Saturday, January 8, 2011 Visiting Veronica's relatives

This morning I was nothing short of a hot mess.  I woke up drunk still, sprawled in my bed, and had to go buy Gatorade for my second hangover in a row.  It was cloudy, which wasn't so bad, since I had to leave Boracay Island.  I'm actually really sad to leave this place; it's so fun having nothing to do except lie on the beautiful beach, get massages, eat seafood buffets, and party with fun Aussies.  I hopped on a tricycle to the port of Boracay, then got on a short ferry ride, then got in this van whose driver said "Airport".  Except I noticed that we were going into these rural areas and it was taking WAY longer than the 3-minute tricycle ride like before.  Oh, because they were going to the airport in Roxas, not Caticlan!  So they stopped the entire van and made sure got on another van back to Caticlan, which was so nice of them, and I had more than plenty of time to spare before my 11am flight to Manila.  Manila was sunny and warm when I landed.  Flying over was a trip; basically it was a few skyscrapers here and there, and the rest was a sea of shanties for miles as far as the eye could see.  A city of 12 million, 75% living in overcrowded unsanitary slums; that's pretty unfathomable.  I had instructions to go to the "Genesis" bus terminal, which wasn't a problem, but then going to the mall to check my email was a nightmare.  To get there (in Pasay City) with my bag and hungover was so annoying.  Manila is one of the most overcrowded unsustainable cities I think I've ever been to (and I've been to Nairobi, Los Angeles haha, Mumbai, and Cairo).  Which means there were people everywhere, pissing and sleeping on the street, carrying chicharron on their heads, and just standing around watching the one tourist a week that comes through this part of town.  It's also amazing the lack of tourism and tourism infrastructure in this city, Thank God everything is in US English.  I got online and then caught the bus to Balanga, in Bataan province (it's a peninsula west of Manila bay), which is infamous for the Bataan Death March, where thousands of US soldiers were marched across the peninsula to POW camps by the Japanese during WWII, a lot of whom perished along the way.  Balanga was a nice little town on the water.  I hadn't a clue what these people looked like, so luckily I was approached by Veronica's "[Filipino version of] cousin" Mariabeth.  She and her friend and Veronica's auntie Meli had rented a tricycle to take me to their village of Hermosa, about 30 minutes north.  On the way, they stopped at the oyster stand and bought bags of fresh oysters for $2.  We stopped at this little shack under a banyan tree for some palabok pancit (curry noodles) and halo halo (which I was hesitant to try due to the fact that they don't use purified water for the ice).  After that we drove to their house in the cute litte village (but since we're in the Philippines it's population 100,000) and went to their little cottage.  It's basically a long mobile home-type structure with a bathroom, kitchen, living room, family room, and bedroom.  Filipinos are quite accustomed to living in close quarters with little privacy, as in this case, where Veronica's aunt sleeps in the same bed with her older aunt.  When the family members visit they also stay in the bed with them, but I think they thought I'd be uncomfortable sleeping with two complete strangers, so the two 60+ year old ladies set up sheets in the living room, sleeping on the concrete floor, relinquishing the comfy California king bed to me (talk about making me feel awful!)  But they were really happy to have a guest (basically the only one who visits them except for family).  Meli was saying how people were asking her who was this guest who was staying with her, and she goes "I have no idea"!  She was a funny lady with a great laugh.  She was asking if I knew "Gabino"; "Uh, not that I know of, should I know him?", "Yes, he Veronica boypriend" [Gabino = Gavin].  As with all Filipino women, these ladies knew how to cook and they whipped up some amazing food.  We had vegetables, pancit, lumpia Shanghai [ground pork filled fried rolls], chicken adobo, fresh oysters with vinegar, and upon my request, balut.  The meal was so delicious, even being hungover as I was.  I ate like five plates worth.  Ok so let me explain balut; basically everyone associates Filipino food with lumpia Shanghai, or balut.  Balut is a hard-boiled egg, except what differentiates it is that the "egg" is actually a half-developed embryo.  Meaning you peel it and it's firm, with visible mucous, veins, and even feathers.  They write "B" for balut on the egg, because picture someone expecting to eat a regular ole hard boiled egg, and instead getting a chicken fetus.  After getting over the initial appearance, I happily poured some vinegar and salt on and bit into it.  I ate two because they got them specially for me (and they didn't think that was a lot because she knows people who eat 10 at one sitting).  To be honest, it wasn't bad.  Never know until you try it!  After dinner we had one of Mariabeth's friends drive us, with her two other nurse friends, to Subic Bay, which used to be the town adjacent surrounds of the US military base.  What I'm trying to say is it used to be a dirty, raucous shitshow of whorehouses and bars (aka Isla Vista for American sailors).  Now it's a family tourist destination, with watersports, a nice marina, and lively nightlife, and it's mostly all Filipinos.  We spent the evening watching outdoor performers (who were actually pretty good at doing covers since Filipinos are good impersonators, and comedy even though it was in Tagalog).  The singer even nailed "I will always love you" by Whitney Houston, very impressive!  Even though vastly Filipino, there were some smatterings of Koreans and US ex-military and their mixed descendants.  After that we drove through Olongapo City (also infamous with Americans for being a slummy town with "Shit River" separating the city and the base) which was awash with loud nightclubs and a lively night market, where I got some other counterfeit goodies.