Bacolod Day 2

Today we went shopping for the most part throughout and then we visited with Raymund, Jovi's brother at his house. He lives outside the city on a big plot of land, almost like a farm, but it isn't the farm he works on. He lives on Jovi's mom's land, the Rodriguez side of the family. We had lunch there and met up again with his children, Lyka, LeeAnn, and Annalie's children joined us, Marco and Marty, Annalie's daughter.


At the viewing I met some more interesting cousin's of Jovi. Lilibeth is the cousin of Jovi on her dad's side, she is a Limsiaco. Her family is also part Syrian or Lebanese, so she is really pretty. Not beautiful but pretty. She is a flight attendant for Cathay Pacific, based in Hong Kong. She really has that metropolitan beauty to her. Her husband is a cousin of Jovi on her mom's side. He is a short chinese guy, really sort of ugly, but he is rich.

According to jovi's dad, he just goes around his businesses in Bacolod and collects the money. No realy work. lilibeth's sister, Lynette, is also a looker, if she toned down her makeup a little bit. you see she looks a like a cross between Michael Jackson and a man. she wears too much makeup, and she looks like perhaps she gets injections in her lips to make them puffier. Anyway, she walked in as if she were a princess.

But really Bacolod is a nice respite from all the bullshit you would experience in Manila. The people here are very friendly and they are all hard working. Even the security guard in McDonald's because it was so slow today, was cleaning up tables in his spare time. This McDonald's also has a new concept called the McCafe. Designed to better compete with Starbucks, the McCafe, is connected to McDonald's by a common wall, but it has its own separate entrance and its own goodies. The McDonald's here also has wireless access. It is provided free for up to one hour, just bring your notebook computer , and you can obtain the password at the counter. Pretty cool. This McDonald's also had an extensive toy collection, including a wall of what appeared to be every Happy Meal toy given out in various McDonald's throughout the world. The difference between the McDonald's here and in the states is the workers here are hard working. As a matter of fact, most all of the workers I've seen are hard workers.

The only thing is the way the people here drive. It is really absolutely crazy. If you have an opening in the road, you go for it, no matter if you block the road, you inch and inch your way and then you go for it. Really the traffic is crazy, buit the drivers all anticipate what it is you will do and honk to let you know they know, or let you know not to do it. They use the horn all the time, like in Manila. But I've heard the traffic in Manila is really bad. We will be stopping in Manila on Saturday and will visit Jovi's friends at Greenbelt for lunch before we take off for California. I wanted to visit my cousins in Cavite but my dad says the traffic really is horrendous, especially on a Saturday as everyone is going to Tagaytay. At least I can do some last minute shopping at Greenbelt, and see how that place has changed.