Yapak / Yakap

Indigenous Flood Warning Device

2011-12-15T17:23:00.001+08:00

A bamboo noisemaker.

Which is actually a piece of bamboo on a tree. A house along the dirt road belonged to a disaster warning volunteer of the community. The bamboo was to be hit when waters begin to rise. They were also drying something else on the branch. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a piece of pork fat!

Pork fat draped over a branch.

Carabao

2011-12-12T00:31:00.001+08:00

One of the few large mammals in the Philippines-- the water buffalo.

By The Rivers of Simsimon

2011-12-08T10:07:00.001+08:00

There are several rivers dividing the sari-sari store drop-off point and Simsimon.

The first river that a Matigsalug encounters on the way home. Also, the famous raft.

The Matigsalug people, a Manobo subgroup, derive their name from the Salug River (now the Davao River), whose mouth they had originally inhabited. Matigsalug means "people of the Salug". Of course, they would inhabit the banks, as it is much more natural an efficient for human beings to inhabit an abundant "edge" habitat, by the water. Accounts point to pirates and other lowlanders eventually driving them up from the more fertile waterway edges onto the mountain ridges-- a classic story of indigenous communities. They currently reside more than a hundred kilometers from their original 'hood. Such is history.


Fishing by a placid river nook, a benefit of riverside living, which the Matigsalug don't have, actually.

A dog making his way across. We watched him and followed his path.

The Matigsalug now have to cross several running rivers to get out into "town". The rivers constantly change their shape and course. After a few months away, our friend walking with us was greeted by an already completely different river-path altogether, with the previous waterway beds now exposed as stony earth, or sometimes, mud.

A river is moving and eating the valley up. A natural progression.

A particularly aggressive and deep river has necessitated a public raft made of bamboo, to be pulled from one side to another. The community uses it to ferry themselves and their animals to "civilization" and back. A quite serene and convivial way to cross the currents.

The raft.

"Driving" the raft, i.e.

Edible kurakdot mushrooms growing on the raft.

One of the tribal elders carrying his animals.

Said animals--passengers of a passenger.

Valencia Palengke Improvisation Sightings

2011-12-03T08:20:00.001+08:00

A guyabano or soursop as a weight to hold a sign's corner down.

Rain protectant plastic bag on head.

Peanut Emporium in Palengke

2011-11-17T12:26:00.001+08:00

Varying levels of roasting, all skinless.

On the left, a price change resolved by making dark circles with the markers on the old numbers.

Peanut vending from a permanent wet market space in Valencia Bukidnon. Peanut butter, freshly milled and sweetened a la Lily's Peanut Butter (put in cheap plastic cups and covered in foil-- a cheap way around a jar, in the tradition of using glasses as jars), skinless, sugarcoated, salted, raw, any way you like it. Get a kilo and it's cheaper, get a "salmon" (a term based on the measuring receptacle they use, an empty salmon tin). and it's a bit steeper.

Improvised Saddles, An Albino Horse

2011-11-06T16:42:00.001+08:00

The flat lands before the rivers of Simsimon.

From the bustling center of Valencia, Bukidnon, we took a 3-hour motorcycle ride towards more mountains. We passed many muddy, half-made roads. Until there were no more.

We stopped in front of a small sari-sari store (where people were hanging out and talking, waiting for nothing in particular), made our way across the first river and started walking.

Poly sacks sewn roughly with plastic rope.

At that point, I wasn't thinking at all about horses. I'd seen a few along the way, but thought nothing of them. Later on in the trip (i.e. the next day), 9+ hours of walking under my belt, I was praying that my fanny pack would drop onto the ground, have a supernatural vibration of some sort, and morph into a savior horse, like a scene in some folktale.

The sack is stuffed with more plastic and old clothes.

Horses are perfect companions in the variable landscape going to Simsimon, where the rivers change course every few months or so, and the mud can consume your slippers just like that. Horses eat wild plants, and create nitrogenous fertilizer as a byproduct. When they die, they compost right into the ground. How's that for "green" transportation?

A fancier saddle, still improvised, for an albino horse. The thing around its neck is part of a plastic water hose.

A closer view of the sack saddle, this one with elaborate machine-sewn padding and a wooden groin nest.

Chicken Feeder Maker

2011-11-04T12:06:00.000+08:00

Welcome to a roadside chicken feeder fabrication and retail shop in Bukidnon.


The finished product.

A dude pounding the edges in.

Same dude, pounding the edges in.

Commercial plastic feeders that are probably prototypes for the in-house ones.

Wire-molding machine.

Unmolded wire.

Molded wire.

We Call It A Skylab, Because...

2011-10-17T09:02:00.005+08:00

Bobong, our motorcycle dude.

Like a Filipino town name, the etymological origins of the skylab (a motorcycle with a plank to accommodate a life-threatening amount of passengers) are numerous. My sister-in-law, who grew up in Mindanao, says that it is a contraction of "sakay, lab" ("ride, love"), a driver's holler to potential female passengers.

Some rubber strips to secure baggage...

Others say it is named after the Skylab satellite that fell to the earth during the 70s. And so on, and so forth.

... or squish it, as they did our vegetables.

Unfortunately, the most boring explanation is usually true. In this case, the Skylab was a brand of tuk-tuk from northern Thailand. The local incarnation has neither the roof nor the paltry safety features of the Thai version, but is fun. Take a cue: more terrain-versatile, cheap, modifiable (according to load) vehicles are in order.

The ride.

A skylab, not quite fully loaded yet.

Urban Headpack Potential Evidence

2011-10-06T15:06:00.000+08:00

Fake LV doormats and whatnot in Paranaque.


Crates of unidentifiable merchandise in Divisoria.

Don't say I didn't tip you off about headpacks. The method is indeed more physically efficient, but still socially awkward-- I carried 12 kilos of coffee on my head last month, and didn't break a sweat (but drew a lot of stares).

Coconut Merienda

2011-09-29T18:37:00.000+08:00

A sheath style that seems to be popular in Ilocos.

The sweetest coconut ever.

Entertaining is easy with coconut trees and large knives. Coconut meat for eating, coconut water for drinking.

A Barber's Pangontra

2011-09-22T09:32:00.003+08:00

This barber, who cuts hair inside a carwash, was from Samar and used to be a barber at the Hyatt. We got to talking about his rings. He wears them as pangontra or to protect him from evil spirits and kulam (curses).

One ring was crudely cast from bronze and purchased in Quiapo after he fell victim to a jealous neighbor's ill wishes (it's always about a jealous neighbor, I notice).

Apparently, bronze and gold can keep you protected. This was one of the reasons why old folks in Samar would put gold in their teeth.

Crate Bench

2011-09-09T18:35:00.001+08:00

The physics all work out for this bench made of old fruit crate pallets. I had a little rest on it.

More crate reuse, as a crib and tables.

PS- I'm trying larger photos out.

