Returning to my Birthplace

The first time I realized that I was "different" was in second grade when my friend Donald screamed out,"You have a zebra family!" All the other kids at the bus stop started laughing out loud. He was making an observation about my Filipino mother who was walking with my younger brother toward us whom she had just picked up from kindergarten. Kids can be cruel, right? But so can adults... My siblings and I had a tough time growing up "mixed-race" because we were never "fully" accepted by either culture.  I can't speak for my brother and sister, but my way of coping was to hide in my "blackness".  It was much easier for me because I don't really look mixed until you look at me real hard (as many a Filipino does when I tell them).You could say I was passing as "Black American" because it was easier than trying to explain that I was Filipino-Black then trying to win acceptance.  Ironic..huh? MTV has made it cool to be "mixed" these days, but when I was growing up it definately wasn't cool, especially growing up in Northeast Washington, DC, which is 98% black.  Black folks can be as prejudiced as white folks... I think that is part of the reason I loved it so much when my father was stationed overseas, because people were far more tolerant on base (where there were other mixed kids) than in my grandparents "hood" where people rarely venture outside of the city limits.  My poor mother, I can only imagine what she had to endure when she came to D.C. back in 1971!  My mother made it easy for us to hide because she was so busy learning to be American (she went to citizenship school, even though it wasn't required due to her marriage; she knows more about U.S. history and government than most of you!); that she neglected to teach my brother and I Tagalog (Phillippines' national language).  I also think she thought it would make our lives easier, since it was already going to be hard being lower middle class (I don't like to use the word poor after what I've seen in South Africa, Brazil, and Southeast Asia) and "non-white".  I understand her decision, but I truly regret it.

I didn't reallly start to identify myself as Filipino until I was about 13 or so.  I was sitting watching football in the basement with my grandfather.  He was drunk on Johnny Walker, teaching me about women (how to get them); when he suddenly got somber and started talking about the "big one" - World War II.  My grandpa was a griseled old Navy Veteran who served in the Pacific during the war.  He didn't talk much about it, except when he was really, really drunk.  I was the only grandchild who had the patience to wait him out, because it would take hours for him to get that drunk.  He would want to wrestle and box and sing and talk and talk and talk.  But if you endured, you would get rewarded, he would pull out his "knot" and break you off about $20 and maybe $50 if it was payday!   Luckily, I was a tough kid and I could take the pounding he dished out. I learned a lot from my grandpa in the basement, among those lessons was why I was the "toughest" grandchild. He told me it was because I was half Filipino.  He would tell me, "Your father is tough, but your mother is tougher! Them damn"Flips" are the toughest little sons of guns you ever seen!"  You see he was in the Phillippines for some of the worse fighting of the war.  He would tell me gory details of the fighting between the joint American-Filipino forces against the Japanese when the latter invaded the Phillippines in 1941.  The Japanese initially defeated "our" forces and occupied the Phillippines for 4 years until General MacArthur made his famous "return" in 1945 landing on the beaches of Leyte not far from where my mother was born. One million Filipinos gave their lives in WW2, 6% of the population !, 300,000 Japanese and 68,000 Americans just during the campaign in the Phillippines (so much lost talent).  After the war, many (including my grandfather) thought the Phillippines would become our 49th state!  That's right people read your history, the Phillippines had been a U.S. territory since 1898 after the Spanish-American war, when we annexed the Phillippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as territories after defeating Spain and beginning our dangerous path of colonialism.  The Filipinos liked the ideals of freedom, education, and equality for all (after we persuaded them- American-Phillippine War:) .  They adopted our ideals and our culture, and fought with us to preserve those ideals during the World War II.  Unfortunately, the politics of the day were not in favor of making the Phillippines our 49th state.  It is our loss; these are a beautiful, passionate, gregarious, resourceful, tenacious people who would've been a great asset to the USA. Ferdinand Marcos took power in 1965 and allowed us to use the Phillippines as our military headquarters during the Vietnam War.  That's when a young, black soldier at the tip of the "American spear" fell in love with a fiery Filipino woman from Samar, Phillippines in 1970 is where my story begins....  I was born outside of Clark Air Base, Phillippines not long after they met:)

