Manila, A City of Contrasts

My final impressions of Manila are actually quite similar to my first impressions as I passed by on my way to northern Luzon. I initially saw wide boulevards, sidewalks… sidewalks of all things, beautiful museums and parks. I decided to spend the last few days of my vacation in the capital and was not disappointed.

Unfortunately, just when I got to see some “photographical” stuff my battery gave up the ghost. I did bring another battery to the Philippines, but did not have it with me so you will just have to be satisfied with description of Intramuros or the walled historical city. There are the two oldest churches in the Philippines dating back 400 years, one still in operation and one just a shell. It was Friday afternoon and I actually saw a huge wedding in the church taking place which was kind of fun to see. I also saw a beautiful university and Japanese gardens, which have an interesting story. During the second world war, Phillipino’s were held prisoners within the walls and because of flooding many lives were lost. The Japanese built this beautiful sculpted garden as a memorial. As I walked through the garden and literally climbed up the walls I saw something that was truly amazing. Just outside the walls of the old city there is this neat little golf course. Can you imagine? Playing golf looking up at the parapets just outside of the walled city and between the old city and the Pacific Ocean. Wow, and I didn’t play. I am just sitting in a departure lounge in Manila waiting for my Air Kuwait flight to get back to Bangkok and sort of hoping the flight will be cancelled so I have another chance to potentially play the course.

The major park in town, Luneta was a wonderful respite. I went Thursday night and saw dancing in the park, lovers holding hands, people talking and playing cards ( in public). There was also two or three huge casinos which I did not get in to because I was wearing shorts. After all, there is a dress code.

Having said that, I read in the newspaper that something like one in three people in the Philippines are unemployed or underemployed. Taxi drivers told me they have to pay 1600 pesos a day for the cab and make about 600 pesos on a good day ( about $12). One guy told me his apartment rent was 2,000 a month, about 45 dollars but he was not able to pay the last two months because he simply did not have enough money. He has two little babies and he has to make some tough choices. I passed whole streets with squatters and one driver told me he was even afraid to even drive in the area. He told me he has been robbed 3 or 4 times right in his cab and another driver corroborated this. On the way to the airport, little kids kept coming up to the cab begging and apparently snort some kind of solvent. Apparently, when they get high it suppresses the feeling of hunger.

I also walked through a neighbourhood in a poor part of town called Valenzuela. I do have these pictures which you can look at. You walk through a rabbit warren of streetsand streets only wide enough for the trykes to get through, and that is with the kids scattering everyone. There were tons of kids playing on the streets, getting their pleasure throwing a ball on the roof and watching it roll down. You will notice the picture of the guy cooking on the floor of his house, a cigarette in one hand and the spatula in the other. Cooking is a major time consuming task when you have one hotplate and have to cook for so many people.

Everyone I spoke with said how corrupt the politicians were yet there were girls wearing political t shirts, a band coming down the street with its loudspeaker blaring advertising the next best politician and posters everywhere. I suppose the supporters were getting paid because when I spoke with people in the market no-one seemed to be particularly political or seemed to care. They were more interested in getting their picture taken. If I would have known how easy it was to make conversation with a camera, I would have bought one years ago.

Everyone seems to be on the take. Even at the airport, when we entered, the guard asked for a bribe from the taxi driver before he let him into the airport proper. This seems somewhat commonplace.

One thing that sort of shocked me though was the ticket agent who told me to take anything valuable out of my suitcase because it might get stolen by the baggage handlers. That is sort of disturbing when it happens at the airport and everyone knows about it but obviously nothing can be done but tell the public not to pack anything valuable!

On a side and final note on golf in the Philippines. What I did not mention was the last time I played golf my caddy we played well in to the night and could not see anything. When the caddy was cleaning the clubs, he noticed the cover of the 7 wood was missing. I told him to forget about it but he insisted on looking for it. Can you imagine the scene of these two crazy guys roaming around the last two or three holes of the golf course in the dark trying to find this stupid cover…which we did by the way.

Next week school and then Kuala Lumpur for a Conference. It’s a tough life but someone has to do it.

Actually Daniel, I met another American working in Iraq and he told me he made 160,000 as a medic. Wars are good, for the conquerors.

