Filipino foods

More Filipino dishes i have encountered 

Batchoy

Chicken Kare Kare

Chicken Pastel 

Chicken Sizzling

Fried Banana wraps 

Filipino Foods

Some Filipino Dishes I encounter 

Giniling (Potato,carrots,totamto sauce)

Pancit

Fried Bean Sprouts

Sizzling (Pork,Pepper,Spices)

The Rice Fields

December is the time when the local Rice fields are harvested and re - planted ready for the next harvest 

Before the Harvest 

After the Harvest & replanted 

Ready for the next crop in 3 months time

Rice Balls

So today was a practice making Rice Balls 

Filipinos love these and so do I !! 

Living in the Philippines ( 2 months in )

   So it's been 2 months of living in the Philippines and I have sure experienced a lot of things , from strange foods to religion and of course being introduced to the Gun culture . Staying here for only a few weeks or even a month is just not enough to understand how the Filipinos mind work and how hard life is .

   Filipinos are somewhat lazy as you see many on the streets sitting around , chatting and doing nothing whilst they wait for the Evening time to approach so they can get hammered on the local wine and beer ! , so this country is the place to be if you enjoy drinking,smoking and eating everything fried !.  After being here for some time you get to understand the cost of living and each 1000 peso bill means something and it's no longer play money as one starts to look around the stores for cheaper foods to buy instead of buying from the imported food section in the local super market or even the 7/11 .

   Making Money is hard here and it's mostly small change everyday so you will not get rich no matter what business ideas you come up with ! , trust me , I have heard them all and seen many fail but people keep on thinking about the same ideas when it never works ! .  The only income that's stable enough to live on is a Pension ! ...  anything more is just top up money .

  The life for me is to work in my own country and spend plenty of time here building my future so when I choose to retire early everything is set in place and I can enjoy the rest from chasing money all my life . Many expats are old and just live out their days on a pension which is fine but being only 40 i just can't do that as I am good for atleast 10 years of work yet ! 

Let's see how my next few months go ........

Lucban (Laguna) Jesus Shrine

So today we visited the Jesus Shrine!, The Filipinos put their faith first for well being and guidance through life  , so off we went on a warm sunny afternoon ...

300 hundred steps to the top where the shrine is and 300 back down ! 

This place is free entry and daily Mass at 10:30 / 11:30 & 12:30

The best times to visit the shrine is ofcourse on Sunday's , Very busy though as people come all the way from Manila !

A small scale model of the entire site

With a Hotel, gift shops & plenty of places on site to eat this is sure a great place for a die hard catholic !

Filipino hospitality

The Filipino hospitality really makes you enjoy the country and everybody wants to know you and be your friend ! . Since I have been here I have joined many gatherings and my dairy is now full up over the christmas period ! ..

And people say it's all about money ? Well they are wrong as I never had to put my hand in my pocket for anything .. the food , the wine and my host even paid for a pack of smokes when I needed to go out and get some !

Oh the women are very entertaining and always making sure I have plenty of food and drink inside me ! .. Filipinos really know how to entertain their guests ! 

Adapting to Life

   Adapting to local life in the Philippines takes some time, and since i have been here it has been the hardest 2 weeks getting used to the climate and the local diet. The food we eat here really takes it's toll on my fragile stomach, even western style food seems hard to digest but this will all pass as i settle into life . Climatising takes a few weeks for me and soon i shall not need my trusty sweat towel!.

   

Some meat sticks (Spring Rolls)

Fields of Rice ready for harvest 

Lets hope I settle into the local foods soon !....

Back to Manila

So it's back to the Philippines once again after enduring a 26 hour trip from the UK

 Our View from the Hotel 

Our quick visit to the famous china town 

Baguio (Wright Park)

Wright Park is a splash with colour  as all the tourists ride the multi coloured  horses around a huge 

ring . I wasn't to interested with this place as it was just a walk through but the kids seem to enjoy it.

Wright Park also holds another small attraction ........

No not me pretending to be a rock star!, but after a hike up 100 steps , we get to the Mansion 

   The Mansion in the background 

Baguio (Mines View Park)

Mines View Park , where the air is cool and the views are beautiful ! Our

pictures are far better than any words ...

