A ‘Hometel’ in Dumangas.

It was the first night, after leaving Dumaguete in Southern Negros, of our great adventure of driving along the somewhat awkwardly named ‘Strong Republic Nautical Highway’ . We had caught the last ferry from Bacolod in Negros to Iloilo in Panay as I described in my article “The Strong Republic Nautical Highway”.

This Landing craft style ferry didn’t in fact go to the City of Iloilo, instead it went 25 Kilometres East to the specially constructed Roll-on Roll-off Ferry port at Dumangas.

It was dark when we got off the ferry and the roads leading away from the port area and heading north towards our destination of Caticlan and Boracay seemed even darker. Our low beam/high beam switch was playing up and it occasionally plunged us into total darkness! There were no Cities or large towns shown on our map, we were tired having been travelling all day, and we badly wanted somewhere to sleep for the night.

The large towns and Cities of the Philippines are well served with Hotels of all standards, and you are spoilt for choice in the many holiday areas. Unfortunately Dumangas doesn’t fit into either category so we stopped at a small Petron Gas Station, to ask if they knew anywhere we might stay.

Gina asked in Vysian as they speak basically the same language in Southern Panay as in Mindanao. While English is very widely spoken, in rural areas, a lack of confidence in spoken English makes it easier and more effective to ask in the local dialect. The conversation raged around me… spoken Vysian is not a quiet experience. The owner of the Petron Station became involved and Gina told me we might be able to stay at the School. Visions of boarding school dormitories filled my mind and I asked if I could stay with the Girls!

We followed his small motorcycle around a few corners and arrived at a set of impressive gates, entrance to the school, which in fact was a College of Further Education. One of the course offered is in Hotel Management. Once admitted to the large campus we were invited to park in front of a large modern building.

Our so helpful Petron man, Cipriano, is married to a teacher at the College, which explained his knowledge and access to the campus. Merio and Daisy, a delightful married couple, the teachers in charge of the Hotel Courses were waiting to greet us. We discovered to our delight that as part of their facilities, they have a 3 rooms to rent, they call it a ‘Hometel’, within the college where students gain practical experience. It also provides a small but useful addition to the college funds.

We were given a large Air Conditioned Hotel style room and we looked longingly at the comfortable bed.

There is a large shared lounge area within the accommodation area, so we relaxed there for a while before the lure of the awaiting bed became too strong. I was a bit startled to see a medium sized crab resting happily in a external doorway and as it didn’t seem likely to cause any direct threat to our much longed for peaceful night’s sleep, I let “Sleeping Crabs Lie”. When I mentioned it in the morning I was told we were near a river! That seemed a satisfactory reply for most people in the circle of new friends around me and so decided it would be for me too!

The next morning we were warmly welcomed by many teachers and students at breakfast in the Cafeteria and enjoyed talking to them about their college. Understandably Teachers and College Students do have the confidence to use their English skills.

We were given the Cell Phone numbers of the teachers and made to promise we would text them when we came back through on our way south again after our Boracay Holiday. We kept that promise and enjoyed another restful night a week or so later.

So take our advice and travel the ‘Strong Republican Nautical Highway’ and spend a peaceful night at ‘Iloilo State College, Dumangas Campus’.. I am sure you will be made as welcome as we were.
Text them on +63 921 533 4968.

Colin and Gina in Cagayan de so pleased to find a Comfortable Bed.

All the Fun of the Fair.

Its a long time since I enjoyed going to an old fashioned Fair but I did on Saturday.

Its Fiesta time in Cagayan de Oro, the bustling city an hour’s drive from our home in San Isidro, Balingasag. On a piece of waste land, close to the big, bright, modern and comprehensive shopping centre of Lim Kit Kai we watched a Fair ground take shape. Kit Kai is our preferred place to shop and so had passed the Fair ground several times. ( They took more than 2 weeks to construct it all) Gina was as keen as the children to go to the fair… I had no option but to agree we should go!

We took John John, 2 Nieces and 1 Nephew last week, only to find the fair didn’t open until 5.00pm, which seemed a bit silly as it was a public holiday. We hadn’t come prepared for a late return home and so had to consol the kids with a promise we would return one evening next week.

