I’ll start where I left off last night to fully set the scene. We landed at 10:30 and had to wait in a long passport control line.

Millie did great but it meant that we didn’t get to our Airbnb until 12:30. The listing said it had two bedrooms but after we checked in, one of them was locked. After some annoying back and forth with the host we finally got it open and we didn’t get to sleep until after 1AM.

Millie kind of slept in this morning but we were all up by 9. We took cold showers (hot water does not seem to be working) and had a mediocre breakfast at a coffee shop down the street, and then came back to the apartment to do some planning. We have a general idea of the next two weeks but hadn’t booked anything.

Millie was annoyed by our “grown up talk” and wanted to play, Nick was annoyed by her constant interrupting, and I was tired and had a headache. I haven’t been feeling it (“it” being the trip) for the last few days. We didn’t like Kota Kinabalu and Manila didn’t give us a good first impression. It’s been a struggle to figure out how to navigate this part of the world. Between the 6 hours at the airport and the planning we’ve had to do, Millie has watched way more TV than I’d like to admit.

As we were deep in our googling of hotels, I got a “we miss you!” text from a friend. She included a selfie of all our neighbors and their kids hanging out and hunkering inside from the cold. They were having one of those nights where we all hang out at someone’s house, the kids stay up too late, we drink just a little too much, and then we all walk home. I had a “what are we doing here?” moment. On top of this, I’ve been feeling awful about everything going on in the US. Within one hour I felt FOMO for America, watched a video of a man being executed by our government, and then tried to weigh if spending a little extra on a 9.0 rated hotel was worth it. It was a lot of emotional whiplash.

So, all this to say, I had a down day. It happens and I know it will pass, but I want to make sure that I remember this trip was not all easy and full of epic experiences. Sometimes we just want to throw in the towel.

We finally got enough stuff booked that it wasn’t stressing me out, and then as we were walking out the door we realized that the museums we were planning to go to were all closed on Monday. I had a “Sophie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” moment, complete with wishing we could just go to Australia like Alexander does in the book.

I pulled it together and we went with Plan B, exploring Fort Santiago and the Intramuros neighborhood. Manila has an interesting feel to it, which makes sense given its history of being colonized by Spain and then the US. The area we were in felt more like South America than Asia.

We walked around the fort while Nick read us history from his phone. Yes, Millie is on day 3 of this hairstyle.

We briefly visited the dungeon which had very lifelike sculptures of prisoners. Millie pulled me out with a lot of force, she was terrified.

After this we walked around the surrounding area and visited some churches. We have been in so many Buddhist and Hindu temples recently, and Malaysia was predominantly Muslim, so a church felt new and novel.

We sat in the pews and explained the padding on the ground for when people kneel to pray. We all kneeled and said a prayer. When I asked Millie what she prayed for she said “Jesus to open his eyes” (???!). If she gets nothing else out of this trip, we hope that the objective tour of world religions sets her off on a lifetime path of agnosticism and curiosity.

We went to a restaurant for an early dinner. Nick and I shared traditional Adobo with garlic rice. Millie had pasta with pesto. The food was excellent and this was a highlight of our day.

We walked back to the Airbnb as the sun was setting. I love these “Jeepneys” that are everywhere here, especially the painted ones.

Unfortunately, the no good very bad day had one more thing in store for us. Millie hugged me and felt very warm. She seemed okay but I took her temperature just in case and yep, she had a high fever. We gave her some Tylenol, water, and she had an early night. I’m hoping it is brief, but ugh. Tomorrow is a new day.