Pinoys...

There were a lot of reasons why I fell in love with the Pinoys and Pinays. A smile certainly is infectious, when someone smiles at you, you can't help but smile yourself. And because everyone in the Philippines smiles at you, you end up walking around with a big grin on your face all day long.

One of my favourite things about the Pinoys is that they sing and dance to themselves. We had a manicure one day and whilst they were painting our toenails, they were singing to themselves. The security guards will randomly burst out into song at any given moment. People walking down the street are just bopping along and singing to themselves. I think we all know, I have a tendency to randomly sing to myself...so it was great to be surrounded by that kind of attitude and not have anyone stare at you and think you crazy for it! 

One thing to be aware of in the Philippines, when asking for directions...don't expect a clear set of instructions. You will generally get a nod or experience the Pinoy pointing with the lips. Often someone would gesture in one direction, then someone else gesture in another direction. But eventually you get where your planning to go. The pointing with the lips is a funny thing to witness. They'll nod their head in the general direction and then do a little pout in attempts of pointing in the direction to go. So due to vague directions your often late to places. But that's ok because Pinoys aren't exactly known for their time keeping. 

One of the very cute quirks I enjoyed from the Pinoys is the eyebrow raise. Often people would raise their eyebrows at you to say Hello. Or they would use the eyebrow raise to if they hadn't heard what you had said or didn't understand. A kinda of way of asking What?! Pardon?! I find myself raising my eyebrows myself now! 

A lot of Filipino food mainly consists of meat, fish or seafood and rice and often egg too. Not an awful lot of vegetables. After a couple days of being extremely carnivorous fruit and veg is craved, which is easy enough to come by at the markets. Oh the fresh, local fruit is wonderful. It's quite fun when you go to a fruit stall and see new fruits you've never seen before! So we took the opportunity to try these new wonderful fruits. Rambutan, which I can only describe as fuzzy lychee, are wonderfully refreshing. Kinda like skinless grapes. And my new favourite fruit the mangosteen! Ah it's sooooooooooo yummy! A purple outer skin you rip open to get to the sweet, white flesh inside! Mmmmmmm! Soooo gooood!

The kids of the Philippines are the cutest ever. They will come and play with you at any given opportunity. At the beach these three little boys came over and played with us, sand fights were had. They took great delight in finding shells and telling us what they were and teaching us little bits of Tagalog. One of them rapped to us a Tagalog song...so cute! The Philippines is a great place to go for a little ego boost, when you get a few high fives from the cutest kids and people smile at you and raise their eyebrows at you all day long, you know you're having a good day. And with the sun shining radiantly, I find impossible to be in a bad mood in the Philippines. And if you are you just sing and dance your cares away...anywhere you like! 

One of the tunes of the vacation was The Black Eyed Peas - Bebot. Apl De Ap from BEP is a proud Pinoy, and the Pinoys seem to be super proud of him in return. 

bustling streets of Puerto Princesa

the little makeshift stores along the streets

our new little friends

as the sun sets...

As I begin the process of reliving the Philippines Memories...

After a sketchy plane ride (the pilot couldn't land and got like 10 feet from the ground and had to go back up, do a couple circuits and then try landing again.) the Philippines adventure could begin. The forecast was for rain, but we got there, got off the plane and were welcomed by the a gorgeous wave of heat. Sunglasses straight on.

We landed in Palawan with no plan, at all. No where to stay, nothing. We got on the first trike we came across and just asked them to take us to the city and decided we would just find somewhere. And it surprisingly worked out amazingly well. We went through the city centre bit of Puerto Princesa and then walked around until we found a hostel, The Corazon Tourist Inn...we asked them about prices for the 4 of us and found it was super cheap, they gave us a special deal, so we thought why not, we'll stay one night and then make a real plan. Then as we went into the lobby area we spied on the coffee table a ton of WT and Awake! magazines, in loads of different languages. So we were feeling pretty good about staying there. Then my excitement become even more so when we got to our room which was equipped with two bunk beds! Yay! Like I was right back at home!

I'm not sure why but I was feeling particularly adventurous in the Philippines (the place brings out the adventurer in me.) and the very first meal I had there, I just picked any old thing off the menu at a traditional Filipino restaurant. I had no idea what it was until my friend googled what was in it. I tried Sisig...it's mainly pork, but has pork belly, ears and potentially innards of some sort. Nonetheless, it tasted good. My friend ordered crocodile sisig, which I tried. My word, it was delicious! Who knew crocodile would taste soooooo good! And no meal is complete in the Philippines without a mango shake. Mmmmmmm!

After an afternoon nap, we decided to explore our surroundings. We just went to the nearest convenience store...as we went in, up ahead of me I see Dairy Milk chocolate! It doesn't exist in Taiwan so I was super impressed that the Philippines, only an hour or so away from TW actually has it! I don't know why but the Philippines are way ahead of the game when it comes to their imported foods, they give you tons of stuff to choose from. It was also exciting to see a little traditional bakery. Being in the Philippines it is so easy to forget you are in Asia. From the first day in the Philippines I knew this was a place I would want to explore a lot more, and that 10 days just wouldn't be enough!

As we walked down the street we were greeted and graced with hundreds of smiles and hello's. The friendliness of the Pinoy's really bowled me over. Kids wave, smile and say "Hello friend", anyone walking past you does the Pinoy eyebrow raise to say hello. And the Pinoy's have such beautiful smiles! Seriously! Beautiful! 

The Philippines is a Christian country, and I must say after spending time in a Buddhist country it was so refreshing to be back in a Christian country. I know all Christian denominations have their own thing going on, but it really makes me feel more at home being in a Christian country. I don't know why it makes such a big difference to me, but it just feels totally different being in a Buddhist country compared to being in a Christian country. 

And oh how wonderful it feels to be understood! The official language of the Philippines is Tagalog but the great majority of people can speak English. And Tagalog has a lot of words stolen from Spanish, so it's possible to hazard a guess at what signs may mean. But most things are in English anyway, all the menus and everything where in English. The only reason I had for not understanding a menu was for Filipino dishes that have Tagalog names. 

One thing that was evident from day one in Palawan was that the cockrels do not know how to tell time. They cockle doodle doo all day and all night long. Cock fighting is a big thing in the Philippines, a real big part of their culture. There are cockrels on all the streets, just running around. And there are lot of stray cats around too, but not too many stray dogs. And when I say they are stray cats, there are generally a few Pinoy's feeding them anyway.

Being near the sea again I noticed immediately the fresh air! Yes there are still motorbikes, cars and trikes giving off fumes but the air to me feels much fresher and cleaner when near the sea! 

the first trike ride in Palawan through the streets of Puerto Princesa

first impressions got off to a good start at the hostel

the bunk beds! 

traditional Filipino restaurant