Singapore: The Antithesis of Manila

I just got back from a week in Singapore. Singapore was awesome. It was fantastic to get away from traffic and pollution. Greatest thing about Singapore was the walking. In Manila, I never walk anywhere. There are no sidewalks and the air quality leaves much to be desired. It was a fantastic change to just get out and be able to walk everywhere.


Singapore was also a lot more green than I had expected. I was picturing a concrete jungle and instead there was greenery all around. Trees, parks, you name it. We did every touristy thing known to man: Sentosa Island, Clark Quay, shopping at a slew of malls, Holland Village, the Merlion (this lion/mermaid statue that spits water).


The best attraction for me was the zoo. The zoo was unbelievable. We went to both the regular daytime zoo as well as the night safari and both were brilliant. I have never been to such a fantastic zoo. The animals actually seemed very well cared for.


There is also some great art all over. Cool statues and such. Just a really enjoyable city.


I cannot figure out how this city can be so organized and Manila be so disorganized. It is only when I leave Manila that I really see how good it could be. I loved never having traffic and being able to rely on a clean, user-friendly MRT. I loved that there were trashcans everywhere and you could actually get rid of your garbage (in Manila I often have to carry cigarette butts with me....I often have trouble finding a trashcan even right outside of a mall). I loved that when the light was green for pedestrians you could actually walk without having to fear a car would take you down. Don't get me wrong, I love Manila but I just think the potential to improve is huge and I actually cannot figure out why it hasn't already.

That's Some Monkey.....

I have never seen such an anatomically correct statue of a monkey. This is from the Singapore Zoo which is by far the most amazing zoo I have ever been to.

Singapore

In a little less than four hours I will be flying over to Singapore to spend a week there with two friends from college. I am looking forward to: (1) the food--everybody tells me it is very clean, (2) the shopping, and (3) SEEING MY FRIENDS! One who lives in Singapore I haven't seen since she moved back there a couple of years ago so I am really, really excited to see her. I am not looking forward to: (1) cigarettes--apparently they cost about $8USD per pack. I know, I know, I need to quit.

Family Planning in the Philippines

Today the Philippine Inquirer published an article by Jaileen Jimeno (viewable here and here) that really opened my eyes to the reality of family planning in the Philippines. Up until now, I thought the lack of family planning was due to 1) lack of education and 2) lack of resources. It was not until I read this article that I realized the direct interference of the government to purposely block access to birth control.

For anybody, anywhere, to think that natural family planning is a solution is an idiot at best. For a top educated president like Arroyo to claim to believe this is asinine. When my grandma and I were talking about this subject when I visited SF earlier this year she told me, "Do you know what they call people who practice natural family planning? Parents."

Some of the stats in the article stunned me. 6 out of every 10 women have an unplanned pregnancy! That shocked me. I knew it was high but I never imagined it was that high. I can't tell you the number or family members/neighbors in our area that have multiple kids before the age of 25. My biggest issue is the fact that women are having more children than they want. If someone wants to have 15 kids, so be it. I am not part of the don't have kids if you can't afford it camp. My issue stems from women who want two or three and end up with six. The infrastructure cannot keep up with the population. It is all just very, very frustrating.

Nobody it seems is focusing on what happens to the kids once they are born. There is an orphanage in the area that we go by and visit every few weeks. There are usually about 50 kids there, many with disabilities and many siblings. If people want all these kids to be born, why are they not taking care of them.

Coming from a city where condoms were available free in high school and my pediatrician told me to call her immediately if I ever had unprotected sex (I was 13--not even close to having sex) to get an emergency high dose of birth control (old school morning after pill) I am stunned to now live in a place where sex education is not even taught in schools. I really fear for the future of the women here. Something has to change but I don't know if it will be soon enough.

Rain

Well the rain finally came and man did it come! It has been raining straight for about two days. This is great because we are in drought situation here (water levels in the reservoirs way below what they should be). The bad news is EVERYTHING is flooded. We meant to go to Cubao yesterday to buy some tools and couldn't make it that far. Everything, everything was flooded. This did make us rethink our plans for the Prius.

Ever since our trip to the states (where we drove a Prius most of the time) we thought about bringing one here for our main car. We checked with Toyota in Quezon City and were informed they would not be sold here until early 2008. We cannot have one here (imported or otherwise) until they are sold here because there is no point in having a car that nobody knows how to fix. Looking at all the floods yesterday, we realized that a huge gas guzzling truck will be a necessity here during the rainy season. The floods in Manila and Makati can easily get above the knees with no problem. The Prius would not handle that very well at all.

I think we will spend the better part of the day at home. We wanted to hit a sale in Bulacan (up north) but after talking to a friend found out the city is flooded and not passable. Perhaps tomorrow.

House Update

Our house is coming along nicely! This week we started to have the pool in the back dug which is great and we are starting to think more about landscaping. Before this whole experience, I never realized what went into building a home. There are so many things to think about that never even crossed my mind before. Even minor items such as placement of electrical outlets and phone jacks are things I had never really though about before.

The roof insulation and tresses have all gone on and we should have the roof tiles up in the next week or two. I cannot watch that process happen. Seeing the guys walk around up there freaks me out too much! I was told they get the tiles up there by tossing them up.


