The Philippines - Day 9

Today was another standard day in the city. While it was traffic as usual on the streets, we were definitely covering a lot less ground, haha.

We had our first day of rain since our arrival
Thought it was simply wet most of the time, it actually started raining again a few minutes ago (0125 Wed)

We went to MERALCO for lunch with Tita Ritzie, yet another one of my mom's old friends from her UPCC. Tita Ritzie is actually head of corporate relations for MERALCO, which is basically the Philippine's own PG&E.

MERALCO has recieved plenty of heat from the Philippine Government for its years of serving the people in more ways that just providing electricity fo the masses. It's been known for its charity and volunteer work in the community, something that the government isn't too happy about for some odd reason, heh. Btw, the Philippine Gov has had a long history of corruption, esp since the days of President Marcos.

My parents and Tita Ritzie


The restaurant section of their cafeteria is pretty nice; its got a nice MERALCO theme to it, complete with electric diagrams,


Power lines across the room (non-functional, of course)


And my personal favorite: electricity meters that are actually lamps

Well played, sir.

After that, I met with Kuya Jon once again, this time we headed out to this one street that's lined with car part stores, OEM and aftermarker alike: Banawe St.

Plenty of tuner heads out there, as I like to call them

Modding cars is just as popular out here as it is in the US, only these guys have been doing it since wayy before The Fast and the Furious ruined everything, resulting in the term, Rice Rocket. Thankfully, most of the cars out here are actually well put-together. Rims, intake, and suspension come before exhaust and body kit; the right way to do it, in my opinion.

Our first stop was AutoSpecs motor sales, a store that specializes in lights, with mauch of their catalog being made up of OEM and aftermarket head and tail light housings, as well as HID kits for cheap.




After that we met up with some of Kuya Jon's cousins, one of who was looking to get new rims and tired for his Civic. We hit up the local rim specialty shop, DUB Unlimited.
They've got a huge selection of rims


Ranging from the exotic


To the...

...no words can explain bear-themed rims... Apparently someone was bored at the design office, haha

This is the same place where Kuya Jon got his aftermarket wheels for his Lancer



And the only place with 20" rims on a Toyota Corolla Altis

Why? The owner himself said, "The idea is to show people, 'if we can put 20s on a Corolla, you can too'"

He also admitted, however, that the ride quality is already like a Kalesa, and by that, we mean horese-drawn carriage, with wooden wheels and no modern suspension, of course xD

What are those, 42s? hahaha

Later that evening, it was off to the Ateneo University church, to watch my cousin Elaine perform with the Ateneo Chamber Singers




I missed their show last time they were in the Bay Area, so I figured I'd catch them this time around


Always a beautiful choir to listen to :)