Link to a map of the 7,107 Phillippine Islands: http://www.mapsorama.com/maps/asia/Philippines/PhilippinesPhysical.png

Now that you know my background, you can anticipate my emotions on the flight from Hong Kong to Manila (Phillippine capital).  It took me 39 years to get back to my birthplace!  After all the stories from my grandfather, mom, dad, brother, sister, and aunts; after all my reading about Phillippine culture and history, I was finally on my way back to the place where I first witnessed the world. 

When we landed it was sunny and bright.  I started to hear that familiar, distinctive, accented "Filipino English" over the loudspeaker and from the people walking around us.  It put me at ease. That's one thing you will appreciate in the P.I., almost everyone speaks English, even the television is a mix of English and Tagalog.  Every major street sign is in English, just like Hong Kong.  And you could easily use american dollars for all of your purchases if you chose too. On the ride to our hotel, I saw the Jeepneys which are famously unique to the Phillippines.  They arose as a common mode of transport after WW2 when creative entrepenuers revamped old wartime Jeeps into large taxis for the countrys poor to ride to work in.  Much more efficient and manuveurable than a bus. And much easier to pimp out!

We arrived at our hotel in the Makati business district, and we were shocked by the level of security.  There were armed soldiers with bomb sniffing dogs at the entrance!  They even had airport style metal detectors.  Carmen and I are pretty adventurous, but after speaking to my parents, I thought it best to hang low in Manila.  We did finally get stir crazy and ventured to the mall, but that was it.  What you have to understand is that the P.I. is a third world country with crushing poverty and a lot of corruption.  Manila is a city of over 20 million with some of the worst slums I've ever seen.  You combine that with the wealth of foreign businessman from China, Korea, and the U.S., it is a recipe for disaster. With the Presidential election coming soon, my mom says its a perfect time for fringe groups to make a statement.  We did see plenty of tourists venturing out from our hotel and returning without a problem.  Our friends Rich & Ana also travelled all over the Phillippines about 6 weeks ago without any problems.  But my family doesn't have any money to pay ransom if I get kidnapped; and the way my mom used to whoop my tail as a kid, I could only imagine what some filipino fringe group had in store for me if they didn't pay!:) Carmen's family would've mortgaged everything to get her out and I would've been left to suffer in some hot, humid jungle camp...no thanks!

We took a flight on a small propeller plane to Boracay, P.I.  Our bags were overweight by 15kg, but we only had to pay $20! Awesome! Our bags were overweight by 10kg in Australia, we had to pay $400 dammit!  And their beaches are no where near as nice.  The flight was comfortable with plenty of legroom and only lasted 50 minutes.  The airport in Catilan was a bit scary.  You could see residential shacks with the owner's laundry hanging outside right next to the runway!

While the airport was really third world, the people were friendly and efficient.  It took about 8 minutes to unload the plane and get the bags! You could actually watch your bags get unloaded from the plane.  The baggage claim was exactly 60 meters from the runway.  A porter took our bags to the pre arranged taxi which then took us to a boat, which took us to the actual island of Borocay.  Then the hotel van took us through town to the hotel which was a block from the beach.  I felt like a total rock star being whisked from one mode of transport to the next.  I saw the hapless 20 something year old backpackers haggling with taxi drivers and boat captains and thanked my lucky stars that I waited to do this when I could afford to do it right:)  I highly recommend going with a hotel that will pick you up from the airport: Shangri-La, Borcay Mandarin, Regency Borocay, Asya Borocay, Crown Regency Borocay, and I'm sure there will be others to come. These luxury hotels average cost is about $130 per night! If you don't you'd better be prepared to haggle... This is what we saw when we arrived on Borocay:

