Makati City, Philippines

[slang]

This was my first pass through the buffet. Chicken, rice, fish.

There was plenty there though. The chicken as seen on my plate was the best. When everyone is busy eating and not paying attention to me, the plate was nearly completely loaded with the sweet saucy chicken.

No, it's not monkey Zip!

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This is the family that the party was for. Don't ask me their names, I dont remember.

The man is Filipino and the woman is Chinese....the little girl is just out_of_control cute.

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Everything looked great and everyone seemed to have a good time. So good that they didnt see the strange white man loading his plate full with chicken.

Looks like the little girl's name is Kristen.

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OK, dinner is over. What next? CLOWNS!!!

Clowns singing,dancing and telling very bad jokes. The little girl shown in pic 2 is from Canada, both Phil parents.

She was exceptionally bright and spoke English very well. If I remember correctly her parents were moving BACK from Canada. They are both professionals of some type.

[slang]

Last one for now.

This man was pedalling down the street in Pateros (next to Makati ).

You will see these guys riding bikes selling all sorts of things. There is a man that sells "dirty ice cream" (that's what Pinang calls it, home made ice cream ), balut , dirty corn and various other specialty foods and drinks.

Most of them have a special ring. The corn man has a special sounding bell, the ice cream man has another. Everyone has their own proprietary bell so that you know who is riding around outside ringing.

They all have the same kind of bell even far outside of the area. They must have a franchise of sorts going. If you want to sell dirty corn you get a holder for the corn....and that special bell. The "Hey, I've got dirty corn" bell.

This man sped away before I could get a good look at those things on his cart.

Most all of these vendors has been very nice to me. They show me what they are selling and go out of their way to answer silly questions. If they let me take pictures most of the time they get 20 or 50 pesos as a tip. Nothing bought just the tip for letting me see what they have and taking a pic.

[zippyt]

2. Chicken on a stick. No Zippy, it's NOT monkey on a stick.
No, it's not monkey Zip!So you THINK !!! HA !!!

Just kidding about the monkey meat on a stick dude !!
I can thruthfully say the ONLY time I knew I was eating Monkey was when the PI Marines shot and cooker one , I HAD to try it , it was TASTY !!!

So Slang , I might have missed it but are you in the PI again or are these just pics from your last trip ??

Eather way it looks like you had FUN !!!
Oh and who is that Little Quitie ? Yours , Hers , Yours/Hers ??

[Griff]

Wait a minute, you actually ate food at a buffet? I can hear your conversation with your doc back home. "Yah it all started after I ate buffet style in the Philipines..."

[slang]

Originally Posted by zippyt

So Slang , I might have missed it but are you in the PI again or are these just pics from your last trip ??

Oh and who is that Little Quitie ? Yours , Hers , Yours/Hers ??

These are from this last trip, 3 weeks long. The next trip will be in August and I'll be staying for 3-6 months.

The objective is to learn enough and to prepare myself for moving there long term. As America changes into....whatever it's morphing into, I want options. There seems to be a polar shift in politics, hard left - hard right, every 8 years. On the off 8 years, I'll be gone.

Learning Tagalog is a priority now as well as history and the workings of the government there. How do you get things done there? Who do you speak to? What are the systems there? All these things will be important when I'm there long term. There is much to learn.

There is no plan to change citizenship, just geographical location. A place to get away from those things that I find completely unacceptable....like Dem policies.

There is plenty of time to build a place that I'll be happy and that is exactly what I'm doing.

The little girl is Lorin, she's my neice.

Pinang and I are collecting and saving money (I'm collecting and she's saving ) to build a comfortable life there for us. With a little luck and planning there will be a time that we're just as comfortable there in the Philippines as a middle class existence here in the US.

We're both pretty easy to please as far as lifestyle goes. She's more frugal than I am and that's saying something.

My work nowdays is becoming more and more intense in the way that employers ( that pay anything anyway ) want you to work 100 hours a week to get things done or corrected....then they want you to go away until the next time that they need you.

Shareholders don't want people on the payroll that arent contributing (IE the old way of doing engineering projects, 40 hours a week even when things are slow) and when they DO need you, they pay. This works for me! Six months in the US, six in Luzon.

Being a US citizen will also help with certain assignments and I'll have the flexibility that few Americans can afford, six on six off.

That's fine. The life that I'm building will work around that quite nicely. Everything is paid for and hopefully for the first time in my life I can fucking relax for a few months without stress of paying for the stupid shit that I never really wanted in the fist place.

