Saving Aeneas

So a few days ago New York was hit by a severe snowstorm. It descended suddenly and dropped over a foot of snow on the city in less than 24 hours. It's also the first time in my life I've experienced a thunderstorm and snow at the same time. I knew such things happen, but they're exceedingly rare. I wonder what the science is behind them?

Anyway, the city has been pretty slow to respond. A great deal of public transit is still running behind schedule (particularly anything in or out of the city) and many sidewalks and especially crosswalks are still basically impassable.

I attempted to buy some boots at Macy's but now I have buyer's remorse. The ones I got are a little too cowboy-ish for me.

Oh well. At least the snow looks nice (when not mixed with dirt):

Pardon the delay...

Washington Square

So what's the deal with New Yorkers exaggerating the distance between everything?

The other day I went uptown and asked a hot dog vendor the way to Amsterdam Avenue. He pointed it out to me but said "It's at least a 30-minute walk, you'd better take the subway". 5 minutes later I was there.

I remember a similar incident happened last year in Midtown. when I complained about it to a New-York-dwelling friend of mine she said "Oh, but the avenues, they tend to be really far apart". My cousin suggested that, because I was asking for directions, they assumed I was a tourist and wasn't used to getting around on foot.

I thought this city was the American capitol of walking everywhere. What gives?

Time: the Present

Place: New York City, Greenwich Village, just south of Washington Square

Protagonist: Loyal Achates, beginning his M.A. Program in International Relations at New York University

Argument: How to distinguish this blog from the thousands of others chronicling urban life in the United States?

Stay Tuned....

So now I'm in Manila, capitol and largest city of the Philippines.

Manila feels much more like a 'big city' when compared to Saigon, probably because there are many more tall buildings and the infrastructure is more advanced. The class difference, however, is a great deal more stark. Manila is, as some people have said, 10% Singapore and 90% Mumbai, or skyscrapers above shantytowns. A great place to live if you have alot of money...

Transport

Manila has jeepneys like Cebu, but thankfully it also has an elevated railway (the LRT) and something called an FX, which is basically a more modern jeepney, employing a van instead of an old jeep and costing about twice as much to use depending on distance.

Small World Part I: My first time using the LRT I found myself jammed into the railcar Tokyo-style. Right next to me was the same guy who sat acriss the aisle from me on the flight from Saigon to Manila.

So, what is there to see?

Intramuros


The old Spanish walled city. Most of it was destroyed by the Americans during World War II but some of it still remains. You can really get a feel that you're stepping back in time into the Spanish colonial era, where people wore European clothes in tropical weather and there was a Catholic church on every street corner:


Makati

The first-world part of the city. Shops, restaurants, bars and upscale shopping malls. Where the moneyed class chooses to live and play (if they don't live in subdivisions outside the city).

The Ayala Museum

A very modern museum built by the fabulously wealthy Ayala family. It tries to be all things to all people, encompassing ancient Filipino hstory, modern political history, ancient art, modern art, and some marine biology for good measure.

Rizal Park (aka the Luneta)

Practically the only sizable park in the city, it has an oddly disorganized and un-parklike feel to it. Stl, it contains a decent National Gallery (houding Juan Luna's masterwork Spolarium) as well as a pleasant Chinese Garden and a Chess Plaza where unsuspecting Americans like myself can lose 20 pesos playing against Filipino experts:


Small World Part II: While in the Ayala Museum I ran into a Filipino couple and their Canadian friend. I ran into the same group in the National Gallery AND in the Luneta.

Binondo


Manila's Chinatown. More or less the same as Chinatowns all over the world: narrow streets, Chinese restaurants, herbal medicine stores etc. It also borders Quiapo, which is the chaotic counterfeit-goods haven of the city.

Malls, malls and malls

As expected, Manila has more shopping malls than you could believe possible in such a crowded city. The biggest is Mall of Asia, which is - I believe - the fourth largest mall in the world.

Alot is still the same. Millions of motorbikes, pho stalls on every corner, and the tourist district of Pham Ngu Lao/De Tham is as pleasantly run-down as ever.

Even so, alot has changed. There is a huge new shopping mall at the corner of Dong Khoi and Le Thanh Ton, while half the other buildings downtown seem to be in the process of being renovated. There's also the Tallest Building in All of Vietnam being constructed along the Saigon River:
Well, that's economic expansion for you. In another 10 years this city (or at least the center) will probably resemble Hong Kong or Singapore more than the old French colonial town it once was. I hope they don't totally destroy everything that made the city unique - the colonial architecture, the amazing street food etc. But i'm afraid it's only a matter of time before some official decides that such things make Vietnam look 'backward' and then they'll be gone forever.

Malapascua is a small island to the north of Cebu. I'd have bet a thousand pesos that 'mala pascua' meant 'bad Easter', but apparently the Visayans have decided that 'pascua' should mean Christmas, even though it means Easter in Spanish. The name comes from the Spanish sailors who arrived on the island one stormy Christmas night sometime in the 1500s.

