Hi again!
A little bit of a delay today. Was supposed to go to the domestic airport for a flight at noon today but it has been pushed back to 3pm. That seems to happen around here a lot as my flight from Mindanao to Manila on the 25th got cancelled as well and we had to be rearranged. All is well though! My stuff is packed and my “uncle” left his laptop with me since I have a couple hours to kill.
Ok, so where did I leave off? On Saturday Delia took me to a sort of “indoor flea market”. It was very cramped, very loud, and very hot. And of course, me being the one of the only Westerners there, I got a lot of attention with the “Hi Mam, Hi Mam”. Now they will say “Hi Joe” to the boys, as a left over from the war era and “G.I. Joe”, etc. The “Hi Mam” almost gets annoying to a point. Delia bought a Christmas lantern – they are large stars with designs on them and lights in them. They are pretty neat but much too large for me to want to deal with. I bought some light-up stars that I think will look pretty cool in my Christmas tree next year. I also bought a game – I am not sure what it is called, but it’s a long wooden board and it has two rows of beveled-out cups with shells inside. It has something to do with getting all your shells to the home base before your opponent. One day I’ll figure out how to play. Then we found the jewelry area – which was less crowded but very intense. There were pearls of every color and size and shape hanging everywhere and the “staff” hawking their wares very loudly. You could get a strand of small white pearls for P200 (200/50=$4). I don’t know what each item that I bought cost (you haggle with them and get discount for buying multiple strands or items) – so I am completely confused on what I paid for each item…but I probably didn’t spend more than $10 for a necklace and another $5 for a silver clasp and for the necklace to be strung. I got a few pairs of earrings too. I am really glad that Delia was with me since she did a lot of haggling with them in Filipino and I had no idea what was going on. Because, of course, prices are not posted and they completely depend on who you are and how hard of a bargaining job you do.
That night for dinner we went to a Filipino buffet at the mall across from our hotel. Actually, it’s a HUGE mall, and it is completely confusing. I wandered around there yesterday for a couple hours last night and I still don’t know where I went! So for dinner I had a few Filipino things, which I don’t know what they were – they eat a LOT of pork here. Also, they are light on the vegetables. In fact, I think I’ve only had a couple carrots and potatoes since I’ve been here. Everything else has been pork/chicken/fruit. For dessert we had this yam thing – “ube”. It was purple. It looks like a powder and they pack it into a bamboo shoot that has some fabric on the outside of it for handling. They put the shoot over a pot of boiling water and steam the “ube”. It comes out in a dough-like consistency. I like to call it the “purple turd”. Ha! That is what it looks like (see the picture later…). It is kind of like the stuff you make Christmas ornaments out of when you are a kid. You season it with coconut and brown sugar and you are good to go!
Sunday was the day of the wedding. I just chilled out by the pool all day, which was really nice. All of the white people in the hotel were sunbathing, there were almost no Filipinos! The only BAD part about the pool was the speedo-clad men. You could definitely separate the Americans based on bathing suit attire! Ugh! Speedos!!! They are just WRONG.
The wedding was at 4pm on the patio here at the Shangri-La. There was worry about rain but it really hasn’t rained here since I’ve been here. It was just sunny enough to be pretty but just cloudy enough to not be so hot. The wedding was a pretty normal wedding – and it was in English, so that was good. There were a couple things in the wedding that I have not seen before – the “cord and the veil” and the “coin ceremony”. I will have to read more about them later. Also, there is an “entourage” – consisting of Godparents and family friends that “sponsor” their marriage. I am not really sure what all that means but the “entourage” was huge and it made me think of the HBO (or was it another network) show anytime someone said that word. They took pictures with the various family members, sponsors, friends, etc, before walking back down the aisle. That was cool – because I got a lot of good shots with my camera of all the family members.
The reception was at another wonderful hotel here in Manila (actually, Makati City…the business part of Manila…) called the Peninsula. The reception was gorgeous. There was a huge buffet of all types of food, some Western, some Filipino. The only thing I did not like was there was a “fake cake” because there were so many other desserts. I met a few of Mitzi’s friends from high school in the Philippines. I also got a chance to talk with one of their cousins – Love – she is deaf – so I brought a piece of paper and pencil over to chat with her and I think she really liked that. She’s 32 and she lives on her own and she teaches at the deaf school in her province. She is really sweet and she wants to visit the states some day, so I hope that she can come soon!
Like I said before, on Monday, Delia and I went to the Pagsanjan river. Like I said, it was an interesting drive. Anything goes here. There are signs that threaten apprehension if you pass on the shoulder, however, everyone does it, even the buses. People drive like freakin maniacs. I saw a bus cross about 4 lanes of traffic and narrowly miss a barrier for a lane (at a tollbooth) – but he made it. And I am talking a BIG bus that sits very high, seems like it would need nothing but a 10mph gust of wind to knock it down. So, everyone is passing on the shoulder (at high speeds), and I could not help but to laugh to myself, thinking, this would NEVER happen in the states. When we finally got off the highway, it was slow going the rest of the way through the small towns. I can’t seem to figure out what it is that people do here, other than sit around, sit in traffic, or wander the streets. There were dogs and small children wandering everywhere, with no parents in sight. There were rice paddies along the way as well. I saw many places labeled as “hot springs resorts” where it seems that the term “resort” is used very loosely…
So, to the river. The people there are very shady, you have to ask repeatedly if everything is included. It is a bit ridiculous, but I don’t have a problem giving them money because when you do the math, it’s not that much, and it’s such a poorish looking area. Some of the movie Apocalypse Now was filmed on this river. You get in this skinny canoe, they paddle out, hook up to a motorboat (i.e. a canoe with an engine) and they pull you up to where the rapids start (again, you are going upriver…). The “banceros” (boatmen) proceed to paddle up the river, and when they get to the rapids, they hop out and use their feet to leverage the rocks to pull the canoe up through the rapids. It is sort of graceful to watch. They really work very hard. I got a lot of pictures and video during this. Once you get a little bit upriver, you enter a gorge where it is green vegetation all the way up, as far as you can see. It started to rain while we were in the gorge, and it was cool to look up and see the rain falling down on you. Unfortunately, I didn’t get many pictures of that since my $330 camera isn’t really waterproof…I am glad Delia was with me because the banceros didn’t really speak any English except for “Picture?”…The young guy told Delia that monkeys come out early in the morning on the riverbanks in the trees but that they disappear during the day because there are people on the river and there is noise. All I could think about while I was on the river was – “Man I hope this boat doesn’t tip over” and about losing my camera, snakes and leeches and how I don’t have any malaria pills….lol. Not to worry though, I didn’t get bit by anything and you don’t get into the water at all…Once you make it to the falls you can pay more $$$ (actually, a buck) to go on a bamboo raft under the falls for a “massage”. They have had a few storms lately so it wasn’t entirely safe, so we did not go. But it was really pretty to look at and the ride on the river was worth it.