Bangkok to Manila

One of the millennium goals established by the United Nations was to reduce poverty and especially child poverty. According to an article in the newspaper, the Philippines are making great strides to reduce poverty, especially in the major cities, but I have not witnessed this first hand, by any means.

Let me give you a few examples of what I have witnessed. I take a jitney everyday to play golf and I have never seen anyone buy a full pack of cigarettes when the vendors approach the jitney. They always buy one or two cigarettes and the vendor automatically reaches in to his pocket for a lighter. Drivers probably don’t have one, I presume.

My caddy,that I have played with the last three days has 4 or 5 old clubs that must have been left around over the years since they are all different. His four wood still has the string wrapped around it like golf clubs were made 30 years ago. Needless to say, he hits a mean ball and I would wonder how good he would be if he had a modern set. If there is anyone reading this who has an old right handed set they want to get rid of, I have his address. It did take him two days to give me his address because he said he did not know the number of his house. I guess when you live in a shanty town made up of tin shacks, it is hard to have an address. However, he did give me some address today and I do plan to send him some clubs, but my old ones are left handed.

I did talk in my blog yesterday about whole families with no-one working except maybe for some cousin or two riding a tryke. I presume they kill their own chickens and pigs to eat. Kids followed me around the golf course for the last few days trying
(and succeeding) to sell me balls. My question is, why aren’t they in school during the day?

Pawnshops are as frequent in the Philippines as tailors or massage parlours are in Thailand. Perhaps they are also in Thailand and I have just not noticed because I do not read Thai…yet.

Clearly the Philippines is a very poor country. I thought Bangkok or Thailand was poor but it is an economic powerhouse in Asia apparently. However, there are differences between Thailand and the Philippines. For example, I see churches everywhere since it is such a Christian country. I also noticed a few cemeteries and mortuaries which do not exist in Thailand to my knowledge. Buddhists, I assume, burn the bodies. I will have to ask when I get back what they do with the ashes to see if there are cemeteries. There are also quotations from the Bible everywhere here, including taxis, jitneys, shop signs and so on. There are also mottos at the beginning of each town encouraging such things are hard work, friendship etc.

Just had a haircut for 60 pesos, about 1 dollar. For this I got a head and shoulder massage, haircut and shave. The barber has to pay the rent, overhead and other costs. He also has to stay open 15 hours a day. Just further proof of how destitute things must be. I gave him twice as much as this, but it certainly will not help in the short or long run, I can’t imagine.

Manila looked like it had sidewalks, wide avenues, sewers, dogs in cages, beautiful museums and parks. Can’t wait to get back there tomorrow to see if my first impressions pan out.

I also can’t wait to return to the Philippines to experience diving and the beaches. In spite of the poverty and absolute destitution, the people are warm, friendly, empathetic and helpful. Maybe we could use a bit of poverty in North America.

The Joys and Travails of Travelling Alone

As I left the Bilibago Casino looking for a restaurant, I thought how nice it would be to have company for dinner. I eventually found a Chinese restaurant and felt right at home with the food which looked like and tasted like any Chinese-Jewish restaurant in Toronto. However, sitting alone in a crowded restaurant full of people laughing and talking made me feel somewhat uneasy and I couldn’t wait to eat my chicken sai goo or whatever it was called, pay my bill and get out of there. Restaurants are not for single people.

As lonely as that experience is, there are compensating joys. I am staying in a small town, Dau or Bilibago, depending on the bus you take. It is or they are both on Luzon Island. The hotel is great, everyone knows your name and you are treated like a king. I have breakfast every morning and the same waitress serves me. Over the two or three days we have exchanged information about children, country and so on. I told her on Monday I was going to see something new and travel to Subic on Tuesday, I thought about 2 hours away. She told me it was her day off and her child lived there so she offered to take me. What a bonus. For those of you reading my blog regularly, I felt another Ayuttaya experience coming on and how right I was.

We took every kind of transportation possible. We started out from the hotel where she picked me up with a trike which looked like what the Toronto police used to ride in the 1950’s. We then took an intercity bus that blew such cold air I will probably catch pneumonia. When we got to Alongpanga, about 2 hours away, we took a jeep past Subic, unfortunately, because I really wanted to go there, to a small town called Marcellino. We then got into another trike and rode into the residential part of town. I noticed she did not pay the driver. When I asked her why, she said it was because it was her cousin! More on this to follow.