To keep our promise we arrived in Cagayan early on Saturday afternoon but again despite being a weekend it still didn’t open until 5.00pm. Fearing this would probably be the case, we activated Plan B to keep them occupied until opening time.

Big Kids and Little Kids enjoying their time at the Cagayan Fair. 

A poster proudly announced the Promoters had brought “The Finest Rides all the way from Manila”. I would have thought they would have wanted to take every opportunity to maximise the return on their investment. It seems a poor business decision not to open until the evening as this is the rainy season in Cagayan when the common pattern is to have fine days until rain arrives in mid afternoon which continues until late evening! They had the fair closed during the predictably fine part of the day, only to open at the same time as the heavens, to bless us with a tropical downpour!

So I admit my enthusiasm was somewhat, forgive the pun, ‘Dampened’ by the time we parked the car and waded through a muddy area to the muddy entrance and entered the muddy fairground. I don’t know if they were surprised by the rain falling but the entrances to most of the rides, despite having framework erected which would have made the addition of a canvas roof to protect the customers a simple task, were left open to the skies.

But the kids were excited and I soon found my mood lifted by their enthusiasm. We paddled from the Ferris wheel, (Luckily featuring covered Pergola style carriages) to the Carousel Horses to the horrors of the Ghost Train…None of your Hi-Tech effects here. The scary bit was created by men dressed in Ghostly costumes, hiding in the dark of the tunnel, to leap and scream while running alongside the open carriages of the train. The Kids who come from a rural area and have been brought up on stories of Ghosts and Bad Spirits, were truly terrified and screamed even louder than the “Ghosts” !

I managed to surprise a “Ghost” with modern technology and a flash gun.!

(He doesn’t look so scary here but in the dimly lit cave, he sure scared the kids)

I think we managed to convince them it was really men dressed up and they calmed down as we left but were not keen to repeat the ride! John John kept his cool by covering his eyes with a hat and his ears with his hands until the whole terrifying thing was over. Good plan John John.

It reminded me of my childhood when my Grandmother used to scare me enough with such stories to have nightmares about unearthly things, and now I am not surprised I used to insist on having a night light in my bedroom.

The modern Western approach of not dwelling on such stories, and probably modern kid’s scepticism, has upon reflexion, much to recommend it.

We had great fun on a side stall betting 5 Peso coins against which colour three dices would show after they tumbled down a wooden shoot onto the table. Our original 10 pesos kept the laughter and excitement going for turn after turn.We were 30 Pesos up at one time, eventually losing it all, as totally expected. A low cost for the fun we had and I would have felt mean taking 30 pesos from the young stall keeper who was not exactly turning customers away.

I hope the rain stopped and the customers arrived after we left, there were not many of us sloshing around in the waterlogged ground.

We had great fun though and it showed me why fairs have been so resilient, despite all the encroachment made by Video games, TV and all the modern distractions all vying for one’s attention.

Philippine Style Rain Hats.

So if you see an old fashioned fair come to a bit of waste ground near you, go and enjoy and we wish you fine weather and a more enlightened opening timetable.

Colin and Gina in Cagayan de “It Ain’t Half Wet Mum”

The Strong Republic Nautical Highway

Our Route was from Cagayan de Oro to Caticlan and Return.

The distance from our house in Balingasag to Boracay where we had been invited to spend the week as guests of an American friend is not, by Australian standards, very far.

It is probably 400 klms as the crow flies and even on the far less direct route by road it is about 700 klms. The only problem is the Philippines has more than 7000 islands and our journey would involve crossing 3 islands. The Resort island of Boracay would make it 4 but you can’t take a car to Boracay anyway, in fact one of Boracay’s charms is the lack of traffic.

So why were we thinking of driving? I had read about a new road system called the “Strong Republic Nautical Highway” which is designed to link Manila with the Western Islands of Mindoro, Panay, Negros to Mindanao, with a system of RollOn RollOff ferries between the Islands. We would need to drive west from Cagayan de Oro to Dapitan and then it’s just a 40 mile sea crossing to Dumaguete in Negros. Our sailing boat, Sea Feather, is currently in the natural harbour of Bonbonon 40 klms west of Dumaguete. It’s a safe and inexpensive spot to moor our boat, the only disadvantage is the only way down to the harbour from the highway is 10 klms of rough road and the only public transport is by the local Habel Habel motorcycles. I love motorcycles but being a pillion on a small motorcycle over rough roads is not my idea of fun or safe travel… So if we could take our trusty 4×4 Rocsta we would have our own transport.

