Morning in Makati, friendly Filipinos
Today I woke up and went out to a café. Walking through the streets of Manila with music playing, I felt the contrast sharply: even in economic zones like Makati there was still trash on the roads, and turning down a different street could make things suddenly much dirtier.
When I was about to leave the hostel, the security guy said "Good Evening" to me. I thought that once people become familiar, Filipinos are really friendly and will strike up a conversation. The front desk woman also very pleasantly said "Good Evening", so I felt that Filipinos are generally sociable, or rather, very friendly.
Time at the café, planning YouTube
So I headed for a café. It had about 1,200 reviews, so I thought it must be a good place. The street wasn't very busy, so I was a bit worried, but it was fine.
I arrived at the café safely, and it turned out most people were working. There were families, but I got the strong impression that many people were working alone.
I ordered a wrap and a café latte. The waitress showed me a lot of respect, always adding Sir at the end, politely shooing away flies and wiping the table. I felt the service was very good.
There, people were working constantly or filming themselves with a camera for content creation. I was thinking about how to shoot my YouTube videos — what kind of structure to use, how to handle the storytelling. I'm thinking maybe I'll upload by region, like "Manila" or "Puerto Princesa", doing things like Vol.1, Vol.2, something like that. In any case, I want to place importance on storytelling.
Sudden panic, overlap of caffeine and fatigue
While thinking about the concept, I was also working on project tasks. It was approaching 3 PM, so I decided to pay the bill and go back to the hostel to work.
After paying, I walked back to the hostel. There was a 7-Eleven on the way, so I bought a Pocari Sweat. I've had painful experiences with heatstroke, so I want to be fully prepared. Still, I wondered whether I'll be able to get to Tagaytay by bus tomorrow, and what I'd do if my stomach hurt along the way.
I returned to the hostel and continued working as usual, but suddenly my heart rate increased and I started feeling anxious. I became really worried, wondering what this emotion was.
Surely it's the combination of having a huge amount of things I have to do & blaming myself that things aren't going as I expected & the pressure of having to complete work. These three piled up and I felt like I was about to panic. I started to hate Manila and wanted to get to nature with lots of greenery as soon as possible.
I was working while listening to music, but I felt like that was making me panic, so I stopped and took deep breaths. I looked up ways to calm down on ChatGPT and kept doing deep breathing. Then I decided to go back to my room for a while.
Back in my room, I took deep breaths and closed my eyes. Gradually I started to feel better.
Looking back, I think it was probably the café latte — the caffeine running wild combined with stress and fatigue that led to my condition.
The meaning of adventuring, growth felt at 25
But struggle comes with adventure; it's not easy. Adventure can be harsher than you expect.
Still, I think it's truly wonderful to be able to experience this at 25, and I believe it will be a treasure for my life. There will always be various stresses and unexpected events, but being able to enjoy them all and develop the ability to solve things on my own makes me grateful for this environment.
Trying the Philippines' national comfort food, Jolibee
So I lay exhausted on the futon until night, and then decided to eat at Jolibee.
Actually, I wanted to go to the WG restaurant and talk with the old man, but when I went there were so many people that I thought this wouldn't work.
So I decided to go to Jolibee. But it was super packed too. It's 9:30 now. So why are there so many people? There were tons of Grab bike taxis and regular people. Over at Burger King and Wendy's too. Seriously, doesn't the Philippines have too many fast food places?
I hate waiting, so I gave up and went back to the hostel. Then I ordered Jolibee via mobile order. While waiting for the order, I decided to read a book.
Jolibee finally arrived after about 45 minutes. Even though it was only 0.8 km away, I thought they must be really busy. I ordered a set with fries, pasta, chicken, and rice — it looked incredibly unhealthy (lol). But Jolibee has apparently expanded overseas recently, so I wanted to try it. The taste was ordinary. I didn't particularly want to eat it again.
Meeting the old man, the courage to receive life advice
The feelings I put into the travel notebook
Now, a retry! I decided to go to the old man's place. I was full, but I really wanted him to write in the notebook.
I had brought a travel notebook and wanted to get life advice from people I met on my trip around the world. That plan had been in mind for a while, so to accomplish it I had to go today. If I went on the last day, Tuesday, and the old man was asleep, I wouldn't be able to achieve the goal.
When I went again, the old man was seated, so I said 'Hello!' and entered the restaurant. This time I ordered a vegan soup.
Getting excited talking about travel
The old man chatted with me in a friendly way. He said it's very expensive to go to Coron Island, and that booking flights last minute is really costly, so he always books ahead. He mentioned that doing that makes it hard to be flexible when meeting people like himself.
When I said I was going to Iloilo, he told me there are a lot of kind people there, but there's not really any major sights; he also said that people from Coron Island might actually be from Iloilo. Whenever I smiled, the old man would smile too. It made me think that how people respond to you changes based on how you treat them, and what kind of response you want from others is decided by how you behave toward them.
Overcoming embarrassment
So I ate the soup. It was full of vegetables — broccoli and leafy greens — really nutritious and very delicious. While I was eating, customers kept arriving, so I decided to move seats.
I kept thinking about when to ask the old man to write in the notebook. He looked really busy. Also, he had gone shopping and was absent for about ten minutes, so I worried he might have gone to sleep.
But when he returned safely, I waited for the right moment and said to him, 'I want you to write Life Tips!' He replied that his handwriting was very messy and he didn't want to, and brought a waiter over saying 'that kid will write instead.' I explained to the woman that I was traveling around the world and wanted people I met to write a message.
I told him that the Philippines was my first country and that I wanted him to be the first to write something. Maybe he finally understood. But he still didn't seem to get it, so I said, 'Even just a signature is fine, please write it! It'll be a memento!' And finally he wrote it, joking that it was like a will (laughs).
Still, it was really embarrassing. For the sake of achieving a goal, there's no room for embarrassment, but it truly was embarrassing. Maybe it was because I overthought it. But I'm glad I got it. Embarrassment is also a kind of purity, so that's okay.
Then I paid, took a photo at the end, and left the shop. He seemed embarrassed too and gave a somewhat half-hearted mannerism. But that's fine. Apparently this was a first for William, so it will probably stick in his memory.
Then I arrived at the hostel, and that was the end of the day.
