Iftar Dinner

Ramadan is coming to a close on July 29th, but before that I had the chance to attend an Iftar dinner at a local mosque.  Iftar is the nightly meal served at sundown that breaks the fast.   It's generally started by eating dates and drinking water, followed by evening prayers, and then a full meal.

Manila, Manila

Some random photos from the older part of Manila.  Technically, the only Manila.  What is commonly referred to as "Manila" is actually Metro Manila and is made up of multiple cities.  One of these cities is actually Manila and is the historic center of Metro Manila.  I live in Makati, which is another city in Metro Manila and is the central business district.  While some of the historic buildings in Manila have not been well maintained, there is a growing trend to revive the area and preserve some of the older buildings.  Luneta hotel (below) is a great example of a new restoration project for the originally hotel built in 1918.  And of course, you can chose to take a horse and carriage (kalesa) if you want (or if you can't find a taxi and it's raining).

Typhoon Glenda

On July 16, Typhoon Glenda (Rammasun was the international name) hit Metro Manila.  It was my 1st real typhoon and when it hit the metro area was able the strength of a Category 3.  Luckily everything was fine aside from power outages and some minor flooding in my apartment.  Its taken a while for the power to come back on in some parts of the city and we've had rolling brownouts for about a week afterwards.  I need a "before" photo, but the below photo is the dark neighborhoods below me the night after the typhoon.

4th of July in Dumaguete and Siquijor

For the long 4th of July weekend, a friend and I flew down to Dumaguete in Negros Oriental.  Dumaguete is a cute college town and just outside of the city is a park called the Twin Lakes of Balinsasayao.  Unfortunately, it poured most of the day we were there, but we were still able to see the lakes and wander around town a little.

On Saturday we caught a ferry south to the island of Siquijor, known as the witchcraft island of the Philippines.   Not a lot of photos to post for the island since we spent most of our day there riding scooters around the 72km ring road, but it's a cute island with nice beaches, old churches, caves, waterfalls, and really friendly people.

Fighting cocks heading back to the mainland on our ferry

Random two weeks around Manila

Here are some random photos from the last two weeks.  Starting with a music fest in Manila….

Pico de Loro hike for the second time…...

followed by the Mt. Makiling hike the following weekend…

yet another hazy Manila day…..

and some 4th of July festivities at the embassy.