1. The Rain! Right now as I type the rain is flooding the roads and garden and making a sound similar to bullets hitting the roof. 2. The Mosquitoes I am like a human blood bank for these little devils. My bites are more visible and quite a few people have commented about those red lumps on my legs. Cannot wait to leave the provinces to leave these evil monsters behind. 3. Taxi/Trike drivers These mad men of the road like to think a westerner is overflowing with money that they will easily hand over far beyond the expected fair rate and think it is a good deal.. Wrong! I am lucky that Joy's father owns a tricycle so most of the time he drives me from the city centre to the bush where Joy's family live. However, even on the odd occasion I must haggle for a price and sometimes the starting point is more than double what anyone else would pay. 4. Filipino TV After watching "Budoy", most sane people wish bad things to happen to the title character. However, here in the Philippines this native Forrest Gump is admired the country over and makes appearances in SM Malls throughout the land. "Be Happy, Be Budoy!".. 5. Skin Whitening Advertisements here tell how men prefer their women to have a nice white pale complexion. The large picture in the local Greenwich Pizza restaurant shows smiling happy white Filipino faces, yet all around there are brown faces on the patrons who eat there. SM malls have young women with white faces serve you, but their arms are brown! I hate how society here promotes a white complexion when we in the west promote a tanned complexion. Joy has beautiful skin as far as I am concerned, no need to bleach it with products designed for the late Michael Jackson. 6. Queue Busters The concept of the Queue is an alien concept to many here in the Philippines. At the British Embassy a man who I guess was trying to get a work visa walked right in front of me even though I was right at the guards window and simply turned my back from the guard to get my passport off of Joy. These seconds of my back turned amounted to an invite to gently shove me out of the way. I have experienced this in Sari Sari stores as well, though sadly I am finding myself becoming more and more Pinoy like as I barge people out of my way if they are trying to Queue bust in front of me. A trait I will need to lose upon my return to the UK. 7. The Heat Today it is hot, tomorrow it will be hot. And as I sleep tonight I will have a fan placed just a metre from my head... We Brits sure are a funny bunch.. 8. Filipino Time By this I do not mean the time being 8 hours ahead of the UK, but instead the time given by a Filipino to describe how long something will take. Such as "We will go to a cousins farm which is 5 minutes away", which then turns into an hour long drive in a Tricycle making for a ball dropping exercise in uncomfortable travel. Or the "I am on my way now", which means we are having a quick detour to a friends for a few drinks first, you will be okay to wait. Basically, if someone says that a place is five minutes away then expect a 45 minute drive, if they say it will be 15 minutes, get ready for 2 hours. If you hear someone say it will be a few hours drive, pack some food and make sure your seat is comfortable!! 9. Beggars Outside most Jollybee's you will find children who will beg for food. Some are genuine and some have been sent out by their parents to earn money the only way they can. When driving in the busy streets of Manila, lock your cars as people will knock on the window for money and have been known to open unlocked car doors for that more personal begging opportunity. 10. Dusty Roads Once out of the city the roads can become very dusty and the dust can be quite harmful to those of us not used to it. I now travel the roads with a mask over my face so that I don't suffer the same cough I had when I was here last time. A little investment would go a long way here...
I always buy the green mossie coils that you can burn in the room also - they work a treat! They are very cheap also. The coil burning under the bed and the mossie net is bliss. "Off" for the days, especially on the ankles and legs where the little buggers bite without being seen and your stay will be calm.
A can of Baygon spray will kill most evil 'nasties' in the house/apartment. You can now buy water-based non-smelly stuff. Hanna sprays our apt. twice a day and we have less insects than I have in the UK. Al.:england:
1. Agreed 2. Agreed 3. Agreed 4. Agreed 5.Agre............I think we can see where this is going!! My biggest gripes out of your list are 4 and 5. The tv blows out there and I onlt tended to watch BBC news or HBO. We don't have cable yet in the province as I refuse to pay for it when we're not there for 11 months of the year, which the wife can't seem to understand!! Plus we don't have a tv ariel yet either which I think is a bit of good send as I'm not subjected to 3 channels of toss!! Basically at the moment we use the tv for dvds and films I've, ahem, found on the net. The skin whitening thing really gets my goat as well. I've been on at the wife for years to pack in using those soaps etc but no joy yet.
