisoria Escape

It has been such a tiring weekend. I had to go down to Manila (Philippines Capital, around 8 hours away from where I am right now) to buy gifts for Christmas. I dread the holiday season, but if there was one thing I love doing, it's giving gifts (then receiving some :)).

The weekend started at 3:00 am. After work, I boarded a bus to Manila. I got some sleep on the bus, but it wasn't really enough to get me through one whole day. Anyway, when I arrived at Manila, it was not too warm. It was still humid (temperatures can go as warm as 33.05 degrees Celsius (91.49 degrees Fahrenheit), but the weather was actually pleasant.

After leaving my stuff at my friend Piper's house, we rode the train to Divisoria, a haven for people who have little money to spend but a lot of friends to give gifts to. We spent almost 4 hours, in the middle of at least a thousand people crammed into a block of old buildings, haggling for shirts and pants and other stuff. It was hell. But I got a little with my Php2,000 budget (roughly US$50).

That was basically the only itinerary for the day, but my energy gave way. At around 4 pm, I gave up (Take note, I have been awake for more than 24 hours). Another 2 hour train ride back to Piper's place, and we only got a few minutes to shower and ride the train to another location, this time SM Mall of Asia, one of the biggest malls in Asia, the biggest in the Philippines. There were still a lot of people, it was a Saturday, and there are no classes, so basically everyone wanted to get out of there homes and share in the bliss of Christmas shopping. Thank God I shopped earlier than usual (I usually do Christmas shopping on the 24th).

After maxing out my credit card, we went home at around 12 am (Sunday morning), and we rode a bus back to Piper's house (2 hour bus ride).

After a quick shower, and a change of clothes, we went clubbing... at 2 am. We didn't get to dance much, the bar we went to was crammed with gay guys, and we were tired. So we went home at around 4 am. We arrived at Piper's place at 7 am.

I haven't had any real sleep since Friday, so once my head hit the pillow, I was asleep. Only to wake up after 3 hours. We had to go home the next day, so we decided to have as many things done with the little time we have.

Sunday was not too hectic, we had time to actually sit and have a frapuccino, we watched a movie, then we had some last minute shopping. Then it was back home at 1 am.

When we woke up 6 hours later, we boarded a bus going back to Baguio, and slept on the bus on our way up.

It was a real hectic weekend, but I had lot of fun. I am looking forward to the next adventure we are gonna have. :)