Electrical rough-ins have been installed in most of the rooms and the aircon rough-in will be next week as well. We are now looking at an October/November turnover. Most of the walls are concreted over so you no longer see sets of CHB stacked up, they just look more like solid walls. In additions, the floors have been evened out and are starting to be prepped to lay the floor.


I am loving the brickwork that has been started and this will continue to the inside as well as the back lanai.
We are starting now what I consider the "fun" part. The selection of cabinets, tiles, bathroom fixtures, etc is the part I am looking forward to. My one concern is the inside of the house seems dark....hopefully once the walls are painted and all the scaffolding is removed this will change.

The entire process of construction is just different than anything I have seen. For example, when the workers arrive in the morning, they change out of their closed toed shoes (often sneakers) and pants and work the day in shorts and slippers. No boots. No gloves. Definitely no hard hats. There is a lunch break (signaled on our crew by a bell) and everybody goes and eats. Then everybody finds a place in the shade to nap. They bell dings again and they all go back to work. This is repeated once (sans sleep) in the afternoon. We are bringing them lunch today. Man, these guys can eat! When you walk around the site, there is the laundry of the guys hanging on clotheslines all over the site. These guys work their ASSES off. This is hard work and the weather lately has been muggy and hot with very little rain.

Medical Care

I went to St Luke's Medical Center for a general physical. Apparently, check-ups are not that common here (or called something else) because everyone there was confused that I was at the doctor and nothing was seriously wrong.

Hospitals here are different than what I was used to in San Francisco. When I went to the doctor there, all the doctors were employed by the hospital (i.e., the doctor at Kaiser collects his/her paycheck from Kaiser). Here they are more like a mall in the sense that independent doctors appear to rent space from a hospital but are not necessarily affiliated with the hospital in any other way. There are however heads of departments and such so it must be more complex than I am making it sound but this is as much as I can figure out now.

The doctor had me go for blood tests, urinalysis, and chest x-ray (he is a cardiologist, hence his interest in the chest). Everything was soooo smooth and quick! I have spent longer in line waiting to pay at Kaiser than the whole three tests here. The staff (both administrative and medical) were incredibly nice. They even kept their sweet demeanor when I started to pass out during the blood test and then threw up in their garbage.

Cost is unbelievable. With no insurance here and to receive:
-Consultation
-EKG (I apparently have a premature heartbeat. No big deal, but random none the less)
-Urinalysis
-Blood (blood count and chemical testing)
-Chest X-Ray

I paid a total of PHP5,012 which in US is $111.38 (assuming a P45/$1) for awesome care the entire time. You can't beat that!

Sky Cable

I am continuing my quest to have Sky Cable installed at our current address. Once again, they will send some people out to see if we have a post near enough our house to install it. I am not optimistic. I have resigned myself to a lifetime of watching shows on my computer (downloaded off the internet) or watching fuzzy TV. Most neighborhoods have normal television with a clear signal. It is only in my neighborhood where it is so bad and likely caused by the 20+ houses that I am sure have tapped into our signal. If we ever wanted to piss the neighborhood off, we could not pay our bill and they would all lose cable.

The utilities are a big plus of moving. I am looking forward to:

1) 24-Hour Water (the water in our neighborhood is currently shut off at 9PM each night)

2) Better cable service (Sky is in our new neighborhood)

3) Better internet service (there are only two providers in our neighborhood and one was unable to connect it)

4) Garbage that is collected on a regular basis. Other than garbage day, we never see anyone's garbage can. Plus there is no garbage on the street.

Creepy, Creepy, Creepy

We went by the new house site to check on the progress today. On the way out we stopped at the gate to talk to the guard. While there, I noticed a large picture of two young women with a notice stating they were not allowed to leave the village without written permission. When I asked the guard about it, he explained that these two women were household help and their employers did not want them leaving the village.

This is honestly one of the creepiest things I have seen. If you are that distrustful of your staff, why not fire them and hire new ones? I cannot imagine being trapped in a subdivision and only allowed to leave it with express written permission from my employer!

In Case you Missed it......

This video has been EVERYWHERE on the internet, but in case you missed it here is a little glance of the country I call home. I cannot figure out if this is the most genius thing I have ever seen or the oddest. Either way, I love it!! This is at a prison in Cebu.

More Dog Problems II

I forgot. The other dog (chiwawa) is pregnant. She almost died the last time she had puppies which means we have to look into a C-section for her. For a dog. I can't figure out when it happened because we were still here during her heat and I didn't let her out of the house.

Arrived Back Safe

Well we made it home from San Francisco. I loved being in SF. Not the weather--that sucks but I miss the city. I miss the great shops, restaurants, bars, neighborhoods. I also miss running into people. While in San Francisco, I ran into old friends, colleagues, etc which never happens in Manila. I don't know if it is just because there are 10 times the amount of people here (10mil versus San Francisco's under 1mil) or if I just know less people here. I also of course was very excited about the grocery shopping. Philippines cannot hold a candle to San Francisco especially when it comes to "gourmet" groceries. I also miss organic (yes, I prefer to buy organic when available) fruits, vegetables, meat, and milk.

