Scribbles Abroad

After having a blast in Malaysia we were headed to Manila, which was a short three hour flight from Kuala Lumpur.   Our plane landed in Clark Airport located in the outskirts of Manila.  The scenery abruptly changed from lush green to urban madness as we rode the bus into town.

Rolling thorugh the streets of Manila, the skateboard contraption sure is coming in handy

The bus dropped us off right across the street from Manila Bay.  It was a beautiful site until we got a little closer and witnessed the toll that littering has taken on the bay.  It still looked great from a distance, something you could say about the Ala Wai Canal in Waikiki.

Manila Bay

We checked into our hotel The Makati International Inn located only a short jeepney ride away from the LRT (light rail transit).  If you don’t know what a jeepney, imagine a bus crossed with a jeep and then way over decorated.  The areas they service are printed on the sides and to catch one you stand on the curb, flag them down and quickly jump on, sometimes while they are still moving.

The jeepneys really give you a chance to interact with the locals.  They often get packed and you need to squish on the long bench seats, it’s a great opportunity to get to know your neighbor.  If you’re sitting next to the driver people will begin to hand you money.  No it’s not a donation, you’re supposed to pass the money to the driver and return the change to the appropriate person.

Public transportation everywhere!  Notice the LRT to the left, the rasta colored public bus, and the jeepneys.

Manila really has their public transportation system worked out.  The jeepneys are really easy to use and cheap too, averaging only about $0.15.  You can use the LRT or MRT for longer distances then hop on a jeepney to get anywhere in the area.  There’s really no need for a car.

If you can’t find a jeepney or bus to take you where you want to go, you can always hire one of these tricycles with a two person cart attached to the side and they’ll peddle you anywhere you want.  Within reasonable distance of course.

Walking down one of the streets we passed by a little hole in the wall restraunt.  Something smelt really good so we gave it a try.  There were four large pots each filled with a mysterious soup.  Kahi tried some sort of beef soup and I tried congee with small intestines.  The food here is really different from what were used to.  I was able to eat the soup but couldn’t stomach the intestines.  I was quite embarrassed.  It didn’t taste bad, just different.  I think it was the fact that they were intestines and the texture was strange.  Maybe its something that takes getting used to or its something that you need to be raised with.

Some sort of beef concoction and small intestine congee, yum!!!

That evening we met up with our buddy Brian’s friends, Jay and Cathy, who showed us a night out in Manila.  We started off by eating dinner at Buggzy’s.  One of the owners, Bug, is also one of Brian’s friends.  Everything we had was yummylicious!  After dinner they took us to this bar where they were playing old school late 90’s hip-hop.  It was definitely a happening place.  We felt like we were back at home cruising at a bar in Chinatown on First Fridays.

Cathy, Bug, Jay, Louise and Kahi
The next day we caught the LRT to Pasay City and wandered around until we found the Libertad Cockpit.  We’re not into animal cruelty or anything but cockfighting plays a large role in Filipino culture and we wanted to check it out.  It was exciting but also difficult to watch.

WARNING: If you don’t like the site of dead birds or cockfighting in general, scroll past this section.  Also there is excessive use of the word COCK.

As always!

We were the only tourist there and the locals were excited to show us around, they even let me hold one of their cocks.  Kahi was jealous.

They took us into the room where they were attaching the blades to the cock.  They have a small briefcase filled with razor sharp blades, they pick their favorite one and bind it to the back of their cock’s leg.

Binding the blade to cock’s leg

This green cover is kept over the blade and removed right before the fight

Prior to the fight the owners stroke their cocks to get them ready for the fight.  They are taken into the ring and have a face off with another cock.  They are basically antagonizing them, getting them ready for the fight and showing the crowd just how tuff their cocks are.  While this is happening the betting process begins.  Everyone starts raising their hands and calling out who they have their money on.  They search around the arena looking for someone to bet against.  They make eye contact and its on!

The betting process

The owners meet in the middle of the ring with their cocks in their hands.  They make eye contact, show their cocks to eachother, drop them and the fight begins.

They fight till death or 10 minutes, whichever comes first.  Kahi threw some money down on the first fight and won.  You either bet on the Wala, the underdog, or Meron, the favorite.  The first couple of fights we watched were quick only lasting a minute or so.  The third fight was a draw, with both cocks dying at the same time.  All bets are off in this situation.  One of the last fights was the most difficult to watch.  Both of the cocks were badly injured and they would get to the point where they no longer had any interest in eachother.  The referee would pick the cocks up, bring them to the middle of the ring, drop them face to face, and they would begin to fight again.  This happened until the 10 minute mark was reached, neither of the cocks had died and all bets were off.  After the fight the winner gets stiched up and put into an airconditioned room where it recouperates for its fight the following week.

