My Taguig City Trip Review.

[thekfc]

This is a short review of my trip to The Philippines.

Housing:
I stayed in Taguig City. I could have picked a good hotel or a nice private community but I decided to stay closed to Ahya. I stayed in a nice 2 bedroom house 1 1/2 blocks from her home. It had a kitchen, fridge & a/c - all for about $300 US.
I am very glad that I stayed there as I got to experience & interact more closely with the people.
The day before I left there was a couple who came to view the place.
There are also a few beautiful houses being built - some of them may be for rental.

Transportation:
I rode the tricycle frequently. I also got to ride the Jeepney a few times. For longer haul trips we would take a taxi.
Ar first, I was a little apprehensive about riding the tricycle & jeepneys but once I rode it - it was ok - the ride wasn't as bad as protraited. For the tricycle you have to learn with seats to get to be more comfortable & avoid the smoke from other tricycles.
Most of the txis we took were metered & the others Ahya or her niece or sister would negotiate the price before we enter the taxi - if they didn't like the price they would simply walk away.
There are car rentals with driver for about 3,200 pesos ($70) a day - not including gas. I could have gone that route but riding the tricycles & jeepneys added something special to my trip & experiences.

Food:
There is nothing that I could say that haven't been said. While you are there - go local. There are a lot of dishes that you will enjoy & others that you wouldn't - this goes for anywhere in the world - so sample a little of the food before buying a large portion.
I ate so many different dishes & most of them I do not even know the name or nor can I pronounce them. There were times that I wanted to try a new dish but Ahya would tell me no because I already had it or a different version of it & since I didn't like the previous version I may not like this one and she was right.
I tried to stay away from most of the "western" restaurant but I did eat in a few of them.
Rice - A meal is NOT complete until you eat rice with it. Just about every restaurant /place serve rice - even Wendy's, KFC, Burger King & Roy Rogers.
Rice is even serve for breakfast. We would eat so much but if rice was not included the eating would continue. There were times I would buy 4-6 pizzas and watch the kids eat them all & then go eat their "meal" with rice a few minutes later.
Ahya said that she gain a few pounds because of me feeding her.

The people:
They are wonderful and gracious people. I encountered so many wonderful people & had such a great experience that I do not know how to begin or describe it.

The older people were open & would start a conservation with me.
The kids were shy but once you start talking to them, they would start talking back.
The younger guys (teens/early 20s) were all ready to chat. Some wanted to pratice their english & some of them even invited me to a game of basketball.
The teenage & young ladies for the most part would not start talking to me unless we were out shopping & they came to assist me.
The look that the ladies gave me - how would I describe it - I can't, but if I was feeling down, the look would bring me right back up.
The ladies I started a conversation all replied graciously. Later, a few of them who lived in Ahya's neighborhood would say hi to me & then started talking to Ahya in Tagalog.
The ladies (young & old) - a big, big, big contrast from what I have experienced with AW.

I had a great moments while walking about, there were a jeepney full of school children ( High school/college) - they were giggling when they saw me so I started waving to them & they wave back, then I started making funny gestures & posing for them & they started laughing. A few of them took out their cell phones & cameras and took pics. The next day while me & Ahya was walking I heard a voice say "hi John", it was one of the girls I recognized from the jeepney, she lived in Ahya neighborhood and did ask about me.

Language:
Just about everyone spoke English - some not as good as others. I was surprise that when we went to Pangasinan that a few of the elderly people spoke perfect English - better than the younger generation.

Shopping:
You will find Just about anything here in The Philippines. All of the Major "western" brands have a store there or are available. Even the "upscale" brands like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton & Armani are there. It is also expensive to shop for "western" good.
Also there are a lot of the "western" food/groceries brands are available. I was surprise to find Florida Natural Juice Brands & various supermarkets & on my final day I found Seagram's Ginger Ale.

Climate:
Manila was hot & dry. Both Pangasinan & Baguio City were cool (upper 70's / low 80s). Ahya & her cousins wore a light Jacket because they said that
Baguio City was "cold".
I was worried about Mosquitoes but 99% of the time I didn't use any insect repellent & never got bitten. There were some house lizard - maybe they ate all the mosquitoes. 