Worn Armrests

2011-08-29T16:43:00.004+08:00

New fabric on the armrests of a swivel chair, parked in Teka Market, Little India, where private space becomes public.

Bottle-Pole Improvisations

2011-08-29T10:01:00.003+08:00

A Pop Cola bottle serves as a pole to wind a rope around, for securing an out-of-service rain-cover tarp.

Bike Attachments: Bamboo

2011-08-18T11:31:00.003+08:00

Improvisations on bikes to accomodate extra baggage (people, merchandise, appliances to be sold at junk shops) are fairly common. This particular one is made of bamboo.

A Pedicab Of the Chinese Brave

2011-08-15T13:33:00.001+08:00

Mr. Sam Fenix We Fight What You Fear Chinese Brave

Romance Novel Rental

2011-08-07T22:33:00.005+08:00

Off Samar is a wonderful island called Biri.

While the rest of the Philippines has a materials glut (men on bicycles selling fake DVDs around residential areas), Biri seems to keep things to a minimum and in circulation.

Not far from the above sari-sari store / romance novel rental place was a pirated DVD rental shop. Films were rented out at 10 pesos (no due date was given). The usual modern million-dollar movies were present-- every X-Men movie, high school comedies, bachelor party comedies. I rented a Polanski film but never managed to watch it, as island electricity shuts off at midnight.

We were running late for our boat back and attempted to get our moto driver to return the film for us. Apparently, there were two shops on the island, which one was it? I described the way it had the films in their plastic cases, hanging on clothespins. The driver said "Ah", stopped his bike to ask another motorcycle driver (driving in the opposite direction), to return it for him, and tossed the DVD across the air.

The stuff of small islands.

Improvisation for Lack of Censor

2011-07-31T01:26:00.002+08:00

Domestic Airport restroom (which is very clean).

Pedicab Lighting Improvisation

2011-07-26T02:01:00.005+08:00

Masbate is actually in Bicol, across the ocean from Samar.

Pedicabs are cheap in Samar (5 pesos or so). They are labeled "Masbate Bikes" and are painted in similar patterns, resembling calesas or sorbetes carts.

But the real treat is seeing them at night. The beautiful transformation occurs when riders attach lighting to the bikes after dark. Empty tin cans act as wind guards for lampfires, which are produced by recycled bottle gaseras (usually Lipovitan bottles), filled with kerosene and a dampened wick (some of them seemed like kapok fiber). Flickering lights and (slow) moving vehicles don't usually go together, so it's fun to sit back and watch while eating your oily street food of choice.

A tin can housing the lit wick of a Lipovitan bottle gasera.

The gasera is held up by another improvised aluminum part.

A parked bike, lit up.

Bottle Bottoms And Vegetables

2011-07-19T01:09:00.004+08:00

At a market stall, PET soda bottle bottoms, in which round vegetables are nestled.

Samar Food

2011-07-17T10:15:00.000+08:00

Kinunot-style shark. It tastes like crab, apparently.

As previously mentioned, mangroves serve as a mediator between two environments (land and water). The food in Samar is similar to what I've gathered used to be pre-urbanization food where I am from (Paranaque), also a mangrove area. Shark and stingray are popular, cooked in an adobo fashion, or kinunot-- with malunggay leaves in coconut milk, the same style in which the rare mega-mouth caught by Sorsogon fishermen was cooked.

Kinunot with peppers.

Small crabs and shrimp are used to flavor vegetable dishes, in place of what would be pork or smoked fish in other parts of the country. Moisture-loving fern or pako is popular.

Fern in coconut milk with shrimp.

Market vegetables-- fern, water kangkong, and yam tops.

Mud crabs are extremely common, as are brackish water shrimp. Communities along the mangroves cultivate these and sell them, walking around with pails of stuff, or dangling live crabs around like they weren't live crabs.

Mud crab tied with a nipa leaf.

Live shrimp for sale in a bucket of brackish water.

Dried fish is extremely popular and inexpensive. One of the cheapest is the espada or cigar wrasse, caught easily in rivers. There are "budget" plastic bags of dried fish available for only 1 peso, and these contain random salted fish assortments that are too small to be sold on their own.

Espada bracelet.

Espada swimming beside a restaurant. We fed them lots of rice.

And oh, the fermentation that transpires is great. Many people preserve their excess catch by fermenting them in brine. These pungent, umami elixirs are used to flavor everything, from soups to sautees. The larger fermented creatures are the convenience food of the region-- ready to eat little fish or mussels, with calamansi juice, and a cup of rice is not an uncommon meal.

Fermented rock oysters, and fermented fish intestines.

In Defense Of Mangroves

2011-06-28T00:54:00.009+08:00

A flat-bottomed boat along a Calbayog mangrove.

(Or, sticking up for the disappearing habitat, and the culture that is born out of it. This is an attempt at a sort of mangrove "series".)

Mangroves, or trees that grow in intertidal (foreshore) areas, are a thing of beauty. They jut out of the water with amazing root structures. Because our country has one of the longest coastlines in the world, our beaches should be lined with either mangrove areas, marshes, or rocky surfaces to take yoga pictures on. Note that I did not mention white sand beaches, which are few and far in between in "nature" (more on that later).

Mangrove babies growing in a Biri Island restoration area.

But mangrove areas are not sexy. While they provide waste treatment (they are known as the "kidneys of the earth"), flood protection, and shielding from waves and wind, they are also a tricky habitat for moderns. The water is murky, and there are many living things in it. They filter water coming down from higher land, and solid waste gets stuck in their root systems.

As I mentioned in an old post about Quezon, mangrove areas are the middle ground between the ocean and land. Most marine species spend important time in them. As with any two elements meeting, there is a particular explosion of life. That is how reality works, even in matters of culture.

A mangrove snake, coming up along the bank.

Which brings us to the next thought: when historians say that human settlements formed along rivers and bodies of water, a big part of this was seeing mangrove areas and thinking "FOOD". Even today, in coastal areas, going out to fish in the middle of the ocean is, as I observe, often supplemented greatly by crab culture, brackish water fishing, and snail (and whatnot) collecting in mangrove areas or mudflats with flora. Also, because of weather considerations, people almost never camped on naked beachfronts. In fact, in the South Asian tsunami aftermath, it was found that areas with mangrove trees were not devastated.

The view along a bridge: corn on the bank, and nipa groves in the middle of the river.

Get it? People didn't prefer to settle on a powdery white strip of sand, for obvious reasons. They didn't chop down mangrove trees either to make way for a "clean" view of the ocean. Also, only the foolish would take the tuft down entirely for firewood.

Samar is second only to Palawan in terms of mangrove area remaining (65,119 hectares)-- and the place will continue to be important as mangroves are on a downward trend (we've halved their area in less than a century). Because one cannot ignore the connection between remaining mangrove cover and the "lack of development", we need to pay special attention to leveraging the fantastic productivity of the ecosystems, and preserve these last fronteirs of mudcrabs, canoe commutes, and fermented fish industries.

