Wednesday, July 14, 2010

More Island Life

I spent five more quick weeks in the Philippines.  Many of my days I spent wandering around by myself, but nearly every night I went out and found people to talk to.  I traveled a good mix of small islands, big cities and rural country.  No single place was exceptionally noteworthy, but I always found someone or something that kept my interest. 

Of the major Filipino islands, Palawan is the least developed.  Roads become unmanageable during the rainy season, ATMs exist in only one city, and electricity is rationed in smaller towns.  While access to the island is not difficult, it is time consuming, which limits the number of visiting tourists.  The primary attraction of Palawan is an archipelago of limestone-cliff islands set in vividly clear, blue water.   I spent about a week here, island hopping and relaxing.


From Philippines - part 2



From Philippines - part 2


From Philippines - part 2


The snorkeling here is top-notch, made even better by the surreal color and clarity of the water.  Every now and then, life gives you a really unexpected moment of wonder.   Near a rocky outcropping, a massive school of mackerel were taking shelter from the open sea.  Millions of fish, changing direction in unison, swam in figure-eight patterns around the underwater rock columns.  I swam into the middle of the school and was completely surrounded by a wall of fish on all sides.   Motionless, I floated just below the surface of the water, watching flashes of silver dart back and forth, feeling really lucky.

My friend took this picture, which sort of captures the moment: 


At first glance, El Nido, the small town used as a base for island hopping, is nothing special to look at.  It's lined with modest, beach-front restaurants and the entire town is small enough to be covered by foot in 15 minutes.  The people of El Nido gave it a certain charm.  While walking down the street, everyone made eye contact with me and smiled.  I rented a motorbike without the need to hand over my passport or a credit card.  The guy at the rental shop explained that it was a small place and if anything happened, he'd find me.  Riding into the unpaved country-side, I was greeted enthusiastically by every child who happened to be out playing in the yard or walking down the street.  It was hard to be comfortable in the midday heat and I got hit with a craving for ice cream.  After poking my head into a few store fronts I stupidly realized that of course there was no ice cream, the electricity is cut every day from 6am - 2pm.

I met Mel, an outgoing 24 year old, waiting tables at a beachfront restaurant and was immediately impressed with his knowledge of world geography and American politics.  We started talking about travel and he quickly listed off a number of places he'd like to go.  His confidence had led me to believe that he had already done some traveling, and was thus a little shocked when I learned that he had never even left the island.  I had a hard time believing that being as smart as we was, he couldn't manage to find a way to leave.  El Nido is the type of place where it would be easy to ignore the rest of the world, but he's constantly keeping up on current events and and spends his free time taking the vocab quizzes in Reader's Digest.  Not satisfied with his degree in finance, he was looking for a way to continue schooling.  I felt really bad for him, ambitious but stuck.  After the restaurant closed, we sat on the beach with his friends and drank beer.

With a population just shy of a million, Cebu City is described by my guidebook as an entree-sized version of Manila: noisy, crowded and dirty.  The guidebook authors recommend against spending your vacation here.  All this is true, but it's not fair to trash the city without mentioning the incredible BBQ found in the city center.  There is a huge tent area, filled with dozens of vendors offering cheap, tasty bbq.  The meat is raw and skewered, you pick what you want and it's grilled for you on demand.  The collective smoke from each bbq is trapped under the giant tent, which has almost no ventilation, and it smells wonderful.


From Philippines - part 2


I had a reunion with Rowelyn, the girl who gave me a ride from the airport to my hotel on my first day in the Phillipines.  She had been living in Taiwan for 3 years as a caretaker for elderly people.  Her next gig is in Fort Nelson, British Columbia.  It's not possible for her to make a decent wage in the Philippines, so she must work abroad.  I had assumed that Fort Nelson was a suburb of Vancouver, but I looked it up and it's a town of 5,000 on the same latitude as Anchorage.  A little worried for her, I asked if she knew exactly where Fort Nelson was.   She had not bothered to look it up!  I suggested that she do a little research, because come this January, she is going to be in a world of hurt.  One night the weather dropped to a frigid 80 degrees and everyone was wearing jackets.  She doesn't even know what minus 20 feels like.  Her obligation is technically 2 years, but her friends in Toronto have promised a transfer after only a few months.  I can't wait to see how this turns out. 

The Philippines face a problem common to many third-world countries, which is that the most educated tend to work and live abroad.  I just read that the United States receives more nurses from the Philippines than any other country.  I met several nursing students in Cebu, all of whom were planning on working abroad.  Staying home just doesn't seem to be an option.  One girl, who was shy, short and really petite, was just finishing up her nursing degree and said that I was the first American she had ever talked to.  She said Americans frightened her because American people are so big, which made me laugh.  She is apprehensive about working in the U.S. because she heard Americans don't like immigrants.  I wasn't sure what to say.  On one hand, I can't imagine anyone being mean to this girl, on the other hand, I couldn't promise her that she won't face any discrimination.  Not long after meeting her, I read an article about several Filipina nurses being fired from a Baltimore hospital for speaking Tagalog during their lunch break.  Maybe she should be apprehensive about Americans.

