Quote of the Week:
“Hey what’s that sparkly thing in the water—see it? The one all the fish are
swimming to.”
October 7, 2011
Marinduque, Philippines
Month Jets By In
Manila: While the pace of life in the Philippines is on the easy and slow
side, September seems to have flown by in an instant. Even so, it has been more
than a month since my return to Manila.
Enough time gone by, that my dad has taken to the salutation—To My
Filipino Son, when he launches emails this way. Then, one of my
Nevada contacts said the story I had just filed from Manila worked out great,
still he was wondering would I always be able to turn stories on time—now that
I had “moved” to the Philippines? Could he be reading dad’s emails? Either way,
I assured the source this was only a visit, and take these as ample smoke
signals that it’s time to board Delta’s cattle-car 747 for the long trek back
to JFK. The planes are old, but even in the coach, the service is better than
average. (Don’t want to jinx the ride back with high praise).
Marinduque, Bellarocca & Boac: Last
weekend Vincent’s family formed in “Entourage” fashion to explore a new spot, Bellarocca
Island which sits off the coast of Marinduque (MA-rin-DU-kay) and is located a couple hundred miles due south of Manila. Our expedition party
included Vince’s mom & dad, three brothers, a sister, several in-laws, a
gaggle of nieces and nephews—and in the Filipino fashion—each child travels
with their nanny (aka “Yah-Yah’s).
It
was a short flight to the Marinduque, which is heart shaped, and legend has it the
island formed when two lovers drowned themselves in that spot after the
bride-to-be’s father rejected their union—preferring to behead the groom—who narrowly
escaped to take the fatal plunge with his beloved. Nice tale. (Snide political
aside: perhaps this could be a science question at the next GOP debate—how was
the Island of Marinduque formed)?
Aviation Buffs should be advised that I made every effort to ascertain the type of
aircraft that shuttled us to the island, but could not find a single marking. I
suspected it was of Asian vintage (and sort of a copy of Saab’s turboprop) and
the Dabs found the Answer on-line: The aircraft is a Xian M60 which is crafted
in China—with a rear entry door that is such a tight squeeze that Vince managed
to bang his head upon entry.
Only one flight per day touches
down per day at Marinduque, and a loud siren sounds to alert locals when the
flight takes-off from Manila. That gives them thirty minutes to line up the
local band, which greats arriving passengers (decked out in the kind of tribal
garb that the angry dad probably put on, just before he grabbed his sword and
threatened the loving couple). There were no harsh threats upon our arrival,
only some interesting masks and lots of drums.
More challenging than the
flight, was the short boat ride from one island to the next. Our rubber launch
was tossed around in the six foot swells, and the folks in the bow took some
see-saw like crashes into the coming waves.
Bellarocca Island is a resort, owned by
the Japanese and constructed in a series of villas, and soon to be spas, in the
Mediterranean manner. It took four years to build and opened in 2009—the place
is still in its infancy; the staff friendly and helpful, and in a couple more
years, it will be running in high gear. We got the rainy season discount and
had a swell time, relaxing, swimming, kayaking and of course eating. (Food
rates about a B).
The QOW was uttered underwater and through snorkeling tubes, as
about a dozen of us were checking out the local fish population near a cluster
of rocks. A sharp eyed member of our snorkeling party saw a rush of fish all to
one spot, and shouted this week’s quote. It was around this time, that Mr and
Mrs Violago surfaced and upon seeing her husband, Mrs. Violago inquired as
follows: “Did you wear you dentures today Daddy?” To which Mr. V responded: “Oh-Oh”
which means yes in Filipino, but also equally applied in English. Major laughs
then ensued as our helpful guide dived frantically, parted the fish and
retrieved the shiny object, so Mr. V could reinsert his choppers.
Brief Humor note for WASPs: for the declining WASP population, raised on the notion that one should never say anything that might risk hurting someone else’s feelings. This noble notion runs contrary to the Filipino brand of Humor which works roughly as follows. Five people are standing in a group, one of them being bigger than a house. The other four then proceed to tell jokes in front of the very fat person, about how fat they are and all five proceed to laugh. Suffice it to say Filipino humor is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended, and Mr. Violago had little trouble laughing at his plight and his teeth along the rest of us (me of course snickering quietly as one raised in the semi-detached-Episcopalian way).
Tricycle Side Trip to Boac Our flight back to Manila was delayed
which gave Vincent, Alma (his former Yah-Yah—and a major source of my five
pounds) and I time to take a trike into Boac the capitol of Marinduque. Dabney
had provided minor inspiration for this, as he had previously noted that the
town had the same name as the British Overseas Airways Corporation (member of “gen
y” please see “BA). We found no evidence that the British or their airline had
any role in the foundation of Boac, but the place
does have an incredible church which was packed to the rafters for a very large
funeral when we visited.
The trip also gave me a chance to ride both inside and on the back seat of a tricycle.
The trip also gave me a chance to ride both inside and on the back seat of a tricycle.
(Only Vince elected to brave the riding the roof)
“Manila” Mike Stats:
Typhoons (2), Wake (1* week+), Debut (1), Iced Coffee’s Consumed (MONDO) =
Filipino Food Pounds Added (5): So
the final score for Manila III, the sequel: Two typhoons passed close enough to
be worth a mention. The first shook the roof and gave us 30 hours of rain. The
second happened while we were on an excursion to the south—and it missed us by
a good ways. The northern part of Luzon took the brunt of both storms—there
were more than 50 fatalities, severe flooding, and in some spots have yet to
dry out. At this writing, a good many Filipinos are relying on emergency food
relief. This trip was also marked by the Passing of Papa Do, an 18 year old
Debut party for one of Vincent’s cousins and enough wonderful local food to
have added about five pounds to your humble
correspondent.
correspondent.
Timely Returns to NYC: I have been
reporting and sending tweets on the Occupy Wall Street movement (aka #ows in Twitter
speak). My reporter’s gut tells me that this movement will get a whole lot
bigger before the powers that be are able to get the steam out of the balloon.
About the time I departed NY, our Mayor opined that the violence of recent
riots in London could
not be ruled out in the USA, and my hunch is the Big Apple will be lucky in
the extreme if the anger directed at Wall Street remains peaceful and
non-violent (which I surely hope it does).
For
those who don’t Tweet: A brief snippet of some of the insight on can gain from
the 140 character witticisms which find their way onto twitter (A recent tweet
taken from web at 2:47AM EDT Friday—for those not paying close attention #ows
is twitter shorthand for Occupy Wall Street)
63RupertMurdochPR Not
Rupert Murdoch
Ailes tosses the kitten aside, demands keys to the earthquake
machine. "We'll shake those #ows hippies lose, they'll run
screaming." 3 of 4
Now,
back to NYC returns: For those who did not get my email blasts—Vince got preliminary
approval for his H1B visa. Now, the US Embassy in Manila must apply the proper
stamps to the appropriate papers and fingers crossed he will arrive in NYC, we
hope before Halloween, and who knows maybe wearing a Marinduque mask.
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