If you want to get a feeling for what I am about to talk to you about, you should look at the pictures which really did not capture what I saw, but will give you some idea.We went down some dusty roads, formed in a perfect grid pattern, past each house surrounded by bamboo poles and foliage to demarcate their territory. When we got to her house, in about five minutes, the scene will remain with me forever. There were a bunch of toothless men on their haunches working on a motor, the women playing cards and the children running around playing (or scratching in the dirt with sticks). There were chickens and hens running around, the sound of a pig coming from somewhere and a goat eating the foliage. On the one property, there seemed to be about three homes for the different familial groupings, which I never did get clear. There seemed to be grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles and myriad children.

The waitress took me into the house and we walked through the living room to the back kitchen. In the outer part of the kitchen, outside the house, she scooped up some rice and offered it to me. At that stage, I was rather sorry I did not have breakfast that morning. They were so apologetic about their meager surroundings and food. They offered me coffee which I turned down and then tea. Foolishly I said yes to the tea ( iced) and continued talking with the gay cousin, who was flaming and having a great old time. Homosexuality, like in Thailand, seems to be absolutely accepted. The aunt told me one of her little boys is gay but doesn’t know it yet. Anyway, back to the tea story. About 30 minutes later the aunt came back with the iced tea, which she had bought from somewhere. Since this was a weekday, and not a holiday that I know of, I don’t think anyone worked, since they were all there playing cards and fooling around. I have no idea where she would get the money to buy the iced tea and I really felt badly I put her to such expense.

As the day progressed, they offered to let me sleep the night in one of the two bedrooms. I have no idea whose room it was or who I would be displacing but the room had no electricity. as I tried laying on the bed I could touch the ceiling and God knows how I would navigate to get to the outhouse. I politely declined and left by myself (the waitress stayed for the night.) I did take them for supper, at a restaurant of their choosing. They picked the equivalent of Mcdonalds and I noticed ordered too much and had it packed away to take home.

On the way back (and I had to take a few buses, naturally getting lost, which is my wont). I did not expect to be travelling on my own and was not really paying attention on the way down. Anyway I one of the buses I was on, I met a distributor from Coca-Cola going to Manila who offered to show me around. I will take him up on his offer Thursday. His wife has just bought the franchise for Aldo shoes, he has honed the distribution for all of the Philippines by hiring cheaper labour he told me, and all his relatives live in California. It should be a different experience than yesterday!

Now I am off to play golf. My caddy has his day off today and hopefully I can lose a bit of money to him. He told me he has a four wood, about three clubs and putter. I think he told me he was 77, or maybe 67 and has a handicap of 7. It should not be hard for me to lose a few pesos to him!

Just got back home and tried to straighten out the picture. No idea how. Anyway, the caddy was up by three going into the last hole and he was such a great guy I know he muffed four shots to make sure I would win. That's the Philippines for you! The people are truly unbelievable.

The golf lesson

My game has been exponentially deteriorating since the first day. I still remember, with fond memories, my first shot off the tee in front of my new friends, when I hit the ball straight down the middle, put the second one on the green and two putted from there. Now this is nothing but a hazy recollection. I literally can't even hit the ball off the ground and my friends, who I used to raz, are now razzing me. For example, I wore a golfing tie yesterday as I was doing a workshop for the staff and one of my "buddies" put up his hand and asked where the water was on the tie!



Luckily, one of the woman on staff has a son who is a pro golfer and she arranged for me to have a lesson from him. It turns out he is a terrific fellow and a great teacher. He told me the obvious, that I was not turning my shoulders and gave me some tips on how to do this and left me on my own.



As it happened, there was a guy beside me in the next stall who I happened to make eye contact with him and I gave him the thumbs up after a particular hit. ( He was not very good). Somehow, non-verbally, he asked me to help him. He was swinging way too hard and too fast and throwing his balance off and not doing allowing his body to do what it would do naturally. I told him to "cha" "cha" which I think means slow, slow and it seemed to work for two reasons. He slowed down his swing, on the one hand, and got in to a cha cha rhythm on the other hand which was great. He balls started to work.



