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Published: August 8th 2007
So having caused no end of trouble, we finally arrived at Iloilo airport, to an extremely warm Philippine welcome. This was the beginning of what was to be a superb visit. Tom met us outside the airport and within seconds our gleaming chariot (in the form of a sturdy land cruiser), arrived with a beaming Paul Measures at the wheel. We climbed in, repeatedly offered our apologies for having caused so much upheaval and Paul being the gentleman that he is, told us to forget about it. After a short drive, we arrived at what would be our beautiful home for the next three weeks. We were met by the rest of the household and the manic, black and tan dachshund, appropriately named “Twiglet”. We were later to find, that he had a brilliant party trick of taking empty toilet paper centres out of the waste basket and insisting that you throw them for him to collect. Hours of entertainment for all concerned, particularly as the floors were so well polished. We were shown our room, we dropped our packs and joined the family for breakfast. Whilst we - were eating, the topic of what we would like to eat for
Hand Rolling Cigars
our next meal was raised (this happened at almost every meal we ate), as is the Philippine it would seem. Next we got to the ever important question of clothes washing, Emma asked whether we could do some and Pauline told us to ask Ning Ning (the housekeeper) and as if by magic, our clothes were washed, ironed and back in our room in no time. Having our clothes hung and our belongings in order for the first time in six months was a joyous novelty.
Our sole reason for visiting the Philippines was to see Paul, Pauline, Tom, Nannela & Nicolas (PPTNN), so we had no site seeing plans. Our first proper day was spent taking a trip to the local market, where we saw lots of interesting things. These included dried fish, sauces and oils packaged in tiny quantities for those who could not afford to purchase more, people making rice pancakes and an old lady hand rolling cigars. We also popped into the local shopping malls to stock up on supplies. Paul said that those who could afford it, favoured shopping in the malls, because western products were considered superior to the produce
in the local
Notice the Small Bags For Sale
markets. Plus the malls had air con, which was very nice I must say!!
On the way home we stopped to visit Pauline's gorgeous bakery shop. For the first of many times during our stay, we collected the days takings and gave the shop girls a lift home. During our visit, Pauline made every effort to have us try local cuisine. The vast majority of foods were either fried or sugared, or fried sugar but there were almost all lovely. This was particularly true of Pauline's cookies and a local desert called Sans Savalle, made from sugar and butter. During our short stay, Emma & I gained what weight we had lost during the past six months and were both mightily impressed by how Paul remained so slim and fit in the face of such tempting food. His trick was a will of iron, exercise in the morning (in the garden) and healthy home squeezed juices. All very impressive and clearly very effective. Unfortunately Emma & I lacked the iron will and therefore happily ate all the wonderful temptations that were presented to us.
If you, like us, have
not visited the Philippines or Iloilo before, here are
Rice Pancakes
a few idiosyncrasies that we thing you might find interesting...
- Christmas starts early there, very early. when the month ends in ...ber it is time to start putting up the decorations and start your Christmas sales.
- The jeepnies (one of the local means of transport) are everywhere and seem to be stopping every 100 yards to either pick up, or drop off a new customer. The jeepnie drivers take great pride in the look of there vehicles and customise them with paint jobs,cruising lights, fancy wheels and spoilers. One was even made to look like a F1 racing car, complete with air scoop and Ferrari paint job. The next step down the transport ladder was the motorcycle and sidecar, you can fit up to 11 people in this and finally the tricy-cab (for short local trips), a bmx bike with a sidecar attached,this can ONLY carry up to four people.
- When you want to park your car, there will always be a boy, or a man waiting to guide you in to the nearest parking bay. When you leave, he will stop the
traffic to let you out and all for just a few
Pauline's Bakery Shop
Pesos.
- Once you have parked your car and you want to enter a store, any store, you will have to run the gamut of the security guards. This can range from a quick look up and down, to a full bag search and body pat down, (which is strange if you are just going to buy your food from the local supermarket). One shop we went in to had six security guards and only two customers. Once in the shop, staff rush to greet you with a “good morning sir/madam” and then follow very closely. If you show the slightest interest in any item, three staff members will offer to tell you every detail about the said item. When we bought some sunglasses we had six people serving us. Now that's service!!!
- Pauline explained to us, that due to the slow local economy a large portion of the population are forced to become itinerant workers. Stories of mothers working abroad for years, leaving their children in the care of relatives or nannies are not uncommon and once again brought it home how
lucky we are in the UK. Families seem to be close knit and individuals
Phillipine Christmas Tree
will often send there earnings home, even if the relatives do not fully appreciate it. Such self sacrifice would be more than a little uncommon at home.
One evening early in our stay, we were chatting over a meal and Paul mentioned that he would like to make a rock tumbler, to polish all the stones that the children had collected over the last few years. So the next morning, Emma and I walked around the shopping malls to see whether we could find the parts necessary to make one. After many hours of effort, what we came up with was a remote control car, that we turned upside down (for the rotating motor) and a plastic flask (that fitted nicely between the wheels) as the container for polishing the stones. When we got back to the house, Paul was in fits of laughter at our off the wall approach to the quest. Unfortunately our quest fell short of the mark, when Emma, Paul and I scoured Iloilo all the next day for suitable grinding powders and failed to find any.