Our flight back was uneventful. Most noteworthy event was seeing Martin Yan. He looks just like he does on TV. While I was looking at him to make than assesment, he gave me a rather dirty look. I guess he doesn't like people to stare at him. Can't imagine why not....

It is nice to be back in Manila. The rain is not too bad at all (only a few days) and the heat is nothing compared to when we left. Our house is coming along fantastically (I will take pictures tomorrow) and looks less like a concrete jail and more like a house. The bricklayer has started as well so it is starting to get some depth. We need to buy the air conditioners this week. Since we are doing split type (meaning the compressor is on the outside) we have to buy them now to complete the rough in.

In other news, I got my dog neutered yesterday. Man is he sad! I am assuming he is in a little pain so he is barely moving and gives me these pitiful looks.

Today we will go to S&R to get some groceries. I hope they are still in business because every time we go, the parking lot is empty.

In San Francisco

Well, we made it to San Francisco now. I cannot figure out for the life of me how I can grow up here and yet when I return now for vacation I am FREEZING!! It is June and I actually turned on the heat for a little bit the day before yesterday.

New House Add'l

I just looked at the picture of our house in progress that I posted and I just want to mention that, yes, we will be tearing down that ugly, ugly wall.

Grocery Sucess

Shopping for groceries can be a chore here. When making a dish, my shopping lists are often read, "If I find ingredient A, buy ingrediant B". There is no point in having four out of five items needed for a meal. I have started to buy items if I may need them in the next 2-3 months because some things show up once, never to be seen again. We often will hit a few stores in one day of shopping to try to get everything needed. Soft corn torillas are the latest item I cannot find anywhere.

Last week we went to Unimart in Greenhills and found: enchilada sauce (both green & red), peanut butter without sugar (difficult for me to find--I bought three jars), and local free range eggs. I consider this, VERY successful shopping.

We leave in two days for a vacation in the states and I am quite excited to go grocery shopping (Trader Joes especially). My food plans include: eating burritos from La Cumbre a few times a week, going to Izzy's Steakhouse, drinking as much milk as humanly possible, ordering Round Table Pizza (I realize this is not the pinnacle of fine dining but it is very much comfort food to me), eating pounds of strawberries & cherries, and living off of sourdough bread. I am going to gain so much weight!! I can't wait!

New House: Getting Closer

The house is coming along. The second floor had the slab poured a couple of weeks ago and walls are starting to go up on the second floor. The photos kinda stink because it is all just concrete hollow blocks and cement. I will be able to get better ones once the finishing starts. They are aiming to put the roof tresses up this week which will be good because rainy season is definitely just around the corner.


Some pipes for drainage have been installed. It is so different for me to see a house being built here of cement and plastic pipes versus the wood and copper/iron pipes of SF. Another difference here is the treatment of soil for termites. We have had a couple done so far. Apparently termites can become a major issue here.

Everyone's a Critic

One of our household staff was teaching her grandson to say my name. He couldn't do it (he is two years-old). She told him, "is Tita maganda (beautiful)?" He looked straight at me and said, "Dog."

More Dog Problems

The chiwawa mix is in heat. This is my first time seeing a dog in heat (most people I know have mutts that have been neutered/spayed) and it is not fun. She climbs into my lap and humps my arm. She bleed on a white dress I was wearing (this is actually how I learned she was in heat). She goes outside to the front yard and stands next to the rott so he can sniff/lick her. We are now keeping her away from the rott because if he tries to mount her, it will not be pretty.

The Rottweiler

As we get ready for a month long trip to the states, I am getting concerned about my dog. He is just over one year old and a rottweiler.

Dogs in the Philippines are often treated a little differently than the states. Where many people in the states view a pet as an extra family member, a lot of people treat pets here as....pets. Many people keep their dogs in cages (something I had never seen before coming here and still have not fully gotten used to). This is not done to be mean, but people's houses are a lot smaller here and many people do not allow the dog in their house. Backyards are often nonexistent. Our current household has FIVE dogs. I treat my dog somewhere in the middle...he is not a member of the family but he is a beloved pet which means no cage and regular walks. Guess which one is not in a cage (well to be fair, the biting chiwawa is not in a cage either)? Herein lies the problem:

1. While we are gone, no one will walk him. He is only a year old and quite hyper. He needs walks. I talked to one of the household help and although he said he can walk the dog, short of me texting him everyday from the states means this won't happen. Nobody else wants to walk him because he is a rottweiler (with the disposition of a Labrador) and that alone makes people scared of him.

2. While we are gone, they will feed him crap food. I buy imported "natural" food and once I leave he will be on the Alpo with rice diet. It makes him stink.

3. He is not yet neutered. I wanted to wait until the one year mark (theory about letting the dog get to a certain stage in physical development). Do I neuter him in the week before we leave and hope he can heal in that time and won't have any complications or wait until we get back when he will be almost 14 months old?

See, I guess this is how you can tell I am an American. With all the problems in the world, I am spending time tripping about my dog.

Nothing to Do With Anything

Come on, watching cheese age? This is good stuff!! (Reminds me of mom watching the Yule Log late night on Christmas Eve).

http://www.cheddarvision.tv/

Oreo Cookies......

