Transport

I am finally starting to feel better, I have my appetite back and I am enjoying food again! Now I can really start to enjoy being here and soak up the experiences that the Philippines have to offer. I’ve noticed a few differences in transport here than what I am used to so in today’s blog I will talk about what I have observed.

Cars back home have heating and cooling. This is no surprise to anyone, unless you are from the Philippines and probably many other hot place.  I didn’t notice it straight away but we were driving along and I realised that where there would usually be a red line moving to a white line moving to a blue line under the heating control, there was one continuous blue line moving from thin blue line to thick blue line, less cool to more cool.  Of course! Why would you need heating here?  I guess it just never occurred to me that cars would be made without heating.

Less cold... More cold.

If you own a car, you cannot just drive it whenever you want. There is this thing called “coding”. You are restricted from driving your car one day a week and the way they decide who cannot drive on which day is by the number plate. If your number plate ends in a 1 or 2, you cannot drive on Mondays, 3 and 4 cannot drive on Tuesday’s etc. However, there are exceptions.  You can drive around residential areas and minor roads.  On most of the major roads there is a window period from 10am-3pm where you can drive your car on the day it is coded.  If you are caught by police driving your car during the restricted times, you will be fined.

Driving here is manic. The traffic is not moving fast, we barely get above 30km most days but it’s just crazy. Cars are coming from every which way and where there are 3 lanes, there are often 4 cars across with cars merging in and out of lines and indicators seem to be optional. If we need to do a U-turn, we can’t just wait for a break in the traffic because there won’t be one. Jun just slowly edges around and when there is a small space, nudges in front of someone to force them to let us in. When I first got here I had to close my eyes most of the time as it scared the hell out of me!  A few days ago we were waiting in the far left lane at the traffic lights to turn left (equivalent to our right turn). When we get a green arrow, we take off and the car to the right of us cut in front of us and does a U-turn around us! I was so stunned. This just gives you an idea of what it is like to drive here. I am getting used to it and don’t close my eyes so much but I will never be getting behind the wheel…

Straddling 2 lanes, cos we can...

I’ve already mention Jeepneys (public transport, converted American Jeeps from WWII) which I have posted 2 photos of. There are also motorbikes with side cars (Tricycles). They are everywhere and I have been trying my best to get a photo of one that is full of people.  Not only do people sit in the side car but also side saddled on the back of the motorbike. Sometimes I have seen 2 people squished behind the driver.  I have seen 3 people on one bicycle and families on one motorcycle. It’s not rare to see 2 parents with helmets holding an infant or a small child between them with no helmet. I really cannot believe my eyes. 

Back of a Jeepney. Slogan at the bottom is not uncommon in this very Catholic country.

Tricycle

Side shot of a less decorated Jeepney

I'm sure they could squeeze a fourth person on the handle bars...

 In the main cities (we are just out from the main part of Manila), there is quite a lot of smog.  If you are driving there you definitely need the AC set to inside air.  I did see one sign that is in support of reducing smog.  I get what they are saying but I still think it’s a funny way to write it. “Cavitex is enforcing….  Anti –smoke belching”.   Seriously cars, stop burping smoke! 

Pardon you Toyota!

To finish off I’d like to leave you with a sign that I saw at a petrol station which I found interesting. 

Free rice when you spend the equivalent of $23

The Recovery

My last post ends on a cliff hanger, will I make it back to Manila without any misfortune?

We pull out of the gates of the estate and make our way to the Manila turn off however Jun drives past it because we need petrol.  We head in the opposite direction which adds about 10-15 minutes to our journey and this makes me really worried.  Every minute is precious and each minute I am away from the bathroom, the likelihood of a mishap increases! I try to keep relaxed, close my eyes, rest my head and hope for the best. I’m reasonably comfortable during the journey until the smog hits my nostrils. I start to feel queasy which stresses me out, am I going to make it?! Jun puts the vents on to inside air and I can start to relax as the smell dissipates.

We’re nearing BF Homes, we’re nearly there!  I can see Jun’s street, I cannot tell you how relieved I am feeling, only 1 more minute and I will be inside the house, safe and close to the loo…. I made it. No adult nappy necessary.  Thank you God for watching over me, sparing me from what could have been a humiliating experience. 

Jun is so exhausted from 3 days of lack of sleep, having to clean up by himself and drive me back home. We decide I can wait til morning to have tests done. One reason that I am telling this story is because of the next part, this would never happen in Australia.

Jun’s friend works in a hospital as a nurse. She trained as a doctor but never registered as one can earn more money overseas as a nurse than a doctor. She gives Jun two sample bottles for me so I don’t have to leave the house to have tests done. Jun takes the samples to her and she takes it to the lab for testing. Once the results are in, she consults with a doctor as to what medication I need and texts Jun the names of the medications so he can buy them straight away and I can start to get better.