More mangrove porn along bridges.

This means intercepting idiotic things like the reversal of protected area legislation to build new highways (instead of designing around them), like us crazy Manilans just did with the new C5, and are continuing to do with the new Cavite Expressway. This means acknowledging that the lack of zoning by ecosystem, and the stupidity of development that doesn't respect or leverage nature ("I don't like this river, let me cover it up"), and facing the fact that lost mangrove areas are not only contributing to massive flooding in the country, but also improverishing people (by removing resources previously abundant and "free") within the span of a generation. All us lowlanders have our roots in this kind of environment, so it's worth giving it some thought.

Freedom

2011-06-23T22:01:00.000+08:00

BYOI and Pork Fat

2011-06-14T09:08:00.016+08:00

Some of our ingredients: lemongrass, eggplant, peppers, tomato, souring batuan.

When staying in one of those "underground" huts, be prepared to bring your own ingredients. It's better to come with a little bit of them when you arrive. As with a certain hotel in a certain Eagles song, you may have an easy time settling in, but a terrible time trying to find transportation into "town".

Rob's pork fat omelette.

Sometimes, remote homes in the Visayas will have pork fat on stock for frying and flavoring dishes. Among the thatched houses you will see smaller abodes devoted to sheltering pigs. Helping your neighbor slaughter will get you some portions and a bit of fat. Sorry if you're vegetarian, but that's how it goes. If you have problems, take one of those little wine bottles you go through in the airplane, and fill it with your oil of choice.

Sand and stones.

The Samar beachside cooking area is usually composed of a raised bed of sand, held in by coconut board. On this sand you will place several stones to hold your pot up, under which will be pieces of wood or charcoal (made of either coconut shells or mangrove trees). Think positive thoughts and enjoy the al fresco cooking. Every meal you have here will be awesome.

Hut Living, or, Finding A Random Place to Live Where There Is No Tourism Industry

2011-06-14T08:49:00.009+08:00

Fishermen setting out early.

Our trike driver (who, in the next few days, would give us a tour around his 'hood, pointing out his mom's house and other significant places) took us to a beach called Baot. We tried several others before coming here, but none the huts were available for rent anymore (one had animals living in it). This was about 20 to 30 minutes from the airport. It would take an hour's walk to the main road.

We had instructed him to take us to a hut. We were harboring dreams of working from a hut for a week while listening to the waves.

A swing made from driftwood.

Baot has a beautiful view of a mangrove flat. One family inhabited this shoreline, and it was a draw for very local beachgoers (this means teenagers cutting class, or people from nearby barangays renting huts to eat and drink in for the day).

Our deluxe hut.

There was an overnight hut, available for 200 pesos a night. It had a receiving room and a "master's" bedroom. Oddly, the whole floor area, save for the restroom, was covered in old carpeting. And the bedroom walls, presumably to dissuade little children from peeping into the holes that occur in natural building material, were covered by flapping curtains with poinsettia print.

To be in a room of synthetic poinsettia fabric is an experience in itself.

Now, if you are looking for basic huts along uninhabited beaches, always remember that locals have dibs on defining entertainment for that area. And that means videoke-- lots of it.

Calbayog Airport Carinderia

2011-06-06T21:18:00.013+08:00

The carinderia table usual suspects: utensils, tissue, salt, pepper, fish sauce.

Where to gather information about a place before venturing out? We always check out local carinderias, coffee shops, or the type of restaurant that has "regulars" (or, in other settings, tables with assortments of events flyers or local papers) before venturing out into a completely strange place. This is because, when you buy a meal (or even a rice cake) from someone, you are automatically granted the right to ask questions without being a pest.

The very helpful lady we pestered at our first stop.

In addition, by asking peripheral questions, you get a better idea of the context that now surrounds you.

By the extreme curiosity drawn forth by our mere arrival in Calbayog, it was apparent that tourists were not arriving in droves. The rental of this relatively large carinderia space was 1,500 pesos a month (approximately 35 US dollars). Save for us, there were 3 other people eating, all airport personnel. This was not going to be your bustling semi-city.

A handwritten ad for an "open university".

Chicken tinola made with backyard fowl.

Rob ate his chicken tinola-- made with the "native" chickens that are less meaty but make for a tastier broth-- as the waitresses chattered away, giving us suggestion upon suggestion. It was a relaxing atmosphere, sunlight coming through the windows, which were decorated with amazing strung folded pieces of plastic straws and cigarette wrappers, something the women did to keep themselves occupied when there was nothing else to be done.

Handmade decor, repurposed plastic packaging.

Cigarette wrappers and straws, closer.

Repurposed C2 bottles, serving as hanging planters.

I was distracted by the ornamentation of the place. I love carinderia decor because it is honest. I don't mean to sound trite, but the conceptions of beauty are very simple.

The owner of the carinderia is named Ortiz, we gathered.

Eventually, the waitresses told us to go to a certain beach where we could find cheap huts for rent. One of the waitresses took us aside and whispered the standard tricycle price, to prevent us from getting ripped off. As we contracted the services of one tricycle driver (which one diner had hollered for across a hundred feet), all waitresses stood observing, like guardians of the proper fare range. There is no standard fare in Calbayog for anything, by the way. There is only you, the driver, and the moment you are sharing. Speak quickly, and fairly.

Touchdown, Calbayog

2011-06-05T21:38:00.011+08:00

Touchdown from a 530AM flight. Groan.

We booked a cheap air ticket to last year to the least-familiar sounding place we came across. It was Calbayog, Samar.

Approaching the rundown little airport.

There is not much information on Calbayog, and things never turn out how they are written anyway. So we did not have anything in mind when we arrived at the small airport.

Small adjacent tower.

They do this thing where they corral everyone inside a small area upon walking in. They close a large wooden "gate", and you are essentially trapped. There is a glass door to your left that is padlocked with a chain, and outside, a closed gate which separates you from a horde of waiting tricycle drivers.

They empty the cargo area onto a trolley, and lay them down in the middle of an empty area. Once all bags are lain on the floor, they open the "gate" and everyone scrambles in to collect their luggage.

An army dude collects his bag.

Be prepared to have the usual persistent tricycle drivers try to badger you into riding their charming little carriages. You don't blame them either-- there are really very few people coming in, with most airlines only touching down two or three times a week, and the airplanes are small.

A "special" trip out to Calbayog City (or other areas that are close to the airport, which is actually in Sabang) will cost you around 90 to 150 pesos, depending on how good you are at haggling.

As we didn't know anything about the place, as usual, we first hit the carinderia.

Nut Vending Receptacles

2011-05-29T14:09:00.005+08:00

Boiled peanuts being measured out.

