Tijuana + China Town = Carbon

So, we live pretty close to China and therefore we can get really cheap things that say "Made In China." And since Michelle likes to make watches and such our friends, Jappie and Joy offered to take us to Carbon. Carbon is downtown Cebu. The only way to describe it is that if Tijuana and China Town fell in love and procreated, the result would be Carbon.

The married ladies, so everyone but me, removed their wedding rings and all other jewelry. We all zipped up our purses and held them in front of our bodies. Our pockets were double checked to make sure they were empty. The taxi dropped us up on the street and our adventure began.

The streets are a nondescript gray, as are most of the streets here. It was raining, as it does most days, and so there were puddles all over. I was wearing flipflops and so when I was told to walk fast, as you do when in Carbon, my feet slipped all over. You see, the faster you walk the less likely you are to be hounded by kids or pick-pocketed. They were black when I got home. The streets are lined with anything you can possible think of, and it's all for sale. There are movies, cell phones, CD's. There are power tools, and hedge trimmers. There are shoes of every variety, and foods...some of which looked ok. There are vegetables, fruits, and fresh caught fish. And then there's s0mething I was totally not expecting to see...pets. You can purchase aquarium fish, birds, turtles, lizards, and a few guniea pigs. RANDOM!!!

We had no problems with the locals, they seemed to notice we weren't alone. There was this one boy arond 15 who followed me for a bit saying "Hey! Hey! Hungry!" But he was at work, and even if I'd had money, he wasn't that attractive.

We spent some time in the bead store, one of many, and as it started to get dark we tried to catch a taxi...yeah right. Remember how I said it was raining? When it rains all of the taxis fill up instantly and you're out of luck. So we walked all around Carbon to try and get to a good spot for the off chance there was a taxi. Joy and Jappie were sweethearts, and we walked as a human double stuffed oreo. Since the rain was still coming down we jumped on a jeepney. We rode it to a small shopping center, hoping for more taxis. We got off in the middle of the street and stood in the rain until a friend came with her taxi to pick us up. Oh! And when Michelle had to text, we all guarded her so that her phone wouldn't attract attention.

We ended our adventure as Americans, eating Greek food, in the Philippines. Man I'm all multi-cultural these days.