No doctor’s appointment, no prescription. Here in the Philippines you just need the name of the medicine and then you go to the pharmacy to buy it. I am starting my 2 different antibiotics and I didn’t even have to leave the house to be diagnosed or obtain a prescription! Later that night, Jun’s friend drops off the medical results in the letter box with a more detailed description of when to take medicines etc.  The diagnosis… Amebiasis.  I had never heard of it but it is a bacterial infection which I most likely caught by swimming in the pool. I did accidentally swallow some of the water…. 

 Jun is so organised, he has the medicines lines up with a post it note above each one with instructions on when and how many to be taken and the times they have been taken. I am lucky that I have someone who takes good care of me.

Within a few days I start to feel better yet I am still so fatigued, a side effect of one of the antibiotics. I just can’t wait to feel normal again.  Three weeks in the Philippines and quite ill for 2.5 weeks of that. I am convinced that I am allergic to the Philippines. It’s either that or the country is rejecting me. I start to eat “normal” foods but my stomach can’t handle it and I am forced back to a diet of apples, bananas and crackers. I dread eating. I’ve never dreaded eating. Food is usually my friend but now I just don’t want to face it. There is one thing that I could eat, one thing I would always have when I was sick back home… Vegemite on toast. Why didn’t I bring Vegemite with me?! Because REX airline (Mount Gambier to Adelaide) has such a low baggage limit that I couldn’t possibly fit it in! Damn!

And so begins The Great Vegemite Hunt….

Day 5 and beyond

Today is the beginning of our healthy lifestyle and Jun fixes up the bike for me so that I can ride while he jogs along. We set out on our jaunt and we head to the clubhouse directly across from the holiday home as we had noticed earlier that there was a pool and we wanted to check it out.  It looks clean, its only $1.20 each to swim there and no one is using the pool.  We decide that after we finish on the bike and jog that we will complete our triathlon by jumping in the pool afterwards. Unfortunately my ride was cut short.  As I was riding up a hill I hear a loud crack and realise that I have snapped the pedals! Whoops! In my defence they were plastic and quite brittle so it wasn’t just my brute strength that broke them. So after a long 5 minutes of exercise we walk back, change in to our bathers and head to the pool.

I’m excited to get back in to swimming.  I’ve got my goggles and my flippers and I am set to swim some laps! Jun gets in to the water first and proclaims that it is freezing however I doubt that it’s that cold. I tell him to stop being weak and then I promptly eat my words as I stick in my toe.  I’m thinking maybe I give swimming a miss today……  Jun encourages me to get in, good for rehab….. blah blah blah. He is of course right so I get in the water in what can be described as a painfully slow rate. Each inch of me that enters the water feels physical pain, I kid you not.  Since we are in such a hot country, the outdoor pool is not heated. Now, I’m sure in Manila it would be ok but we are in Tagaytay in the mountains, it’s not exactly a heatwave up here! I suck it up, get in, do my exercises and swim my laps.  Impressively (or stupidly) we stay in the water for about an hour. Success! The healthy lifestyle has begun!

For lunch Jun cooks up chicken soup (Tinola) with fresh lemon grass and malunggay leaves from the garden. My contribution is a salad which goes nicely with the soup and rice on the side.  We take the food up on to the back terrace to enjoy the nice view and the breeze. Feels like Mediterranean living and I love it. I could definitely get used to this lifestyle.

Up at the clubhouse we had noticed they had Wi Fi for only 50c an hour.  All that hunting for Wi Fi in the last few days and we had it just a stone’s throw away from our doorstep! Now we don’t even have to leave the estate, we have everything we need right here. After the Wi Fi fix and getting to skype with my brother Anthony and his children, we head home so I can start writing my first blog post. Life is good, I want to share my experiences with everyone.

(I had doubts of writing about what happened next but I have put it in as I want this blog to be a true representation of my experiences here in the Philippines.)

Life was good, until I finished my blog post.  I start to shiver, why am I so cold? I think it’s time to lay down. I progressively get worse and start to heat up. I do however find the strength to go back down stairs to eat Bistek Tagalog (refer to day 1!). My lack of appetite means I can only eat a really small amount. Disappointing.

It seems that I have a fever.  Not just a mild fever, but a full blown I want to die I am so miserable fever.  Jun is so wonderful through the night and does his best to cool me down. I swing between shivering under the sheets whilst feeling like I am on fire to lying under the fan on full blast.  It’s such a miserable night but I am so confident that it will pass in the next 24 hours with the help of paracetamol.  How I couldn’t be more wrong.

The next morning it begins….. diarrhoea. Without getting too graphic, I will just say I have never had it this bad in all my life. We last in Tagaytay for 3 more days with Jun being the best carer anyone could hope for, feeding me apples, bananas, crackers and hydrite (gastrolite). I was pumping in the fluids the best I could but it just wasn’t easing off. The time has come to head back to Manila so I can get to a doctor. There is just one problem, the longest time I have been away from the toilet in 3 days is 1 hour.  It takes at least an hour to get back to Manila.  I am really not confident that I can make it back so Jun makes a suggestion that might help… an adult diaper.  It’s a logical suggestion but oh how humiliating! Which is worse?  Wearing a diaper or not being able to make the distance? I opt for no diaper, I think I would rather risk it than put on a nappy…..

