Green, Green Grass of Home

Just got this photo taken from a recent flight out of Iloilo, which perfectly shows the extent of the drought.

Dry As a Bone

This should all be vibrant green rice paddies.  However, the good news is that it's rained a couple of times this week.  Not a lot but at least it's a start.  The humidity in the late afternoon is stifling so it has to start raining properly soon (you would think).

Shaking All Over

At 10:50pm last night I was just thinking about going to bed when there was bang and the house felt like it had jumped off its foundations.  At first I thought there had been an explosion at the diesel power plant nearby but then in a split second it was obvious what had caused it as the house started to sway: this was an earthquake.

I'd experienced (and survived) a 7.8 earthquake in Taiwan and this certainly brought back feelings of deja-vu.  It really is a scary experience.  And I don't mean scary like watching a scary film, this is proper scary.  It wasn't until Taiwan that I fully understood why people slept outside following a big earthquake.  It's only when you get caught up in an earthquake that you really begin to understand the vast energy involved and that's being released.

In the morning I checked and it was only a 4.5 but more significantly, the epicentre was just a few miles out of town so essentially we were right on top of it.

However, there have been no reports of any damage, which is surprising considering the quality of the building work here.

Lets hope that that this little one isn't the prelude to something much bigger as I read that the Big-One is overdue for this region.

Contrasting Countries

I had yet another trip to Singapore.  It's important for one to be able to escape to civilisation once and a while and to be able to indulge in some quality living.  Having said that, the downside is the minute I arrive in Singapore I just start to bleed money.  It's phenomenal the amount you can get through in a weekend - and that's not being extravagant, that's just going out for a few beers.  Fortunately, due to the kind hospitality of a good friend of mine, I was able to stay at his place instead of having to splash out on hotel and this this dulled the sharp edge of the cost of my stay.

I had some banking and other business to carry out in Singapore, as well as doing some networking with colleagues from my previous employment in the hope of finding alternative employment now that the project in the Philippines is rapidly coming to an end.

Busily trying to make the most of my time I decided to have lunch on the hoof and bought a sandwich from the place were I used to go for lunch when I was in Singapore.  As I walked to my next task I unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite and in that moment, as the freshness and flavours of the sandwich washed over me I stopped dead and it dawned on me the overwhelming blandness of what I'd been eating in the Philippines.  You may think I'm being over dramatic regarding a simple sandwich but really, it was an absolute delight.  This sandwich far too good to enjoy walking around so I found a seat in a park next to a temple and took my time to savour and enjoy it.  I couldn't help thinking to myself: why can't I get a sandwich like this in the Philippines?  After all, they have all the necessary ingredients.  But it's a question I couldn't answer.  

An Appetising Hawaiian Sandwich from the Philippines
(See what I mean?)

I also spent a few days in Malaysia.  I love the huge contrast between two neighbouring countries that are essentially are made up of very similar people and which for a brief moment in history were one and the same country.  Both have good points and bad points but I'd struggle to rate one over the other. 

I flew from the Philippines to Singapore using Cebu Pacific, which is one of those budget airlines that you actually spend the same as you would have with a regular flight once you've added all the hidden extras.  Going to Singapore involves two flights - a domestic one from Iloilo to Manila and then the international leg from Manila to Singapore.  Going to Singapore was a daytime flight and wasn't too bad and was ok.  Just ok, not great.  At least I could look out of the window.  There is no other form of entertainment throughout the 3½ hour flight.  All drinks and food have to be paid for.  The seat allocation has to be paid for.  Any additional luggage over the stingy standard allowance has to be paid for.  Like I said, you end up paying as much for the flight as if you'd booked with regular carrier and had all those extras included which you normally take for granted.