One Sunday Paul took us all to the “Sailing Club”, which is in a beautiful spot, where
Twiglet & Nicolas
a group of Paul's friends (all really nice guys), gather to sail small dingies, drink beer, share good food and chat as they watch the sun go down. It also gave us and the children the opportunity to try out our diet cola and Mentos experiment in a wide open space. The experiment had been a topic of conversation for some days and the intricacies of how best to combine the mento fuse and cola explosive were effectively tested on the beach. Much to everyones amusement. On the way home Pauline arranged for us to stop at a local resturant and have chicken, rice and Lechon (roasted suckling pig) the local fast food (like all the food here very yummie and very calorific). Which was one of the many occasions on which she demonstrated her skill for organisation... when we arrived the table was set, the food was ordered and all we had to do was sit down and eat. Wow!
We were fortunate enough to visit the families summer house on the next island of “Guimaras”. We (the
whole family) took a jeepney down to the harbour and took the ferry across to the island, where we hired
Guimaras Trip
a mini van that took us to a cave and then to the summer house for a lovely picnic lunch and a sunset walk along the beach.
As our Iloilo visit was drawing to a close and we where preparing to leave, typhoon Durian started to move in towards the Philippines. Paul informed us that it was due to make land fall on the day we where leaving, so after a short discussion, it was decided that if Emma's mother could meet us there, we would extend our stay in the Philippines. We where due to meet Emma's mother in India (our next port of call) but she was delighted to come to the Philippines instead to meet not only us but also PPTN&N. So we headed back to Manila to change our flights. We fixed our return flights to surprise Anne by meeting her in Manila, so that we could all fly back to Iloilo together. We stayed at the local YMCA (not the best hostal we have stayed in), we even had to change rooms
because the first one was so bad. Rescheduling our flights was not much of a problem but we were unable to fly
View from the Summer House
directly to Australia from Hong Kong, so we had to stick with going via India still.
Pauline had suggested that we pop into “Max Brenner's” chocolate shop in Manila. They serve a mean hot chocolate there. Whilst we were in the Mall we decided that it would be an ideal opportunity to get some (more) Christmas pressies for our hosts as a way to say thank you for their wonderful hospitality we managed to find a real rock tumbler for Paul (much better than our home made attempt), Max Brenner chocolates for Pauline and gifts for the children. When we eventually managed to leave the shopping malls and got to the old quarter of the city, we took a short tour in a pony and trap and visited St Augustin Cathedral and the attached museum. The roman catholic church is evident in all things in Philippine daily life and there seemed to be more churches than any other type of building. When we flew into Iloilo half the departure lounge was given
over to a church service and even in the malls, services were being held during the evening. The next day we visited the Manila gallery a very
Sunset on Guimaras
modern building with a whole floor full of religious icons.
The time came for us to return to Iloilo, we checked in early at the airport (the right one this time) and asked if Emma's mother had booked. We found that she had, so once we were air side we started to track her down, surprise, surprise, she was getting a rub down in the airport massage lounge. Immediately Emma and Anne got down to some heavy duty chatting (and I don't think they stopped for at least 5 hours), as they had to make up for the last six months.
So the three of us returned to Iloilo to continue the way we started, just having a great time. Eventually Emma and Anne paused for breath and Pauline arranged for us to go to her mother's workshop, to see her making her island renouned wedding cakes. They are up to seven feet tall artistic master pieces (size counts here). However they are largely show and no go, because
all but the base layer of the cake need to be fake (polystyrene covered in icing), due to the enormous weight.
One day whilst the children had to study,
Coke and Mintos Experiment
Paul and Pauline hired a colourful local outrigger ferry, that sailed us to a beautiful secluded bay with soft white sand. Pauline lent Emma a swimming costume and Paul, Anne, Emma & I swam to the shore, whilst Pauline remained on deck. Emma and Anne beached combed the shore together and were delighted to find lots of pieces of coral. Paul and I snorkelled (for the first time I actually saw things as I was wearing contact lenses) and just when we were getting a little peckish Pauline in her inimitable way had one of the boat hands swim the cooler over (inside a life saver) to the beach. What a way to live!!! We spent the afternoon swimming and talking, then swam back to the boat, lumbered our way back on board and the ladies changed into dry clothes once the boat men where instructed to face the other way. Once back at the shore, Pauline hailed a jeepnie (whilst we hid so that the
price was not tourist price).
Having Anne around made an enormous difference to Emma. She and Anne were understandably inseparable and their time together passed far too quickly. When, only five days after
The Sailing Club
her arrival, we escorted Anne to the airport, Emma found it very difficult to see her go through the airport gates.
A couple of days later, once the mood had lifted, Pauline take us out for the special pizza that she had been threatening for some time and when we got there it was very special, the wall of the building nearest was being used as a projector screen and a huge picture of deal or no deal (the quiz show that seems to have taken the world by storm) was being shown, then the pizza arrived, all 30'' of it (thats nearly a meter of pizza), there was enough there to feed 9 hungry people.
All in all, we were in the Philippines for about three weeks. We were spoilt rotten and had a brilliant time. Paul and Pauline were amazing hosts and we are still not entirely convinced, that Pauline's ability to organise anything and everything at the drop
of a hat, is not as a result of some connection with a local mafia or some such. It was great to spend time with the whole family in their home, just doing family stuff with the
Chilling at the Sailing Club
children, meeting up with Anne and meeting Pauline's mother, sister and brother. However, our time there was coming to a close, so we reluctantly said our goodbyes and stepped back into the airport.
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nanella
non-member comment
ello!
hi marc and emma! we all miss you oh so much here! we're in england now and we've spent a lot of time with auntie anne... we really want to see you again soon!travel safely! love from all xxx