Looking across the harbour at Bonbonon, Sea Feather in distance.

And then we could have the adventure of driving up to Caticlan to join our friends in Boracay. So we decided we would try the Strong Republic Nautical Highway.

Detailed information about the Highway is frustratingly hard to come by which made planning our trip difficult. I knew for example, that on our way from Cagayan de Oro to Dapitan to catch the first ferry to Dumaguete, there was a short ferry trip across a river mouth to Ozamis to avoid a 150 klm detour inland along poor roads, but where exactly did it go from? How often did it run? In was in fact easy to find, inexpensive and ran every half and hour… we know that now but we only found out by doing it!

The journey through Mindanao was pleasant and trouble free. We had a few concerns as we headed west towards the part of Mindanao that tends to be in the news, bad news that is, but the coastal road we followed was through strongly Christian areas and we felt perfectly safe. The roads were the best we have ever found in the Philippines. When we arrived at the RoRo port of Dapitan we easily bought tickets for a ferry leaving at 2.00 pm.

One important piece of information, if you ever use these inter island ferries you must have your car’s current registration and ownership papers with you… they have to be shown before you can get aboard.

The RoRo Ferry which took us from Dapitan to Dumaguete.

 

The crossing to Dumaguete was calm and only my carelessness, leaving my cell phone on top of the bunk, spoiled an otherwise trouble free journey to Sea Feather. Arriving at 6.00 pm gave plenty of time to travel the 45 Klms to Bonbonon; we arrived tired but safe and happy.

We stayed on Sea Feather for a couple of days and then headed north through Negros to Bacolod to catch the ferry across the Straights of Panay to Iloilo. The journey north was enjoyable although the conditions of the roads seemed to get worse the further away from Dumaguete we got. Bacolod has a very frustrating one way traffic system… we knew where we wanted to go, left to the port, but every street seemed to be one way, the wrong way! A new SM Mall had just opened and it means a new system of one way streets is needed…but unfortunately they haven’t yet quite decided on the new system! We ended up in a poor residential area, and were told we should go “That Way”… we did but the street was so narrow we had to wait for numerous elderly citizens to move from their doorways before we could get past.

We arrived to find the regular RoRo ferry had just left with the next one at 8.00 in the morning. We saw a landing craft style vessel, one big ramp at the bows, big vehicle deck and accommodation at the stern. Enquiries revealed that this left in less than an hour and was going to the special RoRo port of Dumangas east of the city of Iloilo, so we followed several large trucks and buses onto the ferry. They all turned around and reversed on so we thought we had better do the same even though it was a bit intimidating as there was quite a gap between the ramp and the dock and the boat was rolling gently. Glad we did as departing the vessel at the other end involved a dark concrete ramp and it is much easier to see with the headlights pointing ahead!

I engaged 4 wheel drive and eased the car up and over the ramp with no problems but a girl driving a small hatch-back got herself stuck with the front wheels spinning helplessly on wet rope mats placed between the ramp and dock. Luckily the car was small and the deck crew big so they just picked it up and heaved her aboard!

A more Utilitarian Vehicle ferry from Bocolod to the Island of Panay.

It did take us three days to travel to Boracay, a journey that would have taken just a few hours had we flown there via Manila, but then we would have missed out on so much. We also missed the endless security checks, lugging suitcases around (And/or fighting off the hoards of waiting porters who want to carry your bags, with the associated stress of deciding a fair fee for such services) and sitting around in airport lounges. We felt to be in charge of our own destiny which is a satisfying feeling.

There are so many things that come to mind about our journey and I will describe some in my next few articles. Let me just say that the Highway is a great conduit for a safe adventure for those who like experiencing new places and the rewards of completing a journey. We met many helpful and friendly people along the way and experienced beautiful coastal and mountain scenery. The ferries are clean, punctual, in good order and professionally operated. The condition of the roads leaves much to be desired in many places but there is a lot of road building actually in progress and I am sure the highway will improve a lot over the next few years. There are few private vehicles traveling the highway and so your experiences will be ones not shared by many people and that has an appeal of its own.

