The Great Malls of Manila

I'm in Manila. I've been touring all the great malls: Robinson's in Ermita, Mega Mall, Glorietta. I can't decide whether it is more alienating not to be able to understand any of the street chatter around you, or know enough tagalog to catch passing phrases, but not enough to carry an actual conversation--then again everybody speaks english. I inadvertently speak English in a filipino accent--trying to blend in--but the lady at Greenwhich (a pizza chain)clocks me, "Where are you from, I've never heard that accent before." I don't even sound like a balakbayan.

I was born here but that was a very different Manila, before texting and EDSA. I start to realize that my tagalog has a different accent. Sometimes I want to pronounce my e's as short rather than long vowels (e.g., heend-EH rather than heen-dEE) and I wonder where the hell did I get that from, why did my mother speak that way. Are accents even regional to neighborhoods within Quezon City? Maybe like my fake filipino-english I made it all up.

The skys are clear blue here, apparently the miasma of jeepney and bus fumes stays at ground level. I've visited all the Rizal shrines and memorials. The museum at Fort Santiago is especialy edifying: He was a sceptic of Roman Catholocism: Ever the scientific rationalist he believed in a historical Jesus, preached against rituals of blind faith. He did not believe in violent revolution (nothing good could come of hate), but felt there was no other option to escape colonialism. But those too were different times when novels could incite revolution.

Tomorrow I fly to Laoag, Ilocos Norte. And then back to Bangkok for a third time before I head back to Cali (I had to buy an onward ticket at the Bangkok airport--The Phil. allows no entry without onward itinerary).