Philippines – Hello!! » Backpacking in your 40's

Philippines – Hello!!

Carol July 6th, 2016

Ok, I haven’t been roughed it yet. The funny thing about travel books is that they tell you to find the ex-pats to find some of the best places to eat and hang out. I think I found the ex-pats. They hang out at the country club. I am dropping everything off at Meg/Jacks house (using it as home base) and enjoying a couple of weeks of relaxation while planning the next phase of my trip.

I can see why people think about retiring in the Philippines. I never thought about leaving the US, the most I have thought about is leaving CA and moving to a more tax friendly state w/ an international airport. Moving to a different country may potentially be an option. This life is nice. Massages for 1 week that cost the same as massages for 1 session in the bay area, private tennis lessons for $10 a person, Mongolian BBQ for ~$3.50 – we spend about ~$12 for lunch in the bay area, club house buffets for ~$15 per person, cooks, house cleaners, drivers, etc. The prices in the bay area have gone up in the past few years, granted it is already expensive, but there are a ton of options. Ok, back to reality. It will be another decade or 2 before I retire. I know that most of the people in the Philippines does not live like this, here is the breakdown of income distribution.

Where should we start? Food of course! My uncles, cousins, and foodie friends would appreciate this!! Meg is great – she is already introducing me to the best foods!! Mirielle is taking me to her favorites!! The top 40 foods are not for my vegetarian and non-pork eating friends.

On the top 24/40 list:

Lumpia:
- Singapore Lumpia – the small fried lumpia is what we ate in Bali, shops, and in America.
- Lumpia – the Philippines Chinese Lumpia has a flour wrapper w/ peanut/sugar mixture, dried noodles/seasoning, mixture of cooked cabbage/carrots/onions in broth, and wrapped like a burrito – Yum!
Sinigang – yum! The water spinach is yummy! I can eat this every day. Light, refreshing, and if you eat the peppers a little spicy.
Ube Ice cream – made w/ water buffalo milk. I had ube ice cream in Hawaii, but not w/ water buffalo milk.
Adobo w/ string beans. Yummy. We had chicken adobo.
Sigsig – we ate pork and fish sigsig. Tasty, but I can’t help thinking what is in it – it is like a hotdog – you just don’t want to know.
Arroz Caldo – Rice porridge Philippines style! Lots of ginger – Yum!
Laing – pork w/ taro leaves. Yum!
Pinakbet – fried veggies – I think I am w/ Meg – I don’t like the taste of the bitter gourd.
Taho – the Philippines version of warm silken tofu w/ brown sugar syrup and sago pearls. (I have tried the Vietnamese and the Japanese version in the US, I have to try them in Vietnam and Japan) – Side note – I am reading about China and in their list of inventions – I don’t know why they don’t list tofu. They list paper, printing, gun power, and compass. Tofu is a staple for millions of people. Hey where are ceramics and noodles (probable need to do a more specific google search).
Bagnet – pork w/ a crispy skin
I am forgetting a lot more – but this is good enough for now!!

Desserts: Because desserts deserve their own list. Why didn’t any of my Filipino friends tell me about these!! Yum!!

Sans Rival – Yum!! Meringue w/ butter cream (normally favored w/ anything – we shared coffee flavor) – between the crunch and the butter cream – the texture and flavor – a fun dessert to eat. I was uncouth and ate w/ my finger… who wants to create crumbs on your plate – might as well be in your mouth!
Taho – seems to be a b-fast food here, but it is a dessert in itself! Yum! Brown sugar syrup goodness w/ sago pearls! I think I like the pearls – tapioca or sago. They have to be cooked ‘just right’ – otherwise they ruin the drink or the food.
Banana Cue – it is just what is sounds like – BBQ banana on a stick. Whole banana fried in oil w/ brown sugar.

Drinks – ok just drink:

Fresh Buco – once you drink fresh buco, you will never go back to the packaged stuff – the pkg stuff has an after taste. It is basically green coconut cut, so you can stick a straw in it to drink the coconut water. Afterwards, they cut it for you to scoop out the coconut meat. This is best when it is cold – sometimes they cut the top and add ice or it is refrigerated! There seems to be a sweet point on the best tasting water – sometimes if it is too old – the water does not have the sweet after taste and the meat is harder to scope out. I had fresh coconut water before, but it is really yummy here. FYI – coconut water is like watermelon – diuretic – so drink up but make sure you are by a bathroom 🙂 !