However, he kept looking at me in a kind of pleading way asking me to give him more help. I literally went over and demonstrated raising his back heel to encourage the twist. He did this and kept looking so I continued with body "swing". Without belabouring the point, paradoxically I spent a hour with him teaching him teaching him how to golf and we met with a lot of success. I say we because his balls went further and straighter and I received the "nachos" of watching my student succeed. There is no greater feeling in the world.



It was a hoot using non-verbal and 'taxi 'Thai communicating with him . I know I am a good teacher and I think understand the basics of golf. The point of the story is that I got way more enjoyment teaching this guy than I did playing or receiving the lesson myself.



I remember the same thing happened to me on the range in Canada with a little old Chinese man ( who was probably younger than me). He had a towel under his back arm to remind him to keep his arm in. The first thing I did, when he asked for my help, was pull the towel away, throw it on the ground and talked my own smack. I loved that also and still remember it.



As I walk around the campus, I realize I would rather be in one of those classes teaching the kids rather than sitting in my office creating some meaningless paper work. Teaching is such a wonderful thing to do and a gift to be able to transmit information in a meaningful way. As I ask excellent athletes for help they can't do it. Teaching is something that one is probably born with.



We finally have a week off of school and I am headed to the Philipines with no plans in mind other than to sleep in and play golf. Don't even know where I am going after I hit Manilla but I do have some contact names from teacher friends who I presume will show me around. I only bought the air ticket last week, but after my experience two days ago I think I would just rather go the range and find someone who wanted my help.

Rainy Day in Bangkok

As I was lying in bed reading and contemplating what I was going to do on this Saturday before the big Thanksgiving Party, I heard and saw the skies open up and it poured for I would say 30 minutes. It was magnificent as I lay in bed watching and hearing the rain. I can't remember if I ever slept in on a Saturday before so this was quite a special treat.

After the rain stopped, I planned to finally go downtown and I was determined to find Pratunam wholesale clothes market and Pantip, the electronics super centre I want to call it but it would be a complete misnomer since when you see the picture you will see it is not like a mall per se, but rather a series of storefronts like everywhere else in Asia ( with the exception of the 10 or so super plazas that are better than anything in Toronto in terms of size, pizzaz and quality)

Back to the story. I got dressed and went outside to try and get a cab. Even though it was not raining,getting a cab was impossible since the streets were covered with water. The infrastructure of Bangkok cannot handle water runoff and traffic slowed down to a crawl. When I finally did get a cab we went through the back streets, which was probably a mistake, and I would say we were driving through water over the tires of the taxi. It didn't take too long for the taxi to actually grind to a halt stranding me in the middle of nowhere. As I waded through the water looking for a main street I passed over a bridge (roadway) and peered underneath to see a squat little abode. It had nothing, but you can be sure there was a TV. Cars were roaring, well hardly roaring, but cars were driving on their roof, but they had the charcoal fire going and the tv, all that is needed to keep people happy it seems.

By the time I got to the plaza, after walking, it seemed, for hours, I was so exhausted I took a quick look and came home. I always find it fascinating to see wholesale to retail in one place. I walked down dark hallways in the wholesale clothes market and literally saw people making dresses and so on on single sewing machines, pressing them in the horrific heat and still smiling as they work about 15 hours a day. There were naturally cockroaches as well as babies sleeping on the floor.

In the electronics "mall" I can't believe any normal techno-geek would not love it. There were more stores selling the same thing than I have ever seen in my life. You could buy software, movies, machines that did everything except sing and computers "stuff" By this time, I was so tired I had to leave, but I am determined to go back and by the digital clock I saw where if you clapped your hands the colours of the clock changed. Loved it.

Tomorrow is Sunday and there is loads of things I have not seen or done in Bangkok so the adventure continues. Have to read the guidebook to see what I am going to do! Talk to you later.

4 year olds

One of the great things about this job is that not only do I get a chance to organize conferences, play with computer equipment I couldn't even imagine a year ago but also work with age groups that I just never had the opportunity to work with in Canada. In general, four year olds scare the pants off me yet I did voluntarily spend the day with a nursery class giving their teacher a professional development opportunity elsewhere. I must be a saint or a fool.



By the end of the day, as you can imagine, there was nothing left of me but a few drops of sweat, but I learned a lot. When a colleague mentioned in passing that all I did was glorified baby sitting, he obviously had no idea about cognitive development, the importance of play to the imagination or learning styles. As I reflect on the day, unfortunately, I believe I can anticipate the whole educational career of every student in the class. I say unfortunately because without the proper invention, some kids will be doomed to failure.