I met Jill, a Couchsurfing Filipina who owns her own coffee shop and hosts Couchsurfing get-togethers.  There I met a few other Filipinos, a French guy, a German girl and two Dutch guys.  After a night of hanging out at the coffee shop, the 7 of us took a weekend trip to a nearby island.  We stayed out on the beach all night and watched the sun rise.
   
The French guy (29 yrs old) is on a "travel-around-the-world" trip similar to my own.  He spent his first three months volunteering in Mali, which I was very interested to hear about.  He had a classic storyof signing up for one thing and getting thrown into something completely different.  Working without any other western counterparts, he secured quite of bit of funding on infrastructure projects.  His contribution was significant enough that his village gave him a piece of land to call his own.  So if nothing else works out for him, he will always be a land-owner in Mali, so he has that going for him, which is nice.

The two Dutch guys are both living in the Philippines for a one-year volunteer program with a Catholic organization.  One teaches high school for underprivileged kids and the other works in an orphanage for boys.  I asked if they were surprised by any aspect of the work they're doing.  Garbage was their the answer.  Filipinos definitely have a littering problem.  It is really frustrating for them to see the adults of the organization just throwing trash out the window and letting it pile up outside.  Filipino cities are full of litter, a problem that all classes of people seem to contribute to.  I read that because of the country's long history of colonization and war, and disdain for a corrupt government, Filipinos lack a sense of ownership on public space.  It seems to me to be a strange and unfortunate mentality.

Of course there are exceptions, but generally speaking, the cities here are completely lacking aesthetically.  Broken and dirty concrete covers the streets and buildings.  Grass is almost non-existent and sidewalks are poorly laid out.  My hunch is that all this has contributed to the success of the shopping mall here.  Shopping malls are incredibly successful, sometimes with their own mega-courtyards for outdoor shopping.  For cities that have grown up without any city planning, the mall is refreshingly clean and organized.

Back in the city I met Kim, attractive with a combative personality, at one of the trendy night spots.  Her friends showered me with attention, which made me a little suspicious given my daily run-ins with sex workers.  But I saw them out again the next night and they were equally friendly without any hint that they were trying to drum up business.  As we made small talk, I mentioned the hostel where I was staying.  At $7 per night, it was probably the cheapest place in the city.  I made a comment about how it was pretty bare-bones accommodation.  Kim's responded by saying that I probably didn't understand how poor she was and that the place I was staying was much nicer than where she lived.  This surprised me, as I definitely hadn't pegged her as being desperately poor.

Fast-forward a few days:  While hanging out with Jill and our crew of couchsurfers on our weekend get-a-way, I got a text message from Kim saying that if I came back to the city, her landlord had an extra room for $30/month.  To put things into perspective, a decent hotel room starts around $15/night, so $30/month is really, really cheap, even by Filipino standards.  I texted back and said that I would probably just get a hotel room.  She was oddly persistent that I should stay there.

At this point I should say something about my travel philosophy, which is to try to never say no to an opportunity.  This has mostly worked out for the best, although it sometimes lands me in uncomfortable situations.  Riding the bus back to the city, I was curious to see where Kim lived, if she was as poor as she said she was.  When I got my hotel at 10:30pm, they were all booked up.  With this news, I figured I might as well go and see what Kim was trying to sell.

The taxi dropped me off at the designated street corner, in a not-so-nice neighborhood.  I stood there with my backpack on, trying to figure out where to go.  A young couple came up to me, looking really concerned that I was standing there, and asked me where I was going.  "Uh....just looking for my friend."  Then they asked where I was staying.  "Um, hopefully with my friend."  They asked what I would do if I couldn't find my friend.  "Yeah, I don't know."   I eventually found her and her house.  She was renting a room from her friend's family.  The downstairs was damp concrete and cinder block, the walls crawling with cockroaches.  Off the main room was a single water spigot, used for all kitchen and bathroom needs.  Upstairs the walls and bedrooms where single sheets of plywood.  Kim's room, which would become my room, was just big enough to have a twin-size wooden platform as a bed, with no mattress or pad.  There was no ventilation and the air was stifling hot.  Within two minutes of arriving, Kim was insisting that I fix her laptop, which wouldn't boot. 

I carry a portable version of Linux on a USB drive, which is ideal for troubleshooting computers.  As I sat there on the wooden bed, sweat pouring off my body, I had to look around and laugh.  It was definitely not a situation I could have ever imagined being in.  After determining that her hard drive had unfortunately died, I asked if I could take a shower.  Kim and her friend led me back downstairs to the spigot, where I filled a bucket of water.  I was a little confused, because I was essentially standing in a hallway, and there was no door to close me off from the main room.  Her friend looked at me and said I should just turn off the light.  Ok.