Cock surgery

The losers on the other hand are washed, their feathers are plucked and are sent off to your local restraunt to make chicken adobo

The losers
Later that evening we went on an historic tour of Intramuros given by Carlos Celdran.  His tour was not only entertaining but also very educational.  He helped us realize why Manila is the way it is.  When we first arrived in Manila we just though it was a huge city with many districts with no real center or character.   The tour made us realizes that the bombing during WWII destroyed the city.  After the devastating war rebuilding was sporadic and the city never fully recovered from its effects.  This is why you do not see building with Spanish architecture, even though they were under Spanish rule for years.  If you ever go to Manila we highly suggest a tour with Carlos.  You can check out his site here.

Kahi, Carlos, and Louise

One of the locals going for a leisurely swim in the pond at the golf course while looking for balls

The footsteps of Jose Rizal leading from his jail cell to the place of his execution.

The tour also shed some light on why we were not getting the same warm reaction given almost anywhere else when we say that we’re from Hawaii.  Instead their response was more of a “oh…America…”  or a “so you think you better than us” feeling.  America mislead the Philippines into thinking that they were going to be the 50th state and then they bombed the hell out of them.  Long story short style goes as follows, General Macarthur disregarded the warnings that the Japanese were going to attack.  Then the day after the Pearl Harbor bombing, Japan attacked Manila and was able to take it over.  Macarthur escaped and vowed to return but pretty much never did.  At the end of WWII the US bombed Manila in order to rid the city of the Japanese.  I guess I’d be pretty bitter too.
The city was kind of getting to us and the waves were picking up on the Pacific coast so the next morning we caught a bus to Baler.  The ride was about 9 hours and they kept the air conditioner set on freezing cold.

The bus was freezing cold.  Here’s Kahi with his bundled head eating cup-a-noodle.

Military guards with huge guns did routine secuity checks along the bus route

We sampled some local grinds at one of the rest stops, pork adobo and stir fried veggies.  The soup was super nasty and smelt like wet dog.

The bus dropped us off in the middle of Baler so we loaded our surfboards on a trike and road to the beach.  We checked into Bay’s Inn, which was on the beach right in front of the beach break surf spot.

Bay’s Inn, Baler

We had arrived just in time for the arrival of tropical depression Quinta.  The winds where howling and the rain was dumping.  It rained pretty much all day but we still went surfing in the shorebreak.  It really wasn’t the best surf, but we were stoked to get in the water.  There was definitely some size but the waves were mostly quick drop in close outs.  Still fun though.

We could see the storm moving in on the horizon

The hotel started to flood

Out door seating area at Bay’s Inn

The banana-chocolate shakes and banana fosters crepes were the bomb!
The location of our hotel was pretty much perfect except for the fact that it was located right next to a bar/club that had live music until 2am every night.  The earplugs really came in handy.  One night we cruised over for a couple of beers.  The place was packed and there was a live band playing.  They were pretty good and had a pretty decent crowd dancing.  The bar was an interesting scene.  There were the lady-boys dancing in one area, an old guy surrounded by prostitutes sitting at the table next to us, and a ton of kids partying it up.  We were greeted by a group of three local surfers who were incredibly wasted.  We hung out with them for a while until one of them passed out on our table.

Club scene in Baler

Kahi’s drinking buddy

The next morning we arranged for a trike to take us 6km south to Cemento Beach.  There was an old bridge that we needed to walk over to check out the waves.  It was a little sketchy and we needed to watch our steps.   It was packed!  There were about 11 people out.  This was not something expected, but we paddled out anyway.

The road to Cemento

This is the sketchy bridge you walk out on to scope out the waves

The other end of the bridge is small kine falling apart

Kahi at Cementos, the wave looks bad but it was actually really good a bit earlier.
The majority of the crowd was Filipino, which was surprisingly different from Indonesia where most people in the line up were tourist.  We were two of four tourists out there.   The waves were a little overhead and the barrel potential was high.  Kahi got some sick waves.  I was a little timid of the crowd but still got some fun ones.

One of the local surfer, Jason
We headed back to our hotel packed our bags and jumped on another bus.  This one would take us to Baugio.