Koffee & Kpop

It’s going to be below zero Celsius early next week so mentally I’m going to be on a beach on the Philippines like I was this time last year.

We spent a day and a half in Manila before boarding a flight and then boat to the island of Boracay, which deserves its own blog post.

As was expected of me at the time, I fell asleep during the flight from Incheon to Manila’s take-off and only awoke with the bump of our landing. We stayed at the Manila Hotel, which was then decked out in red decorations for the Lunar New Year and visiting guests celebrating the holiday. We listened to a pianist playing a grand piano in the lobby and ate an overpriced dinner before retiring to our rooms.

My room was fine, except the bathtub wouldn’t plug so I couldn’t take a bath, which is very important to me while traveling. It became an issue because it was obviously a non-issue to hotel staff, and I can’t exactly blame them because bathtubs aren’t really a priority as far as most things go. After being moved to another room after some kerfuffle, someone in the administration reached out and offered to gift us some Filipino sweets for our troubles. Unfortunately, by that time we were already in Boracay. The stay and view was nice, but I would probably research other hotels should I go back to Manila.

While in Manila, we visited Fort Santiago, the San Agustin Roman Catholic Church, and the beautiful and touching Memorare memorial.

Mostly, we spent a lot of time walking around the streets, taking in the beautiful architecture, which was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I’d love to return to Manila and explore more of the city and its history, but a day and a half was a good introduction for a first-timer.

On my last night in the Manila Hotel, as I settled in my new room for a bubble bath (finally), I decided to turn on the television. I hardly ever touch the television, let alone turn it on and flip through channels. As I was idly flipping through channels, I came across Voice of America. My jaw dropped as I realized that this was, specifically, Voice of America Tibetan, and the background of the current news clip was Sarah College for Higher Tibetan Studies.

I was in the Philippines, on vacation from my job in South Korea, only to come across a television program about the Tibetan college in India where I taught English. Life is wild.