The Cities:
The places I visited.
Makati - The Business district. Plenty of High rise buiding & I notice that a lot of western company (Citibank, HSBC, etc) have an office there.

Pasay City - The shopping district. The Mall of Asia is there as well as The Cultural Center of the Philippines. NAIA Terminal 2 & 3 and the
terminal of the Manila Domestic Airport is located there.

Taguig City - More of a residential area.

Pangasinan - For what I notice Pangasinan is an agriculture town. There were plenty of rice farms. Ahya older brother had mango trees (and some other fruits) as well as bamboo trees on their farm.

Baguio City - Very beautiful place. There were a lot of lovely houses there. It is on a mountain top. The temperature is much cooler & "fresher" that the other cities that I visited.

I tried to prepare myself for the trip but I’m not sure if one can really prepare themselves for the type of experience they will encounter in The Philippines. My advice - go with the flow & learn all that you can.

[Dave H]

Hey thekfc,

Congratulations! You had the right preparation, attitude and outlook to create a wonderful experience. Your observations were great! I really enjoyed your trip report and photos!

Dave

[robert angel]

Ditto to Dave's post. The Kfc not only seems to have been a great Ambassador for our nation, but also brought a bit of Santa Claus in his persona to young and old alike in the RP.
Thanks Kfc for sharing your experience, it brought back a lot of warm memories.  It brought to mind visions of open minivans and jeepneys, full of students, smiling and animated, wearing their school uniforms colors, amazingly clean amongst the pollution and dust all around--happy to see another 'Joe' around. Got a little hungry looking at all that food--I'm a real sucker for all those desserts for sure!
Every trip to the RP for me has overall been very pleasant, but there's nothing quite like the first trip...

[Dave H]

Got a little hungry looking at all that food--I'm a real sucker for all those desserts for sure!

Hey Rob,

Me too! Last Saturday my wife, her sisters, and mother were all in the cooking mood (sister-in-law passed RN board exam). They made a variety of different foods and desserts. Lets see, over the course of 2 days I remember eating lumie (soup), pancit canton, cameron robosado (fried shrimp), litsong manok (roasted chicken) (bought), lumpia, baked spaghetti, variety of barbecue (chicken parts, pork beef, fish - bought), atsara (pickled papaya - kind of like sauerkraut), kinilaw (they used raw tuna with tuba vinegar), boiled bananas, and dishes I can't remember. For desert there was putu, bico (sweet rice), yema, bananacue (bought), my favorite dirty ice cream -mango cheese (bought), leche flan, bibingka, and whatever else... I ate my share, but I honestly don't know how those little people made all of that food disappear! I must have passed out at some point and they invited the Duwendes in to eat! "tabi-tabi po"

Dave

[robert angel]

Yea--think I said it before, but my wife can eat me under the table at the all you can eat Asian buffet and she hasn't gained two pounds in five years here--she's up to a whopping 91 pounds, holding steady at 5 feet tall.

But--I think a few of us have said this--here or over there, you could watch em eat 5 pizzas or 8 big macs but until they've eaten rice, they're not full.

That's why in Davao City I'd always take the clan to the Banok's chain of restaurants. They have most of the traditional foods and do them well, but with a meal, offer all you can eat rice. My wife's brothers can eat a lot of rice and I thought because of them, they might change their policy!

My wife was surprised that in the USA if they serve you burnt or otherwise substandard food, you can send it back, not pay for it, etc. In most places there, you pay for it no matter what comes out of the kitchen.

It's simple, but my favorite is cassava cake. Leche flan is nice, but it gets old after a while.

[Dave H]

Hey Rob,

It is pretty amazing watching Filipinos eat! Besides the 3 regular meals there is the morning "snack," the 3 o'clock "snack," evening "snack" and God knows how many other "snacks!" A snack may be anything from a sack full of pan de sal, a huge pizza, burgers, bananacue, and just about anything except rice. 