You don’t need a new or fancy vehicle, something tough and simple is best. Our Korean ‘Jeep’ is more than 10 years old but has an economical diesel engine, a surprisingly roomy and comfortable interior, an excellent Air Conditioner and good ground clearance.

In fact you don’t need a vehicle at all as modern, comfortable Air Conditioned Buses run along the whole length of the Highway. You can catch one which will take you all the way from Manila to Cagayan de Oro but of course you can stop and take a break anywhere and then catch the next convenient bus to continue your journey.

If you have the time, travel the Strong Republic National Highway and see another fascinating aspect of these beautiful Islands.

Journey’s End… Beautiful Boracay.

Colin and Gina in Cagayan de Strong Highway.

You can buy a lot for a Peso!

John John wanted some Chocolates…You need to understand that ‘Chocolates’ is a collective noun in his vocabulary. He is after a small treat of some kind.

We were pleased to have him back, not that he had been physically away, but for the last three days he has been screaming around with numerous small Cousins, Nieces and Nephews, so we haven’t seen much of him. Now they have all gone and we have our ‘Only Child’ back again. It was Brother Isidro’s wedding yesterday and everyone lends a hand so relatives came from all over Mindanao, hence the numerous children around for John to play with.

The event was planned and executed in typically Philippine fashion, one which hides a lot of efficient organization beneath apparent noisy chaos. It was quite a grand affair.

So we were feeling a little indulgent towards him and Gina gave him a few small coins, about 5 Peso…I need to give you a little financial information here: $1 US gives you about 48 Pesos and $1 Australian gives about 39 Pesos… He went to the little store next door and came back with 5 packets of confectionary. “Moby Caramel Puffs, A crunchy snack dipped in real Caramel Preservative Free, No MSG” says the packet.

They are fairly small, 7 grams but the thing I can’t quite work out is how they sell them for 1 Peso each! The packaging is a modern foil pack, in full colour. The snacks themselves are quite tasty and as the package says “They melt in your Mouth” . When you consider manufacturing costs, packaging costs, distribution costs, profit margins for the manufacturer, wholesaler and retail outlet… how can you do it for 1 Peso each?

Beats me, I would have thought the packaging would have cost that much.

I am just pleased to live in a place where small coins can actually buy something!

Other things you can buy for your Peso coin:-

I piece of individually wrapped chewing gum.

1 ‘Stick’ (cigarette) …You can buy individual cigarettes at the small stores, mind you the retailer is profiteering here because you can buy a pack of 20 for 12 Peso!

1 small bread roll.

A whole range of similar treats like the Moby Puffs, sweet and savory.

A variety of individually wrapped sweets and candies.

If you are lucky enough to have a few more Pesos to spend you could buy so many other things, Packages of Shampoo, Washing Powder, Soya Sauce, Ketchup… the list is endless. Most everyday products are available in small low cost packages. They meet the market need for low price items for people with little money to spend.

If you have 30 (Peso) of them you could buy a half bottle of Tanduay Rum, perfectly drinkable, and get 2 Peso change!

Ironically these small packs would meet a demand in the West too with more and more people living alone. A supermarket shelf is likely to offer ‘Jumbo’ this and ‘Extra Large’ that but to find small size packaging can be very difficult if not impossible,

Perhaps I should start a business importing goods in small low cost sizes to the Western Singles market!

We are going to Dumaguete this week to Sea Feather and then to Borocay. We are taking the car on a fairly new Car Ferry service from Mindanao to Negros. I am sure it will stimulate lots of ideas for my next posts.

Please keep reading.

 

Colin and Gina in Cagayan de Organised Chaos.

The Indestructible McToys

 

I was watching our boy John John playing with his old favourites, 2 toys from his resturant of choice, MacDonalds. He doesn’t so much want to go for the food, its the free toys they give with their ‘Happy Meals’ and the children’s playground that he likes, particularily the free toys! How many toys McDonalds must buy per promotion world wide and the price they must get them for to be able to offer them included in a meal for a total cost of a dollar or so has always fascinated me.