Vendors are essential to a metropolis crawling with traffic. Nut vendors, in particular, provide non-candy sustenance to people like myself. The buckets of fried peanuts and cashew nuts, the steaming vats of boiled peanuts being rolled along.

Peanuts and cashew nuts, in a bucket with a partition.

A "door" for the cashew nuts, which do not share the same hole as the peanuts.

City Chickens

2011-05-22T09:34:00.005+08:00

Fancy buildings.

Coming from Metro Manila into Singapore for me is kind of like being wheeled into an emergency room. It's a clean place, and you might have many existential thoughts.

A housing building.

There are neighborhoods though-- pockets of immigrants. Where you can see chickens on the street. That's where you go to soothe your aching need for chaos.

Chickens eating scraps outside a Geylang kopi tiam.

A typical menu in the back.

Cans / Ashtrays

2011-05-18T00:27:00.004+08:00

Milk can ashtray.

Singapore mornings were spent people-watching and grabbing some indigenized coffee in any nearby kopi tiam. Business is brisk in most of them, and yesterday's cans are reserved for use as disposable ashtrays. A steady clientele means they never have to wash and dry another ashtray for as long as people order coffee with condensed milk... or dishes with ma ling (Chinese spam, which my nanny used to tell me was made of old Chinese people).

Ma-ling cans waiting to become ashtrays.

Drawer Handle Improvisations

2011-05-14T16:57:00.001+08:00

Plastic rope and wire replacing handles at the durian joint.

Carboy Resurrected

2011-05-06T15:30:00.002+08:00

...as a carrier attached to a bike.

Neon

2011-04-29T09:32:00.002+08:00

A "girly bar" by the Manila Port.

Makeshift Muscles, Part IV

2011-04-18T14:10:00.004+08:00

More improvised weight sightings, this time around Northern Luzon.

Milk cans filled with cement, rusty boys. On an Abra farm.

Beside the sidewalk in Laoag, Ilocos Norte. A bamboo bar.

Molded cement with bolts that make the weights removable.

Makeshift muscles, Part I, II, and III.

A Somber Night At The Carinderia

2011-04-11T12:37:00.007+08:00

The night before the execution of three Filipino drug mules in China, we were eating lemongrass-infused mongo soup and watching the news in our favorite Davao carinderia. All three were from Davao, so there was special interest among the proprietress and her regulars.

And we walked home quietly, pondering the notion of execution.

Upside Down Bird

2011-04-10T11:45:00.002+08:00

Jeepney mudguards in the form of Tweety Bird, upside down.

The wide part of the skull where the mud splash would be more copious.

The Lost Vegetable Siding

2011-04-08T23:24:00.006+08:00

Diced cucumber beside deep-fried eggs.

One thing that amazed us about Thailand was the constant small "salads" that accompanied oily, cheap, fried street meat. In the Philippines, we still experience this sporadically: the achara relish or vinegared radish alongside grilled chicken, the raw mustasa leaves with deep-fried fish, and so on. We've seen it more in the province and in mid-sized Filipino chains than on the street, where costs are kept low.

Seaweed, cucumber, egg.

In Davao, where the wet markets are vibrant, huge, and relatively cheap (with a bulk of Manila's vegetables coming from Mindanao), there are vegetable sidings served with those balls of deep-fried eggs in orange batter. Cucumber, either alone or with guso, an edible seaweed, can be placed on your paper plate, and the available vinegar may be poured over to make a flavor we are all familliar with.

Idle Matmaking

2011-04-06T11:53:00.007+08:00

A cigarette and snack food vendor outside a clothes shop in Davao's Chinatown creates a handmade mat out of scrap cloth.

The eye-catching mat was (unfortunately) not for sale, and for personal use only.

The lady used old clothes from her home, varying the colors as unique scraps ran out. The result is random but beautiful.

The technique, she said, is similar to crochet. Care must be taken to cut the strips uniformly.

The whole process seemed therapeutic and a worthy use of time.

Bangera Inn

2011-03-28T12:41:00.011+08:00

Bangera's facade.

Finding a place to stay in Puerto Galera is not easy for a first-timer (technically, a second-timer, on her first time to choose accommodations). Most spots are downright cheesy-- that Twilight Zone spot between purely rustic, "native" accommodations, and some more modern and "forward" places.

Such "horror hotels" serve chop suey, look like Goldilocks icing, affords TVs but not toilet bowls seats, and poor ventilation. That's what happens when Filipinos do a scuttle towards what they perceive to be "classy" accommodations, sacrificing the simple essentials. Many a breakfast have I spent staring at my "continental breakfast"-- often a relatively sweet mayo sandwich on white bread, with 3-in-1 coffee on the side. Hey! Give me fruit, give me local pot-simmered coffee, give me calamansi juice, give my boyfriend (the meat eater) smoked fish or something. Costs the same (or less), tastes better.

I don't know what they serve at Bangera Inn, but this unassuming, surprising spot away from the White Beach chaos is the perfect place to have some peace while enjoying the inner island walks that Puerto Galera offers.

The staircase, with low steps and ample natural night.

There are colonial elements all over the inn, with a lot of old wood, wrought iron, and sampaguita glass. Machuca tiles, cement fashioned to look like old plaster-- all the cozy elements that make you remember your lola and hot cacao.

The lobby, with simple wooden furniture.

The rooms are spacious, clean, and inexpensive-- I believe we spent 1500 pesos a night between 6 people (including an extra double mattress and breakfast). There are some cheesy elements, such as the bedsheets (your standard China cotton prints), but the proportions of the room were just right. Bad stuff is negligible.

Spacious rooms with cheesy bedsheets.

The bedroom floors are Vigan clay tiles, a nice touch.

The bathrooms, though using SM-type faux-clay tiles and similarly-styled bath curtains, are very clean, with hot water. The toilets are of good quality and new (that is worth mentioning, as we skipped several places due to deplorable toilet situations). I can rock bad bathrooms, but not when they're overpriced.

Clean bathrooms are an instant win on islands.

A big plus to Bangera is its roof deck, a charming windy area from which you can view the whole island. It's nice to climb up at dawn and see the people beginning to stir and move around. (There is also an empty lot across which could easily house a small edible garden). The staff is also fantastic. They will look after you even if you are the type to stumble in after a blur of a night:

Bangera Inn
White Beach (Behind Dreamwaves Resort)
Puerto Galera, Mindoro
Mobile (+63926) 706 4051
Manila Number (+632) 822 1192
bangerainn@yahoo.com

Religion in the Octagon House

2011-03-20T15:50:00.005+08:00

Top-view of belen... on a plate.

The Octagon House is a beautiful old octagon-shaped house in Paoay, Ilocos Norte. It is lived-in. If there is anything I like more than plain old houses, it is old houses that are lived-in. Their stories continue, and they continue to have good, livable ventilation.

The octagon house from the outside.

