OT: Philippines in my future...

[AnthonyD]

My cousin and his family have plans to spend the first two weeks of January in the Philippines (his wife is Filipino, they have wealthy family "back home", etc.).

Anyway, Sunday we're at his house for dinner taking about their upcoming trip and my wife makes a comment about my having so much free time these days and how much MORE fun he would be having if I were to join him...

There's no further discussion at the house... My wife discuss it on the way home Sunday night - she's totally supportive, thinks it would be great. But I tell her I'm not going to bring it up again - "Let's just see what happens"...

Monday morning there's an e-mail with all his flight information and a call from him telling me I gotta come along - everyone on his side is completely cool with it. They even called the Uncle in the Philippines to make absolutely sure!

Tuesday morning I'm ticketed and part of the trip - my head is spinning...






Now - all you bass-playing world travelers... What do I need to know!?

 

[Psycho Ward]

Now - all you bass-playing world travelers... What do I need to know!?

Take your Passport and have FUN!

You're going to have a Blast!

 

[Jodizzle]

Duh!!!
No pics = No Phillippines

 

[TNT]

Anthony,

Your mission, should you decide to take it, "plant the MM seed in the Phillipines!! Take ALL your basses along, every last one of them. It's worth the extra money and labor - relatives need to see these!

 

[Abiatha]

Lots of tasty food there.
Get the balut, and a beer to go with it. You will instantly earn respect and awe.
(Warning: this is a FERTILIZED duck or chicken egg, incubated about 17 days.)
I prefer 12 to 14 days; no beak!
Lots of different types of lumpia, (egg roll/spring roll) fried and otherwise, all good.
Halo-halo (shaved ice w/cream) is a great way to finish a meal, as is durian (weird fruit, smells like rotting corpses, tastes yummy, consistency like custard).
Adobo is a style of cooking similar to teriyaki.
Everything tastes good this way, especially pork.

People are very friendly, and with family members being native,you'll be an honorary pinoy by the time you get back!

 

[adouglas]

You need to accessorize.

This look should go over well:

 

[Freddels]

Remember that the girls in the bar probably cannot really "love you long time" and are just looking for a greencard.

 

[AnthonyD]

Lots of tasty food there.
Get the balut, and a beer to go with it. You will instantly earn respect and awe.
(Warning: this is a FERTILIZED duck or chicken egg, incubated about 17 days.)
I prefer 12 to 14 days; no beak!...

Oh boy... See!? This is what I was afraid of!

 

[Aussie Mark]

Your mission, should you decide to take it, "plant the MM seed in the Phillipines!!

As a Westerner with a fat wallet you will be presented with many opportunities to plant seed.

PS. San Miguel Pilsener is an excellent beer!

 

[AnthonyD]

Thanks guys (& Jodie!)...

I am very excited - been to Asia only once before (Thailand) and I would not expect to make a trip to this part of the world this before I reach the proverbial "retirement" stage of my life.

I am tagging along with 15 or so adult and children extended family members, more than half of whom are Philippine-born or 1st generation American. And we'll be visiting with their family members.

Apparently some of these folks we are staying with are very well-to-do, as I am hearing stories about the house-staff, the drivers and the body-guards that will be tending to our every need while there.

It's sure to be an adventure - and yes, there will be plenty of pictures!

 

[roburado]

Going to the Philippines, eh?

January is a good time to go. It's going to be cheaper to go there during that time, I believe than Christmastime, which is high season for travelling to the Philippines.

Just be prepared to be very patient wherever you go. Everything will be inefficient. Everything will be slow. In Manila traffic is ridiculous. At the wrong time of day, at the wrong time of week (i.e., Friday night), it can take 3 hours to go a half a mile.

I recommend that you don't drink the water. Get bottled water wherever you go. Don't eat any fresh vegetables. Fruit is fine if you peel and eat it yourself. Coconut juice is fine.

This is a good place to start to see what kinds of vaccination issues you might have to worry about. http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinationPhilippines.aspx#vaccines I wouldn't say these are absolute necessities, but you never know. I'd be remiss if I didn't alert you to the issues. Personally, I have gone to and from the Philippines without receiving a single vaccination. I got some while I was over there just because they were available to me while going to school over there.

Do you know where in the Philippines you'll be staying? I'm certainly more familiar with the Manila area than any other, because I lived there for five years. I've only done brief trips to areas outside of Manila.

Some nice places to go? Boracay Island is a great place to go. So are the El Nido resorts near Palawan are great. I hear the Pearl Farm in Mindanao is great. But...for the Westerner, I'd steer clear of Mindanao resorts. I don't know. The security issues seem like they're better now than they were about five or six years ago when I was coming to the end of my time at school there.

So, they say no pics, no Philippines? Give me a few minutes.

 

[roburado]

Okay, here are pics. These pics are from a visit to the Philippines last December.