I am not positive intellectual property exists here. I will ponder this while eating my Fibiso Hi-Ro.

Boracay

Once we were off the Boat of Death, we arrived in Boracay. Just a short boat ride to a short van ride and we were there!! Boracay is absolutely stunning. It is second (in my book) only to Palwan in beauty. Just perfect--the sand is the consistency of flour, the water is so clear you can be neck deep and still see your toes. It is just gorgeous.We stayed at Cez Manor which was not beach front but less than a minute walk to the beach. We paid PHP2,500 (about $50) per night. We selected this place based on our large group (14 people) consisting namely of teenagers which meant that one of the rooms had six people (two parents, four sons). Hotels here do not seem to be very bothered by large groups of people in one room which was good for our friends paying two college tuitions at the time. The hotel....well, you get what you pay for. For $50, you get two beds, a shower with hot water (trust me, this is an amenity here, not standard at all), air con, and satellite television (PHP300 deposit if you want the remote). The only thing to note about the Philippines is if you are staying at a no-name hotel, there are things you may find that would never fly in the states (holes in sheets, pillows that smell like feet/mildew, mildew so thick in the bathroom you can scrape it off with your finger, bathroom sink that leaks heavily but the housekeeper will at least switch the trash can for you, holes in the door, no window anywhere in the room).

We spent a day island hopping and snorkeling which was absolutely fantastic. There were some great fish and just mass quantities of them. I did not take any pictures as I am tired of coming home from vacation with half of my camera filled with blurry pictures of fish that look nowhere near as cool as they did in real life. Just wonderful snorkeling. We stopped on a little island that was stunning, had some of the bluest water I had ever seen, and had a man with a machine gun. I sidled up to one of the boys and before I could open up my mouth, he said, "no, this is not normal and I do not know." We gave the gunman pizza rolls. I assume he was an un-uniformed security guard of some sort but who knows. He seemed to like the pizza rolls. Everything was great with out boat. One of the boat guys threw an empty Vienna sausage can in the water and Ado made him go dive down and get it. Lucky for him we were only in about 12 feet of water.


At night in Boracay, the beach turns into a multitude of restaurants serving every type of cuisine imaginable. We selected Mongolian BBQ which was PHP220 per person (~$4.50) for all you can eat (or here as they say, Eat All You Can). Good food. They had mushrooms which was a big plus, albeit mushrooms from a can. We brought a couple of bottles of wine (no corkage) and proceeded to stuff ourselves. On the beach they had set up low tables with pillows on bamboo benches. Just spectacular. A live band was playing right next door and for me it just about creates the perfect dinner in paradise.

The following day all the kids got henna tattoos (PHP100 or $2) and we spent the day rotting on the main beach. Perfect weather. Lunch was at the Mandarin Spa (wood fire pizza) and dinner was Greek at Cyma in D'Mall which I quite enjoyed. Fantastic food. We had a tomato/cucumber/feta salad, fried cheese, and lamb ribs. I don't eat a lot of lamb here so it was a nice treat.

We took Cebu Pacific home. We had never flew them before but it was a nice flight. Made it to Manila in 45 minutes. Much better than the cruddy boat (can you tell I am still disturbed by the boat ride??).

Boracay: Taking the Boat

This past weekend we went to Boracay with a group of friends/family. While we were planning, we got the brilliant idea to take the boat (MBRS Lines) down and the plane for the return. This, in hindsight, was not such a good idea.

The ship leaves Manila at 17:30 and reaches Boracay at 8:30 the next morning. Usually you can eat dinner, have a couple of drinks in the bar, and then go to sleep. Upon awaking, you are already in Boracay.

We have taken the boat to Boracay before in 2003. At that time, it was low season, meaning the boat was practically empty. This time, the boat was oversold. Apparently one of the owners was running for office and gave free passes to potential voters. There were people mashed into every corner you can imagine. To reach our cabin, you had to step over tons of sleeping people. As a result, the bathrooms all smelled like death (worst smell you can imagine), the aircon didn't work, and there were piles of garbage all over the ship.

The president of the boat line will be at our house on Sunday so we will talk to him then. For now, I will never, ever take MBRS Lines to Boracay. If you are so inspired to do so, http://www.mbrslines.com/ is the website. Bring earplugs and a portable fan.

Demonic Rabbit

This scary rabbit is the face of the freeway (NLEX-North Luzon Expressway). I don't know why but he is very scary to me. His eyebrows look kind of sinister. Thank god we do not have cartoon animals by the toll plazas in the states.