The house was built by a local, Constancio Duque, in 1939. He was inspired by his stay in the Chicago, where houses were going beyond the boxy styles and into a so-called "bubble" style. Before being known as the Octagon House, it was called the idiay nagbukel or "round house".

Inside there is the typical assortment of Filipino Catholic paraphernalia.

Belen, frontal view.

Altar and Constancio's wedding photo.

Very large and unsettling figures.

Handpainted reproduction of that famous mother and child poster, by the owner of the home.

Plant Shop Hut

2011-03-04T01:45:00.003+08:00

Glamour shot, "Cookie".

Roadside plant shops are a great way to populate otherwise unsafe, drab empty areas. I hung out briefly in a plant shop's hut (of the pre-assembled, ready-to-use variety). Plant vendors are generally friendly people, and I am interested in how they pass the time waiting for sporadic customers, most of them passing by while driving home from elsewhere. Inside:

Photo of lover, pair of scissors, plastic bag, under anahaw leaves.

Walis tingting, woodfire pots, empty plate.

Headpack

2011-03-02T22:08:00.001+08:00

A sack of rice on the head.

I often think about a parallel universe where, by some twist of fate, carrying stuff on the head gained more popularity than carrying stuff off the shoulders. Carrying stuff on your head does, after all, allow you to bring around 20% of your body weight around without increasing energy consumption.

A woman carrying some stones in a basket on her head.

How would our modern bags look? Would we be reaching above our heads for our wallets, not doing the whole cumbersome backpack maneuver? Would the cliche silhouette of the mountainclimber resemble like The Head?

Rootcrops up the mountain, on her head.

A bunch of grasses, on a banana leaf to prevent itchiness, on her head.

Upland pottery with a woman with, well, stuff on her head.

An empty "head basket", containing a pine needle cushion for the top of the head.

Junk Food, Spotted

2011-02-28T21:36:00.002+08:00

Bangus(milkfish)-flavored fried flour.

Never-heard-of "junk food" of the extremely affordable variety (1 to 5 pesos) litter the country's streets (and forests).

Strawberry-flavored fried flour.

A Boat With An Eye

2011-02-26T21:56:00.003+08:00

No taking chances on luck: two rosaries and an eye.

An eye is painted on the plastic enclosing the helmsman of a Puerto Galera ferry. Eyes on boats are a common symbol for guidance and protection-- originating, perhaps, from a nautical application of the Mediterranean evil eye. It was traditionally painted on maritime vessels (usually the prow) to "bend" a negative gaze back to the sender. These days, the eye can be seen on boats in many countries, from Vietnam to Mexico to Malta.

Hopefully reassuring instead of distracting.

Puerto Galera Folk Typography

2011-02-23T20:52:00.005+08:00

Hot sunny days at Puerto Galera.

Special mention: Nito-weave style "no parking" sign.

Davao Fruit Vending Norms

2011-02-15T15:10:00.000+08:00

Davao fruit vendors are selling, these days, predominantly unripe mango and papaya. Most are sold from bicycles or motorbikes. They are displayed atop carts in various ways.

Some have strips of glass installed and arrange the bags of fruit in between:

Some nestle their goods in egg carton depressions:

Still others have rows of barbeque sticks coming out through styrofoam or cardboard boxes, and rest their fruit in between:

The sauces and condiments they use are similar to Manila, with some variations.

A choice between plain fine salt (left), or (right) rock salt pre-mixed with bagoong (fish sauce):

And the most bizarre abomination yet, bagoong pre-mixed with banana ketchup:

Egg Carton Insulation

2011-02-05T21:20:00.002+08:00

Egg cartons as carinderia hot pads. Why not?

Makeshift Muscles, Part III

2011-02-03T19:09:00.007+08:00

Improvised weights are all over the country. Oil and vinegar containers are cut and filled with concrete. Similar sightings here and here.

Poured concrete weights by a kitchen in Davao City, dumbbell version.

Keep Distance, Don't Keep Distance.

2011-01-25T08:55:00.000+08:00

An obscene mudguard.

Davao Folk Typography

2011-01-24T13:15:00.001+08:00

Helmet Parking

2011-01-23T22:53:00.003+08:00

Cars In High Places

2011-01-14T18:59:00.003+08:00

A car above a pile of junk in a junk shop.

Puto With "Yema"

2011-01-11T23:06:00.001+08:00

Mmmm.

I was never a fan of puto Biñan, those spongy, sweet pieces of bready rice cake (or cakey rice bread) cooked in a bilao and cut into diamonds, topped with some sort of cheese food. They were always a little bit sour due to natural fermentation for leavening, and were a common Sunday sight at the church courtyards.

Ambulant vendor of puto and cuchinta.

Friendly and yapping about the "puto epicenters": Pulang Lupa (Las Pinas) and Indang (Cavite).

But, on that fateful morning, I initially bought something as an excuse to chat the manlalako (ambulant vendor) up about his old-style horn (100 pesos, neighborhood bike shop). Then the guy opens one of his compartments, and I spot a can containing a thick, creamy spread.

Cuchinta and slather-material.

What was it? Yema, he said. Spreadable yema.

I'd always encountered yema in the form of little confections. Our yaya would make the little balls of boiled down condensed milk and eggs, and would sell to the neighborhood kids during the early 90s. I remember the fragrant boiling pots. No one could refuse them-- not even her own son, who often asked her for one peso and then used that to buy a piece. (My brother and I found it hilarious. It was funnier than it sounds).

But, according to the vendor, the spreadable yema doesn't even have eggs in them. In the global scheme of yema-- the word originates from Spain and means "yolk"-- there is at least one spreadable version (a Jewish one called jemma, from the same yema "family tree"). The customary Philippine one, those sugary little balls, are unique for containing condensed milk. To do away with the eggs altogether makes it a completely different thing. It's just boiled down condensed milk, in the can itself. Dulce de leche, in essence!

Another yema vendor, somewhere in the north. The can in which dulce de leche is made.

Whatever it was, slathered onto every puto slice, which was then sprinkled with grated coconut (or plain, as seen below, in my second encounter with the snack). It is great stuff.

Halfway through slathering.

I do like to note that Puto Biñan tastes different these days. Gone is the sourness that you find in other fermented rice cakes (e.g. Indian idli). These days, it is leavened with baking powder, and does not have that sour taste that made me think, as a child, that it was always a bit past its prime. Mixed feelings about that. But, nothing could mar the experience. Dulce de leche, on puto. Puto Biñan , saved.

Siesta

2011-01-09T01:24:00.001+08:00

A furniture-maker snoozes after lunch.

Moisture is the Essence of Wetness

2011-01-07T00:10:00.002+08:00

Anyone else ever wonder about the target audience of these Cesar Montano bottled water ads?

Spotted on a truck. Never makes me thirsty, always makes me laugh.

Old Tagaytay

2011-01-04T09:16:00.009+08:00

Colorful Donut variation of ugly Philippine streetlamps.