Wow! I still say that the most beautiful beaches are in the Maldives, but Borocay are a close 2nd!  For some people it may be more enjoyable.  White Beach is the third world version of Venice Beach.  There are all kinds of people walking the beach selling things like jewelry and art work.  There are small "mom and pop" restaraunts and bed & breakfasts' right next to large scale modern hotels.  And yes, the good lord delivered me from fat folks in speedos!  The caliber of body was much nicer in Borocay than almost anywhere we've been except Brazil or maybe South Beach.  There were fine ass Asian women in skimpy bikinis, and muscle bound European men (I guess this is where they come). What could be better? 50 cents beers, cheap seafood and fried pork, transvestite fire dancers, and super rich Chinese/Koreans with hip hop gear on walking with swagger like they were in one of Jay-Z's rap video! They were live filipino cover bands performing rock songs and hip-hop/ techno night clubs to party in all night long.  The massages on the beach averaged $7 and a sunset sail on a catamaran costs about $20 including tip.  We were in the middle of it all once again. Instant celebrity status when the locals found out I was half Filipino.  Of course, I sometimes had to prove it by showing pictures of my family, but that's ok I'm used to it.  After they were sufficiently convinced, I was introduced as "my big brother" and "our Filipino cousin". Everytime the revelation set off a barrage of loud Tagalog and stares of amazement. But even when we didn't tell people we were treated with warmth and kindness.  We asked the police if we could take pictures of them, and they insisted that I pose with them.  I've never been treated that well by police in the states!

The sand was soft, the water was clear and the diving was excellent.  We did about six dives while in Borocay and we enjoyed them all.  Our first couple of dives revealed a unique coral reef that was different from anyother we've ever seen.  The soft coral were huge, and were in unique colors of purple, fluorescent green, and bright orange/red.  Gorgonian Fan coral bigger than us!  Large gardens of  barrel coral (look like giant tulips about 5 feet tall with pastel colors) and giant sponges that looked 100s of years old.  There were thousands of small fish everywhere.  They were so numerous you had to swat them out of the way so you could see!  Sea worms, nudie branches, and frog fish were plentiful.  I even had a remora try to attach itself to my leg (very unerving)! Carmen was lagging behind on one of our dives as usual.  I turned around to see what she was doing, her back was to me and she seemed to be playing with a small clown fish (nemo).  I got irritated because she was not keeping up, so I went back to get her.  As I reprimanded her in underwater sign language, the freaking clown fish swims from around her and comes straight at me!  I didn't realize he was attacking her. That bugger went straight for my mask! I swatted, but he kept coming; so I kicked at him with my fin and he dropped down below me and came again!  Carmen was laughing out loud as she made her get away! I swam as fast as I good after her. Attacked by Nemo, I can't believe it.. While the Maldives was great for large fish life, the Phillippines wins for coral and smaller life.  We didn't take pics, but to get an idea, here is a link:  http://www.diverosa.com/categories/Coral.htm    We did the wold famous Yapak Reef dive. This reef is famous for the large Gray reef and Whitetip sharks.  It was fun because the current was fierce, but not moreso than we were used to after Thailand and the Maldives!:)  We descended into the deep blue with no reef in sight until we got to about 35 meters/110 feet which is the deepest we've ever gone.  When we got near the reef you could see two large Gray reef sharks just chilling at the edge of the wall.  I checked on Carmen behind me, she was drafting like a pro, we both got nice positions on the reef right at the drop off.  It was a sunny day and the visibility was at leat 60 meters.  The sharks were hovering above us about 5 meteres/15 feet just chilling in the current.  There was a large octopus off the edge of the wall swimming out in the open which is very rare.  I turned to smile at Carmen, and I saw the swelling in her face.  Sometimes at deep depths you can get a high pressure build up in your scuba mask, but it can be relieved by breathing air from your nares into your mask.  I happen to know that she doesn't like to fool around with her mask, but I signalled her to put air in to equalize the pressure.  She looked bad yall, like she had been in a fight with Mike Tyson bad!  Her eyes were almost swollen shut!  I kept thinking to myself, I'm glad this is a short dive.  The divemaster signalled us to let go and the whole group floated in the current as we slowly ascended to meet the boat.  It was great, all of us floating in the deep blue/green as if we were flying.  When we got on the boat, Carmen looked a mess.  Her eyes were swollen to be damned and her conjuctival capillaries were all ruptured.  She looked like a zombie (think the movie "28 Days Later") who got into a fight with Mike Tyson! That was our last dive, cause people are going to think I've been beating you! Alas, our hunt for the elusive whaleshark was stymied again. No matter, we will be back no doubt.  We missed a couple of jungle tours and a volcano tour.  We were just too tired and hung over from the cheap beers and good eats. The Phillippines is very affordable and easier to get to than anywhere in Asia except maybe Japan.  MY people are warm, friendly, and they love to dance, sing, and eat!  Goodbye my brethren......

