The Mind Museum – A Field Trip That Wouldn’t End

Today we had our first Field Trip Friday (on a Wednesday) in the Philippines. Traffic can be worse on Fridays and we were all feeling a bit stir-crazy, so we went for it. We visited The Mind Museum, and the day turned into the field trip that wouldn’t end. The Mind Museum is in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), which is one of Metro Manila’s most modern, clean, and walkable areas—a stark contrast to the area we are in right now.

Exploring The Museum

The museum was really great! It had a lot of hands-on exhibits about physics, biology, earth science, astronomy and technology. There was a small planetarium, an earthquake simulator, and we all enjoyed the optical illusions and exhibit on static electricity.

Exploring BGC

Once we finished up at the museum the kids were exhausted and ready to go home, but Dave and I wanted to explore the area some more. It’s a long Grab ride to BGC (took us over an hour to go 4.5 miles), so we wanted to maximize our time there. Plus, we weren’t ready to go back to our matchbox condo yet. We decided to commit to eating dinner down there and head home after that.

BGC is the area that we almost stayed in when we were booking our time in the Philippines. We really enjoyed exploring there, but I’m glad we didn’t stay in this area. Even though where we are feels extremely hard at times, BGC felt like a variation of Tokyo and we wouldn’t be experiencing Filipino culture like we are in our current location. We blended right in and did not get the constant stares. We enjoyed looking at the various architecture and the lights at night were beautiful and extremely festive for the Christmas season!

Transportation Troubles

When we got ready to head back to our condo is when our field trip started to feel like it would never end. We walked to a nearby park that looked like a good location to get picked up and ordered a Grab. If you’re not familiar with how rideshare apps work, you request a car and then a driver has to accept it. Long story short, no one would accept the request. It was the heart of rush hour, so we thought maybe this was the issue. We walked around for an hour, stopping every 15-20 minutes to try again with no luck.

Eventually we decided to go into the nearby mall to enjoy some cool air and sit down for awhile. We were right next to a cookie store and I think the guy working could see how defeated we looked. He offered us all a free cookie. It was delicious! We went back outside to try ordering a Grab again, and once again it failed. At this point we had been trying to get a car for over 2 hours. In the midst of all this, Dave’s phone was rapidly dying and the data on my phone wasn’t working properly.

This is when we decided to start exploring other options. We told the kids worst case scenario we could get a hotel for the night and buy a charging cable for our phones. Not something any of us wanted to do. Another option was flagging down a Taxi. We saw some different kinds of Taxis but had no idea which were reliable. We ended up making eye contact with one guy who pulled over near us, and Dave asked him if he would go to Urban Deca Homes. His response was “how much are you paying?” Dave told him we had a Grab for six hundred pesos. The driver said he would take us for eight hundred and we agreed. At this point we would have paid double that.

A Ride To Remember

The driver was amazing! He confirmed our suspicions that the reason Grab wouldn’t accept the ride is because no one wants to drive to Urban Deca Homes. Not because it’s a bad area, but because traffic is awful and they are not likely to get a ride request on their way back to BGC. He navigated the streets of Manila like a ninja, maneuvering his car through gridlock traffic like I have never seen before. He had great music playing and when Dave commented on it he surprised us all by pulling a microphone out of the center console and turning on a disco light!

We gave him a very generous tip and thanked him profusely. The field trip that wouldn’t end turned into one of our most memorable nights so far this year!