Tagaytay ("Probably The Most Pleasant City in Asia!") has a Starbucks now, a large Robinson's grocery, more commercial restaurants than you can shake a stick at, and a (dreaded) upcoming SM highrise. In the past ten years, traffic has developed along the main road, and the famous garish streetlamps have poked their way in.

70s tablecloth and furry seats.

And then we take a turn into an old house belonging to Rob's grandparents. It was once bustling, housing guests frequently. Now, amid the development directly around it, the house is usually empty.

Bold 70s fabric.

Margie, the caretaker's daughter, an ornate, almost Aztec-like chair.

The house bears a quiet and motley mix of old religious antiques, 70s fabrics, trinkets, and amendments by the current permanent residents-- the caretakers. It has the best view along the ridge.

Dresser by the veranda old wooden chair.

... that bears a made-in-China Dragon Cat chair cushion.

Star pillow.

Butterfly wing artwork.

Volcano's mouth, with fish pens.

Hot Salty Sour Mango

2011-01-03T19:16:00.002+08:00

Artful and functional mango slicing: a goal for 2011.

My brother insists that spicy salt has been around Manila streets for awhile, but it's the first time I've seen it. (We usually enjoy our unripe mango with salt and bagoong or shrimp paste-- sour, savory, and salty.)

Siling labuyo, little evil doll chilis.

Cafeño in San Juan in Batangas

2010-12-31T13:50:00.004+08:00

Old-house ogling in San Juan.

Aside from promising street after street of old-house-porn, coming to Batangas gives you all you want-- beaches and coffee. When driving to La Luz to splay yourself out on the sand, you first pass by San Juan, one of the many small, urbanizing towns south of Manila.

Warm fuzzy capiz windows and pointy roofs.

A lot of mid-sized Batangas towns were once fairly small economic activity. They retain a functioning, somewhat organic, layout. Plazas, small streets, old houses, churches that don't look like suppositories, and so on. In eastern(most) Batangas is San Juan,0 originally called Bolbok, from nabulbok or "bubbling" (referring to a "live" stream in the area). Eventually, bothersome flooding from the rivers Bancoro and Bangbang resulted in the transfer of the whole town to its current location.

Not far is the countryside.

Explanation of why the whole town was moved in 1869.

Of course, you will spot an old house that tells you to stop by. It bears the name "Cafeño" in a few different fonts, colors, and forms.

Hey, stop! Cool up in Cafeño!

My favorite being the bold yellow wall with simple illustrations.

A semblance of symmetry on the table.

Plus what?

Inside, you will find a cozy room with small objects collected through the years. The Western strain of cafe, together with a low-key but intuitive assembly of things and offerings illustrates the long-running sliver of cosmopolitan influence among small-town elites.

Old moka pots. Am unsure if they are in use.

Old bottles screenprinted with congressional campaign messages.

You can sit and read magazines while waiting for food that makes you nostalgic for rainy days with lola. Suman (steamed rice cake) with warm panotsa (coconut and raw sugar sauce), cacao with either churros or pinipig (pounded crispy rice).

Cacao with churros. One is a bit burnt, but still tasty.

Suman sa lihiya with panutsa sauce and latik (coconut oil dregs) on top.

Cacao with a siding of pinipig.

An oddity is the collection of several clocks bearing the times of different cities around the world-- a continental touch that seems a folly. The odd selection of cities-- Seattle, Seoul, Toronto, and Paris-- is printed on white paper, cut, pasted on colored paper, and wrapped in plastic, a la school bulletin board.

Time now is as follows.

Cafeño
No.9 Cor General Luna and Rizal St.
San Juan, Batangas

Bored

2010-12-31T06:36:00.000+08:00

Wood Organizing

2010-12-21T01:52:00.001+08:00

Wood arranged like banana turon, Sagada.

Yuletide Stamped Envelope Barrage

2010-12-17T18:48:00.004+08:00

Bimboy checks in.

One of the modern aspects of Christmastime in the Philippines, not often spoken about due to its unspectacular and mildly unpleasant nature, is the barrage of service providers that ask you for "holiday tips".

Max, the Sun Cellular guy has strange word placement.

Messengers routinely leave small, white envelopes with their greetings, names, and company name stamped on. They are to be stuffed with a bill or two and returned during the next bill/statement delivery or during a special "collection trip".

PSBank guy scrawls his details.

Some have their names carved onto a stamp and glued onto the wooden handle together with the greeting. Others simply scrawl their name down on a corner of the envelope, or have a smaller, detached stamp of their name made (to allow for greeting-stamp sharing).

Buendia stampmaker.

Preparations for the season are done a few months ahead by stamp-makers, who create a few standard greeting stamps. The mind-numbing task of scrawling on hundreds of envelopes is made easier by the street artisans of mechanical reproduction. It is engaging to wonder how their presence had broadened the practice, enabling higher efficiency and stamp-sharing. Enjoy the following photos, spot a misspelling and a repeat design from last year.

Appliance Bike

2010-11-30T12:41:00.003+08:00

A bicycle sidecar, parked on the way to Mt. Isarog, features reuse of appliance refuse:

Electric fan frame and those curvy things behind refrigerators.

Turon

2010-11-22T11:31:00.002+08:00

Banan deep fried in sugared spring roll wrap, the small side by side with the large, in fireworks-like setup.

The Persistence of Community

2010-11-14T10:07:00.008+08:00

Filipina helpers take a day off.

We've had this discussion before. The mass gathering of Filipina domestic helpers in Hong Kong every Sunday is a constant source of shame, amazement, and interest-- an array of reactions from diversely inclined Manileños.

Marisa González, a Spanish artist and documentarist, has created Ellas Filipinas (The Filipinas), recently exhibited at This Is Not A Gateway in London. The video chronicles the weekly horde of Filipina workers at the open spaces of Hong Kong (particularly the HSBC bank), and how on every Sunday, the said place is transformed into a "small town" (according to Alexander Trevi), "somewhat autonomous from the city and with its own parallel economy of exchange and transactions". See the trailer below:

Local reactions to the weekly phenomena depend on personal definitions of public space, largely arising from social background. Wealthier Filipinos puke a little bit in their mouths when they see public pedicures (which are actually quite common), out of place in their ideas of hygiene and gated-subdivision-style privacy. They are mortified by the conondrum of domestic helpers in Hong Kong-- they cannot afford their own property, and they are not ashamed to create their own, even just for a day. Both the visual impact and the scope of public activity is protested by the more "couth" populace.

Streetside lice-picking.

But those who live in urban and peri-urban settings are familiar with a fluid deliniation between what is public and private, with the bounds similar to those in a very rural bahay kubo setup. The home is used for sleeping, while cooking, handwork, and even showering takes place in public or semi-public locations (e.g. "dirty" kitchen and the outhouse). In the cities, cooking and bathing have been relocated inside the home, but even to this there are exceptions-- large-scale cooking is done outside due to space constraints, and I have seen not a few showers along the street (some washing their clothes and then deciding to wash themselves as well). Activities like haircuts, lice-picking, tattooing, are best done where light and space are abundant, and this means, outside your door.