Normally these toys, while surprisingly well made, have a fairly short life in the hands of our ultimate tester of durability, John John.

These two toys have lasted and lasted despite his best efforts…

So I thought I might write a letter…

Dear Mr Mac,

I was wondering if you could tell me who manufactured the two plastic toys, with the bouncy heads, shown in the Photograph above. While you are looking up your records I also wonder if you could also tell me how many million, trillion you had to order to get the price down to a level which, after distribution costs and margins, allowed you to include them for free in a 60 Peso “Happy Meal” ?

I ask this because I wonder if they manufacture other things like reading glasses, door handles, tap sets (You might know them as faucets), flashlights, laptop computers, cell phones, printer ink cartridges and many other things I have bought in recent times.

You see the two Happy Meal Toys are indestructible, we have had them in our house hold for at least a year and our ‘Test to Destruction’ 4 year old son hasn’t broken them! I can’t think of anything else and I mean anything else, in his possession that he hasn’t mange to destroy or substantially modify.

So you see it seems to me that this company should be able to manufacture other items such as listed above, which have proved to be anything but indestructible, to the same high standards.

(If this is, in fact, a secret project in cooperation with the US Military or perhaps for the Space Program designed to give the ultimate endurance test by subjecting them to the hands of millions of 4 and 5 year olds, you can count on my discretion.)

If this isn’t the case is it OK with you if I send them to NASA and suggest that the next generation of Space Shuttles should be made of the same materials?

I look forward to your reply and contact details of your supplier.

 

With thanks.

 

Colin Smith in Cagayan de Happy Meals

Weddings… In the Philippine Style.

Weddings , Weddings, Weddings… it’s all I can think about at the moment, at least it seems that way sometimes.

My brother in law Isidro is getting married on Saturday and the family has been very busy preparing for the event and the expected influx of relations and friends from places near and far. As in most of the World, Weddings and Funerals are events at which the extended family will get together if they possibly can.

It’s a big financial commitment for the couples, my brother and soon to be sister in laws have both borrowed as much as they can, three sisters living overseas and we have chipped in too. The total cost of perhaps $2,000 is not much for a Wedding by Western Standards but when compared to the local wages it is a lot of money here.

I suggested (Not Seriously, the family are used to my style of humour by now) we should have an Australian style BBQ after the wedding, with the Invitations saying “Bring your own everything” and explained that a good organiser of such a BBQ could expect to have far more brought than would ever be eaten or drunk and end up with a useful surplus!

That’s not the way here of course, and not to provide for all the relative and friends, however financially difficult it might be for the couple would be unthinkable and cause great loss of face.

One of the reasons, no make that the only reason, there are a lot of people in the Philippines- (the last official census showed 84 million but that was a few years ago) is most young Philippinos get married and most have plenty of children. And I should mention there are plenty of additional children born without the marriage part! Children are loved and welcomed by virtually everyone and are sure to have a wide extended family to look after and nurture them.

The Philippines is uniquely in Asia, predominately a Catholic country. The Church is central to most Philippino people’s lives .To many outside this country that may well bring to mind pictures of strict adherence to Church rules and a lot of guilt being felt by the people. The priest certainly has a lot of influence in his community but the messages I have heard given are all positive, sensible and useful ideas.

I should say that I was not brought up as a Catholic and I too had to work on changing my ideas to take into account the actual situation I have found here in the Philippines.

In fact my observations at a local level show a surprising degree of tolerance by the Church, transferred to most people in many social issues. Gay people are happily accepted into society and valued for their creativity and humour. Children born out of wedlock are accepted just as easily and there seems to be no stigma carried by an unmarried mother.

I have been to many Church weddings over the last 12 months in my capacity as resident “Fore ranger” (Foreigner) and I suspect more recently in my capacity of unpaid photographer and movie maker! This has allowed me to observe quite a few weddings close up.

I have been to a wedding where the Bride was quite obviously about to be a mother. The pretty little flower girl at the wedding I went to last Saturday was obviously the child of the couple being married. In both cases the priest was genuinely happy to marry the couples.

