Manila Briefings: Random Observations After a Week of Semi-Random Tourism

 After so much travel in non-English speaking countries, hanging out in a former American colony is quite a shift in gears.  I have said thank you in Portuguese and Spanish as a reflex when everyone I have 
encountered is very fluent in English.  What else have I observed in my week in Manila and on the road to a volcano or 47 (yes, apparently 47 vents or volcanoes or something, I don't know the coding scheme, at the Taal Volcano)?

• More than a few dogs at the various malls wear diapers.  Really. See-->
• Perhaps the American influence or perhaps the heat, but ice cold water is a thing and delightfully so.
• Heat exhaustion is a thing--I wiped myself out the first day doing a heap of walking in very hot, very humid conditions.  I really can't imagine how how it was to fight in the South Pacific in WWII 
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  My favorite French Toast purveyor, Hoshinos (a chain of Japanese coffee houses), exists here, so yeah!!!!  But my two attempts at locations across the city came up for naught--the FT is wildly popular and seems to sell out each day.  I was finally able to complete my quest my last night in Manila.  
• The security is pretty intense.  You know you are near a bank when you see a security guard with a big pistol-gripped shotgun.  And plenty of metal detectors including at my hotel.  Gun culture indeed.  
• The Philippines has 7641 islands or so, and I guess I have now seen about 13.  Luzon plus about 12 in a volcano caldera lake. 
   
  
• Filipino food is delightful.  It hits my sweet spot for being, well, sweet.  But a big surprise--not that many ice cream shops.  Given the heat...
• Speaking of, one of the interesting things I learned along the way--before this place got electricity, they imported ice from the US.  By ship???? 
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  The history here is interesting--the movement towards independence started peaking just before the US kicked the Spainairds out.... but then the US stuck around.  I did get a chance to see where their Independence was declared by a young president who managed to live another 60 plus years--deep into the 1960s.