Mani-pedi in a public market (reposted).

In a country where you can, for the most part, begin to sell various dry goods outside your house or on a busy street corner if you wish, there is also less hesitation to define a space as you see fit. In one "dead" corner near my home (which is not in a subdivision), there is a constant bingo operation going on where the women gamble, squatting on the floor with their cards splayed out in front of them. In other moments, it becomes a small basketball court, with the ring and board tacked onto an electrical post. On some nights, it becomes a garahe for a school bus. Once in awhile, trumping all other uses in urgency, the patch of concrete houses garish lights, a red carpet, and a coffin, for a wake that requires no rental fee (practically, the coffins would fit into none of the homes around). All without hesitation.

Outdoor living room, under an aratiles tree.

And so, there much opportunity to create a space that defines "non-work", for employees that need to. Domestic helpers back here in the Philippines also often take Sundays off. Being mostly migrants, they have no home to come home to in metropolis, but must leave their employers' home to define the day as, well, a day off. Within the household, the work hours are arbitrary, and the maid's quarters are not defined as a "home" per se-- for usually, so long as the maid is in, she is on call. Staying in on a Sunday, unless you are sick, means volunteering your services for one extra day, or witnessing the ire of your boss as they do the dishes while you read a romance novel.

One helper recounts to me her growing closeness to a cousin, whose home had become the Sunday hangout for distant relatives making a living in Metro Manila. It was there that they received news from their small town in Bicol, traded stories on their employers, and gave money to one person who placed their lotto bets while they were at work all week. You can imagine, in a country with no distant relations with property, how Filipinas cope.

Constantly surrounded by people who are unlike them, who don't even take the effort to know their family names or interests, who don't share the same language and symbols, they need one day of ease, or at least a replacement for their local concept of home and/or common space. On Sundays, their identity resumes.

Law Enforcement

2010-11-03T21:58:00.003+08:00

In a Bicolano fastfood joint: policeman has faux tattoo pull-ons, is cradling rifle.

God Destroys Liar

2010-11-02T11:13:00.000+08:00

Via plague? Via early death? Via rays of red lasers?

Bamboo Umbrella Stand

2010-10-29T09:53:00.000+08:00

Cleaning Up

2010-10-28T17:58:00.005+08:00

Laborers pulling grass provide a welcome distraction to those waiting for the off-peak hourly train.

Rail upkeep is currently limited to basic cleaning and pulling grass from the rail.

Pause.

Worker's bags.

Legitimized

2010-10-24T19:24:00.008+08:00

"DOTC-PNR. Do not delay."

When the PNR stations were revamped, practically all "skates"-- illegal improvised vehicles built to travel on "idle" tracks-- were removed. I saw one spared, though. The PNR drinking water is delivered via official skate, by two men and a tag-along child.

Stop and pull to position.

Lift a la palanquin.

"Parking"

Engine removal.

Kid playing with the "horn"-- which is actually powered by a bike pump.

Extras:

To learn more about skates, read this blog made by students as a quite cute project.
A couple of skate shots in this collection of rail photos.
An article about skate eradication, with a small review ("I thought it was quite a pleasant ride until there was a train heading toward us.").

Rail Tie Benches

2010-10-20T01:49:00.003+08:00

Old railroad ties, replaced by concrete ones, are the only place to sit at PNR stations.

Sta. Mesa Trainstop Greenery

2010-10-19T11:25:00.005+08:00

Lemongrass, coconut, banana, eggplant, sili, and the train station behind.

Sta. Mesa is an interesting place. Dense, much alive, and easily accessible by the spanking-new (well, relatively) PNR train. And when you get off the train station, you see an abundance of greens planted on land that used to be informal housing.

Eggplants fruiting.

The more systematic garden located directly by the station is maintained by the local barangay officials from Barangay 629 (Zone 63) during their spare time. As I missed my train, we walked up to a small bamboo room, which doubled as their local government office. There were people playing cards, and some sitting around in their sandos, one without a shirt. There's no hurrying, and you can sit down without introducing yourself, and fit instantly in their rhythm. They are good people.

The edge of the pond, shaded by an aratiles tree and bordered by tsitsirika (periwinkle).

The garden was started by barangay kagawads and tanods when the informal settlers were removed to make way for the new train system. Usually the willing come by to water the plants and do other tasks. Nothing gets stolen, but residents do come by to ask for vegetables, or many of the medicinal herbs growing. Recently, a tilapia pond had been installed. They occassionally catch some and eat them, but they had admittedly put too many fry in, resulting in small fish. No complaints, though, just learning.

Tilapia pond with religious figures.

View from the station: lots of kamote (sweet potato), kamoteng kahoy (manioc), and lemongrass.

Best Quality Cotton Sportswear

2010-10-19T00:04:00.013+08:00

Bar code! It's not that old.

Wooden rods as hangers.

Washing Greens

2010-10-08T20:12:00.003+08:00

Washing greens in a bucket and bunching them, in preparation for a market day.

Hungry Ghost Month

2010-10-07T17:14:00.002+08:00

Coca cola! And oranges, apples, and that orange bread thing with incense sticking out.

I was in Singapore during Hungry Ghost Month. From August into Septmeber, I saw weird breadstuffs and smelled resinous incense everywhere.

Praying in front of an elaborate feast, which includes Yakult.

A mind-blowing array of food.

Baby bottles for dead babies.

That means (I later learn) that I will routinely come across banquets laid out for invisible dead people, have whiffs of various burning matter, and, if lucky, observe raucous koh-tai presentations in tented fields among Singapore's immaculately clean, vertically dense suburbs. All these are meant to appease, pay respect to, and help the spirits out. They are, by the way, believed to be roaming the earth at this period, having stepped out of the Gates of Hell (purportedly open during Hungry Ghost Month).

A burning frenzy.

Quite a sight are the large drums placed in public places which people continually burn things in. They are always putting joss paper in, to represent money. Transforming joss paper from solid into gaseous form represents an attempt to bring the comfort of money into the spirit life. This can be a little confusing for foreigners such as my cousin, who, when she arrived in Singapore, thought that the out-of-service drums were garbage cans, and began throwing her rubbish in.

Joss paper, or false paper money, for burning. This brings good luck to spirits.

Fanning money out, in preparation for burning.

Drums for burning things, not in use at the time.

A hanging incense holder along a building hallway.

Incense in a bread thing and coffee.

More coffee and incense. Plus pineapple and banana.

Public Checkers and Grandpas

2010-10-07T00:30:00.003+08:00

A game of checkers, on the floor of a public area. Kind of weird.

