Good Morning Manila!

[CrazyOne]

Actually, we're staying in Tagaytay City, about 50 miles south of Manila, located on the northern rim of the beautiful Lake Taal. We're here to visit my wife's family and celebrate her mom's 90th birthday. (Dad already turned 93 in January).

Sadly, we're also here for a funeral. A niece was hit and run over by a jeepney carrying a load of coconuts.

Any of the posters from here in the Philippines, drop me a line.

I'll post pictures if I have the time.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I'm very sorry about your niece.





Ordinarily I'd ask you to pick up some envelopes as I usually do with my friends who travel to Manila, but under the circumstances I think I'll refrain from such nonsense.

[Guru of Nothing]

Sorry to hear the sad news.

On a lighter note, riding in a taxi in Manila traffic is one of the most unique experiences ever.

[mouse]

Yo Crazy how was the flight? How long was it?

How is the US Dollar over there? Is there any Mexican food?
Is where your at past the equator? I heard the drains turn counter clockwise when you past the equator.

What type of speed does the CPU have you are using?
can you see any spur games?

Thanks

[Inbred]

Pssssst!
His wife is a nurse, and she is from the Philippines, And she speaks better English than me and half the mexicans in San Antonio, and she makes over 25 bucks an hour :lmao

[Mr Hanky]

'The 2005 Foot In mouth award goes to.....
please don't bring back any nurses, we have plenty of those, non-english speaking, low pay asking, suck ass(kiss ass) nurses already.

:lmao

[Kori Ellis]

please don't bring back any nurses, we have plenty of those, non-english speaking, low pay asking, suck ass(kiss ass) nurses already.

Don't be so fucking rude and bigoted.

[KEDA]

Don't be so fucking rude and bigoted.


W3RD

[Clandestino]

maybe if we would have passed the bond sa could produce more local nurses for flash... oh well, until then... a shortage is a shortage and has to be dealt with anyway possible

[CrazyOne]

(It's easy to ignore the nincompoops... especially when they're less educated and less fluent and infinitely lower class than my wife... jealousy don't wear well on you, dude.)

Between a late afternoon start, about 20 hours in flight plus a number of hours on layovers (we we're in the Seattle airport around 2:00 am and fell asleep and almost missed the boarding call), it was almost three whole days without a shower.

Out in the provinces, water pressure is irregular at best. We have a nice bathroom and shower stall, but not enough water to run the shower (and no running hot water anyway.) So the typical shower means you fill up a bucket with water and you have a small pitcher to scoop it out and pour it over yourself. Now, for someone who prefers sauna-like shower conditions, this presents a problem. (If this is TMI, you ladies can just picture a Robert Redford looking character with a few days worth of beard... guys, no mental pictures please.) So we heat a teakettle and pour it in to heat up the water in the bucket. Not a bad way to conserve water.. only takes 5 gallons for a whole shower.

Right now it's in the middle of the hot part of summer. The second part of the summer is July and August, and it's the rainy season. Manila averages in the high 80s and 90s, but we're in an elevated area (think Hill Country) so it's generally about 10 degrees or more cooler. (By the way, we are north of the equator here, just like in Texas, so I can't confirm the drain thing.)

Right now I'm at a Shoe Mart Mall, a three story mall in Das Marinas in Cavite. It's not as big as the Mega Malls in Makati or a few other places, but they do have a couple internet cafes, fortunately. And I haven't seen another Kano (American) here at the mall.

Well, I gotta run and get back to the rest of the family down in the grocery store. I appreciate all the kind words about our loss.

I'll share a little about the housing and the food when I get back on.

Go Spurs Go!

(Stupid mall has Laker gear and Pistons and Cavaliers stuff... but it's okay, we bought Spurs shirts for the whole clan here.)

[Al Sharpton]

Are there any black folks around? :lmao

And how does Ruth's parents live so long? is it the food? part of the world?
how long have they been married?

[CrazyOne]

You gotta start the day off right over here, and breakfast is good. Like every meal, there's a lot of rice, usually just white rice, but sometimes fried rice too. Of course there's the standard fried eggs. In our family the usually cook tocino, like ham with a lot of sweetener on it. And just like the rice, every meal usually comes with one or two types of fish. There's the standard fried slices, and then there are smaller fish that are pan-fried whole. I'm not much of a fish eater, and I have a phobia about eating small bones, so I usually stick to the big fried slices. One of my favorite things are the small breakfast rolls called pandesol. For some reason, the baker over in this area makes a small roll that is a little sweeter than regular bread, and there's just something about it that makes it hard to stop after a half-dozen. We're planning to bring back as much as we can and freeze it when we get home.

[CrazyOne]

Depending on what you need and how quick you need it, there are a lot of options. For the quick run to the store for a soda or laundry soap, just walk over to the nearest sari-sari store. About every second or third house on the main road will have a little booth set up right off the road. They stock up on the basic food stuffs and popular snacks, as well as most kitchen needs. Think of them as miniature Diamond Shamrocks.

