the Philippines story.. during AUDC 2006.
For AUDC Manila, Philippines photos, go to
2006-05-29, 12:47 p.m.
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I’ve been browsing other IIU people’s blogs and almost everyone’s recorded their trip in only 1-3 paragraphs… My first thought was – “OMG, that’s possible?” …so I guess I’ll just get down to it.
One of the most popular daily questions Zati and I will exchange in our days in Philippines was – “How can we blog about ALL this? There’s SO much to blog about!”
So, I’ll try anyway… or I’ll never get down to it ;p
On the 1st day of arrival, we were faced by the biggest dilemma all of us had throughout our stay – the lack of halal food. Not very good with a bunch of hungry people, I tell you, since Air Asia does not provide meals (unlike MAS, but I guess the cheaper fare justified it).
So we were brought to a food place called Mar’s Restaurant and requested ‘special orders’ (aka NO pork, ONLY vege oil, etc.) We must’ve sounded like some bloody fussy tourist, but it’s a religion thing (which I don’t think they should mind since they’re a 95% Catholic country, respecting beliefs should be their thing, right?)
To our surprise, when our food arrived, we found bits of meat in the fried rice we ordered.
Danial pointed this out and asked the waiter, “What is this?” …
“Oh, pork.”
“Um, we can’t eat pork. Can you change this?”, Dan replied.
“Okay, sir. You didn’t say pork or shrimp, so we just give you”, the waiter said.
Alarm bells went ringing in my head.
That’s proof they do not understand what is ‘halal’ to Muslims in the very 1st place!
*horrified scream*
I ended up being the ONLY IIU participant who did NOT eat. Even though they replaced the pork with shrimp, I just can’t eat it. Forgive me.
So, I starved.
Later, we were brought to University of Philippine’s University Hotel.
Yep, they have their own hotel, how cool is that? =)
Sis Mi, Zati, Iera and I got to be roomies.
We occupied the most spacious room of all, yay!
(But due to this advantage also, we played hosts of (cheese & seafood) pizza parties, gossip/discussion sessions, and card games to the rest of the IIU people for a few nights… there is about 20 of them… haha, good times!)
So, on to day 2, we were still yet to debate. It was the adjudicators test and briefing day.
The rest then decided to do their own thing.
Lucky for the matric people, we had Ervina with us, who offered to take us out a bit.
We ended up going to SM MegaMall. Which is a nice place, but our Mid Valley can still beat it hands down… hehe. We walked around for almost an hour searching for a halal place and settled for cheese pizzas at Pizza Hut (basically, cheese pizzas were our staple food).
Everyone also got themselves Philippines numbers. I ended up selling mine to Alif though, since my phone’s locked only to my Maxis (waah~!)
Then, at night, we had the Opening dinner. Everyone had to wear cultural clothes, so we did.
It was one of the best events for me since I met a lot of new people across Asia. Some were friends I met at last year’s AUDC in Singapore. Snapped loads of pics, check them out ;-)
Day 3 & Day 4, we had debates. We were up against mostly Philippine teams and a few Japan teams. After the 5th day’s final round, We ended up with only 2 wins.
We didn’t make the break.
I personally feel some of the rounds’ adjudications weren’t justified and quite a few were a split lost. I guess this just isn’t our year huh, Dan and Faiz? ;-)
It’s okay, you guys, next year yeah!
=)
*winks*
At the end of Day 5, we had the break night party. It was held at a place called Dish. It’s a sort of café/restaurant/club place.
We were called the ‘halal people’ when given food coupons, that was funny ;p
They had a live band playing that night and all the songs were awesome, I sang along to each and every one! Haha ;D
At almost 12, the breaks were announced.
Only IIU C made the break, namely Suhaib, Hadi and Lutfi.
They were up against ADMU A (which ended up being the champion) in the octos which was on the 7th day
Again, on a personal level, I thought they should’ve won the debate, but lady luck wasn’t siding IIU at all this year.
I really hope next year, more than 1 team’ll make the break and that one of the team is mine… *amin*
On the 6th day, was the free day for all.