Learned how to play a version of Mahjong: This has been on my list of games to learn for a long time. The version I learned feels a little like gin rummy and uno in one game – you win by going out first (like gin rummy). Make 3 of a kind (sequence – Chow or same tile – Pong) sets within the same suit. You can make a 4 of kind only if you pick it up from the wall (unused titles – like the deck) and it is the same number/suit (basically a Pong that turns into a Kong, Chow cannot turn into a Kong). You can only pick up the last tile that was discarded in counter clockwise order unless you have form a pong (like rummy). If someone picks up the last discard title, then the next person’s turn is counter clockwise to the last person’s turn (so un-like rummy, people may skip turns). On your turn you pick up from the last discarded tile or from the wall (un-used tiles) and you discard one tile (when you discard you have to call out the name of the tile – like “4 circles or red dragon or etc.)

The part that gets more complicated is building the wall/set up the game (after mixing all the tiles, then each of the 4 people have to select 18 tiles across w/ 2 stacks – intertwine the walls with the other wall to form a perfect square), the seating arrangements (highest roller gets Seat type “East Wind” at the start of the game – each Seat Wind has numbers associated with the Seat Wind type), starting the game (East wind seat then roles again to determine how to break the wall and gets one extra tile to discard first), breaking the wall – use 2 dice to determine where to break the wall (based on # and wind seat – for example 7 may be on the West wind seat – so the West wind seat would count 7 from the left and the 7 set of tiles would now be stacked on the left side of the wall (dead wall – dead side of the wall is used to replace bonus tiles), the next 4 tiles are now dealt to the East wind seat first, counter clockwise, until 4 sets of 4 tiles are dealt to everyone, and 1 extra tile is given to the East Wind seat) where do you start dealing the tiles out, bonus, and if you run out of tiles before someone calls Mahjong (like Gin Rummy – 5 sets of 3 pairs and 1 set of 2 pairs) – I don’t know what to do then – I haven’t gotten that far yet. Don’t forget to call “fish or fishing – not sure” when you have 1 move left to win (like Uno) – not sure what the penalty is if you don’t call “fish or fishing”.

Point system – the way we learned it – There are a lot of different versions of the game.
- 1 point for every set of (pong – set of 3 in the same suit and number):
  - 1 and 9 – each pong
  - flowers (like bonus points) – each tile
  - Winds (N, S, E, and W) – each pong
  - Dragons (Red, Green, White) – each pong
- 1 Extra point for going out (Mahjong)
- 1 Extra point if you have a Wind Pong that matches your seat wind (where you sit in the game – this changes, East wind always goes first)
- 1 Extra point for every Kong
- Point multipliers if you win several times in a row. 1st time is 1x, 2nd time is 2x, 3rd time is 3x.
Payment is dependent upon how the person wins.
- If the person picks up the winning tile from the wall (un-used tiles) – then everyone at the table has to pay the winner.
- If the person picks up the winning tile from the last discarded tile – then the person who discarded the tile has to pay the winner.

I will have to find a good site later – you think it would easy – but there are so many versions and scoring systems out there. I will assume that Wind number (East – 1/5/9, South – 2/6/10, West – 3/7/11, North – 4/8/12)

Yuchegco Museum: I didn’t take any pictures – you know that flash thing – I haven’t bothered to figure out how to turn off the flash yet. This museum is textile, indigenous culture related.

Ayala Museum: This museum talks about the Ayala family and their contribution to the Philippines. Extensive gold collection and pottery collection. Talks about the 2nd silk route on sea. I think museum has the shadow boxes depicting the history of the Philippines (this was nice, it is like going through a timeline)

Made a Purse: Ok – maybe not the actual purse (I picked out the color, the strap, and rivets – they did all of the sewing), but a small wallet (well the artisans help a ton – they seemed to be impressed w/ my skills – follow directions, attention to details, and faster than my immediate peers, but I don’t think they would hire me – I guess I have to keep traveling!!). Meg and I went to the HQ of Rages2Riches to learn how local artisans are able to use their skills to pull themselves out of poverty. I didn’t know about the company before I signed up – I just went to make a purse (well a small wallet) – Girls day out! We met one of the founder, Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, and her team of local artisans and staff. I was surprised to sit thru a slide show where Reese is explaining the story behind the company and seeing a supply chain slide. I met and worked w/ Meg decades ago working in supplier management, so we had a ton of organization questions, quality control, finance, supply chain, distribution, award/bonus system, etc. This is besides the point – the company is very inspiring – it is great to see the artisans that were street vendors or living at dump sites be able to share their knowledge on their craft, have a means to sell their craft, and make a decent living to eat regularly, get health care, and send their kids to college. The company built an entire eco-system to develop trust, set up savings accounts, set up supply chain, set up manufacturing line, hone their craft to a more high end design – using the same weaving technique, work w/ designers, develop training programs, quality control, branding, worker education (financial literacy, on the job training, quality), etc. Very inspiring – here are other entrepreneurs !! I think the key message from Reese seems to be collaboration – to help solve problems, to develop bonus systems, to set up savings accounts, to develop trust, to develop design ideas, to develop educational programs for the workers, etc. Inspiring day out!