Subic Trip

We left Manila first thing on Friday morning to head up to Subic for the weekend. We went with two friends of ours, their two kids, and their two yayas. Subic is about two hours north of Manila and was formerly a US Military base. The housing that remains there looks just like every other military base housing. We stopped in the city proper to visit some friends and then headed to our hotel, Mountain Woods Resort (www.mountainwoodsresortsubic.com) . This hotel was not on the beach but up on a hill (as the name suggests). It was an okay hotel. The rooms were nicely appointed and they had insect repellent in the bathrooms next to the shampoo which was a nice touch. My only issue with the room was the lack of working air conditioning. Simply put, it sucked. We actually pulled the bed out from the wall to move it closer to the under-producing air conditioning unit. Otherwise, the hotel was clean, piano player in the lobby, fresh tarragon springs in the water carafe, staff was great, management was inept, pool was clean enough (even if it was under filled which was only a bummer because you do not get the infinity effect).
Since Mountain Rock Resort is a sister property of White Rock Beach Resort we got 50% off the beach entrance rates (not free like the website states). After visiting friends, we went to White Rock Beach, arriving there around 4pm and let them know we would be there until 8pm (they have a nice attendant bring your stuff to the beach). We rented a cabana and relaxed and swam a bit. At about 6:30, we requested they turn on the lights. They wanted PHP500 for this (about $10). After much arguing, we received an emergency light (kinda like a stand-up flashlight) so we could at least pack up our items.


Saturday morning we woke up early to head over to Zoobic which is a zoo there. Great place to go with kids. They had some neat animals and when it is time to see the tigers for PHP200 you can buy some chicken that they will feed to the tigers which is very cool. The guide flings the chicken around on a string and tosses it up to the roof as well so the tiger will climb on the roof of the vehicle which was very cool.
You also visit Aeta Trail where you watch a dance done by some Aetas. This part I was not too into. The Aeta's are the indigenous people of the Philippines and this display seemed less like cultural education and more along the lines of "let's take pictures and gawk". Something about they way they had it set up didn't sit right with me.
Final stop at Zoobic was the CrocoLoco pen which had a slew of crocodiles. Here for PHP50 you can buy yet some more chicken and feed the crocodiles. The chicken is attached to a string on a stick (like a fishing pole) which meant instead of feeding time, it was "Let's Taunt the Crocodiles and Make Them Jump Repetitively for Food Which I Will Yank Back Before They can Reach It" time. This was my favorite part of Zoobic.

Next we headed to Camayan Beach which was reccomened to us. They had no remaining space at the beach (not surprising considering it was a Saturday in the height of summer) so we headed back to the hotel for swimming. That night we hit a bar, watched a bikini show, and saw some live bands.

Sunday we headed back to Camayan Beach first thing in the morning. For non hotel guests there are no reservations; it is first come, first served. You know the lines you see outside of nightclubs with everyone trying to get in? This was the scene at Camayan but instead of people dressed to the nines, it was families loaded down with coolers and kids. We went back to the wretched White Rock (our aircon in the car had died---long story but since the car is still under warrenty and there was no dealer in the area, we just dealt with the hot car) since we knew there was space. We spent the day there and enjoyed it. When it got too hot during the peak of the afternoon we went over to the pool and hung out in the shady end of the pool.

We left for Manila directly from White Rock around 7pm (we wanted to avoid the heat so we drove at night) which would have been uneventful except for two things. (1) NLEX (North Luzon Expressway) was having work done so a 15-minute strech of road turned into two hours and (2) contrary to the painted signs on the ground reading "NO OVERTAKING", the shoulder can apparently be used as an additional lane.

Monkeys

This past weekend we went to Subic Bay. One of the best things about the Philippines is taking a road trip and seeing monkeys on the side of the road. For some reason this is way cooler to me than the deer we would see on the way to Yosemite back home (although I must admit, I do like the deer as well).

Shopping Philippine Style

Since our house is getting slightly nearer to completion, we went out yesterday to start pricing major appliances, specifically air conditioners (eight total), ceiling fans (10 total), refrigerator (one), stove top (built-in, one piece), oven (again built in, no range), and television (okay, not a necessity as we were looking at the LCD flat screens).

Back home, I would have gone online to check out the major appliance stores, read some consumer reports articles, hit Costco, and made a list from that. Here, I go to store X (not many stores here are online and the ones that are are full of dead links, outdated information, and never any prices). At store X, I talk to multiple sales people since each person is in charge of a different brand. They give me the prices, the EER, and explain to me that kj/h is the same as BTU. I am looking for different HP and types (some rooms in our house get more use, versus the guest room aircons will not be run very often). Then after they give me the prices, we discuss what the discounted price would be. That's right, even in a major store the listed price is not the final price. Easy example, a 40" Samsung "Bordeaux plus" LCD television is marked at PHP179,000. They can give it on sale for PHP149,900 and it includes a free 29" television. We tell them we do not want the free item so they tell us 132,000. Then we tell them we were talking to a woman in the store who bought the exact television (I had huge TV envy there) and she informed us she bought it for PHP117,000. They agree that they could give it for that price. Picture this situation happening 1,000 times.

So, one might assume that since we have already been to store X we do not need to hit up another branch of the exact same store. Ha! We hit it up when passing it in another mall and get different prices. This happens everywhere. At an oven store, we went to two different stores (selling exclusively this brand) and got prices of PHP4,000 difference on the same item.

Combine this time-consuming process with my ignorance of many of the specialty brands here (I am not too hip on European brands) and you can see why shopping here is a whole other animal.

Don't even get me started about the ceiling fan portion of this mission. Let's just say that I have now determined I will likely buy these overseas and ship them here because (1) the selection sucks and (2) the prices suck even more.

Bonus of the whole day, one of the sales guys, Reymond, at store X was A W E S O M E! He was so nice, knew his stuff, and when I had one question he did not know (did the aircon remote glow in the dark), he told me, "Sorry, I actually do not know." People who tell me they don't know instead of making it up score big with me. Hopefully these guys get commission because we will hook Reymond up.

