After having attempted to chronicle my anti-climatic but never the less interesting New Years partying...and having been stymied by my lack of finesse with my latest handheld, I have decided to once again try and cover what has indeed turned out to be one of the more interesting periods in my post-Rizza life, albeit two months after the fact.
Near the end of December I hopped a flight on what has to be one of the world's worst airlines, Cebu Pacific, and this is from someone who has had the rare pleasure of having flown Soviet Era Aeroflot AND various West African props...I would have taken a ferry, my preferred mode of inter-island transport, but the typhoon that devestated the northern coast of Mindanao has completely re-arranged the coral reefs and sandbars making heavy draught shipping a hit and miss affair. It is only now, three months after the storm that ferries..and indeed even heavy freight shipping has begun to return to that coast. Landing in Makati, in Metro Manila, I settled into the studio I sublet in that same corner of the capital.
The plan had been for Joysa and I to spend a quiet New Years Eve at my studio, or more precisely, at its rooftop pool which, since it is thirty floors up can offer a decent view of Manila Bay. All over Southeast Asia there are extravagant pyrotechnic displays over bodies of water. For example, some may recall that for New Years Eve 2008 Rizza and I ushered in the New Year by viewing Cambodia's version in Pnohm Penh. Not being a particularly high skyline we had a great view from our fourth floor hotel room on Monviong despite the display having taken place on the Mekong River, so many kilometers away.
The chief benefit of subletting in Makati, aside from being able to rest on my sojourns in and out of Manila when travelling internationally, is that Makati is home to the Philippine's only Jewish Community. Indeed, it was my own clan that funded 50% of the country's only synagouge in Makati's Salcedo Village. As a traditionally raised Jew- and an Israeli to boot- there are times when I feel the need to commiserate with my own People. Mindanao is about as far off the beaten path as it gets for a Jew. Salcedo Village is also home to the country's Israeli Embassy and it was at the embassy that Joysa contacted me to inform me that our quiet holiday plans had just changed. Instead of fireworks from the rooftop verandah next to the pool, we would be 120km north of Metro Manila in of all places...Angeles City.
Angeles City, in Pampanga Province is famous for just two things; during the run up to Easter the municipality hosts real live crucifixtions. Yep, if you have a hankering to rid yourself of sin by being literally nailed to a wooden cross than by golly, you may just want to consider your own visit to Angeles. Indeed, Easter is nearly upin us so grab your ticket now. The second claim to fame is the city's role as literally the largest red light district in all of Asia...and perhaps even the entire world.
Angeles enjoys a very close proximity to the municipalities of Clark and Subic Bay. The former held an American Airforce base of the same name while the latter held an American Naval base, also of the same name. Until their closure in the mid-1990s these basez were the largest American military installations on foreign soil. Angeles parlezed an accident of geopolitics and geography into a goldmine of smut and vice. Although it has been nearly two decades since the American flag was unceremoniously pulled down amidst a storm of ash from volcanic Mt.Pinatubo, Angeles has managed to retain its role as Asia's largest cum stain by retooling its whorehouses, titty bars and live sex shows towards the International Sex Tourism trade. These days the Japanese and Koreans far outnumber the Yanks though there are still plenty of sweaty pink faced, beer bellied walking hard ons perusing the brightest and best that infamous Fields Avenue has to offer.
Telling me the bad news, Joysa informed me that we would be spending the evening at her Tita (Auntie) Gemma's home where all Joysa's maternal family would be gathered...
To be continued...
Near the end of December I hopped a flight on what has to be one of the world's worst airlines, Cebu Pacific, and this is from someone who has had the rare pleasure of having flown Soviet Era Aeroflot AND various West African props...I would have taken a ferry, my preferred mode of inter-island transport, but the typhoon that devestated the northern coast of Mindanao has completely re-arranged the coral reefs and sandbars making heavy draught shipping a hit and miss affair. It is only now, three months after the storm that ferries..and indeed even heavy freight shipping has begun to return to that coast. Landing in Makati, in Metro Manila, I settled into the studio I sublet in that same corner of the capital.
The plan had been for Joysa and I to spend a quiet New Years Eve at my studio, or more precisely, at its rooftop pool which, since it is thirty floors up can offer a decent view of Manila Bay. All over Southeast Asia there are extravagant pyrotechnic displays over bodies of water. For example, some may recall that for New Years Eve 2008 Rizza and I ushered in the New Year by viewing Cambodia's version in Pnohm Penh. Not being a particularly high skyline we had a great view from our fourth floor hotel room on Monviong despite the display having taken place on the Mekong River, so many kilometers away.
The chief benefit of subletting in Makati, aside from being able to rest on my sojourns in and out of Manila when travelling internationally, is that Makati is home to the Philippine's only Jewish Community. Indeed, it was my own clan that funded 50% of the country's only synagouge in Makati's Salcedo Village. As a traditionally raised Jew- and an Israeli to boot- there are times when I feel the need to commiserate with my own People. Mindanao is about as far off the beaten path as it gets for a Jew. Salcedo Village is also home to the country's Israeli Embassy and it was at the embassy that Joysa contacted me to inform me that our quiet holiday plans had just changed. Instead of fireworks from the rooftop verandah next to the pool, we would be 120km north of Metro Manila in of all places...Angeles City.
Angeles City, in Pampanga Province is famous for just two things; during the run up to Easter the municipality hosts real live crucifixtions. Yep, if you have a hankering to rid yourself of sin by being literally nailed to a wooden cross than by golly, you may just want to consider your own visit to Angeles. Indeed, Easter is nearly upin us so grab your ticket now. The second claim to fame is the city's role as literally the largest red light district in all of Asia...and perhaps even the entire world.
Angeles enjoys a very close proximity to the municipalities of Clark and Subic Bay. The former held an American Airforce base of the same name while the latter held an American Naval base, also of the same name. Until their closure in the mid-1990s these basez were the largest American military installations on foreign soil. Angeles parlezed an accident of geopolitics and geography into a goldmine of smut and vice. Although it has been nearly two decades since the American flag was unceremoniously pulled down amidst a storm of ash from volcanic Mt.Pinatubo, Angeles has managed to retain its role as Asia's largest cum stain by retooling its whorehouses, titty bars and live sex shows towards the International Sex Tourism trade. These days the Japanese and Koreans far outnumber the Yanks though there are still plenty of sweaty pink faced, beer bellied walking hard ons perusing the brightest and best that infamous Fields Avenue has to offer.
Telling me the bad news, Joysa informed me that we would be spending the evening at her Tita (Auntie) Gemma's home where all Joysa's maternal family would be gathered...
To be continued...