But I had a point to prove:  I wasn't going to fly with Silk Air.  However, coming back my resolve wavered.  The budget terminal in Singapore is designed to remind you at every step you're a tight wad and you're going to suffer for it.  The flight didn't leave until 1:30am, which in itself wasn't a problem but once on board the flight, and despite having paid a premium extra-extra for the emergency exit seat I soon realised that sleep wasn't going to be possible.  The seats feel like they're made of planks of wood.  The head rest stopped at my shoulders.  The bulkhead stopped me from sitting straight and the seats were narrower and more restrictive than a kid's high-chair.  As a result I didn't get any sleep and I ended up with a cricked neck and shoulder as a result of trying.  Added to which there's no in-flight entertainment and it's dark so there's no point in looking out of the window.  I just sat there staring at the back of the seat in front of me for 3 hours.

The flight arrived in Manila at 5:30am and I spent 3 hours in a plastic seat waiting for my connecting flight.  On arrival in Iloilo I went straight to work but I have no recollection of the day's events as I was suffering from chronic sleep deprivation.

Water, Water Not Everywhere

The weather of late has been oppressively hot and clammy.  So much so that it takes a huge effort to go out and do anything during the day when the preference is to either sit in the shade with a cool drink or relax in the comfort of the air-conditioned house. 

The heat and dry weather is further compounding the drought problem too.  The house where I'm staying relies on a borehole for its water supply but the ground water levels have dropped so far that this is now struggling to fill the header tanks on the roof.  As a consequence the pool is no longer topped up and the water level is falling, thereby stopping the pool filter from working.  It's now an attractive green colour with a huge array of pond life living in it.  Just when you need the pool most.

Pea Soup or the Swimming Pool

Running out of ideas of what to do and where to go I had a look on the internet for inspiration and found a place not too far from here that has a waterfall, so a visit was planned.  Driving out towards the place it soon became obvious that visiting a water fall during a drought might not be the best idea.  The landscape that was previously one of a vibrant green is now a mixed hue of browns.  The rice paddies are mostly covered in the straw of dead crops or have that crazy paved looked from the dried mud.  Cattle and water buffalo look forlorn and dejected in fields of brown grass and the locals in the farming districts seem to be listlessly moping around waiting for it to rain.

Hoping that the mountains would have some remnants of water we persevered in visiting the waterfall but each and every river we crossed was bone dry.  When we arrived at the point where we needed to hike a couple of miles to see the waterfall, we all agreed it was going to be pointless task.  As my driver said, a waterfall without water is just a fall.  Or a rock face.  And there'd be no cooling dip in the plunge pool at the base of the waterfall, which was likely to be either empty or full of stagnant, fetid water.  And I already have that at the pool at the house.

Silk Thread

Hopefully, this is the last word on the Silk Air fiasco.  

After stewing over the S$30 gift voucher I decided I wasn't going to leave it there so I wrote to them again and told then that the voucher was derisory and insulting, and that I intended to pursue the matter further.  To this end I asked to be given the name of the person in Silk Air who was in charge of dealing with complaints (I nearly called it Customer Care!).

Lo and behold, within a few hours I had a phone call from Silk Air in Singapore.  Being somewhat caught on the hop I told them I was in a meeting and asked them to call me back, thereby giving me a moment to consider just exactly what it was I wanted to say.

The next morning they called again.  I spoke to the manager of customer relations who was very, very apologetic.  It's difficult and somewhat pointless raging at an individual of a big international company: it's not individuals or employees that make the rules.  What I really wanted was the person in charge - someone I could really get stuck into and vent my frustration and anger at regarding their shoddy attitude and service.  But this just doesn't happen.  Those people are nearly always remote from the public they're supposed to serve and I think that goes a long way to explain the incredibly bad decisions that some corporations or businesses make.

The final outcome is that I will have the whole cost of the flight reimbursed, and the 'no-show' and cancellation fees will be waived.   In addition, the S$30 voucher, which the girl from Silk Air took great delight in explained to me was actually US$30 (whoopy-whoo, I might be able to stretch to 2 Toblerones) would be doubled to US$60.

I suppose having the flight reimbursed and being given a couple of vouchers was about all I expected to get but having had to fight for them for so long and so hard really takes the edge off it.

Have You Been to Boracay?

"Have you been to Boracay?" seems to be the question almost everyone asks you here.  Not "Have you been to the Banaue rice terraces?" or "Have you been to the lake on Mt. Pinatubo?, it's nearly always about Boracay.