It started pretty late since everyone stayed up the night before – talking and playing cards.
We ate at Swagat Indian Cuisine, which was miraculously discovered by Azrul and gang. Nice food place =)
We then went to Greenbelt Mall which is a version of KLCC.
Zati and I couldn’t really decide what to buy since the trinkets and souvenirs we had in mind weren’t really available there.
Even the mall opposite it, The Landmark, didn’t have what we’re looking for. So, we didn’t buy much.
Btw, the shops there close at 8pm… 8pm! The nightlife in Malaysia hasn’t even started at that time, amazing how early Philippinos go to bed eh?
Thankfully, restaurants are open til midnight =)
Ervina came around to invite us for dinner. We had to walk about 5 blocks from where we were and walk past a Red Light area (where a scary amount of kids would come up to you shamelessly begging for money and asking for drinks from cups or bottles they see you bring… and of course, there were prostitutes too) in order to get to the food place.
BUT Ziggurat was worth it! It’s like this place I’ve been to in Bangsar once, an Indian Arabian restaurant, where everyone sits on a majestic looking platform with fancy cushions all over it. The glass table has golden cloth trimmings and Bollywood music boomed through the speakers. Amazing huh?
Plus, the selections in its menu were FABULOUS!
Adam, Lutfi, Faiz, Izzati and I decided to share our bill to increase the variety of food we get to taste… which totaled up to about 2880 pesos (that’s RM250, mind you).
But it was worth it, very much worth it =)
I think it’s also the company which added to that dinner.
ALL of us were camera freaks and we basically snapped each and every food/drink we ordered
(I don’t have pics of food in my fotopage though, since I used Lutfi’s and Adam’s cam a lot) & we laughed every 5-10 minutes, so go figure ;D
Day 7, after it was announced IIU C didn’t make it to the next round, some went for retail therapy (including myself).
That was when we discovered Tiendesitas.
I absolutely love this place – its atmosphere, bargains, choices!
(explains why there’re excess pics taken there ;p)
Later that night, there was the closing dinner, which I didn’t attend since I wasn’t feeling up to it for some reason… watched ‘Legally Blonde’ on Fareez’s laptop with the girls instead.
Haha… ;D
The following day, another trip to Tiendesitas was made.
This time, followed by more than half of the IIU people.
I spent my last thousand pesos and was thoroughly satisfied with my buy.
I bought things for everyone who matters!
That’s fulfilling for me =)
At night, the Grand Finals was held and then followed by the Grand Final Dinner (yes, they’ve a lot of dinners).
I snapped a couple more pictures, grabbed a couple more emails and promised to keep in touch with my newfound friends.
Love y’all! *hugs*
=)
All in all, it was good fun.
I enjoyed Phils.
I’m even more exposed to the international debating now, which’ll be very useful personally.
Thank you for the opportunity =)
Oh, I forgot to mention some other stuff about Phils.
#1. A majority of cab drivers there are reckless. There was once when the cabbie ran into a road sign and the impact almost gave me a heart attack. All he did was sighed… (what?!*&^%$#@)
#2. Their roads aren’t divided into defined lines, it’s like a bumper car arena… and that’s scary! (ps: but I’ll pass for driving lessons easily there for sure, ehehehe…)
#3. Smoking among young guys and girls is like drinking coke there. Done openly and proudly even. Quite contradictory to its eco friendly outlook, I think.
#4. The weather is not as sunny as Malaysia, but much hotter. I’ve never sweat so much in my life walking around!
#5. HALAL food is next to impossible to find. We had to follow ‘Mazhab Maliki’ and abandon ‘Mazhab Syafii’ there since it’s a qualified ‘darurat’.
I wouldn’t’ suggest a holiday there, I’d say Malaysia has more tourist worthy spots… seriously.
And honestly, I’m beginning to LOVE Malaysia more the longer I spent there. I never realized the freedom to eat anywhere without having to wonder if it’s halal is such a privilege.
I’m keeping that.
The end ;-)
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