Philippines Expat

It is weird for me to be here in the sense that there are very few people like me here. It seems like most Americans living here are either:
1. Men who have married much younger, prettier women
2. Men who are married to a normal Filipina woman and have moved/retired here.
3. Men who have retired here (often ex military)
4. Volunteers
5. Missionaries (lotta Mormons here....they look just like they do in the states, short sleeved shirts with ties and backpacks).
6. People who were placed here by their companies.

I haven't quite found my niche yet. There is a club for American Women but I fear they will be a lot older than me and if most are based here for employment, it means they have more money than God. Not sure if they will have a place for me.

Smart Kids

Tonight we were at yet another wake (these happen fairly often in our neighborhood) and a little girl was dressed up in a beautiful sun dress. I told her she looked beautiful and the boy next to me (who couldn't have been more than 10) responded, "She is dressed to kill." Where he learned that expression I have no idea but I was quite impressed!

Swimming Pool

Today we are meeting with two pool contractors--Aqua Pools & Bulacan Gardens. We originally had contacted Bulacan Gardens for our landscaping and had then decided against them as we found that a lot of our friends did their own landscaping and were willing to help us with ours. Our contact at Bulacan Gardens mentioned that they do pools also so we set up an appointment. Our second appointment is with Aqua Pools which is the company our designer uses. I am a big fan of word of mouth.

Catch is, we are not sure what we can do with our space. It is not a huge space and I want a swimming pool that is 6' deep (if we had more space we would make it deeper) at the deepest point. In addition, we want lots of lights inside as well as a mosaic style tile (we saw it at a resort and loved the way the water looked). We need space for our gigantic grill as well as a small covered structure (natural--teak or nipa) to be right next to the pool. We want it fun enough for adults but safe so that all the kids (billions of godchildren, nieces, cousins, etc) will not get out of sight and drown.

Lemon Curd

My brother-in-law just got back from London last night and brought me back TWO jars of lemon curd!!! I am in heaven. Tomorrow I will make scones so I have something to eat the lemon curd with as the spoon in the jar does not go over too well here.

(He also brought me a salami, Irish Cheese, and some handmade fudge.....love, love, love him!!)

There Goes the Neighborhood Part II

We passed by the section of C-3 that had the houses being torn down (I use the word "house" loosely). It appears they only tore down the ones that were blocking the sidewalk and have left the ones in the back. These they are putting a bright blue face on. Looks nice enough. I meant to get a picture but didn't have a camera and my phone takes very cruddy pictures.

On another note, Manila is a city with very few sidewalks. Some areas (Makati--the downtown/financial district) have them but most places we go there are none. Not the most walker friendly city. The places where there are sidewalks, I can often not walk because my height (5'8") means that I often get banged in the head with people eaves, banners, or hanging laundry. In addition, any scrap of sidewalk is taken over by vendors. Bonus is, when you do go walking, it is easy to get a bottled water or juice without having to stop.

Holy Week in Tondo

Yesterday (Sunday) was the official start of Holy Week. My whole life, Holy Week has meant nothing to me (except in college--we were released early on Wednesday and classes we cancelled on Holy Thursday & Good Friday). Over the past couple of weeks our neighborhood has had stations of cross set up. (I am still a little vague on stations of the cross. Essentially..I think....it is each of the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus...but I would not swear to it). On Sunday they were once again set up but this time there were reenactments of each station.



The actors were good. The play was all in Tagalog but I think I got the basics. One of the kids told me which character was good and which was bad so that was something. The guy who played Jesus was great. He cried. Lest you think this was just spiritual (which it may have been), he was getting the crap kicked out of him. When people in the play got whipped, they got whipped in real life. HARD. With a leather whip. A little disturbing for me to say the least. Our house was station four (didn't get any good photos) and I did not continue on with the group to the rest of the stations as I feared it would only get worse.



This guy got whipped a lot. I wish I had a good picture of Judas. He was scary. He had an eye patch. And did most of the whipping.


This picture above is only a slice of the audience. I couldn't get the whole group in the shot but needless to say it was quite a crowd.

There goes the neighborhood

A few blocks from our new house site is a corner with a billion squatters on it. While this is not legally their land, the structures have been here for a while. When we passed last week, MMDA trucks were there and the structures were being demolished. According to a newspaper vendor we flagged down, the people were paid for 3 meters by the city.



I am conflicted. Half of me is happy about the improvement to the neighborhood (we shall see how long this lasts--this was the third time these have been torn down) and the other half feels really bad for the residents. Where will they go? Where will they live?

House Pictures

We now have some walls up on the first floor! There are a few changes we need to make. According to our floor plan, the dining room is supposed to be four meters wide. It is currently 3.5 meters. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, due to space constraints 4 meters was as small as we felt comfortable going. To have it even smaller means we are debating where a table could even fit as this is the main passage to the backyard (and eventual pool).


