Savor the Moment.

A Ferarri Jeeney - elongated public transport fabricated from Jeeps left by the Americans after WWII. It's the main form of public transport, decorated in millions of different ways.

Asian Adventures
First Impressions: The Philippines.

The Philippines has an interesting heritage, having influences from Indo-Malaya, Spain and the US over the course of its history. Tagalog, the national language borrows words and phrases from Spanish, English and Malay – which means I can understand 1/16th of what they’re saying.

Although this is my first trip to the Philippines, I have (obviously) been to Southeast Asia before. I had expected the country to be similar, although there were many things that surprised me. Manila’s international airport is crappy, like small-town-Indonesia-10-years-ago-crappy. I learned later on that a new airport had been built, and lays empty, as land rights hadn’t been secured before hand. Now, claims are floating around in court, as the new airport lies in waste.

We’re staying with Andy’s Uncle and Aunt in the IRRI compound (International Rice Research Institute), which is drastically different than the environment outside the walls. We’ll be visiting a jeepney factory (I’ll explain later), ancient rice terraces in Banue and the local markets.

Here are a couple of interesting photos I wanted to share:

This fruit is known as Calimansi, it's like a cross between an orange and a lime... If you can imagine that. It's used on everything, for flavoring you papaya and sweetening your chili dip. Additionally, it's the substitute for orange juice, since oranges don't seem to be grown in this region. Andy and I got addicted to Calimansi juice, best served with breakfast. Yum!

Andrew took this photo of me from the diving board... One of the things we love to do it swim, or more specifically, get a break from the hot, tropical heat. It feels wonderful. Since we're on holiday, we have the pool mostly to ourselves, as everyone is hard at work or school when we go for a dip, around 1-2 pm.

This is Charlie, otherwise known as the pee machine. When his happy, sad, excited, frightened, bored or hungry... He pees. Anywhere. Everywhere. Thankgod for tile flooring! He's a cute little bugger that grows and grows, he'll probably be 3 times the size in a couple of months.

Andy and I in the back yard of a neighbor's house. The foliage behind us is the same jungle used to shoot the film Apocalypse Now. Interesting, huh? Except for the icky bugs, the fire ants etc.

That's all for now, folks. More to come later.