BamBike Tour around Intramuros: This is the year of eco tours. People are so creative in positive, life changing ways! See the link on BamBikes – I was thinking of Joan – she bikes around the world – amazing! We started at the Plaza San Luis Complex, San Agustin church, Galeria deo los Presentes de la Republica Pilipinas, Japanese cannon, Puerta Real gardens, Puerta el Parian, Aduana, Maeztanza, Plaza Roma, and Fort Santiago. This area has a rich history of Spanish, British, Japanese, Spanish, American, and finally independence. Each of them have left their prints in the intramuros.

BamBikes – This is the Bamcruiser! and orientation!
Plaza San Luis complex:

San Agustin Church – the cobble stones are the back of Chinese grave stones.
Lost the pictures to the Galleria of the Presidents.
One of the Japanese cannons – normally mounted btw the walls.
Outside wall of the Intermuros to the Puera Real Gardens. The Americans covered up the moat and now this is a golf course.
Aduana
Plaza Roma w/ the Santo Domingo Church and Convent. There are pineapples on the corner of the church. Dan thanks for taking the action photos. Meg is like a celebrity in the Asia – people stop her all the time to take photos – it is so cute!
Fort Santiago and some views around the fort. Statue of General Douglas MacArthur and other important figures, but I don’t any of them. I like the contrast of the old (fort w/ moat) vs the new (towers in the back)
Other interesting pictures – the MIT of Manila – A lot of schools in this area.

Chinatown here we come!! I am not sure what I would do without Meg taking pictures.

Best Chinatown in the World: No mater which list you look at both Manila and SF Chinatown makes the list.
From the World of Chinese
- Official name: Binondo Chinatown, Manila
  Chinese Name:比诺杜唐人街（Bǐnuòdù tángrénjiē）
  Established: 1594
  Trademark: Arkong Pagkakaibigang Pilipino-Tsino (Filipino-Chinese Friendship Arch at Binondo).
- Trivia:
  – Binondo is the oldest and largest Chinatown in the world.
  – the Year of Horse popularized Golden horse charms as the most valuable charms sold in the town.
From the CNN
- Stand-out feature: Built in 1596, the landmark Binondo Church is home to the Santo Cristo de Longos or Crucified Christ, believed to be miraculous. In the 16th century, a deaf-mute Chinese supposedly regained the power of speech after finding the image.
- Must-visit restaurant: Café Mezzanine above the Eng Bee Tin Chinese Deli (famous for hopia ube pastries) in Ongpin Sreet – we didn’t go here, but we went to a ton of other places! A part of the restaurant’s income goes to Binondo’s fire department, whose iconic purple truck is parked beside the Binondo Church.
Well, this is what we did:
- Filipino Lumpia (not Singapore lumpia, which is fried) – flour wrapper, layer of crushed peanuts/sugar, dried noodles w/ seasoning, lettuces, hot cabbage/onions/carrots chicken broth mixture, wrapped and served. Yum!
- Binondo Catholic church (home to the Crucified Christ) w/ the famous purple fire truck. The colors in the church is vibrate, not muted – bright pinks, red, blues !
- Fresh dumplings! Had to steal some of this pictures from Meg’s posts!
- Tried Hopia – Filipino pastry w/ filling snack which comes in every flavor! We didn’t find the actual bakery.
- Stopped for Bubble Tea and Spam Fries. I am not sure why Hawaii has not done this – Hawaii is the home of Spam. Spam was introduced to the Philippines during WWII by the Americans.
- China town arch – this is not the friendship arch. We passed it before I can get a picture. It is funny, we drive thru 2 arches within a couple of hundred feet of each other
- I liked the picture w/ the BDO (bank) advertisement on the lanterns, with the skyscraper in the back, and the electric cables running across the streets