The ride down was awesome – apparently the boats coming down the river back to town have “right of way”. The banceros would make this whooping sound to let people downriver know that we were approaching. There were spots where we went shooting through narrow spaces between two rocks without much steering from the banceros. Normally this would not be a problem but we were in a narrow wooden canoe, so it was a little unnerving.
Probably the best part of the ride down there and back was looking at all the designs on the TONS of Jeepneys that are on the street. Here they do not have buses or public transportation – they have Jeepneys. You take one ex-US Army Jeep, put a couple benches in the back, add badges, chrome, horns, Ferrari decals, loud music, etc (a la Pimp My Jeepney) and you are set. Then you cram 20 people into a space for 12 and you are ready to roll. They usually have names painted on the front – kind of like names for “lowriders” in the US. And on the back you will see “God Bless Our Trip” or something. And of course, “How’s my driving?” painted on the side with a phone number to text or call! They also paint the route, i.e. “Calamba – Santa Cruz – vice versa” on the side, so you know which one you are getting on. They have fixed routes and they are not like taxis. The Jeepneys vary in color – I’ve seen an all-pink one, all-purple one, ones that are painted like rainbows, some that are just shiny chrome. They definitely outnumber all other vehicles on the road, and they just stop in random spots as they go, on demand. I have seen Jeepneys crammed with people inside, as well as people hanging off the back (like a trolley car) and people on the ROOF.
The other big mode of transport here is the “tricycle” or “pedicab” which is really just a motorbike with bench for two on the back tire and a side cab. They can be painted different colors too. I’ve seen them loaded down with people, kids, coke bottles, water jugs, fruits, etc.
This brings me to another problem here – Everything is very grimy. There are no emissions standards and the pollution is horrible. It is really sad. People around the world make a big deal about the US and how we drive our SUVs, etc, but at least our pollution is not that bad. Many times you will see people on the open-air vehicles (pedicabs, Jeeps) with masks on or holding handkerchiefs over their face. As I mentioned before, the water is polluted too, the rivers around the city here are just gross and I am sure the bay is too. Main reason is – there are “squatters” living in open areas around Manila and all their waste has to go somewhere…
Also, the security here is something else. I am not sure whether to feel really safe or really worried (thinking – how did it come to this…in response to what?). There are K9 dogs that inspect packages coming into our hotel (and other nice hotels here), there are police guards and dogs inspecting vehicles as they drive up to the hotel. And when you go into the mall or stores or restaurants or hotels, security at the door checks inside your bag or waves you with a wand. In all, I feel pretty safe around the hotel, but I have not ventured far by myself, mostly because I don’t want to have to deal with the unwanted attention, and it’s probably not that safe (seriously). I went inside the mall by myself and as long as you pay attention to your surroundings, everything is ok – though, I still feel that Europe is much safer – but my main problem here is the fact that I can’t hide that I am a foreigner, due to my appearance. In Europe – it is easier to blend.
The other difficult thing here is ATMs. They frequently go “offline” meaning they are not operating. I had a problem with this on and off the last couple of days. Even yesterday, after I went to the ATM for the last time here, they shut it off when I was done!!! I was really worried for the first day because I didn’t bring any cash or travelers checks, I am just getting cash from the ATM and avoiding moneychangers.
This brings me to today – waiting to leave for the airport to go to Kalibo, where we will get our transport to Boracay. It is about a 1 hour flight to Kalibo, maybe less. It will be interesting to see how the national airline operates. Once we get to Kalibo, our resort picks us up in a van and takes us to Caticlan, which is about a 1.5 hour drive, which should be interesting if it is anything like the ride outside of Manila. When we get to Caticlan, we get on a boat – a bangka – with our bags – which should be no small feat since there are 8 or 9 of us going…There is no pier, so they apparently help us with our bags, through the water, and we take a short trip to the White Beach of Boracay. Boracay was hit by the last typhoon, so I don’t know what the damage is going to look like, but we’ll see. It is a tourist spot – I am not sure if any locals actually live on the island – though I imagine that some people do. There are no cars and it is completely walkable. It is supposed to have a good nightlife, etc. I can’t wait to get a mountain bike and just ride around the island, maybe go snorkeling. In any case, a barbecue and a beer and the sunset will be just right.
After Boracay, we go to Cebu for a couple nights – Thrusday and Friday – and then down to Cagayan de Oro on Mindanao island for Christmas.
If you want to read about Boracay, you can go here: http://www.boracayonline.com/
Alright, I’m off for now -
Sip
oh yeah and there are no public restrooms and when you do find one in the fast food type places, there is no toilet paper (its BYOTP). ha….