As it was the Holy Week holiday here, which meant the Thursday and Friday was a non working day, I made a plan to finally go to Boracay for a long weekend.  Boracay is a small island just over 4 miles long and a mile wide at it's widest point and located off the north-west point of the island of Panay where I'm working.  As I'm stationed in the south-east corner it's diagrammatically opposite and couldn't be any further away so it's a 4 hour drive to get there.

To be honest, I'm past being excited by beaches.  Both my sister and I agree that beaches are like fireworks:  you've seen them once, you've seen them all.  And having lived and worked in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean I'm pretty sure there isn't a better beach in the (commercial) world.  But there was the point of just being able to say I'd been to Boracay and as it's on my doorstep, so to speak, it would silly not to go.

Boracay Beach Loungers

Initially I was going to go on my own but the place I'd decided I wanted to stay at only had a duplex room available so I asked a colleague of mine if he wanted to go along as well, which he agreed to.

We set off at lunchtime on the Wednesday and the drive took us through the heart of Panay.  Right now it is the dry season and probably fair to say there's a drought, so the normally lush and fertile countryside was rather brown and drab with the usually flooded rice paddies taking on that cracked, crazy-paved earth look.  I wondered, with so much not being grown and local agriculture being so important in feeding and providing income for the communities that how much longer the dry weather needed to continue for before it became a crisis.  As an example, in Mindanao there is an energy crisis as they depend heavily on hydroelectricity generation and the shortage of rainfalls means the reservoirs are too low to generate power.

Arriving at the ferry terminal I was expecting it to be chaos and hassle as I had experienced when going to Bantayan Island (see Island Overdose) but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was all very well organised, with no touts.  Amazing really.  On the ferry trip to Boracay we had to wear life jackets, which is an unheard of safety imposition for this part of the world.   It's only a short trip and the terminal at the other side was equally well organised.  As usual, I had too much stuff.  Apart from the cameras, I'd brought my bike along too as I thought it would be a good way to explore the island.  My colleague went off ahead of me in a tricycle with my cameras whilst I was cycled to the resort with my overfilled backpack.

Rather more hillier than I'd imagined I soon worked up a massive sweat and missed a couple of not-so-apparent turnings and so had to double back.  Once on the side of the island where I needed to be, I cycled up a long hill but couldn't see the resort.  I stopped and asked a security guard stood outside a construction site where the resort was and he waved me on up the hill.  Having been in the Philippines for going on a year now I have an instinct of knowing when a Filipino knows what you're talking about, or rather when they don't, and I knew this guard didn't have clue.  They never seem to want to disappoint and say they don't know.  By the time I got to the top of the hill, by now dripping in sweat, I was pretty sure I didn't want to go back down the other side only to find out that the resort wasn't there and have to, like the soldiers of the Grand Old Duke of York, march back up to the top and down again.  So I fumbled for my mobile phone and called my colleague who seemed equally confused as to where I was and where he was.  I reckoned I'd passed him and he was at the start of the hill so I whizzed back down and spotted the driver.  The sign for the resort was tiny and mounted on a pole set back off the road so it was no wonder I'd missed it.

The place I'd booked sounded appealing enough: quiet, high on a hill overlooking the beach with fresh breezes to keep it cool.  From previous experience I didn't want to stay where there would be the boom, boom, boom all night of music until 5:00am from open air bands (yes, I'm old. I know).  The owner had told me that there were 90 or so steps to climb to get to the resort but to me that was no problem, I just climbed Mt. Kanlaon, so what were a few steps.  However, when I did eventually arrive at the place it was a bit of let down.  Essentially it was a bamboo, rattan and atap shack with a bed upstairs and downstairs that essentially constituted sleeping outside under a mossie net.  And there was no breeze.  Personally, I would probably have toughed it out but my colleague was having none of it as it the time he's been waiting for me he'd almost gone into hypovolaemic shock from the number mosquito bites he'd had.

