My wife read somewhere that there was a "hidden gem" in Truro's Victoria Park...waterfalls! So, we put on our hiking shoes and off we went!
It was verdant.
If you follow the trail...er, the paved path...past the picnic grounds, you'd see waterfalls in about 10 minutes.
But if you're like us and got tempted by Jacob's Ladder, then you're in for a bit more exercise!
This 175-step stairway won't bring you to heaven (
Genesis 28:10-12)
...
...but it brought us to some trails that went around the park.
Actually, we got lost. We didn't know where we were going and crossroads like this was anybody's guess.
Somebody was kind enough to rip off the map too. <cough> A**hole! <cough>
Anyway, we wandered around, backtracked a few times...met a ghoul or two. he! he!
...until we found ourselves back in the mainstream. We descended from those stairs at the back of the gazebo.
There were two wells. The Holy Well and...
...and the Wishing Well (which was at the top of another steep flight of stairs). I must admit I was not especially thrilled to see clumps of rocks but I did get to make a wish! Sell the dream not the item! ;-)
I had wished we'd find the waterfalls soon. It worked! :-) That's the Waddell Falls.
And that's the Joe Howe Falls. Many young people were cooling themselves there!
Ok, so they were more like water-trickles...but we were happy enough to find them!
Here's a creek-side view below a bridge.
On our way out, we caught the tail end of this Sunday's concert at the park. So we listened to some fiddle and guitar music. Bring your own lawn chairs!
The tree decorations were life jackets. Publicity for National Drowning Prevention Week (July 20-26, 2014). "Your life jacket won't work if you don't wear it."
Our hike took about 2 hours, giving us a good sweat! If you're going, wear hiking shoes or sneakers and bring water bottles and insect repellent. Or, you can ignore Jacob's Ladder and just go straight to the falls. In that case, flip-flops and a bathing suit would do!
From June to August is the rainy season in the Philippines. It doesn't rain all day but rather storm clouds would quickly form and in the blink of an eye, you're in a squall.
And just as abruptly, the rain stops and all is well again. You might even get treated to a rainbow!
A friend commented: "What else is there to do in Manila but catch up with friends and family over good food?"
Well, there was one more thing to do....shopping!
Manila is awash with malls...and rain doesn't matter when you're inside one.
Guess which was our favourite store... :-)
We also found an ice skating rink in the mall...complete with blue lines and face-off circles.
Quite ironic to come all the way from Canada only to skate in tropical Manila! But my 8-year old was enthusiastically showing off her recently acquired skating skills! :-) I was even more surprised to see some hockey practice! Have the NHL scouts caught on to this yet? he! he! By the way, this was where Filipino Olympic skater, Michael Christian Martinez, started skating. He was the first skater from Southeast Asia to qualify for the Olympics!
In super hot and humid Manila, the malls are really where people go to chill and relax.
Some more random pics....
I guess some rules were made to be broken?
"Why would somebody name a restaurant after the Klan?" you might wonder. In the Philippines, "KKK" is a good acronym. It stands for "Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galangan Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan". Now there's a mouthful, even for Filipinos! English translation: "Supreme and Most Honorable Society of the Children of the Nation". That was the name of the revolutionary group formed in 1892 to fight for independence against Spanish rule. They were a band of heroes. Nothing at all to do with the Ku Klux Klan!
Live music. :-) Thursday night is 70's & 80's music night at Strumm's.
One last bit of trivia... In the Philippines, people refer to the washroom as the "comfort room" or "CR" for short. Don't ask me why. Just use your imagination. :-)
Oh yes, there was one other place we could go to despite the rain... the pool!
We visited many restaurants whilst in Manila.
After Filipino cuisine, the next food group we consumed most was Chinese. Mind you, in Manila's Chinese restaurants, nobody would know what egg foo young, chow mein or the chicken dish named after some Chinese general are!
Some of those roasted items ended up in this cold cuts dish. The noodle-like item in the middle was jellyfish, by the way.
Peking duck. The prized part is the crispy, flavourful skin. The meat is second fiddle.
Put a slice (or two) of duck on the thin steamed bread. Add some fresh scallions and hoisin sauce. Wrap it up and chow down!
The fishes had to be fresh or else....
...the steamed lapu lapu (grouper) would not taste as good.
Spicy crab.
Spicy garlic fish fillets in a clay pot.
And the hands down winner for dessert among the kids was the buchi--glutinous rice balls with sesame seeds outside and sweet bean paste inside.
OK, I admit...my daughter liked this one too. (Chocolate inside!) :-)
We were also fortunate to eat some very good tonkatsu--Japanese breaded pork chop.
The best tonkatsu outside of Japan could be had at the Ginza Bairin...a branch of the original Ginza Bairin in Ginza, Tokyo! I kid you not.
It was not difficult to find little bits of Japan in Manila. :-)
I was especially elated to find Mochi Cream! This got popular in Japan after we had already moved to Halifax. Now, I found it Manila! Mochi cream is o-mochi (pounded sticky rice) with ice cream inside.
At the Todd English Food Hall: "Never trust a round pizza." Catchy but really? I'd assume heat would spread more uniformly (and thus cook more evenly) on a round object rather than on a quadrilateral with four pesky corners. :-) Any thermodynamic physicists out there?
But food there was great....like this seared tuna.
I had a hamburger...with bacon! Sort of missed Halifax after all that Asian food. :-)
Oh, we had lots of crêpes!
Special ones too! (This one from Café Breton.)
...and Taiwanese bubble tea.
I finish this post with a little foodie humour. :-)