I said to be prepared for traffic? I'm not just talking about cars. I'm talking about people too. Here's a great example of the overcrowding that can sometimes occur, especially in Manila. On my last trip to Manila I flew into the main terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to which every airline but Philippine airlines flies into. PAL has their own terminal, which is a lot less congested. Getting in and out of there seems to be easier than the main terminal. What these two pics show are people waiting at the curb for their rides to pick them up. What you didn't see was the walk to get there. It probably took me 20 minutes to get to the point depicted in this picture from exiting the terminal. That's on top of the hour plus it took to get through immigration, get my bags, and get through customs.

People to the right of me.

People to the left of me.

They weren't kidding about the San Miguel Pale Pilsen. The version of San Miguel that's sold here is nothing compared to what they have there. It tastes so much better there. When you get one of these, make sure that you wipe the bottle rim before you put it to your lips. Do it and you'll see what I mean. Don't worry. Drink it. You'll be fine. The balut is a big thing in my mom's hometown, because that's their product there. Here are my relatives eating balut and drinking the Pale Pilsen.

Honestly, I didn't take too many pictures in Manila that would be interesting to anyone but my family. So, I won't show those.

I mentioned Boracay Island. Here are some pics from my trip there. I believe that was the weekend before Christmas. It was also the week after a typhoon had hit and caused some significant damage to some of the businesses there.

This is the plane that took my friend and me to Boracay. This is at the airport at Caticlan, a short boat ride from Boracay.

After we landed at Caticlan, we had to take a short van ride to the docks where our outrigger boat banka awaited. Here's our boat. That's my friend with the black shirt and backpack.

The boat ride looked something like this. This is all I could get for a pic, because the clear plastic covering the sides of the boat wasn't very optically...uh...what's the word? I didn't think I could get a good shot through it.

Our hotel was one of the businesses that got pummelled by the typhoon. Here it is from the front.

Here it is from the back. There is definitely some typhoon damage that is apparent in this pic. On the left of the pic, one can see the restaurant area. Just in front of the restaurant area is a downed palm tree that crashed through the hotel's wooden sign. You can also see some of the awnings have come crashing down and not replaced as of the time of this pic.

I'd say our hotel was one of the mid-priced places on the famous Boracay White Beach. Next door was Waling-Waling, one of the upscale establishments. Here is the beachfront side of Waling-Waling.

You can see in front of both hotels some areas where you can lounge in the shade on a beach chair or bench. This is my view from one of those beach chairs.

My friend wanted to get herself a little sun.

She later joined me in the shade and took this pic.

This is looking North from our area of the beach.

Looking South.

Here is the main drag on the White Beach. There's lots to eat and drink along this strip.

Boracay is a fun place to go if you want sun, fun, and to get away from the congested city. A lot of foreigners go there. A lot of Europeans (especially Germans), Australians, Canadians, Koreans, and Japanese like to go there. Of course, the place is still popular with Filipinos. It's nice to go there for a long weekend. Personally, I'd like to go spend a week there one time. Some might think it's too long to spend there, but if you're into Scuba diving, it's not a bad place to do it apparently. It's pretty inexpensive to do that there, so my Scuba diving friends tell me. I hear there's some good diving there. (Palawan is probably better, I'm told.) Boracay is a great place to do nothing except relax. It might bore some, but if you'll be fine just lounging on the beach, maybe doing some diving, renting a jetski, or something, then going out for a drink or two at night. Well, it might just be for you. There are some pretty good spas if you're into that kind of thing.

I'd recommend Mandala Spa. http://www.mandalaspa.com/ It's about the coolest place to have a massage or other spa treatment. We did a couple's type massage package in one of their resort villas. I highly recommend it. They wash your feet in a floral bath. They do the massage with your choice of fragrant (or not so fragrant) oils. They give you a chance to have a floral bath. You can have a shower after that if you like. Then, they give you a nice tea after you're done.

If you're into golf, you can go up to Fairways and Bluewaters. IIRC, there are some good views up there.

 

[AnthonyD]

Hey Rob - Thanks!

I've heard a few things about Mindanao and Westerners - we won't be anywhere near that part of the country!

For the most part we will be right around and north of Manila. The few places I've heard are Makati (a part of Metro Manila - in the South Forbes part) and the Mountain Province, Baguio City. We also may visit Batangas Provence, Lipa city.

 

[roburado]

A few more things. If you have to ride in a taxi, tell them to use the meter. If not, they'll charge you a flat rate that's out of line with what the trip should really cost.

I might be a little bit selective with when and where I would be bringing a nice digital SLR like yours, Anthony. Don't want to make yourself a target for theft. I would definitely bring a backup, pocket-sized, easily concealable camera like one of the Canon Powershot cameras. That way you can still take some pics wherever you go, but you can still be a little less conspicuous about it.