To see more pics click here

There's No Place Like (Bruce's) Home

Contrary to popular belief, I was not born in Asia. I totally feel that my spirit was. I like Asia. I am going to be sad next week when it is time to say goodbye to the largest continent on earth. I was comfortable in China, Thailand and Hong Kong. I loved being in the Maldives but I SWEAR no where is more like home than the Philippines! For those of you who didn't know, this is Bruce's birthplace. We had heard some really good things about the Philippines. Specifically the low cost of nice travel. Also, we had heard that White Beach in Boracay was one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We also researched and found that it has some very good dive sites.  All of those things prompted us to head farther down the "less trodden" path.

We arrived in the Philippines and planned on staying in Manila for a couple of days. The city is big and populous (like most B. A. A. C-Big Ass Asian Cities). Lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of people racing around 2-4 people deep on mopeds....Anyway, we land and find a ride to our hotel which is in the central business district of Makati. I was excited to be in Manila. We planned on doing some sightseeing, eating, drinking and relaxing. On our way to the hotel, i got the opportunity to see the main way of transport around the city, the Jeepney. The Jeepney is pretty much like a minibus/go cart which is pimped out beyond belief in wild colors with serious hubcaps, etc. People will pack themselves into these rides, hanging out of the back, holding on for dear life.  The way it works is if you get close to your stop, you yell, they will slow down to a respectable 5-10 miles per hour and you jump out.  Talk about bus "stop"!!! Some are "regular" but most look like something out of a rap video. I wondered if they had hydraulics? Here are a couple of Jeepney's in rush hour traffic:

My first idea that something could be wrong was the security at the entrance to the hotel. Now, I've seen armed soldiers before (checkpoints in Thailand, Sri Lanka). No big deal. As long as the AK-47 is not pointed towards me, we have no problem. We arrived at our hotel which was smack in the downtown area. The first check point involved two armed guards, a trunk search and a bomb sniffing dog...WTF? Ok, i'm intrigued. Why, pray tell do we need a bomb sniffing canine in the front of my hotel?  The next layer of security was the front door of our hotel. Everything seemed normal as the cabbie helped us out with our bags, however, at the door of our hotel was a security line complete with a bag check and metal detectors!!! WTF? To check in?! Once in the lobby we notice several more security guards with the little CIA/MI-5 ear buds in watching the elevators and checking people coming in....Bruce and I looked at each other and decided "Guess we're not going out sight-seeing"....