People used to have to spray Baygon then get out of the room quick - it wasn't too good for the lungs! Does the new one allow people to stay indoors whilst it is being used Al?
ive recently spent a month in the philippines, and used the same spray, it says on the can spray room and close doors for 30 mins before entering
My wife only stopped when she left the Phils. She didn't listen to me before. Spousal visa = no more skin whitening
You're British you should be used to rain, it's worse in Scotland Often it's not actually Mosquitoes but can be biting ants our next door neighbour is infested with them and nothing I do ever gets rid of them from our place, but I don't come up in lumps as much as I used to eventually your body starts to tolerate them. Ana always dealt with them pretty well, there are a lot of nice ones too, if they won't agree to meter being on when you get in get out again. Cable, Star, HBO Nat Geo, Cartoon network, AXN but I don't mind the family watching the tele I actually hate it when they stop their programmes because of me, I'm not that important Ana likes the news and I like reading the tagalog news tickers trying to make sense of what they are saying. Yep I hate that simply because it is a bleedin waste of money, makes them ugly and costs a fortune. As Dom said when in Rome Love the heat Yeah sometimes like that I don't hate it but it breaks my heart to see it, even the ones being sent out by parental Fagin's are probably genuinely poor. At the same time it was one of the first things I learned was lock the doors as soon as you get in any kind of car. I have a photo of me after driving on a road like that, I won't post it coz it makes me look like I'm 75
It's like the old stuff then. Go outside in the evening and get chewed up whilst waiting for the spray to make the room safe The green coils are much better IMO - they're cheaper and don't smell bad at all
The only thing that bothers me from that list is number 6 but not quite the same. I hate queuing up (in line, man, damn it) with more than 10 people and I'm at the back. All because they won't pay for more staff to take customers' money
forget them coils...best stuff for mozzies is vodka.. drink enough of it and they wont touch ya.... i know that because the wife and klds get beaten to death by them. Okrzyki , januariius.
good point i noticed when drinking ginebra with the father and brother inlaw,after each shot they took they would pour wat was left in the shot glass onto there hands and rub there arms and legs with it, when i asked there reply was, the mozzies dont like this lotion
Never saw much rain when I was there! Mosquitoes tend to leave me alone. Taxi drivers seem to charge me their normal fare. What is Bodoy? Two ways to ruin your looks - sunbathing and bleaching. Filipinos seem to patiently queue in shops, it is the motorists who won't queue at pedestrian crossings that annoy me! Have to agree about the heat! When my fiancee and I stepped out of the shower when the air-conditioning was, she was shaking with the cold. I felt the temperature was about right! Whenever I ask how far it is to travel, they say 'not far' - they seem to have no concept of distance either! I never experienced that - probably because Jollibee was inside a security-guarded Mall. Kids did approach me on the streets for money, but I preferred to take them to the nearest food outlet and buy them food, if I thought they were really hungry. Not travelled outside the city yet. Seems I still have many of these pleasures to enjoy!! Yeah, there are lot of problems in daily living in the Philippines, but if you die there, someone will at least watch over your coffin before you are finally laid to rest! Don't you find that comforting?
I'm guessing it's this 'Budoy' some episodes here Personally I don't mind Tagalog teledrama's and I've gone to a good few Tagalog movies, one in particular was a great historical drama, I think I enjoyed it more than Ana I still love the heat, I would prefer the aircon off at night unless it was really oppressively hot, most of the nights are quite cool where we are but Ana has it running all night in the bedroom. Ana only undertstands distance in time, the UK is 18 hours away, Korea is 4 hours away, Bagio is 6 hours away (makes it nearer than Korea ) If it takes more than 15 minutes then it has to be something she wants to do I've been to several funerals in the Phils and also attended the cemetery to visit Tatay's grave on All Saints day many times, I tend to agree with you Howerd it is comforting. All Saints day 2008 By comparison when Ana and I visited my mothers grave in Scotland in 2007 we were the only ones in the whole place apart from the gardeners
