Advertisement
Hello everyone who reads this. If you got a surprise email telling you that this had been updated that is because I found out how to subscribe you en-mass from my outlook contacts list.
I have now been in the Philippines for 2 months, that’s a month longer than I have ever spent in a foreign country (unless you count Scotland!). This blog entry is not on one subject just a hotch potch of things I have been doing and some odd thoughts. Being based in one place I have not actually seen much of the Philippines yet. However it is very rewarding to start to really understand the local culture and the way people live. Also makes me realise how little of that you see as a normal tourist.
Hey Joe! As a white man (I don’t know if it happens to women) there is a general assumption that I am American and therefore a GI Joe. It can get really annoying at times but is happening much less often now in my local area as people get to know that “I AM NOT AN AMERICAN!” When I say that I am English the next question is often
“do they speak English there?” which always makes me smile.
After learning to ride a motorbike in January in the UK some things are much easier here, for starters my visor never mists up. The roads can be very rough which is a novelty and great fun at the moment. Whenever I go anywhere I get back totally covered in dust so lots of laundry. The rough roads don’t stop people loading up motorbikes in ways that have to be seen to be believed. A little competition for you with bragging points awarded next month - How many people can you get on one motorbike (just 2 wheels)? On the best one I have seen there was also a super bonus mystery object for you to guess.
I was in a town about 1 hour from home last weekend when it started to rain out of a sky that 10 minutes before was clear blue. I quickly pulled into a petrol station to shelter and get fuel. There followed a fantastic storm with things flying around in all directions and rain like you only see in a bad western movie. I had to wait for over an hour
before getting fuel as with the lightening around they turn the pumps off which seems sensible to me! It carried on raining all the way home which is OK because the rain is warm but bad because it makes the wooden bridges very slippery. Just out of interest how many people have ever had to choose between 2 and 4 star fuel? When compared to salaries fuel here is about 5 times the price that it is in the UK. That would make us in the west think hard about fuel efficiency and alternative technologies. It might even thin out the traffic on the roads a bit.
You might have seen that a typhoon came across this part of the world a couple of weeks ago. Nothing very wild here (big floods further north) but it did give me the most spectacular lightening show I have ever seen. It lasted for about half an hour with 3 or 4 flashes per second, something like 6000 in all. Can anyone explain how there was often no thunder even with the lightening shooting across the sky right overhead?
Food - this is a very important subject with no Tescos to
help out. I have found even just on holidays but especially here that local food is fine for lunch and dinner but for breakfast rice and fish just doesn’t stir the appetite. My breakfasts have been saved by finding a shop that sells cornflakes, porridge oats and powdered milk.
Thumbs up -
Tropical fruits especially the local mangoes, pineapple and watermelons.
Fresh tuna caught by the local fisherman, only a few hours from sea to plate.
Kinilaw , raw fish prepared with ginger garlic and lime juice.
Eggs, very fresh with lovely big rich yolks.
Bud bud, a sweet made with sticky rice, coconut milk and sugar reduced to a thick mixture than wrapped in banana leaves and steamed.
Young coconut. The soft flesh is really good, much less coconutty than the mature hard ones at home. It is very good in salads and the water inside is an almost perfect re-hydration fluid.
Thumbs down -
No milk products except for powdered milk from Nestle, its bad for my principals but I still buy it.
Meat, if you happen to pass the slaughterhouse or the meat section of the market I challenge anyone to still fancy eating any
of it. Nothing is wasted it all goes in the pot.
Balut, now this is something I have no intention of trying. It’s an un-hatched duck embryo that you eat whole. Crack the egg open slurp the “juices” then crunch on the duckling. Any takers?
Fermented fish. I have tried the fermented shrimp paste which is just ok but the smell of the fermented small fish (also eaten whole) has put me off so far.
Ants - not for eating but they get everywhere!
I have been getting out and about a bit to the local beauty spots, this last weekend I was able to join in a boat trip to one of the islands in Lanuza bay. I kept expecting Robinson Cruso to jump out from behind a bush but instead just attracted a horde of local kids. I will have to spend plenty more time exploring in the bay, doing some snorkelling and some trekking in the hills. The biodiversity is amazing but very heavily threatened. There is blatant exploitation and also creeping fragmentation and degradation. The unspoilt habitats tend to be very difficult to access but it can be done.
The fighting cock is here because there must be 100s of them living within crowing distance of my house and as its fully light by 5am they start early! No need for an alarm clock.
More next month after I have spent a week being a proper tourist and visiting some of the “must see” places from the guidebook.
Cheers
Matt
Advertisement
Tot: 0.173s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.1308s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Cecile
non-member comment
Motorcycle diaries
Hi Matt- thanks for the update- now I really wish I was there too! Fantastic scenery..keep some footage to write your own motocycle diaries. Mozzies don't seem to make the top of your list of nuisances - hope it stays that way C.xxx.