Ok, enough of that. By day two, I was stir crazy. I wanted to take my chances of being a byline in the newspaper. "American woman from Phoenix killed in tragic shooting/bombing outside a Manila hotel"
We decided to venture out to the mall. That was interesting. The mall was this strange juxtaposition of super nice and bootleg/local stuff. We entered on one side (after clearing more security and bag checks) and saw the usual high end mall shops (Prada, Coach, blah, blah). We walked around, found a bar (which had $1 beers...waayy more expensive then normal) and walked some more. Nothing interesting. Thank God we asked a local where was the closest drug store. They directed us to a nearby shop. We start walking in the oppressive heat (Jeez, it felt like 1000 degrees!) and all of a sudden, got swept up in a huge crowd of locals. Eveyone was headed to this "drug store". We walk in the doors (after another security/bag check) and end up in a huge, tri level departement store which was a cross between Big Lots/Sam's Club/Wal Mart/Sear's..ALL on steroids. There were hundreds of people, pushing, shoving, shopping, talking, standing, etc. We could barely make it down certain aisles. We had to do a search and rescue type of shopping method.  "Bruce, you head due south, get the lotion, I'll double back, head west and find toothpaste"
I found everything we needed despite having to criss cross a huge store the size of a small country. All of our finds came to a grand total of $3 (I Love it here!!).
Everything seemed back to normal until we decided that we need to stop by the bank to cash a couple of travelers checques...We ride up to the bank and we see this:

Guess we'll be using the credit cards....

After an uneventful stay in Manila, we were headed off to Boracay. Boracay is a very small island in the region of Caticlan, about 200 miles south of Manila. For anyone who doesn't know, the Philippines is a huge chain of islands. Most people use a combination of planes, ferries, buses to get around. We started our day at the domestic terminal in Manila. I knew that we had to fly a crop duster to Boracay and I knew that our big bags were going to go over the weight requirements (which is only 20lbs) and we were mentally prepared to pay. We had to check two bags, plus pay for overweight fees which came to a grand total of $20!! ( I love this place!) Our crop duster (i.e. super small prop plane) only had 20 seats.

Our "airplane" to Boracay

View of Boracay from the air

I watched nervously as the propellers choked to life (is the left turning slower than the right?) and then we were up in the air for our short 30 min flight to Boracay. One thing I had heard is that if the weather/wind is bad then flights could be re-routed to the next closes "airport" in Kalibo. Now that is NOT what you want to happen because that will put you a 2 hour bus ride plus a 45 minute ferry ride away from Boracay. We lucked out and ended up landing on a little "strip" of land in Boracay. Now, I have landed in crop dusters before. They make me nervous. I'm not scared of flying but I really hate tiny turbo props...Our airport was nothing more than a strip of road with a big hut next to it with an "airport" sign over it. What made it more fun was the baggage claim area:

After the scary flight we were driven 5 minutes down the street to the dock where we were put on a speed boat, taken to another part of the island, put on another bus to our final destination. We decided to save money not to stay on the beach. We figured that we were close enough to walk and it would be more quiet.
Our hotel did not disappoint! It was small (only 20 rooms) and very homey feel. We had a clean, quiet room with air conditioning!!! whoo-hoo!!! We were a short 1-2minute walk to the famous White Beach where all the shops/restauraunts are...

The other thing is Boracay is so very laid back! It is very primitive. Flip flops and shorts are part of everyone's daily uniform. People ride 3-4 deep on mopeds or on moped "taxi's". Life is like it was 50 years ago.

Regular rush hour traffic

Scenes from the city of Boracay

Here are pics of our little hotel:

White Beach is a huge, long stretch of sugar white sand and crystal clear water on the south side of the island of Boracay. The water was just as clear, if not clearer than in the Maldives! I've never seen water that clear!!! You could walk in  4-6 feet deep and still see the tips of your toes!!! (Complete with the fishies swimming around them!!!) It also had tons of massage shops, bootleg peddlers, bars, dive shops, etc.