In addition, the picture above shows what is supposed to be a guest bathroom (half-bath--just sink & toilet). Currently it is .70 meters wide. I don't think we could fit a sink inside without people crashing into it. As a result we will have to tear down one of the walls and start new. We are meeting with the contractor, designed, and architect today to find out why some of the measurements seem off. Hopefully they just appear smaller than we thought and there is not an actual error in the post placement. We shall see.

Graduation

Today is graduation for a lot of students here (last day of the school year for a lot of kids) and they are playing the graduation march on loudspeakers in my neighborhood. Occasionally I will hear a name. I am assuming it is from the school a couple of blocks away but I cannot for the life of me figure out why it is being broadcast on the speakers. If you knew a graduate, wouldn't you be there?

(By the way, this loudspeaker with the church happens a lot. On special holidays they will play the mass happening at the church all day. Since Holy Week is almost upon us, I know what I will be waking up to next week)

Headbands

Here it is very common to see boys/teenagers/young men in headbands. I am not talking about the 80's style collect sweat from the forehead type, but the type schoolgirls wear. It is a weird phenomena made weirder by the fact that they actually look okay in them (better than one would think).


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Okay, to be completely honest no one wears headbands like the little boy does but this is what I woke up to one morning and it amused me.

Batangas

This past weekend we took a trip to Batangas. It is summer here and it is HOT (even for the Philippines) and we wanted to get out of the city for a weekend and head to the beach. Batangas is about a three hour drive south of Manila. The first night we stayed in Matabunkay, Batangas which apparently at one point in time was a nice beach. Now it is a nice mud flat so we headed out first thing Saturday morning to find a better beach in Nasugbu. One of the guys shilling stuff on the beach recommended the Costa de Oro resort so away we went.

Only catch with this resort is there is no road access so one must take a boat. No problem, boats are fun and I especially liked this one because it was called "4 Sisters" which I felt was a good sign. The resort was C L E A N!! New sheets, clean floors, and the pool was so clean you could practically drink out of it. Only complaint was shared bathroom but since we were the only guests it did not bother us at all. During full times, this could be an issue. Fronting the resort on the beach were nipa huts which were perfect for our late night drinking sessions and early morning breakfast. They also made some awesome french fries.

Great swimming and very good weather. Snorkeling was just so-so which was fine as we were mainly looking to just relax. All in all, a wonderful weekend escape.

Santis

A lot (too much actually) of my focus with getting accustomed to living here has been the food. My in-laws get on me about not eating Filipino food. What I have tried to explain to them that it is not that I do not eat most Filipino food, I don't eat much of American cu sine either. I am a picky eater. I do not eat seafood (of any type), onions, mayonnaise, sweet potatoes, etc. I do not like fat on meat and have been know to cut the tiny pieces off chicken breasts before cooking them. I am living in an island nation which of course takes advantage of the fact that there is tons of gorgeous seafood right off the coast. This leaves me with few options for food or even grocery shopping for that matter.

Cheese is sold here namely in an aisle--non refrigerated. This is due to the fact that much of it is "cheese food". I have been going to Santis for my cheese fix. Love, love, love it. Cheese from Germany, Italy, France. In addition there are tons of cold cuts (prosciutto, dry salami), meats (lamb from Australia, all beef hot dogs), dried mushrooms (cannot live without porcini), heavy cream, etc. I love it. I am in heaven there.

http://www.werdenberg.com/santis/index.cfm

Ostrich

Ostriches are scary animals.

So About the New House

Here is the deal with our new home. We are building in New Manila, Quezon City which is pretty central to everywhere we go. We are in a subdivision which are HUGE here. Way bigger deal than the gated communities in the states. Some are very swanky. Ours just means we pay PHP500 a month to have three or four security guards salute us when we pass through the gate.


We are building a two story home with an attic room. There are a total of four bedrooms (plus the attic which could be used as a guest room as there is a full bath). Lest this sound too big for two of us, one of the rooms is for my mother-in-law who will have a permanent room in our home. Secondly, if I have kids, they need space. Plus all my family is in the states and they need a place to stay or they won't come visit me (not entirely true--my youngest sister is planning a trip and she is down to stay anywhere). In addition, there are eight bathrooms (including maid & driver bathrooms). Yeah, too many. This is cut down from the psycho 11 we originally had. I have never lived in a house with more than one shower. I am very excited to see what showering is like without someone else in there at the same time brushing teeth/peeing/etc. Maybe I will be lonely.

The house is Mediterranean/Filipino. We wanted something that used classical architecture (many of the new homes here are very, very, very modern) with lots of windows, arches, balconies, and open space. The mission is to have a comfortable house with little to no use of aircon. We are installing ceiling fans in just about every room--as well as aircon. I am not too confident about our mission.

In the back we will have a pool--a small pool. 9m x 3m, although I think I will see how much wider we can make it while still leaving space to walk. I also am looking at local plants here as I want a garden. Not into the cement....looking at Vigan bricks, and terra cotta tiles with accents, etc. Very natural looking.

Oh yeah, found out they will rush to try to get it done by C H R I S T M A S. Damn......so long still. At least it will give us time to save for the furniture because home loans are not very common here. We are paying cash and lets just say after this, we will not have a lot of cash.

New House

Well, the house is coming along, albeit slowly. Or maybe quickly considering the only power tools are a cement mixer and a jackhammer we bought. They have put most of the posts in and some of the walls (that are underground...foundation? I have no idea).


