yummy yummy strawberries: The 5 Star life

Lucky me? I think so. Not everyone can live like some of us. Here's a little bit something I learned while growing up with opportunities. I get confused easily and, something you all probably already know, forget things, so here's the jumble:

We got to stay in a beautiful hotel in Manila, Philippines. It was fantastic, beautiful, great service, eye candy, you know, the usual. Seeing and living in something like this in Makati Manila is very dramatic because you are constantly surrounded by other people who may not be as fortunate as you. Not far away are villages of those who cannot even afford a roof over their heads. It makes you consider how lucky you truly are to be able to afford this all, even things that are probably too good to be true.

Then you step outside and travel to Intramuros, a town built inside the old protective walls but, unluckily, not exposed to the tourism they want and need in order to better their lifestyle. The people are friendly, they look happy, but they live in conditions I would not be able to stand. Surrounded by stone on every side, heat pools into Intramuros and it gets more blistering than something I could even imagine. The sewage system seems antique and therefore everyone is exposed to waste, bodily and otherwise, basically at all times of the day. There are some wonderful places in Intramuros and it is definitely worth a see. But once again I thought, how lucky am I not to have been born into this life, do you really have a chance to get out?

Then, back to the hotel, service, air conditioning, non-stop food and drink sources, and a wonderful bathroom where we could shower with music. It was shocking, to say the least, to move from one extreme to the next without even really seeing the worst of things out there.

What we see in Intramuros is the idea of "One day at a time". It was fascinating how people were kind and fun and didn't mind having pictures taken of them. In fact, they were excited and brought the kids to be in pictures.