Now these are the reasons why the Philippines reminds me so much of my home:

1) These people love some pork!!!-Oink-oink baby!!!. Any decent person from the south knows that there are five basic food groups: 1) Sweet tea 2) Coke 3) Corn products (corn bread, fried corn, corn on the cob, corn fritters, etc) 4) BBQ and Fried Foods 5) Pork. Now, if you can appreciate at least 3 outta 5, you can consider yourself a semi-southerner. Only a person prepared to accept and welcome all into their lives can be considered "real". Now, I won't eat everything off the pig (unless my mom cooks it or if it looks good or if you don't tell me what it is ahead of time) but I appreciate PORK! So do Filipinos!!! LOVE IT!! My first Filipino breakfast was the BEST EVER!!! I had 3 different kinds of meat with eggs and rice! Chorizo (spicy pork sausage), fried fish and pork tocino. Pork tocino is basically BBQ pork (I have no idea what part of the pig, nor do I care...Its GOOD!!!)   I can easily love and embrace people who love food like I do!!!!

My new favorite dish, Pork tocino (think, sweet and sour pork!)

2) They have my favorite food: Sio Pao.. Different cultures call it different things...Manapua (Hawaii), Steamed bao buns (Hong Kong), Xiao Pao (China)...They are ALL GOOD! All it is a sweet BBQ pulled pork meat in a steamed, slightly sweet bun!!! MMM, MMM!!!! Its like an Asian Hot Pocket! Anyway, I love them so much and I got hooked in Hawaii. They have Sio Pao on every corner in the Philippines. I can't starve here

3) It cheap and I'm cheap!!! Anytime you can go somewhere an get a whole, fresh fried snapper for $5 or shrimp the size of a dinner plate for $3 you can go ahead and count me IN!!!! We walked around and saw tons of seafood restauraunts offering shrimp, crab and fish for $1 to $5!!! We even saw lobster that were about $10-15 dollars for a POUND!!! OMG! (My sister is gonna want to move here!!)

These are the fresh grilled prawns (big as some small lobster) and fish. Total cost for dinner on the beach for two? $20!!!!

4) People are laid back and friendly. There is serious hospitality here. The people smile and speak. People say hello if they make eye contact, no one rushes (in Boracay...at all!!!). Folks just seem to want to sit back and watch the world go by....

We of course had to do some diving while we were here. I will let Bruce tell you all the fun details about that. We had some good fun and saw some amazing life. One of my favorite dives, called Friday's Rock was so fun because I didn't notice how weird the fish were until we were in the middle of the dive. We had the task of identifying different fish and I was busy looking at my underwater slate to find a fish I had just seen.  All of a sudden, I realized that something kept getting in my eyes. As a habit, I waved my hands in front of me like it was a mosquito or something. It was actually a huge school of different fish literally up in my face!!! The fish had unfortunately been hand fed by other divers in the past and were really used to being around divers. They were in my hair, under my arms, everywhere!! So close that my eyes were crossed trying to see what was in front of me!!
My other scary dive was when I got bitten by a fish!!!

Ok, i didn't get bit by him, we ate this one!!!

Actually, I was swimming along, minding my own business and all of a sudden a cute little fish swam up and bit me on the finger!! It didn't hurt and I was totally amused because the fish was NEMO!! (ask your kids if you don't know who Nemo is...). Anyway, I guess I had gotten too close to his little hideout and he wanted to show me who was boss!!! I was laughing and trying to catch Bruce's attention when the little shit came at me again and nipped me a second time!!! That time, it wasn't as funny. He came at me again and I had to clunk his little ass with my dive computer to make him stop. He didn't!!! This time, Bruce saw me struggling and came over to see what was up. As I pointed at little Nemo, he attacked Bruce!!! At this point, I did what any self respecting wife would do: I left my husband behind to fight for me!!!! Luckily, neither one of us were seriously injured by the 3 inch fish! :)

Overall, we had an awesome time in the Philippines. It is a country of complete contradictions. In the face of abject poverty, you will find beauty. The culture is rich and alive and the people are warm, welcoming and friendly.  Like all places (but perhaps a bit more), I will miss the Philippines.

We'll Be Back!!!!!

Check out all of our pics from the Philippines by clicking here