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| Van Manila-Cebu-Bohol-March2009 |
1. We enjoyed limitless internet at The Coffee Bean, for the price of 2 coffees :-) and HL was announcing very proudly that this Coffeebean chain was Malaysian, and so is he :-)
2. We ventilated our unhappiness with the small suite to the poor girl in the reception, and after running back & forth between us and her boss ... finally we found an acceptable financial arrangement :-) Now I'm very curious to see how this agreement will evolve in the pinoy way!
3. A taxi took us for the fixed price of 250 P to the Marco Polo hotel (in-between, the driver had to pump gas for 100 P., complaining how expensive petrol is nowadays, and I cheered him up by informing him that the oil price is rising up again), we checked it out and it is quite pleasing, although rather blink blink; we are seriously considering not to come back to the Mariott anymore, but book a room at the Marco Polo, higher in the mountains and away from stinky traffic and noisy loudspeakers.
4. The underbelly of Cebu (the slums) look dark, threatening and frightening at night, but a stroll in daytime is quite pleasing, lots of kids that flock around and young and old folks that demonstrate their best English. I hope to do that in every place I'll walk through! I think, for me, the place I'll be is not so important, be it city or countryside, important are the people who live there: if I can connect to them, and they can to me, and we can build an understanding, I already feel quite happy.
One of the guys there (see pictures, the one laughing out loud,with missing tooth) wanted to chat and so we did, I asked him how life was there, and he replied, quite ad rem, that one gets used to it. Clearly a philosopher: one gets used to anything :-)
Another guy was sitting on his own (whereas the rest was flocking in groups), and he was clearly waiting for us to give a sign of interest. We didn't give any sign. Till now we have not found anyone cuter then Nils, so for the moment we don't bother :-)
The laughing-out-loud guy told me that soon the playground (where we were chatting) would disappear, since the owner of the ground would build a house there; he added that the governement would provide them with another playground. The optimism of the human race keeps surprising me! For one reason or another, we keep on hoping for a better future!
5. This evening I accidentally learned about the art of seduction in this country. It seems a process that takes a long time, where the hunter sometimes becomes the hunted, and reverses to hunter if he wants to (which I didn't). It has to do with long lingering, accidental touching, and remarkably only with presence, not with eye-contact. All very interesting, and totally different from the Western art.
6. This night we watched "Australia", an intriguing (but to my opinion badly edited) movie, about the assimilation of the aborigines in Australia. Too much honey to my taste, but the scenery was top, and HL loved the movie, he's totally in love with the leading actor Hugh Jackman!
7. From chatting with guys, I learned that there are thousands of Kuwaitis now in Cebu, they are here for a 2 months course, as students, nobody could inform me what they actually are studying, but it is clear that the locals don't fancy them. The Q8's act as if the place belongs to them and that the locals are only there to serve their desires, and it seems that by doing so, the Q8's crossed a line. Pinoys are obviously willing to walk a long way but there are limits. Maybe it has to do with the Muslim (Mindanao) thing? Still something to discover :-)
PB
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