In our area, there's plenty of agriculture. Just looking out the window right now I can see coffee trees, calamansi (a small citrus, similar to Mexican limes but with a distinct flavor), banana trees (there are a couple dozen varieties, one of the best is a small one that seems to combine banana flavor with hints of pineapple and orange... don't know how that happens, but it's good!). There are also coconut trees (last night just had a slice of pie made from fresh coconut meat - masarap!) There are plenty of mangos, papayas, guava and a number of others I don't know well. One of my favorites is called langka or jackfruit. It's a big thing, larger than a watermelon, growing off the side of the tree. Under the outer skin, it breaks apart into smaller sections. It has a sweet flavor, not sour at all. Along the main roads, you'll see areas that have booth after booth of fruit stands.

The next step up is the market areas. Some resemble small strip malls with a bunch of stores sharing the same buildings. If you've been to a market area down in Mexico, it's the same idea.

Then there are the malls. The biggest store chain around here is Shoe Mart. The bigger ones are housed in the Shoe Mart Mega Malls. The larger ones are five stories. The last one I went to had one whole floor with just computer and electronic stores and mobile phone stores. Mobile phones are very common, but mostly used to send text messages, because they generally charge a lot more for the voice usage. The Shoe Mart itself kind of like the Super WalMarts, but the clothing area is more like a JCPenney or a little more upscale. The Shoe Mart occupies the center of the mall building, the bottom floor will be the grocery area, and then the upper two or three floors will be clothing, home accessories and the like. As soon as our driver gets here, we'll be heading out to one today. (There's a 13 hour difference, so it's Tuesday morning here right now.)

[CrazyOne]

Mark, to answer your questions.. there are a few, but I imagine they are usually in the tourist areas. I haven't seen any other kanos (Americans) since I've been here this time. Ruth's parents probably have been helped by a lifetime of hard work and a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables - so much for our chances of a long life, eh? This August they will celebrate their 73rd anniversary. I'm looking forward to the return trip in 2007 for their 75th.

[mouse]

Rice and fish for breakfast? are you sure your not on Survivor ? :lmao

Dude next time you go on vacation pick a country where there is a wallmart close by.
or maybe according to FlashGordon wallmart is a bad idea since they hire wetback Mexicans for low pay that can't speak English :lmao

[CrazyOne]

Mouse, we went out to a nice restaurant last night, took about 20 people.. the whole bill for the group came to just over $100. And we took lots of leftovers home. So for breakfast, we have the usual rice, eggs, bread and fish plus some fried squid (a little on the chewy side, sine Ate Pina refried it).

El, the main language around here is Tagalog. It's the regular dialect for the Manila area, and is considered the national language - and sometimes people just call it Filipino. There are over 70 dialects in all... The two owners of the home health agency I work for on a part time basis come from the island group in the central part of the country called the Visayas. When they speak to each other in their own dialect, the other Filipinos working there don't really understand much.

And to correct some more ignorance... I won't argue about how contrived the nursing shortage is, but the nurses here are trained just as well as in the states. The only thing they lack is some of the newer technology to work on, but that is true of stateside nurses who have been out of school for a few years. The hospitals don't look at your GPA, they look at your RN exam results, and anybody who comes to Texas has to pass the RN exam here, just like my wife did. I don't know where your experience lies, and I'm sure there are a few filipino nurses with poor skills, just like any other group. But ask the people who actually know about these things, and you'll find that they universally consider Filipinos to be above average in nursing ability and work habits. When you come from a place where there's no welfare and you have to work for any little thing you need, you tend to develop good work habits.

[CrazyOne]

If you don't like spiders... don't look up. All through the power lines and above fences are teeming masses of these huge spiders, like over-sized orb-weavers. My first couple visits over here I kept looking up thinking one would plop down on top of me. Fortunately, they never leave their nests (or so I've been told.) When I get back home I'll update with pictures.

I'm at a mall in Dasmarinas... the security guard at the entrance to the parking lot carries a sawed off shotgun.

In the ShoeMart store, they have customer assistants at every row of clothes or display. Mostly young, skinny girls in short skirts... I think they don't feed them unless they bring in a sale. Of course, I find it hard to resist the urge to buy... :angel

[CrazyOne]

Well, in 12 hours we head out to the airport. It will be tough to leave, especially on Ruth, because her dad really needs her here since Marissa died. For the last several days, she had to run an IV antibiotic on him. He has an infection that is resistant to all the oral medications, the only thing that will work is the IV type. We just hope it works.

But I look forward to two things... broadband and A/C... not sure which is more important.

[CrazyOne]

I finally got to make up for a shortfall from 20 years ago. Check out this place... http://www.fuegohotels.com/taal/body.html

When Ruth and I got married here 20 years ago, we planned to have our honeymoon at Taal Vista Lodge. Unfortunately, we didn't make reservations and they were booked solid when we got there that evening after the wedding. Well, Ruth wasn't about to go back home. We found a country club that had a few small lodges to rent. They even gave us a great deal... half price of the usual rent. Not because it was our honeymoon... because the electricity was out. Oh, and their generator also ran the water pump, so no water either. So they gave us a couple candles and a bucket of water.

We made do.

Taal Vista Hotel was much better... electricity, hot and cold running water, and best of all... AIR CONDITIONING. It was also nice that we didn't hear the constant rumble and roar of traffic outside our window.

I'll post pictures of the place when I get back.