Hopping Flights

As things are starting to happen at the Iloilo project I took a trip there again to see how the works were progressing. Instead of the time consuming ferry trips I took a local flight. This only takes 45 minutes instead of the whole day it takes by ferry (or two days for the return trip). The flight is in a small propeller driven plane which flies over the central mountains of Cebu where the massive hole of the copper mine in the mountains can be seen. It's because of the mine and the income it generates for Toledo that the place has managed to obtain city status.

From the aeroplane window the mine appears as a huge brown scar in the green and lush mountains. Between my office and the house where I'm staying there are half a dozen rivers and stream but right now each one of these is bone dry or at best stagnant. The rumour is that this is caused by the mining activities, which if it is true, is a sad price to pay for the mining activities.

The flight then passes over Toledo and I was able to snap a photo of the power plant with our chimney clearly visible.

Mine in the Mountains

Toldeo from the Air

However, the best part of the flight is when the plane just about flew directly over the volcano of Mt. Kanlaon and I was able to look down inside the crater. The volcano is considered to still be active and a couple of years back the some tourists were killed near the summit when the crater ejected rocks and boulders, although I read this was caused by steam from water entering the crater rather than a volcanic eruption. Looking down on the crater there was no glowing magma nor was there any smoke and ash being ejected. It all looked very benign.

Mt. Kanlaon Crater

Passing over the Iloilo the surrounding area is covered in rice paddies and is a wonderful vibrant green colour and when you look down on a flock of pure white egrets flying over the fields it is truly spectacular.

Just recently the volcano Mayon located in Luzon, which is a impressive symmetrical cone rising to 2462m, has started erupting. The forecast is that it is going to develop into a major eruption and evacuation of the immediate area has started already. Whilst it is in its preliminary stages I'm hoping to fly to the nearest airport in a couple of week's time to hopefully see and photograph what I imagine will be a awe inspiring sight.

Welcome Back

It didn't take long to fall back into the usual routine on my arrival back in The Philippines from my holiday in the UK. After all, what else is there to do?

There is the new project that's due to start at the end of November to look forward to. In some ways it'll be good to get out of Toledo and go to somewhere different. Reading various guide books there seems to be plenty of interesting things to do in Iloilo and on the island of Panay - including the fact that Boracay is a mere 4 hour drive away. On the other hand, it means more upheaval and the prospect of packing everything up and moving again is not something I relish.

What I like about the job that I do is you're never in one place for longer than a year or so and then you're on the move to see/do something different. A whole new location, different people and varying conditions grab the attention and prevents boredom setting in. However, in equal measures what I really dislike about this process is never being able to settle or become established in any sort of routine. No sooner you've found a place you like to live in, a gym to use, a route to ride your bicycle on, a place to shop, a place to eat then you're off again. And having to be endlessly mobile means never properly having the comforts of home - only what you can pack into a suitcase.

Mountain Biking

I've been up the mountains a couple of times for the down hill cycling, although I think I'm starting to lose my nerve.   Every time I go out I'm trying to beat my previous highest speed and the last time I managed to top 44mph. I can see that this is going to end in tears and combined with a certain paranoia that the front forks on my bike are wobbly, or the brake pads are failing, or the frame is going to snap in half (the last one is borne from seeing it happen to a on TV a guy trying to race a bike down the side of a mountain and ending up with half the hillside embedded in his face). Admittedly he was going much faster but also consider that his bike wasn't a £100 special from down-town Cebu, so I reckon that puts me at the same level of risk and as a consequence I've started to shy away from the mountain.

So the weekend after arriving back I had my driver take me 18 miles out of town along the coast road and dump me there to cycle my own way back to the house. And this is in some ways far more enjoyable than the white-knuckle ride down the mountain as I can take my time, take in the views and it's easier to stop to take photos. The next time I go out I intend to go in the opposite direction and cycle back in again.

Locals in the Rice Fields

On the Sunday afternoon I cycled to the town of Balamban, which again is on the coast. It has an interesting market full of local produce and a prevalence of dried fish of all shapes and sizes. Cycling along the road there are frequent and friendly calls of "Hey Joe". Why it's always Joe I've no idea. Stopping to photograph a rice paddy I was approached by local lady and as the conversation invariably does it turned to asking if I could employ her husband.

In the market and along the road there are some great photo opportunities but I lack the confidence to approach people and photograph them. I don't like surreptitiously photographing people as I do feel that it's an invasion of their privacy and I'm embarrassed to do this. A friend of mine in Singapore has a great solution to this: go and have half a dozen pints beforehand and lose all your photographic inhibitions. However, it's not to be recommended when cycling!