The wall looks a little wonky to me but I dunno. I guess this is normal here.

Dog Bites

Rabies is still a disease here that kills people. Wait...obviously rabies is fatal everywhere, however there is a higher rate of people getting rabies dying from it. In the house we currently have five dogs: chiwawa, two mini pinschers, a Dalmatian, and a rottweiler (all are mixed--no purebreds). All were here before we arrived last year with the exception of the rott. I have adopted the rottweiler and he will move with us when our house is completed. As a result, he got full vaccinations INCLUDING rabies at the appropriate puppy ages. In addition, we figured if any dog nipped, it would be the rott.

Forward to this past Monday. The chiwawa bit a 3-year old in the face.

We could not find her papers, therefore no idea when/if she had had rabies shots or boosters. As a result, the little girl had four shots that night, prescribed antibiotics, and will receive a shot every month for the next four months.

A rabies shot is maybe....PHP300? PHP500? Not much compared to not risking a little girls health and her shots will cost more in the end. Dog is now in a cage (don't even get me started on the practice of dogs in cages!!!!)

Spandex Warrior II

Sorry for the fuzziness of the pictures....we were driving on C-3. The second photo is a mix of spandex warriors and normal bikers.

Spandex Warrior

Sky Cable

I have been trying to get service from Sky Cable shortly after moving here. The techs came out a few times, always telling me that there was no post near my house (long story why I kept having them come--there was a purpose though). I was finally told that they would never put a connection in my neighborhood because, "too many people will steal the service."

This afternoon when we are coming home, we saw some Sky technicians only three blocks away. We stopped and got one of the guys cell numbers. He told us that they have a new prepaid service (pre-paid is huge here as there is no real credit history. Case in point, I have a DSL connection in my name. I am not a resident or citizen of the Philippines.) and will be extending to our block in April. I am not holding my breath but am a lot more optimistic. The only cable company in our neighborhood is Destiny and the suck.......because everybody steals it and weakens the signal.

Milk is Back!!!

The one food item I miss the most here is milk. There is tons of milk--local caribou, Australian, etc but it is all psycho pasteurized (with the exception of the caribou milk). The milk here is fine for coffee or cooking but when used as a beverage, which is my absolute favorite drink, it tastes horrible to me.

As a result, I buy half gallons of Darigold Milk for PHP208 (about $4). It is imported from the states (Washington State), hence the extreme price. I can't get enough of it, although I drink it rarely due to the cost. Sadly, last month none of the local stores here had it. I went to Rustan's, Makati Market, Robinsons, Unimart, and S&R and found nothing. Today we went to S&R and the milk was back in stock. It is a little sad how excited I was. I was starting to assume that since there was no milk, it was no longer being imported which would have made sense. Milk is perishable and I am sure there is not much demand for an expensive version of it here. Plus, I have to take a sip while I am in the store as I have bought a spoiled one in the past. This means I have to drive home holding it between my legs.

It just bums me out when I remember my wonderful Strauss organic milk from the states. A nice glass bottle, cream on the top....now I am ecstatic with hormone filled goodness.

The Gingerbread House

When I went home for the graduation, I had the brilliant idea to buy one of those pre-made gingerbread houses from Costco to make with the kids here for Christmas. I just uploaded the pictures. The house made it all of about 30 minutes before it fell apart....I have since found a recipe for the frosting that is adjusted to last through our humidity. I gotta say, I think the kids did an awesome job.

House is Coming Along!!!

Compared to before, we are coming along. I am in love with the neighborhood. Our village (subdivisions are huge here) is very quiet and the neighbors we have met are great. There are tons of trees and nice streets. We are two minutes to a very busy street with the wet market, drugstore, 7-11, every fast food know to man (is it sad that I am excited about the Taco Bell?), and St Lukes Hospital which is apparently the place to be if you get sick or injured.

About five minutes away is a street with tons and tons of restaurants. Everything from a food stand to a nice sit-down place with linen and fancy waiters. You could probably eat at a different restaurant every night for a good six months and not hit the same one twice. We are 15-30 minutes drive (depending on traffic) to two huge malls (Greenhills and Gateway) and S&R (Philippines answer to Costco. I love it.). A good friend of ours from the states lives five minutes away.

We have two architects, one for the rough-in and one for the finishing. The one for the rough-in is an old family architect that leaves much to be desired. She is slow, her quotes are way, way, way, way off and we can't get a straight answer about anything.

Our finisher on the other hand is awesome. Although she is a million times more expensive, she was upfront about her costs and all of her projects have taken our breath away. She is finishing the house in a Mediterranean/Filipino style that we both love. Looks very classic and old which is what we like.

We have decided that since our architect (rough in) sucks so much we are shopping for our own materials as we (new to Manila) can find better prices than them. I am so not impressed. Perfect example is the driveway. All we need is it left in a raw form. They want us to pay PHP30,000 (about $600) to lay the cement. I told them today not to touch it. For $600 I can have it laid as well as have it finished (i.e., brick detail, etc). Mind you, this $600 they quoted does not include the materials. This is a driveway that is maybe three meters long. Tops. What can you do?