Okay, so my experience in Manila has been less than extraordinary so far. I attribute that mostly to the fact that I've been working graveyard shift and having trouble sleeping. Here's a breakdown of a typical working day in my life here:

9:30 p.m. - Wake up, shower, eat.

10:30 p.m. - Shuttle van to work.

11 p.m. - 8 a.m. - Work.

8 a.m. - Catch shuttle van back to Rockwell Center.

8:30 a.m. - Workout or sleep; or eat, sleep, and workout later. It depends on how I feel. Lately, I've been hitting the gym about 9 a.m. every morning right after I get home.

10 a.m. - Shower, breakfast.

10:30 a.m. - 3 or 4 p.m. - Run errands, grocery shopping, etc. On a more relaxed day, I might watch a movie, read, write, or surf the net. Thursdays, my maid cleans my place from about 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. I can't confirm the latter time since I'm always asleep when she leaves, but my place is clean, so I can't complain. ;-)

I sleep anytime between 3 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. On a bad day, I will nap a little when I get home from work because I'm exhausted then won't be able to sleep until 6 or 6:30 p.m. Sleeping pills require a prescription here, and I'd rather not take them anyway, so I'm taking herbal supplements containing melatonin in staggered doses on alternate days. If I take them daily they become ineffective.

And that's a typical day for me here. I am getting used to it now, after five weeks, but I still feel the need to recharge a bit on the weekends. All of us working here have had the same issues. Getting coordinated hasn't been easy, so mostly it's been going out with friends from work on Saturday nights, and not every Saturday night, either.

Right now, a few guys from work and I am planning a weekend trip to Boracay, an island about 200 miles south of Manila. If all goes well, we'll leave on September 19th. The Wikipedia entry on it says, "Boracay is also known as gateway to paradise due to its natural beauty." It should be a nice trip.

I'm still looking to make at least one other major trip while I'm here--either, the three country trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, or the trip/extended layover in Hong Kong. Ideally, I would do both, but I don't know if that will be possible. We'll see. I have seven weeks left.

Labels: boracay, wikipedia