I love visiting markets when I travel.  In the Philippines I visited 2 very different markets in 1 day.  

The first was in Makati.  It reminded me of a hip American farmers market, selling fresh flowers, Filipino produce, lots of seafood and even fermented teas like Kombucha!   

The second was in Blumentritt, a jeepney + LRT + tricycle ride to the other side of town.  Blumentritt gave me a better idea of the shantytowns that house 25% of Manila's population.  This market sold items in bulk, like the huge tubes of peanut butter-chocolate mixture pictured above (price = 65 pesos or 2 USD!!), so I'm guessing it caters to food stand and restaurant owners stocking up on food supplies.  

How bout these microscopic pictures I took on my unbranded Chinese camera phone?  LOL Sorry I'll post some reasonably sized pictures soon ;-） 

Give us this day our daily...shrimp?

In the Philippines I stayed at a super neat hostel in Makati (the upscale financial district of Manila).  It's run out of a single room of an upscale hotel and has a 12 guest capacity.

There was a Wendy's across the street from the hostel that had the following ad in its window...









I guess this is how major food corporations kick off Lent in the Philippines, appealing to its 90% Catholic majority and enthusiastic predilection for seafood :D

Corazon Aquino

She led the revolution that toppled the Marcos regime (pre-Twitter).

I had a fantastic 5 day vacation in the Philippines.

And visited the Ayala Museum, a work of art that houses art.  I learned Filipinos got their first female president in 1986!