After completing my live aboard diving, I finally had some energy and time to explore a small sliver of life in the Philippines.
The first afternoon back, I hired a Tuck-tuck driver for a short ride to Maribago. A small community a mile-or-two from my hotel on Mactan Island. The ride is a motorcycle powered side car adventure. You feel the pace of life on these contraptions - their everywhere. Air Pollution is the first thing you notice here. So many motorcycles, taxi's, trucks everywhere. But - they have expresso shops. That's the important part of the afternoon. Offers of Massage, girls, food, come my way. A few tourist around - none American. Everyone is busy. Commerce in full swing. No one is wasting a minute. Everything is for sale. I don't see hungry, unhappy people. Just busy working class Filipinos. I have to haggle with a Tuck-tuck driver for my ride home, but that's part of the adventure.
One thing that stands out is the ubiquitous insane power line configurations you see in countries like this. Thousands of wires wrapped around poles. How can anyone know who's using what - wow. And how they don't explode is beyond me!!
The next day I took a taxi to Cebu City. Visiting Magellan's Cross, the Basilica Del Santo Nino and Fort San Pedro. All fun and interesting. I'm the only American in sight, but English is everywhere. On all the signs, and it seems everyone speaks it.
One of the highlights was my first use of 'Line' - a phone app that competes with WhatsApp. I traded contact details with my taxi driver and Line chat'ed with him for my pick-up. A success - I'm like an Uber geek on Line now. I love the conversations with these taxi guys. This driver was originally from Mindanao - the southern most islands of the Philippines that are under Philippine Marshall law just now. Fighting Islamic Terrorism is local and real here! Earlier this week these terrorist managed to blow up a Catholic church in Manila - killing 20. Security was tight as I walk about Cebu City, visiting the Basilica and taking pictures of Magellan's cross. Standing in a 30-minute line to view the Nino. No, I didn't buy a little baby Nino - but I thought about it (hehehe).
Again, I'm the only American, or European in sight. A huge, busy, packed city. Its curious; they seem to be able to build these huge cities, construction everywhere - but nothing goes toward maintenance. Once built, its like NO upkeep is EVER done. Strange. Streets are dirty, the smell of urine in the gutters, pollution and traffic jams. But everywhere there is another McDonalds, so I track down a Starbucks to save me. 3em to the rescue.
But on the good-side. The supermarkets are packed with food. The street vendors offer a 1000 options, and everyone looks to be on a mission to improve themselves. The my taxi driver talks of how it is now safe to walk about in Cebu City - since the new President (Duterte) has cleaned up the gangs and thieves and drugs from the streets. He said a few years ago you couldn't walk anywhere in Cebu City without fear for you property or life - he was honestly thankful for the changes here. I felt safe the entire time. Police everywhere. Only a few homeless in the area's I walked.
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