For example, one of the first things I did during the day was teach them a little lesson on sequencing. We took different shapes like cars, balls and different objects and formed a pattern with them as we put them together. The pattern could have been a plus b or a plus b plus c. The key was to repeat the colour twice or three times in succession. It was either too complex for some students to see the pattern or they were too bright and could not believe the task was simply to repeat the colour and it was so easy. When the teacher's aide explained the task, I really did not fully comprehend until we did it a few times but the boy I worked with simply never got it. He would rather just play with the cars and watch them role along. I was that little boy a lifetime ago and had my mother not intevened and got me a private reading teacher God knows where I would be. ( Probably a salesperson of some kind making oodles of money).



Having said that, school is all about discerning patterns and the sooner children can understand patterning the easier and more successful school will be for them. I also observed the little boy that simply was not willing to play the good little boy game. He daydreamed, wondered around, refused to focus on his work and generally spaced out, yet when I gave him some 'play' time he drew magnificent art of the board for 30 minutes straight. I also remembered reading about giving kids options so when he was walking around during reading time and not sitting on the floor I gave him two options: " Sit down with your legs crossed or sit down and leave your legs straight out" When it worked and he sat down, even I was astounded.



You noticed that these two children were boys. We all know they develop more slowly or differently than girls. There was the girl who was the perfectionist. When she wrote her name or traced letters, she continually rubbed it out and did it again because she was not satisfied. Everyone else did 10 lines for every one of hers. Is perfection a worthy goal?



Others could cut with a scissors without a problem yet some students could not hold a pencil. Early childhood educators deserve the "gold medal" for what they do and the best ones, I believe, have the ability to change lives by doing so much to ensure future success in school. I know I am not up to the task of teaching such little tykes but have the utmost admiration for those that can and do such a great job.

Oasis of Tranquility

Since I was going to a spagetti dinner party at a staff member's house near the airport, I chose to go to a Botanical Gardens in that general direction for the afternoon. Once you have been in Bangkok for a while, it is hard to imagine anywhere that is not busy, smelly, treacherous to walk and noisy! But I am here to tell you that I found it to-day. It is not in any guidebooks I could find and frankly, without the help of my massage lady who made the suggestion yesterday, I never would have even heard of it.

If you look at the pictures, at first glance it could be High Park or Hyde Park until you look a little closer and see the spirit house, the ladies with umbrellas for sun protection, the food that people are eating with their picnic, the unrelenting sun which you may be able to perceive in the pictures and the perfect charm of the place. It took me a little while to figure out that we were in a magical place. Even as I write this, lying in my bed on a Sunday night, I hear the cars and motorcycles charging along my street and the interminable whistles that doormen love to blow to usher out cars...except for my doorman who won't even open the gate for a taxi until we honk about three times since he is busily writing in his notebook. I have never even seen him look up and have no idea what he looks like. I wonder if he is alive?

The park had a lake with paddle boats, a Chinese botanical area, actual toilets with running water, lots of benches, and not many people. What could be more pleasant on a Sunday afternoon. ( I will tell you). It got so hot, I opted to go to dinner 3 hours early and spent the three hours in the pool with a pair of shorts at least three sizes too big. What a pleasure to be in the water. The last time I remember anything feeling quite that good was jumping into a pool at a golf course after 18 holes in what I used to think was a hot day.

I spent the evening with teacher colleagues having dinner which I am beginning to think really improves the working atmosphere at the school. Next week I got roped into hosting a Canadian Thanksgiving party by promising I would not have to do anything but show up and make sure my door was unlocked.

Tomorrow night I am playing night golf which is really charming. I may convince Daniel to give it a try the next time he is here in December.

Thai Health Care

If you have to get sick, I think Thailand is the place to be. I had this notion confirmed when I went to the dentist this morning ( Sunday morning) for those that may be reading this some time in the future. You read it right...Sunday morning. Last week, I did something incredibly stupid...ate a soft boiled egg and part of my molar feeling fell out. You may remember from my last blog I got to see a dentist immediately in Pukhet but since he told me I needed a crown I said I would wait until I got back to Bangkok.