The Main entry point 

Breathtaking views 

Lets get a bit of scale to the background mountains

Be a asshole and get a  pic on horse for 300 pesos ! 

The Vlog below will really give more feel for this fabulous place ! .

Baguio (Botanical Gardens)

Our tour of Baguio continued as we visited the Botanical gardens which is around 3 miles from the city , mostly up hill into the cool air of the mountains . I found this place to be a peaceful , relaxing and beautiful with plenty of gift shops and food outlets .

Outside the main gate where you can have your picture taken with the local natives 

Such a oriental feel about the gardens 

The first thing that welcomes you into the gardens

Her phone was working overtime lol 

So where is the Botanical gardens ? Well  The main sites to see are all clustered together and you can easily visit all the attractions within a day ! and everything is Free to enter !! ... Next stop  Mines View Park ! 

Baguio (our first day)

Our first day in Baguio started at 8 am when we checked into the hotel , We has no sleep all night but agreed to look around Baguio city and sleep later on . 

What a small,busy but such a cool place to be ! , I found it amazing how so many little houses climbed up the mountains along with  the clean streets and  strict litter laws!

So we went out on our travels around the city and stopped at Baguio Cathedral ..

Half the day had now passed and it was time to get back to the hotel for some sleep ,  but there was a problem .......  we forgot the address  and name of the hotel !! .  We spend another 2 hours or so trying to find the place and with no sleep the night before my mood was quickly turning ! .  It was lucky that i found a picture of the hotel i took with my phone previous that day and the local police pointed us in the right direction ! ..  Cab meters are set at 40 pesos and it really don't take long to move around the City .

Baguio (The bus ride up)

  Our 10 hour Bus ride up to Baguio was sure an experience . Setting off after 1pm was never a good idea to begin with as we did not get to see the lovely mountains traveling into Baguio as it was past 10pm by the time we go into the Bus Terminal . 

So it's after 10pm and we finally  walk out of the terminal to endure a hour in a cab driving around looking for a hotel to stay in  but  sadly everything was booked up that night and the only thing i could do was make a reservation for the morning so that's what we did .

Back to the Bus Terminal for the night it had to be!!

Sleeping in a Bus Terminal is never the same as a bed !

Our first day at Baguio will soon to begin ........

Price of Pork

The Price of Meat in the philippines varies from place to place depending on the quality of the cuts.

This Pigs head I bought for 1000 pesos from the market catered for 15 people !

Century Park Hotel (The Chefs)

I knew a staff member at the hotel and he asked if he could borrow my camera to snap a few Last Day pics with his co workers ...... This is what i found ...

@ Century Park Hotel 2016

Century Park Hotel (Manila)

This Hotel was  really nice and almost Grande which cost me only 3000 pesos per night!.

Fridge,Tv,Cable,wife ect

King size Bed 

And great views across Manila

I chose this hotel partly on reputation and a easy route to the Bus terminals .

Guns (Civilian Protection)

Guns in the philippines are on the rise with 3,900,000 civilians owning them . During my time in Manila I sure seen a few and heard more but to be honest in some areas Guns are the best way in home protection because if your house is broken into then nine times out of ten the scumbag will be carrying one ! 

The house owner across my street certainly believes in personal protection !

On arrival to the Convention center in Manila I noticed this sign

Deposit your Gun and pick it up when you leave !  

Out of interest I looked into the amount of guns on the streets and here was the statistics  :-

Estimated private gun ownership  is 4.7 firearms per 100 people.

The number of Rifles in civilian possession is reported to be 68,738

The number of Shotguns in civilian possession is reported to be 78,689

The number of Handguns in civilian possession is reported to be 325,564

In a comparison of the number of privately owned guns in 178 countries, the philippines ranked 20th

Expats can't own guns personally but your wife sure can ! . Sometimes I feel expats are just sitting ducks along with being so restricted on what we can and cant do within the Philippines !

Coconut Plantation

After a  5 minute walk from the house i discover  the coconut plantations

The Old man who was with me said they can be over 50 years old . I noticed letters carved into some of the trees , the old man told me that it means bad coconuts .

The Oldman then decided to show me how to knock down a coconut 

After 30 minutes in the plantation enduring the morning sun the  oldman took me onward to a nearby field where his brother was building his Nipa hut ....

Just another typical morning in the philippines !