Hundred Isles or Bust

 

After two nights of sweltering in the heat of the lowland rice country, we were ready to move on and the plan had been to drive north to visit the Hundred Isles regions of the Philippines. We did drive north but we fell just short of the Hundred Isles. Perhaps due to the less than desirable sleep, we didn't get as early of a start as we had hoped. Above you can see why traveling can be slower than expected in the Philippines because when you are not in traffic, you are still sharing part of the road with rice being dried by nearby farmers. The fellow above was using a tricycle arrangement of some sort to stir the rice as it was drying in the sun.

During my time in the Philippines, I see very little infrastructure for vehicles and humans that we take for granted. There are very few parking lots and in most towns, you simply park in the lane closest to the buildings along the road. That lane of the road also counts as a sidewalk too as there are no dedicated places for walking and even if there are, they are full of holes, open sewage, random abrupt changes in elevation, etc. so when walking, one must be fully focused on where you are going to place your next foot step.

In my earlier trips, signs of America were everywhere. Although they are not rare even to this day as you can see by the graphics on the tricycle we followed until we could pass, but they are certainly getting fewer as native Filipinos are developing their own cultural identity.

Eventually we made it close to where we had expected to arrive but were about five hours later than planned. Part of the delay was over an hour spent in a monster traffic jam where the busy small road was narrowed down to one lane. In America, there would be a traffic light to allow traffic to alternate through the one lane or at a minimum, some guys with stop and go signs. In the Philippines, it was simply a free for all and a "sorry for inconvenience" sign when you finally bullied your way past the constriction.

Since our plan of renting a boat to tour the Hundred Isles was no longer an option, we instead found a nearby beach short of our destination and rented another shelter beachside to wait out the afternoon heat. I had spent the entire drive with the beginnings of a head cold so didn't complain. I gladly laid down on the bamboo bench, while reading, napping and letting my sinus cavities drain into my throat.

Things like changing rooms or bathrooms at a public beach are the exception rather than the rule. There was no changing rooms and so most just changed using a towel wrapped around themselves in the shelter or used the van in the parking lot. If one needed to use the bathroom, you had to go to that darkened doorway in the background behind the sari sari store (kind of a mini mart store) and pay the owner of the toilet 20 pesos ($0.32) per use. Many toiles had signs with various prices depending on whether you went Number One or Number Two. I guess you were on the honor system to let them know which number you had gone. Another thing to mention is that toilet paper is never available at places like this. You have to either bring your own or use the hand and tabo method. A tabo is a plastic dipper that one fills with water and then pours on your nether regions to clean yourself.

When evening finally came along with a rainy season shower, we drove the last few miles to where we had a motel room reserved with an excellent air conditioner though nary a window. It did have a hot shower and a single roll of toilet paper so I wasn't complaining. While the rest of our group went out to eat, I opted to order room service and went to bed early.