When I met this dentist today I asked him if he ever took time off since he was working Sunday. He said he did take off two days a week. When I asked him what he did on those days he said he prepared his lectures and wrote his columns. When I asked him what he prepared his lectures on, he said his speciality which was facial reconstructions. He apparently lectures widely on that subject. He also writes movie reviews for both Thai and American papers and cleans up the house for his wife. When I told him he would certainly be included in my blog, he said to link it to his impressive web site www.rudsooparb.com. Here you will find his moview reviews and so on. When he did get to my tooth, he used the same vocabulary as well as instruments that my dentist uses at home.

When I asked him why he returned from Thailand from practicing in the United States where he actually earned more money, he told me the usual story...he needed to be closer to his parents as they were getting older. I heard the same story from my massage lady who comes from Issan. She lives on the floor in her apartment without running water, yet supports her sister at school, has bought three buffalo for her parents, chickens and a car. This is a very common story in Thailand and one I believe to be true. The sense of family is overwhelming and permeates every aspect of society.

Later on, once I upload some pictures, I will show you what I did in the afternoon, post filling. p.s. I do not need a crown and my filling cost 2000 bhat...about $60. Try getting a filling in Toronto for $60 from a dentist that does movie reviews!

Daniel's Visit

The first thing I noticed when Daniel and I went for a walk is that Daniel walked at Daniel (Toronto speed) and I walked at Thailand speed. There is a difference when it is 35 degrees in the shade! I wonder how long it would take Daniel to slow down if he lived here? Probably never, I suspect.

This was the first time in two months that I have had to discuss eating, what time to go to sleep, what to see and so on and frankly, it was just very natural. I guess it helps when the person you are making decisions with is your son. For example, last night, Daniel said:” let’s go for a walk”. Now you have to understand that Thailand has no sidewalks or lights so when you walk, you do so at your peril because you could break your ankle falling into a huge crack or even worse, get hit by a car or motorcycle because you are walking on the wrong side of the road (or the right side of the road for that matter!). I would say we walked for a mile or so up some mountainous road and it was only afterwards that I realized this is what I do all the time -every night in fact). I go down soi’s that are not well lit, discover all kinds of interesting activities and see what most tourists never see. Last night, Daniel and I discovered a whole street set up with tables and what looked like card games going on at each table. I told Daniel that gambling was illegal in Thailand so we must have been delusional. However, to get back to my point, only my son would want to do something so crazy as walk where it clearly was not safe and I realized I do the same thing all the time.

It reminded me the first time we played golf together. Daniel hit his first shot ever (150 yards straight down the fairway) and then ran after the ball. I never saw anything like that on a golf course before. That is because I can’t see myself!

It was certainly interesting seeing Phuket through someone else’s eyes. For example, last night walking on Bangla Road in Patong Daniel saw all kinds of ladies of the night with foreign sex tourists. Frankly, I either didn’t notice or am so used to it that it did not leave an imprint on me. He was also petrified in our rented car because we were driving on the wrong side of the road. By this time, I guess I am used to it, but it is interesting seeing “myself” as I must have been only 2 months ago.

Because it is the ‘rainy’ season’ there is a tremendous undertow in the ocean and you are apparently not supposed to swim. Daniel told me this after we spent the afternoon in the water. Apparently they lose 6 tourists a month who go into the water, get swept out to sea and can’t get back in. Daniel told me there was a red flag by the lifeguard station .I certainly did not see the lifeguard station or the rid flag.! That certainly is one difference between Daniel and I. There is nothing he does not notice….ever.

We are staying at Surin Beach in a 5 star hotel. The difference between where I usually stay is night and day. In some of the places I have stayed in when I ask for a towel, they look at me like I am from another planet. Soap in these places was absolutely out of the question. In this hotel, they even turn down our beds at night and the swimming pool, I am sure is more than Olympic size as it winds it way down a palm studded alley. Anyway, Daniel is getting up so I am off to our scrumptious breakfast. Catch you later!

The meal was great and today we are off to Bangkok. Can’t wait to see how Daniel reacts to where I live and what I do. Maybe he will write the next blog. I now I will certainly miss his company but he is coming back in November when we will see the rest of the Thailand! Last night we went around Bangkok a bit and even though I have lived here a few months it is not surprising that Daniel gave directions and showed me around.What else is new?