Nowadays, Malapascua is a developing resort island, with a fair number of beachside hotels but still mostly rural. The beach is nice enough:


And you can go snorkeling:


There are some rather beautiful corals on the ocean floor and supposedly some manta rays and plankton-eating sharks, but I didn't see them.

For some reason, there are throngs of Germans and Austrians everywhere - to the point where the local guides are as likely to speak German as English.

So whenever I'm walking down the street and I pass a group of children, they almost always wave at me and say 'Hey Joe!" Is that like GI Joe? Kind of strange...

Filipinos love to get religious. And few places are churchier than the Basilica del Santo Nino in downtown Cebu:

Apparently it's the only basilica in Asia. What's the difference between a cathedral and a basilica, you ask? Moving on...



Santo Nino literally means 'holy child', and it's a reference to the baby Jesus, which is the patron saint of the Philippines. Now, I may not be an expert in Catholic theology, but it seems to me that Jesus would be the Messiah, not a saint, even if he is a baby. I suppose someone could be both a saint and the Messiah, but that just seems like overkill.

Still, it's a nice building:




And right behind it is a small hut containing a replica of Magellan's Cross, commemorating the place where Magellan landed in what is now Cebu City almost five hundred years ago (before being killed by the natives).


So, if you can dodge the water-sellers, icon-vendors, and nuns demanding alms, it's all very pleasant.

Is every single public restroom in this country full of Filipino guys fixing their hair?

I guess it makes sense, given the climate of the city. You can leave your house clean and fresh, but five minutes in the heat and you'll become a sweaty, rumpled, red-faced mess - or, at least, I do. The locals bear up a bit better, because they're used to it. Still, good grooming is clearly a high priority around here.

And while we're talking about bathrooms, why is every public toilet in Cebu missing the lid of the seat? Are people stealing them for sale on the black market? Are people fighting with these toilets? I can deal with the lack of toilet paper - Vietnam prepared me for that - but not having a lid is going too far.

Cebu City has a problem common to many semi-tropical poverty-stricken cities: how to get around. In Cebu the government doesn't even want to spend the money on a bus system, much less a subway line, and it's too hot to walk anywhere. In Vietnam they have motorbikes. In Bangkok they built an elevated train system.

But the solution (at least in the Philippines) is jeepneys: converted half-jeep half-van contraptions which run along set routes (usually written on the side) Only seven pesos if the guy hanging precariously out the back is able to give you your change and not fall to his death at the same time.

Advantages: They're cheap and relatively reliable. They're also colorful, often painted with bright pop-culture themes. They'll also let you off pretty much wherever you want.

Disadvantages: they're rattly, bumpy, slow, and full of smog. Supposedly it's quite easy to get pickpoocketed in one, but so far that hasn't happened to me.

And, while we're talking about food...

The national fast-food chain of the Philippines is called Jolibee.It's symbol is, indeed, a jolly bee.

I don't really get the wisdom of choosing a bee. Aren't children afraid of bees? Though I suppose children are afraid of mice too.

Is it any good? Not really. But don't tell the Filipinos that. They're very proud of their own version of Macdonald's.

The one great advantage is that they sell fresh pineapple juice along with the usual soft drinks.

If there's one thing Filipinos love, it's shopping malls. In this regard they almost rival New Jersey.

Even though the Philippines is a relatively poor country, the fact that they've been open to foreign corporations for so long (and they haven't had any of those pesky socialist revolutions) means that most chains available in the US are present here too.

By far the biggest are the Ayala Center and SM City, but there are literally dozens of smaller malls around the city, including E-mall, JY Square, Mango Square, ParkMall, and on and on. Many of them provide not just shops and restaurants but arcades, movie theaters, gyms, apartments, office space, conference rooms, schools, and the occasional car dealership.

In fact, the Filipinos love there malls so much, they practically try to live in them. Most now even offer Sunday Mass services in improbable locations.

I once joked to a Filipino friend of mine 'I guess the Filipino dream would be to live on a spaceship.@ He thought for a moment and replied 'Yes, but only if it has aircon''

But for me, they provide something even more important: air-conditioning and bookstores. The only real drawback is that these malls are often prowled by packs of transsexuals who are looking for ignorant foreigners to prey on. May lightning strike me if I'm kidding about that. Ask any foreigner who's been here.

So, I finally got a job.

It's at a Korean school in Talamban. The hours are a little more intense than I'm used to - five hours a day Monday-Friday, which isn't bad at all, but the school requires I show up at 8AM every day even though my first class isn't until 11.

My one class, repeated five times, is Speaking - always the weak point of the Asian English-language student. Reading, writing, and grammar are fine, but when it comes to expressing their ideas in English it's usually a struggle.

My classes are quite small - only one to three students - but the students are nice enough. Most of them are planning to go to the US, Canada or Australia at the end of the summer, so that's motivation enough for them.

Also, lunch is included - Korean food of course, which isn't my favorite, but it tastes alot better because it's free.

Okay, now to really important matters: how is the food in the Philippines?