One wedding we went to was at the daily 6.00 am Mass, with 3 other couples being married at the same time. This is the cheapest way to marry. No charges for the Church Service, just a small government document fee. We went to a real “Wedding Breakfast” afterwards as it was still only 7.30 and we were home by 9.00! Still plenty of time to get on with the day!

I have learnt much about living a simpler life without many of the pressures of the Western World. The local people are mainly poor but they live their lives with great dignity and immensely enjoy the richness that these Weddings provide.

Of course the cost of a Wedding is a once only expense, there is no such thing as divorce in the Philippines. Now while that might be difficult to absorb if you come from a country where Divorce is available ‘on demand’ it does give much greater stability to family life. Perhaps somewhere between the “Too Easy” and “Not Possible” situation would be the best foundation for a Happy Society.

Colin and Gina in Cagayan de Weddings.

“Okay,Okay”… The Secret of Dressing well.

Since I came to live in the Philippines I have more smart shirts and dress shorts than I have ever had in my life!

If you have ever tried shopping for clothes of larger sizes, in countries where most of the population is fairly small in stature, say Hong Kong or Singapore you will know the problem. Nothing will fit! Even the French must have small feet… I remember having great problems replacing a pair of broken sandals a few years ago during a French ‘Oliday’ They had some beautiful designs but they were all much too small (My Father always said I needed to throw the shoes away and wear the boxes! And that was in my home town in England of Northampton, famous for its Boots and Shoe manufacturing… perhaps I just have big feet.)

In the Philippines, despite the average size of a Filipino being much smaller than a big Western Guy like me, I have had no problem in getting quality clothes, and as a big bonus, at real bargain prices. (Sandals are a bit different, I have had to have some made to measure, my big feet again!)

Why have I been able to get shirts and shorts to fit? (Not slacks…I rarely wear long trousers, the several pairs I brought from Australia will last me for ever, so rarely are they worn, only ever for special occasions like Weddings and Christenings… (mind you I have been to a lot of those lately…my next post is going to be about Marriage Filippino Style)

Well first the shirts - a lot of shirts are made here for the American Market and if you look in the right places they sell the shirts made for export here too, even in the larger sizes. The beautiful Filipina in my life always seems able to find such things and even more amazingly know what size will fit; even when the size as indicated by the label seems unrelated to the actual size. (The Labels seem to be chosen for a particular shirt by a computer that specialises in generating random numbers!) None of this seems to worry Gina, she just looks and says “Yes this will fit” and she is nearly always right.

Last week she found quality polo shirts in a variety of colours, all the right size for 99 Peso each…brand new and perfect! I am very pleased she bought 10 shirts for me as a birthday present… total cost $20. Amazing. Thanks Darling.

And shorts…at last we come to the Okay Okay title.

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the clothes donated to your local “Op Shop” or Charity Shop? I know they receive far more stock than they can ever sell or even donate to worthy people.

Everything gets sorted and washed, clothes in bad condition are cut into rags, sold to Industry by the Kilogram while good stock goes to their retail outlets but they still have a big surplus. I was involved in a transport company back in Australia and one of the regular jobs was to pick up 5 Tonne truck loads of compressed bundles of surplus clothes. They are bought by weight by enterprising companies and shipped by the container load to developing countries.

Container after container of such clothes must come to the Philippines from the States, every City, Town and even small community has their “Okay Okay” store.

(I presume so named, haggling being common in such places, for the agreeing to the price cry from the vendor of “Okay, Okay”… [local spelling] )

In the larger Cities are dozens and dozens of such places. They are mainly market type stalls with the clothing and bedding piled high on simple tables. There are Upmarket places where they sort the clothes out and put them on hangers but Gina reckons they are too expensive! She prefers to go through the piles and find just what she is looking for. The best time is when a new container has just arrived. Using her unerring eye for size, she enjoys going through it all and finding bargain after bargain.Even better are Children’s Clothes, we regularily find brand new, expensively made clothes for less than a dollar. Fantastic!

I have dozens of shorts bought this way, including some real high quality ones which fit perfectly.

So if you combine the local made shirts with the Okey Okey shorts you can be well dressed for very little.