Still trying to figure out the bedroom situation, I asked Kim what the deal was.  Since she originally told me that there was an extra room for rent, but clearly I was taking over her room.  She said she would just sleep downstairs with her friend.  The next morning I packed my stuff up and said I was just going to get a hotel room.  She seemed disappointed.  I couldn't really see a reason for my staying there, just to save a few dollars.  I said goodbye and jumped in a taxi.  Later that day I got a text from Kim asking for a HUGE favor, she needed to borrow some money.  How much money, I asked.  Big surprise, she needed $30, the exact amount she was going to rent her room to me.

Now things were starting to make sense.  She promised to pay me back within two days, and that it was really important that she get the money.  Of course this raises all sorts of questions, none of which have convincing answers.

Kim had gotten married when she was 21 to an English guy.  After 7 months she discovered he was cheating on her.  Her heart broken, she divorced him.  She had been in a string of relationships with other Europeans, always ending the same way.  Her last serious boyfriend was a German guy who was "separated" from his wife, but not really.  Kim didn't have a job, but received some sort of regular alimony payment from her ex-husband. She was living with her friend because she wasn't getting along with her dad, but wouldn't tell me exactly why.

The money she needed was to get her identification papers in order so that she could get a job at a call center.  Call centers (mostly for banks and credit cards) are a coveted job for unskilled Filipinos.  I heard this from other people as well.  I told Kim that I wasn't comfortable lending her money but I would still like to be friends with her.  The next day she sent me another text saying that if I could lend her $16 dollars, it would really help her out.  I'm not so naive that I believed I could lend her money and get paid back.  But for $16 dollars, I could fund a little drama, see how it played out, and maybe, just maybe, help Kim get a job.  I was pretty well convinced that she had absolutely no money and was waiting for her alimony to arrive.  She promised to pay me back just as soon as she could.  The upside is that she got her job at the call center.  After two days of hearing that she was still waiting for her money, I stopped asking.

Getting the chance to scratch beneath the surface of Kim's life was interesting for me.  Her life is a little bit of a mess, but I have hope for her.  It's was interesting to because in many ways her story is not unique.  I met a 20 yr old girl on the street.  Not a prostitute, just someone who wanted to talk.  She told me she was leaving in a few weeks to visit her friend in Thailand, where she was going to work.  It turned out that her "friend" was a 60 yr old American guy, who needed someone to help "care" for him.  She had been chatting with him online for two years and now he was paying to have to come to Thailand for 3 months.  There are a number of troubling questions about this situation, and she was understandably nervous about going.  She was a bright and articulate girl, and still, she saw Thailand as her best option for making some money.  On another occasion,  I met a young, nice-looking prostitute outside of a night club who offered to go home with me.  After I declined her offer, she was more persistent and said that she didn't need any money, just some food to eat.  I told I didn't have any food at home.  Really desperate just to get some food, she offered to cook for me.  Those kind of conversations never make you feel good. 

Other run-ins with prostitutes were more light-hearted.  At one bar I had a number of different girls come sit next to me and asked if I could buy them a drink.  I think it's a quick, polite way to find out if you're interested in doing business with them.  One girl sat down and asked me if I like "short time".  This kind of broken English is common in Vietnam or Thailand, but not in the Philippines.  I wasn't sure if I heard her correctly and asked her to repeat herself.  "Do I like short time?" I replied back.  "What's short time?"
"Boom boom short time."
"Ah, boom boom short time......no thanks."

Filipina girls are somewhat plagued by social-economic problems that lead to all these situations.  But one thing I kept hearing over and over again was that they didn't like Filipino guys.  So many of them are looking for a Western guy.  At one restaurant, I made friends with the waitress and bartender.  We went out after their shift and one of the girls, who was around 25 yrs old had just married a German guy who was 60.  They had their first child together and were building a new house.  She could not be happier about her situation.  My impression is that Filipino guys have a reputation for not treating their women very well, and the Western influence and affluence is just more attractive to Filipinas, who don't seemed to be concerned about age gaps.  I guess it's a win-win situation. 

On from Cebu City I bounced around to a few smaller cities, rented motorbikes, and explored the country side.  One afternoon I was passing through a forested area outside a small town and came upon an open-air arena filled with people, betting on the cock fights.  I've never been to anything quite like it, so the the novelty factor was high.  The fights only last a few minutes and it's rare that an injured bird will make a come-back.  The appeal is lost on me, but those are the kinds of random things that you hope to find when you just pick a direction and ride.
 


From Philippines - part 2


From Philippines - part 2


On another day I was out riding around in a very rural area and stopped at a roadside bbq stand.  The only other people there was a group of older guys who quickly invited me to sit with them.  I ended up eating and drinking with them for a few hours, sharing stories and answering questions about our lives.  One guy, an ex-policeman, was convinced that I was trained military or intelligence because I was out there, traveling alone, and feeling completely at home.  Really funny stuff. 


From Philippines - part 2



From Philippines - part 2


I spent my last days in the Philippines back in Boracay, the ultra-tourist beach town.  Geographically, it was on the way back to Manila, but also I wanted to take it easy for a few days before heading to Mongolia, my next destination.  I arrived in Ulaanbaaatar, Mongolia's capital city, on July 1st.  It's definitely another place all together. 

more shameless sunset pics:

From Philippines - part 2


From Philippines - part 2