Sunday November 4 -- Work then a little Shopping

Sunday after the Corrigedor trip, we spent most of the day in the Peninsula lobby working.  As usual, our work generated a number of empty Coke Light (Diet Coke) bottles, which were were asked to remove, and to further pour our in-process Coke Lights into nice glasses with ice, which they supplied.  Apparently we were becoming an eyesore in the swanky lobby.  

Late in the afternoon, we embarked on an expedition to "Green Hill Mall" -- an enormous mall packed with booths selling all manner of things.  A "barter til you can't stand it" mall.  For those of you who have experienced this in Mexico, you can compare Green Hill Mall to that, but much, much more polite, less sketchy.  Security it tight at this mall, in fact it seems to be everywhere, with various young men toting nickle-plated stockless shotguns.  Here Mr. Forciea pauses for a picture with security, who looked all bad-ass until Dave approached him to ask for a photo.  

We wanted dinner before we headed into the fray, and here's an example of the local and the international that surround this mall.  If you tire of Ling Nam, you can always head next door to Subway for a cheese-steak.

But we choose to eat at "Bacalod Chicken Inasal".  "Bacalod" is a southern Philippine province with a particular style of cooking, "Chicken" is chicken, and "Inasal" means barbecue.  So this is roughly analagous to a "southern fried chicken" restaurant in the States.

Except it's not that exactly.  

Eric over his Bacalod version of chicken-on-a-stick, and a closeup of my own food.

After this experience we headed off to shopping.  

For a market of this sort, the goods are pretty good.  There is the usual faux name-brand offerings, which here Dave inspects, but he was soon shocked--shocked--to learn that it was not an authentic Prada.  

Oysters are busy around the Philippines. 

Mike shops for pearls here.

There is food here as well.  The eggs there are "balut", a phavorite Philippine phood, in which a partially developed duck embryo waits inside to be enjoyed.  You can buy them in palettes of 81 (maybe you're having a party), or individually (if you're just snacking).    

With that, good night!  We wait the Typhoon, which is supposed to hit tomorrow.