I can help you with where to find the shirts and shorts but you need to find your own Filipina with the right patient character and the keen eye for a bargain!

Colin and Gina in Cagayan de Okay

Welcome to the Wonderful World of the Philippines.

Hello from Colin and Gina Smith in Balingasag, near Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao, Southern Philippines.

I have been setting up my Blog site this morning. It has taken a while mainly because I have a slow connection and my own inexperience with the medium. I have a slow connection but I have a connection!

We live in a rural community in the Southern Philippines and the closest land line is about 2 miles away and for quite a few months it looked as though an Internet connection at home was just not possible. A local cell phone company, Smart, have a system which involves setting up a special antenna at home to connect to their tower, and we tried this but we are too far from the tower and the signal is blocked by tall Coconut trees between us and the tower! (So said the man who came to install)

Back to going to local Internet Cafes with my trusty Laptop to connect- Ugh! The local town of Balingasag has several such places but they are full of Kids playing noisy “Kill Em Dead” games, not exactly the environment I find conducive to happy email writing and web browsing.

One of the frustrations of not having my own Internet connection was the lack of my own email address and I had to rely on Hotmail or Yahoo. I find these web based email systems frustrating mainly because they don’t down load into my ‘Outlook’ Inbox folder. Offline, no emails, unless I copied and saved them into another system, which doesnt have the ability to browse and reply. Then one day I discovered that ‘Gmail’ allowed me to configure it to download to Outlook… this was a major step forward in my Cyber Happiness.

We like travelling through the 7000 plus Islands of the Philippines and we visited a beautiful Island, Busuanga, in the Palawan group. (The most Westerly Islands of the Philippines). We met an English Guy, Mike, who manages a 5 star resort there. He has an “Air Card” in his Laptop that allows him to get online from his remote resort. That might work for us we thought!!

It wasn’t easy to get information about this system. There are no effective Yellow Pages in the Philippines, and it reminds me just how useful they are when seeking information. (I will comment more on that “Information Black Hole” in later posts, it is one of the characteristics of this land) Eventually I was able to get the information I needed by searching the net. It’s a system called “WeRoam” run by PLDT (Philippines Long Distance Telephones).

We had to visit the neighbouring Island of Cebu to be able to purchase the kit, which consists of an AirCard by “Sierra” to slot into the side of my Benq Laptop and a sim card from Smart, which fits inside the Aircard. A very helpful tech. at the shop set it all up and we were online! Hurrah! But would it work at home??

We set it up at home and found if we placed it in exactly the right place alongside a window facing the tower, we connect! Much Cheering.

The signal was weak and inconsistent and the download speeds slow, I mean so slow dial up seems positively fast, but it worked!

After a few weeks we couldn’t get online for 3 days… I spoke to a knowledgeable man at theSmart office in our closest City, Cagayan de Oro, an hour away by car (I have since found that Smart is part of the PLDT group and we could have bought the system from them in Cagayan. I had actually asked there and was answered with polite, but negative replies…part of that “Black Hole” I suppose) and he said they had been making upgrades to their system… and you know now it has settled down the system is much better and faster. Thank you Mr Smart.

The great benefit of this system is it will work almost anywhere in the Philippines (Why the little Antenna of the AirCard will connect to the same tower the big specialised Antenna we tried before couldn’t and from exactly the same place- From an inferior position actually because we had the big antenna up on a 30 foot pole- is one of those mysteries of life) I am glad it does though because the ability to connect anywhere I take my Laptop is a tremendous advantage. The second thing is the very modest monthly cost of approx $25 is for unlimited downloads and unlimited time access. I know similar systems sold in Australia are on a download/time limit and any excess use is very expensive.

So I continue to wonder at the amazing World Wide Web and how I can communicate with the World for so little cost from my office set among Coconut trees and Banana Plantations.

So greetings from the Southern Philippines and I hope you will explore this incredible place called the Philippines with me through Philippine Pearl.

Your Comments are always welcome. It prevents the feeling that I am speaking to myself!

Colin in Cagayan de Great Place to Live.

(Its Cagayan de Oro really, Oro means Gold by the way, but de…. always seems such a great way to add a topical comment)