Bring toilet paper wherever you go. I'm not kidding.

 

[AnthonyD]

Wow - great pics! Thanks for the photo-tour!

We'll be coming into Manila on PAL (whew!).

And the Balut is not for me... I so hope I don't offend anyone, but I don't think I could eat that. I rarely eat eggs at all, and when I do prepare anything with eggs (say like Sunday morning pancakes), I pick out the embryo and the bit of "line" that secures the yolk to the shell.

I'm a nut like that. Drives my wife crazy every time I do.

 

[roburado]

I generally spend most of my time in Manila in the Makati/Forbes area. It can be very busy there with lots of traffic, but there are a lot of nice places to go hang out and eat. I think I'd probably stay away from sushi, though. Even steamed clams could kind of wreak havoc with your intestinal tract.

There are some nice restaurants at the Greenbelt shopping center in Makati. There's a pretty darn good Filipino restaurant at Greenbelt. I wish I could remember the name of it. It's Post something, I think.

There is a condo/shopping development called Serendra just behind Forbes at the former Fort Bonifiacio army base. I'm sure more has opened up at Serendra. It's pretty new. I just heard about a new steakhouse there called Mamou, which is supposedly on-par with steakhouses here. I also ate at a nice Spanish restaurant there. Serendra seems like the hot, new place these days. There's also some good Indian and Middle Eastern food in the area.

Anyway, Makati is pretty much the center of everything in the Manila area.

There is one outstanding restaurant I went to during my last visit. It's called Lolo Dad's. It's basically gourmet Filipino cuisine. It's really fantastic. It's a small place in Manila proper, in the district of Ermita. I think it's on Quirino Blvd. near Taft Avenue. It's excellent.

 

[roburado]

Hmm...Mountain Province, I think that area is endemic for malaria, IIRC. Malaria pills wouldn't be a bad idea. I would definitely bring some mosquito repellent. DEET-containing mosquito repellent is supposedly good. Permethrin sprays for mosquito nets are supposed to be good. I definitely wear jeans out in the boonies. Actually, I wear jeans, socks, and shoes in the city too to decrease the risk of mosquito bites. Never mind disease. I just find the itching to be really annoying. I don't necessarily wear long sleeves around, but the CDC seems to recommend it if you're going to be out in the rural areas. I'd definitely bring a wide-brimmed hat for sun protection.

Don't discount the benefit of using that mosquito repellent in the city either. Dengue is a danger. A friend of mine went home to the Philippines. He was stuck there for, I think, two months recuperating from Dengue.

Take a good look at that CDC page for vaccination info.

Batangas is a great area to spend some time. About 6 years ago, I was out there for 6 weeks, living amongst the locals. Depending on where you go, you can get a real handle for the poverty that's out there. It's humbling, actually. During my time in Batangas, we went over to the province of Laguna as well to see Los Banos where there is a campus of the University of the Philippines. They have some great buko (young coconut) pie there.

Since you'll be with family, I'm sure you'll be taken all over. It'll be fun. Just be careful. Don't flash a lot of cash.

Since you'll be up in Baguio, bring a light jacket for the cool temperatures there.

 

[kneeoh]

Roburado pretty much summed everything up as far as what to expect and places to go. In reference to the scuba diving in Boracay (i'm one of the scuba diving friends to whom he refers)... it is fantastic! I've gone on dives in the Carribean, the Yucatan and even a lake in Minnesota (I don't recommend that) and Boracay blows them all away. Palawan is even better, but it is a little remote.

One thing rob didn't mention is that everything is 220 volts, so make sure you have transformers for all your sundry electronics.

I hope you have a wonderful time. I haven't had the pleasure of returning there since 2000 and I truly miss it. (Like Rob, I lived there for 5 years - some of the best years of my life!)

James

 

[roburado]

About transformers. In my experience over there, the little travel transformers didn't really do a good job. I got some transformers over there for my apartment that are about the size of a couple of bricks. I just plugged my 110V stuff into the 110V outputs from the transformers. Everything seemed to work better that way. More likely than not, your cousin's in-laws will have those things all over their homes.

Sometimes, we have battery chargers or AC adapters over here that are 110 - 240V. Those are fine to use over there, but you may need some adapters. to plug them in sometimes. The adapters you might need are the ones that go from 3-prong (the two flat prongs and the one round ground) to 2-prong. Sometimes, those adapters/chargers get frighteningly hot, but I haven't had a real problem with them. Still, I rather plug my 110 - 240V stuff into 110V transformer outputs. Subjectively, I've had better results doing things that way.

 

[roburado]

Apparently some of these folks we are staying with are very well-to-do, as I am hearing stories about the house-staff, the drivers and the body-guards that will be tending to our every need while there.

Oh man, the drivers and the house-staff, man...they make everything easier.