Sand Castles

So we decided to walk into town to see if there was anything else available, deciding to forfeit the deposit I'd paid.  I'm not saying the owner of the resort had lied about the place but he'd certainly been economical with the truth and the details of what the place was actually like.  The owner wasn't around so we spoke to his wife, who looked like Magda from There's Something About Mary (around 80 years old, in a bikini and all wrinkled like a walnut from spending a lifetime in the sun).

One of our local employees who was also spending the weekend in Boracay found us a place just off White Beach, which is the centre for all that is happening in Boracay.  The hotel was cheap and cheerful and mossie free so it seemed to be okay and not very noisy either.

The driver stayed in the mossie hell that night so the deposit didn't go completely to waste - and the mossies didn't starve to death.  I saw the owner when I want back to collect my bag and bike and told him it wasn't really what we'd been expecting.  He was pretty laid back about it so my guess we weren't the first to complain or be disappointed and besides, he still had the deposit.

The Sign Says It All

The rest of the weekend was spend cycling, being far too hot and eating and drinking more than usual.  I get accused (not unwarranted I know) of being somewhat negative and Victor Meldrew-ish but I have to say that Boracay was comparatively and surprisingly good.   For a change the food seemed to be universally good with no Filipino Food Frights.  And it's still surprisingly cheap and only slightly more expensive than the norm, which is only to be expected.  Similarly, it was clean.  Very clean.  The beaches were kept spotless by child labour and whilst there was a fair amount of green slimy seaweed on the shoreline that had to be waded through, the sea was clear and warm.  If you want a lively beach it's all there but if you want un-crowded and quiet beaches these can also be found by taking a short trike ride to other parts of the island.

The Green Slime Was Off-Putting

We went on a boat trip and did some snorkelling and this too was well organised.  Having been ripped off in Bantayan I was explicit in spelling out the price we were paying, where we were going and what we were getting for our money.  But my concerns were unfounded as all boat trips were controlled and centrally organised.  There were just enough touts selling some things you want and some things you don't to make it interesting but they weren't over pushy or persistent.  There was a huge range of events happening on the beach over the weekend and this was set up and done with the minimum of fuss and well organised - and largely free thanks to sponsorship.

All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend.

Sunset

The Final Insult

The voucher that Silk Air sent me as recompense for the flight cancellation (see Words in a Different Order with the Same Meaning) was sent to our office in Singapore.  Last week the letter was forwarded to me here in the Philippines. 

Whilst not anticipating it being something worthwhile, I did retained some hope that Silk Air would come good in the end and surprise me.  Of course this wasn't going to happen.  What Silk Air sent me was a S$30 (£14.63 at current exchange rates) voucher stapled to their in-flight shopping magazine, which is the only place the voucher can be redeemed. 

So now, let me see:  in return for the loss of around £400 of direct and associated costs I'm given a £15 voucher that must be spent on a Silk Air/Singapore Airlines flight.  Hmmmmm, somehow I don't think I'm going to be enticed back to Silk Air by a £15 voucher.   That's a £15 voucher that is probably largely recoverable in profit from the lucrative duty free trade - not to mention the profit from me taking another flight with them.

Browsing through SkyShop magazine here's what I can buy for under S$30:

• Some stylish (not) Fitness First plastic sunglasses.
• A Toblerone variety 5 pack (good for my waistline)
• A Paris Bijoux crystal scooter mobile phone accessory (who chooses this stuff????)
• A fluffy high heels luggage tag (now it's just getting silly . . . )
• A Silk Air screen cleaner and keyboard brush (at S$12 I could buy 2 of these!)

And that's it.  Thanks Silk Air

Honestly, their meanness is breath taking.  And to further add insult to injury, the voucher has four boxes to tick of varying value, and can you guess which one they've ticked?  Yep, the lowest value.  So it's nice to know how much they value me as a customer.

I'm flying to Singapore in couple of weeks and this time I'm going with Cebu Pacific.  I couldn't care less if I had to stand for the whole journey and was made to wear a hair shirt, I wouldn't fly Silk Air even if they offered me the Paris bijoux crystal scooter AND the Tolberone variety 5 pack.