The land and housing is still cheap in rural Luzon. Her relatives have some influence and have been accumulating land there with the monies sent back from US by family.

Will it be the US? No. Will I personally like it there? I dont know. When the taxes jump up to 50%, I'll just clap the dust off my hands and say fuck it, I'm going home.

Any way we look at it, it's a win. As things deteriorate in the US, I'd expect many more to do the same.

[slang]

Originally Posted by Griff

Wait a minute, you actually ate food at a buffet? I can hear your conversation with your doc back home. "Yah it all started after I ate buffet style in the Philipines..."

It's strange that every trip the food doesnt bother me until a day or two before the trip back.

That day before there is a lot of time on the can, without fail.

It works out well because on the long flights over, I dont even like to get out of the seat. No potty stops or anything.

Once back in the US, a few hits of Imodium cures everything back to normal.

No food troubles in the long run. Good stuff and cheap too.

[slang]

A few observations from the trip.

1. People are getting FAT over there like Americans. Many have seen increases in their salaries. Not nearly enough to afford things like a new home or a car but more than enough to eat better tasting foods.

2. The adverts here in the US frequently feature Asian looking models, especially women. The adverts in Manila frequently feature American looking models, especially women.

3. If I'm going to have a conflict with someone during the flight, it's going to be some American asshead. No question about it. The Chinese are curious and friendly more than others but everyone has been extremely nice to me, except for aggressive Americans.

4. Filipinos that have moved to the US, become citizens and are visiting "the old country" often treat the locals like dogshit, and are often confrontational to even me. They are rude and condecending to the point that I have to tell them to fuck off (something that is normally reserved for home in the US)

[slang]

Just going through the collection again and have a few more to add here.

Pizza Hut and Burger King.

I've not eaten at a Pizza Hut here but the BKs are almost the same as the US. Everything is smaller, tastes a bit strange and comes with rice.

The BEST pizza that I personally have had there is from Shakey's Pizza. Although that "belly buster" pizza was actually the same size as an American medium, it was fantastic. Deep dish pizza with all the meats on it ( except monkey ).

The total bill for one good pizza, 4 cold medium sized beers, 2 sprites, and two chicken and rice meals.....just under $18. Not bad.

The beer was cold too, something that's not always the case.

[slang]

What's it like there riding around the city in a cab?

It's hard to describe accurately but here are some things that are fairly consistent.

1. The cab is going to be small. Not "Pakastan" Suzuki car small but small.

2. If the driver is an older man he's going to be listening to American Music from the 1950s and 60s. That sort of music is not my interest but was recoznizable. Dean Martin, Sinatra...the old style music where the artist could actually sing.

3. The driver will try not to activate the meter. Check the meter right after to tell him where you want to go. You should see it register "30" (pesos). If it's not, just politely ask him to set it. Trust me, you want them to set the meter. You can be generous or stingy as you want with a tip but make damn sure the meter is set. The cabs are cheap as far as cabs go, but they CAN be expensive if you get the "dumb white guy" rate. Take a second to check.

4. You will be sitting in the car in the street for much of the trip. Notice that I didn't use the term "traffic". The definition of traffic has the word "movement" in it. What you will be doing in the cab is sitting in the car, in the street.

5. There will be delivery bikes riding around you as you sit in the street waiting for whatever the fuck is holding up the flow.

This might be from some jackass unloading commerical goods from the middle of the street or someone trying to rebuild their jeepny on the fly.

The bikes will wiggle between the cab and the traffic in the next lane if possible and as soon as you stop many will jog around the traffic.

[slang]

It was surprising to see what is available at their malls. We were in the electronics section of one of the biggest mall chains ((SM, a Chinese company.) and they have a wide selection of LCD and wide screen TVs. The biggest one cost 1.5 million PHP ($30k).

Who is buying these if things are so bad there? I don't know. I would have but we couldnt find the one that I wanted.

These are pictures from the street of the SM malls.

[slang]

This photo is from the Fiesta part of the Market Market mall in Makati.

It's the food section of the mall.

There is a big roof as you see that covers the food shops and seating areas. Under the roof are smokestacks belching out bbq smoke visible in the photo.

If the wind doesnt blow the smoke smell is very strong and distracting. This day the wind wasnt blowing much.

There is also a reasonably big sign that says very clearly that there is no drinking of alcohol. Imagine turning the camera 90 degrees to the right.

There is a vendor that sells a variety of domestic and imported beer.

What? You're supposed to take it with you unopened from the mall to drink it?

Yah right.

[slang]

Another shot of the milk