Do I survive the journey back to Manila without misfortune or do I not? You’ll just have to read the next post to find out….

Busting out some laps at the Clubhouse

Tinola! So delicious.

Healthy salad! Dressed well with vinegar, kalamansi and oil.

Day 4 - Chilling in Tagaytay

Today starts off in the laziest possible way.  A luxurious sleep in followed by another delicious Longanisa breakfast accompanied with tasty orange juice made from imported oranges… Australian oranges!  We don’t really have much planned for today, so we laze around until we have enough energy to undertake the great Wi Fi hunt. To increase our energy levels we may just need a little help.  What better way than the great South Australian FruChoc! I’m excited to share with Jun one of my great loves.  As it says on the packet, “If you don’t love a FruChoc you’re not really South Australian!” and I stand by their motto. They are so loved by South Australians worldwide. For example, the requirement of visiting my brother and sister in England is to bare gifts of Fruchocs….. (Even my half English 2 year old nephew has discovered them and won’t let the bag be passed around without having his share! Not to forget his English Dad, not a big lover of sweets but can’t pass on the peachy, apricoty, chocolately goodness.) My cousin Rach generously spent a large postage fee to send me a 900g bag of FruChocs whilst laid up in Boston.  I hope you are getting the picture of how amazing they are.  For those who have never heard of a FruChoc, it is dried peach and apricot mixed together in a small ball and covered in chocolate.  To my delight (or dismay since I am now going to have to share…) Jun absolutely loves them. 

With our bellies satisfied with a South Australian icon it is time to head out the gates of the estate and into the hustle and bustle of Tagaytay. To hunt for Wi Fi I use the method of taking out my iPod and turning on the Wi Fi to see if we can find an unsecured connection, or at least a restaurant that has good signal. I’d noticed the day before that a pizza place next to the very disappointing Starbucks had Wi Fi.  This time we decide to check the Wi Fi to decide if we want to stay and order.  Good thing we did because once connected I couldn’t get anything to load.  Looks like pizza is out and the American diner next door, Mile Hi Diner, is in.

We of course check that the Wi Fi has a good speed, even Skype has connected!  We find a booth and order Nachos, Chicken Tenders, a frozen Baileys cocktail (for me) and a Pina Colada (for Jun).  (Both delicious drinks, couldn’t decide which to go for, luckily Jun is happy to share…)  Unlike a typical American Diner, the portions are rather small and for Philippine standard not that cheap either. (The whole meal with drinks was $18, still not expensive by my standard but I’m becoming accustomed to things being much cheaper here!) The food was ok but not great and we were kind of disappointed as we left hungry.  The upside though was that I got to speak to my sister George, my nephew Henry and my Mum!  Yay for Wi Fi that works! So despite the average meal for an above average price, we had achieved what we had set out to do.

We head to the supermarket to buy some groceries with the full intention of eating healthy. (Apart from the pancakes planned for the next day…..) We casually stroll around the fruit and veg section, I’m trying to learn about local vegetables that I have never heard of and am constantly trying to figure out the exchange rate so I can determine if what we are buying is expensive or not. I want to learn to cook with local vegetables but the problem is I don’t know what most of them are or how to cook them so I am naturally drawn to what I know. Luckily most of what I use at home they also have here, so I can find what I want to make a salad. We already have our fruit which we bought at a stall on the side of the road, Mangos: $1.70 per kilo, Pineapples: 80 cents per piece…. (Fruit salad, Yummy Yummy!)

As we make our way out of the fruit and veg section half of the lights go out in the store and an announcement made in Tagalog.  They are about to close the store and we are only at the beginning of our shopping list!  Our shop suddenly turns in to the show, “Supermarket Sweep”.  We start zooming up and down the aisles looking for the most essential items on our list…. Pancake mix! Where is the pancake mix?! Thank God the maple syrup is included in the pack, 2 birds… 1 stone….

We head to the cash register in a very rushed 5 minutes and with cut throat eliminations from the list (we don’t need cereal, we have pancakes!).  We look around as our products are scanned and we are literally the last customers in the store. I don’t think I’ve ever closed a supermarket before but there is a first time for everything.   

Back home we decide to cook a late dinner since our American diner experience was unfulfilling and Jun says he will cook BBQ.  I’m confused, where is the BBQ?  I haven’t seen one anywhere.  It turns out BBQ is a style of meat; kebabs. In this case we are having marinated pork kebabs and Jun cooks them on something that I have never seen before. It’s called an Oventop Griller but it looks like a cross between and a one tray oven a see through steamer.  We eat them with rice and they are delicious.  It is late so there is not a vegetable to be seen on the plate but we have full intentions of starting our healthy eating tomorrow!

Jun in the throes of becoming an honorary South Australian!

Drinking my cockatail and sharing Jun's....

Nachos. As you can see, quite average. Why are there olives?!

Chicken tenders and fries. Meh.

Successful Wi Fi!