Art, music, architecture, climate, mannerisms - all of these have their place, but really, what can compare for sheer weight (no pun intended) with the cuisine of a place? A man is what he eats, after all.

There's a reason Philippine cuisine has yet to take the world by storm the way Chinese, Thai, or any number of other Asian cuisines have; it's kind of boring. It's mostly meat stews over rice or fish or meat grilled over coals. Tasty enough, but not anything to really excite people. The emphasis on meat and the lack of creative vegetables exclude the health-conscious, and the lack of spiciness leaves out all the people who so gratefully dig into Thai or Indian curries.

Absent is the ginger, lemongrass, coconut milk, star anise and chilies which are so prevalent in the rest of southeast Asia. There are a few dishes which I find interesting enough to make myself, but the emphasis on heartiness over vivid flavors isn't really my style.

There is also the propensity to grill absolutely everything and serve it on a stick - even things that one cannot possibly eat on a stick, such as small fish replete with bones and scales.

For dessert their favorites seem to be leche flan (the Spanish answer to creme caramel), halo-halo (an inelegant but refreshing mix of fruits, gelatin, and ice cream) and banana Q, which is basically a banana coated in sugar then caramelized over a fire.

Also the ketchup is made of bananas, but honestly I wouldn't have known if they hadn't told me - it looks and tastes the same.

Originality, thy name is not pinoy...

Apparently this is a big problem. Someone has a good idea, and immediately they become swamped by ten competitors and nobody can establish a successful niche.

Just another small example, about a year ago they opened up a zipline on the mountain of Busay just north of the city, and less than a year later there are already three. How many ziplines can one town support?

The street I currently live on is lined with small, shabby little shops (though 'shops' might be too grand a term - perhaps 'stall' would be better) of the little-bit-of-everything variety, selling eggs and vegetables as well as offering internet and printing services, not to mention selling rum, bread, and anything else that happens to be around.

One shop in particular is festooned with tiny plastic packets of shampoo, good for a single use. I pointed this out to my roommate and he said "That's how it is here. I buy whole bottles of shampoo and people think I'm crazy."

Later, I went to a pharmacy to refill my aspirin.

"A bottle of aspirin, please."

The pharmacist looked at me. "We don't have bottles. We have boxes."

"How many pills are in one box?"

"A thousand".

"Uhh...." Apparently the thing to do is order pills individually. I ended up getting 20; only 1.65 pesos apiece.

Obviously this makes some economic sense. A family living on five dollars a day isn't going to drop seven dollars on a bottle of oil, even if that would be more efficient in the long run.

One of the hidden costs of poverty.

So the election is over and it looks like front-runner 'Noynoy' is the winner.

Coming in second was Jose Estrada, the tough-guy actor who was president during the late 1990s and is generally considered to have been a disaster for the country. I guess you can fool some of the people all of the time.

Elsewhere, reports of harassment, violence and vote-buying were rampant. Apparently in some places votes were going for as little as 100 pesos (about $2.20) each.

Like Argentina, the Philippines has a no-liquor-sales-the-day-before-the-elections law, which is unusual considering that, unlike Argentina, voting is not mandatory in the Philippines. I thought this wouldn't affetc me until the cashier at the grocery store wouldn't let me buy a root beer ("It says 'beer' right on the label!"). Isn't democracy great?

What do you suppose this is a list of?:

Noynoy, Dodong, Gibo, JC, Erap, Brother Eddie, Manny, Dick, Nick and...Jamby.

Perhaps the cast if a Latin American ensemble telenovela? Maybe a chldren's show/

Those are the 'official' nicknames of the 11 candidates for the presidency of the Philippines.

As of now, Begnigno Aquino III (Nownoy) appears to be ahead, although his conservative rival Gilberto Teodoro (Gibo) is mounting a strong challenge.

Politics in the Philippines is a family affair, Noynoy is the son of a president, while Gibo is his second cousin.

The walls are absolutely plastered with campaign posters of every kind, not only for president but for senator and congressman. There have been motorcades and torchlight processions. It's pretty exctiing, and yet every Filipino I've talked to said he wasn't going to vote. Curious...

So my arrival in Cebu was not terribly fortuitous. After about 20 hours in the air I finally arrived at Mactan International Airport, only to discover that my host believed I was arriving on May 5, and as such he was not at the airport to greet me.

He was also not at his house, though his neighbors all seemed to know him and I spent several hours sitting on my luggage and chatting with the hordes of children who hung around the coin-operated internet cafe at all hours of the night.

Eventually we did meet up and he showed me his house. It has the decaying, unkempt feel common to the long-term bachelor, but my room is comfortable enough, the neighborhood is very safe (it's near an army base) and the price was right.

Some quick observations:

- It is again very hot.

- Roosters are everywhere. And they crow all day long.

- the water has so much chlorine in the tap water there's a permanent smell of the swimming pool

- The basic layout of the Filipino street seems to be about the same as it was in Vietnam - narrow sidewalks and 'shops' which are basically converted garages. Npt nearly as much traffic though.

From Tales of Asia.