Oh , I forgot cassava cake...my wife buys it almost ever day at the bakery. They know her and all of her sisters by name! 

Dave

[robert angel]

I don't know it's common overall in Filipino culture, but it seems like a lot of folks I know there drop everything at a set meal time and eat--it doesn't matter if they're hungry or not, working or at leisure, but they sit and eat--and usually not alone.

My wife still doesn't like USA style--eating on the fly--while in bed, the car, the living room etc. She wants to sit at the table and even if I'm not into eating at that time, have me there, nibbling at least and keeping her company.


She really likes to get together with the 3 Filipinas she counts as 'friends' to eat dried fish--something I don't care for, taste wise. It was her idea to get a mini stove--a lot smaller than the BBQ grill, to cook that outside when she wants to eat it at home. That stuff can leave an odor for days at a time if cooked inside!

[Ray]

I am very glad that I stayed there as I got to experience & interact more closely with the people.

Very wise choice kfc! Living in the neighborhood and interacting with the regular folks is a whole different world from staying in a hotel.

Also, I strongly recommend that guys stay with a Filipino family in the provinces for at least a couple of days if the opportunity arises. You can learn a lot about the culture very quickly by getting right in there with the people and experiencing the traditional home life up close.

Ray

[thekfc]

Yep, it is amazing how these ladies can eat.

I watch two of Ahya's nieces ate an 18" pizza (triple stuffed) & a 1.5 liter coke then right afterward they had some chips & some kind of sweet bread (I forgot the name) & then about 1/2 hour later they had their "regular" meal with rice. I should have gotten them a 36" Pizza.

Whenever we go out, they would always order "extra rice" - the initial order of rice that comes with our orders is enough for me.

There were times that I am ready to roll over & go to sleep because I am so full but they would still keep on eating.

They would also offer me a snack (fries w/ Banana ketchup) just before a meal. I eat the fries because they are good but then I would be almost half way full.

And as you can see in the pics I posted, Ahya & her nieces are slim (they wear size x-small).

[robert angel]

A lot of the slim gals who come over to the US really 'plump out'--from the foods we usually eat over here--all the so called 'refined' and 'enriched' foods and all the starch, eventually get to them. It's by no means a certainty though. Them staying so slim over there is kind of a mystery to me though, because if you look objectively at white rice--it's pretty fattening and not a good source of nutrition.

I noticed that a lot of the meat dishes over there have a lot of the fat left in them and for those who can afford it, there's no shortage of saturated laden USA fast food to be had. Once you get away from fruit and veggies, it's a pretty heart unfriendly place from what I've seen overall and there is a lot of heart disease and diabetes there. It's super sad that some of our blood pressure and cholesterol meds cost more there than they do in the USA.

My wife makes a killer baked ziti--we just finished big bowls of it. I'm Italian on my father's side and it's sort of sacreligious that she uses whole wheat pasta, but she's always trying to make things a bit healthier and it still tastes pretty good. She can even 'tweak' a good ole fashioned chicken casserole, making it healthier, but when she's not looking, I'll add a dollop of real sour cream to it. She loves a good rib eye or T bone steak, but she often comments that if she were back home with that three quarters of a pound steak, they'd be making soup with it and nothing--not even the bone, would be wasted.

Meat, even fresh raw tuna, is pretty expensive for a lot of people there and we still keep that in perspective. Heck, when I was a kid, a good steak was uncommon too--I'd  literally lick the plate clean.

We make kinilaw with the raw tuna and cucumbers here but it's not quite as good as over there

One of the things about the people my wife grew up with and who she befriended 'over there' that I love and respect, is that if they only had 2 beans to their name and were going to eat one in your presence, they'd put one bean in their outstretched hand, and offer it while saying simply "Eat?"

[thekfc]

One thing that I forgot to mention - I was surprised at the amount of Pawn Shops that I saw.

That was mostly in Manila.  I didn't encounter any in Pangasinan & saw maybe 2 or 3 in Baguio City.