Playing tour guide

Christmas is when loved ones and friends from abroad come to visit. They continue to arrive in Jan., sometimes Feb., and when they do, it still feels like Christmas. This is especially true when you haven’t seen each other for a long time. You’re excited to show them around town (in my case it’s from Alabang to Libis and back), tell them everything you know about the country — good or bad.

Since December, I’ve been busy playing tour guide to balikbayan friends from Vienna. The first batch came and left over Christmas. A few weeks later, I received e-mail that another batch was due to arrive.

On the expected date, I couldn’t wait for the plane to touch down. I wanted to hear familiar voices say, "Ich bin hier (I’m here)," with matching shrieks.

When balikbayans are in town, you can’t afford to dilly-dally. You rush to where they’re staying. They’re so grateful to see you — another person their age to show them the hippest places in town. Their grandparents, aunts and uncles can only do so much — mainly endless family reunions.

After partying the Pinoy way, my friends were so glad to see me, like I was their savior! And I was only too glad to show them around. After all, they treated me like family when I was in Vienna. Now it’s my turn to return the favor.

So what’s first in the itinerary? Since they can’t really leave the city and go to the beach, the second best place to bring them is the malls! This I find really ironic because when I was in Vienna, they brought me to palaces, parks and fountains. I took lots of pictures because these places are culturally and historically significant, meaning they were not exactly built in the last decade.

And here I was giving my out-of-town friends a tour of the . . . malls.

Two contrasting places — one rich with history and culture and the other, well, they were once places of history and culture, right?

Fortunately, my friends love shopping in the Philippines.

It’s so much cheaper here compared to where they come from. So I thought: Why not give them a tour of the malls and in the process show them my shopping prowess?

There’s no need to bring them to the luxury brand shops. Although they have the dollars (with the peso-dollar exchange rate, they could go on a shopping rampage here), they prefer the local stuff.

While touring the malls, they asked with complete astonishment how I was able to memorize the description and exact location of each and every store. "You can find any store blindfolded," they observed. Even I was astonished myself, so I just shrugged, smiled and said, "It’s a gift. You develop it if you stay longer."

To complete their shopping experience, I brought them to the tiangge or flea market, the most popular is in Greenhills, San Juan. There they experienced the tiangge ambience — frenzied shopping, madding traffic, and intrepid haggling. I couldn’t help but give a good, hard Arnold Schwarzenegger laugh, and feel an odd sense of accomplishment watching my friends buy everything in sight, all the while saying, "You can’t get these stuff so cheap back home." Every time they made a good buy, I would tell myself, "Mission accomplished."

After all that haggling and buying, they were soon in a "low-batt mode," time to eat (preferably somewhere cheap and satisfying) or a Kodak moment.

A word on these Kodak moments. It’s best to bring a camera wherever you go.

It’s easier to take pictures in the mall, than in the tiangge (the light is better), the downside is there are just too many people nosing around and sometimes they ogle. I feel like flashing a placard that says, "We have balikbayans with us that’s why we have a camera."

So if you see people in these Kodak moments, and you find yourself smirking at the sight, it’s best to assume they’re with balikbayans, and please just leave them alone.

It was fun playing tour guide minus flag and mega phone and without need to shout, "We’re walking, we’re walking . . . stop." It’s fun to discover things I’ve always taken for granted, because this time, they’re seen through a balikbayan’s eyes.

For instance, my friends got so excited over stuff at Bench and tried to eat every pastry at Goldilocks.

All this touring soon came to an end. On their way to the airport to catch their flight home, I begged them to squeeze me in their luggage. But since it’s not humanly possible, I look forward to their next visit or the next batch of tourists or balikbayans. The party continues.

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Email the author at: ketsupluis@hotmail.com