From One Third World to Another

At the beginning of October I went back to the UK on leave. Yes it's nice and sunny here and hot but you get tired of it eventually. What I really miss are the seasons. In the tropics every day is the same and without a calender you wouldn't know if it was spring, summer, autumn or winter. Similarly, it gets light at the same time and dark at the same time nigh on all year round. Sunrises and sunsets are extraordinary rapid as the sun makes a steep vertical path towards the horizon. One minute it's light, the next it's dark. In the UK the sun takes a leisurely arc to the horizon thus bathing everything in a wonderful soft light for much longer. That is when it's not grey or cloudy . . . .

Autumn Colours

Whilst I admit the winters in the UK aren't so great and not really something to look forward to, the anticipation of the other seasons is always welcome. This time it was autumn and I was looking forward to the colours that that season brings and having a house in the countryside meant this could be fully realised.

Most of our time was spent day tripping, visiting the towns and villages nearby. What really jumps out at you having been away for so long is how very, very expensive the UK is. And I don't mean the price of luxury goods, I mean just the basics needed to exist now seem impossibly costly.

This was hammered home during a long weekend in London. Okay, so we didn't have to pay for accommodation but the cost for just everything else was astronomical. For example, the rail fares into London from mid Kent were £25 each - they would have been £50 each if we'd taken the new high speed train into St. Pancras. It seemed like everything else was priced at £20. Breakfast for two in a run of the mill cafe was £20. Lunch for 2 was £20. A round of drinks for 4 people was £20. A ride on an open top bus was a shameful £25 each. The London Dungeon is £21.95 each. The Tower of London - £19.50. London Eye - £17.50 or £27 if you want to jump the queue. St. Paul's Catherdral is a shocking £19 for two. What happens if you want to go inside and say a few prayers?

London Pubs

Combined with the rail fares this surely puts a day trip to London out of reach of a large majority of families in the UK and it gave me a certain feeling of resentment that I should have to pay so much to visit what essentially isn't a theme park but our heritage and history. Tourists, especially from poorer parts of the world must be in for a severe shock when visiting London.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. London has some fantastic architecture and walking around is free (for the time being). London pubs are also the best in the world in my humble opinion. I love the high ceilings, the big windows, the architecture, the ambiance. The distinct lack of soulless theme pubs. None of that silent treatment you get when you walk into a pub in the provinces. The vast majority of pubs in central London just accept you for what you are. Yes, the beer's expensive but it's no more expensive than a pseudo-Irish pub in Singapore or other big capital city, and I know where I'd rather be having a quiet pint!

Legal Alien

I have finally been given my work permit over 6 months since arriving in The Philippines. There's bureaucratic efficiency for you. What I don't understand is that you're not really meant to work until you're given the work permit but as it takes so long, what else are you meant to do?

You win a contract, you're given a month to mobilise and get started but it takes 6 months to obtain the work permits. God only knows what the process involves. The company lawyers in Manila became rather agitated when I criticised them for the time the whole process took, but it was them that told me it would only take a few weeks to obtain the permit. Still, why should they care, they get paid regardless of win, lose or draw. It's only the people like us who live in the real world that get paid by results.

The final step in obtaining the work permit necessitated yet another trip to Manila to be finger-printed like a common criminal. The immigration office was better than the one where I have my interview (see my earlier posting) but was equally chaotic. The sordid business of being fingerprinted was done in the waiting hall. A rotund looking official was sat on a stool by the window with a the required forms, a pad of ink and an inky roller. When it's your turn to be finger-printed, she grabs your wrist like an irritated mother would grab a child's hand, tutting and scowling with intolerance if you try to anticipate her moves and assist so the only thing to do is be totally compliant. Without a smile or any sign of good manners she takes each and every finger and thumb and rolls it in the thick sticky ink and then rolls it across the form in the allocated spot. I have to admit, for each digit I tried my hardest to smear the prints as my finger left the page as I don't see why I should be finger-printed when I haven't broken the law. Once completed you're tossed aside and left to find your own means of cleaning off the ink.

This form then goes off for processing and you have to wait while this is done. During this time a peddler came into the offices selling bootleg DVDs and did a roaring trade with the finger-printing officer whilst she made all her other victims wait as she scoured the DVDs for her coming evening's entertainment.

Following the finger-printing, and to make me feel even more like a criminal I had to have the mugshots with the height indicators behind me, being photographed from the front, each side plus a quarter-on shot. Then I had to be digitally finger printed in addition. My guess is that all this data is flogged to the US government as a sideline in revenue collection for The Philippines government. We're all being put on a database by stealth.