What do retired senior citizens do while everyone is at away at work? Why, play checkers, of course, for hours on end. Funny, I didn't see a single young(ish) person playing chess or checkers in public.

Watchers, who watch whole games, and those that walk by and go "good move!".

Hidden Ashtrays

2010-10-06T11:12:00.000+08:00

Ashtrays that swivel in and out of a seat, stuffed.

Singapore Clothes-Drying Norms

2010-09-29T23:16:00.006+08:00

Towels on bamboo.

Ordinances banning public clotheslines are dumb. They are responsible for many a misshapen, stretched Hanes Beefy Tee. Air-drying your clothes saves energy, prolongs garment life, and can be quite a pleasant chore.

Uniform bamboo poles shrink-wrapped.

In Singapore, clothes are hung off bamboo poles. These poles may appear to be plastic pipes to the untrained eye, but closer inspection reveals that they are actually pieces of bamboo wrapped in a crispy, thin film of plastic.

Some securing.

In common housing buildings, they are placed either in hallways outside doors (balanced on iron rods with U-shaped placeholders welded on) or outside windows.

Hallway clothesline.

Some people have died of head injury due to falling bamboo pole.

Pimp My Delivery Truck

2010-09-21T13:00:00.004+08:00

Animal print, fake flowers, real flowers, Hindu deities, Chinese good luck charm, littering awareness sticker. In Little India.

Pimp My Kariton

2010-09-20T23:00:00.006+08:00

Garbage collecting kariton in Singapore, looking so neat and refreshing.

In my short car-driving stint, I actively explored ways to incorporate indoor plants into automobile interiors. I had failed on all counts, with results ranging from a small pot spilling its contents onto the seats, to rooting stems in bottles nestled in my cupholders, looking magnificent in the morning and then perishing in the sauna-like environment created by Manila heat.

Some kind of fortune-bringing plant.

I admit that if my means for carrying my stuff around had been a kariton, it never would have crossed my mind to incorporate a sunken potted plant into the wooden bed. Well, perhaps now that I've seen one, things will be different.

Cut-outs in Signage Part 2

2010-09-20T10:23:00.008+08:00

Cut-outs in signage, common in Singapore for services offered.

Public Haircut

2010-09-16T22:46:00.004+08:00

By-sitter at the open-air barbershop.

One of the first things I learned in Singapore, is that locals generally despise having their pictures taken by strangers. This was a break from back home, where people jostle their way into the photos.

Grumpy man getting a public haircut, Chinatown.

But they do also, in less "busy" alleys, engage in public hair cutting.

Chestnuts

2010-09-16T09:34:00.003+08:00

Feathers as tails.

A man selling chestnuts in Singapore's Chinatown decides to adorn a false "cage" of hoary chestnuts with wooden birds.

Pre-processing chestnut education.

Gets em.

Singapore

2010-08-28T11:47:00.002+08:00

I am in Singapore for a couple of weeks.

Public Shower, Mindoro

2010-08-23T09:08:00.002+08:00

The zone in which kids shower publicly.

A Tiny Bit on The History of Intoxicating Sugarwater in the Philippines

2010-08-10T21:42:00.003+08:00

Arak ti basi (distilled basi ferment) and basi.

It's an acquired taste. Though commonly called "sugarcane wine", I perceive basi to be more beer-like in flavor (and usage), pleasantly fizzy while "young", and especially good when very cold. The drink is typically made from cane juice fermented with samak (Macaranga tanarius) fruit, leaves, and bark. The predominant flavor of samak leaves, a dull astringent taste, is what defines the drink for me.

The basi in traditional earthen jars, aging.

Depending on the producer, a blend of other ingredients such as duhat (Syzgium cumini) bark and ground rice are added, among other things. Various other "secret" ingredients include cacao, ginger, and peppers.

Collected and dried samak leaves.

Outside of Ilocos (and Pangasinan), however, a starter culture (bubud, made from rice flour) in place of samak berries is utilized to aid in fermentation, and I cannot say I have tried that variety. It is still called basi, but I'm not sure how it compares in terms of taste, and it confuses me, considering it would mean that there is no clear way to define basi separately from the other sugarcane wine varieties in the country, other than the name and region, perhaps. The bacterial and enzyme population of the two starter varieties differs significantly. For more technical information, you can pick up a copy of Philippine Fermented Foods: Principles and Technology by Priscilla C. Sanchez.

Spent samak leaves, which will be put in distillation equipment to produce arak ti basi.

Basi comes from sugarcane juice. Making it may have been one of the first widespread applications of the plant in the country. Before sugar became the source of so many dramatic fortunes, sorrows, and toothaches in the Philippines, the grass was a sporadic subsistence or limited-cultivation crop around the islands. There was "wild" sugarcane that grew uncultivated, consistent with assertions that sugar originated from Southeast Asia, or at least, the South Pacific (still debatable).

The green "native" variety, which spreads rapidly by creeping.

Before processing came about, the "natives" were already said to enjoy chewing the fibrous, sweet cane, using it to pass their hunger, or even as pacifiers for babies. We still do today, across the region. I remember being young and stopping at the Batangas sugar fields to eat some peeled tubo, and have bought several bags of plain chopped sugarcane in Cambodia and Thailand. The concept of utilization is simple-- find a sweet part of a plant, chew it for pleasure, spit the fiber out (or just suck on it instead). Interestingly, a similar pattern works with the roots of the cogon grass, a reported "miniature sugarcane" among Bicol children, and wonderful for the kidney as well.

The dark, high-yield Alunan or La Carlota variety of sugarcane, in Mindoro.

Inevitably, there would be evidence sugarcane alcohol production all over the country. The fourteenth cenutry saw Chinese traveller Wang Ta-Yuan probably had the earliest account (the link describes several others) of the plant's use in the country, describing the ability of natives to make wine from its juice. The drink was called many things in many parts of the country. But we are following the samak basi trail, and that inevitably leads us up north.

Before this still, the drink was in production in the (way north) Batanes area, as stated in 1686 by Dampier. The crew on boat liked basi so much and drank copious amounts of it. And that was how, for a period in history, the group of islands around Batanes came to be known as Bashee Islands, after the drink we don't all love today. But don't take my word for it:

Their common drink is water; as it is of all other Indians: besides which they make a sort of drink with the juice of the sugar-cane, which they boil, and put some small black sort of berries among it. When it is well boiled they put it into great jars and let it stand three or four days and work. Then it settles and becomes clear, and is presently fit to drink. This is an excellent liquor, and very much like English beer, both in colour and taste. It is very strong, and I do believe very wholesome: for our men, who drank briskly of it all day for several weeks, were frequently drunk with it, and never sick after it. The natives brought a vast deal of it every day to those aboard and ashore: for some of our men were ashore at work on Bashee Island; which island they gave that name to from their drinking this liquor there; that being the name which the natives called this liquor by: and as they sold it to our men very cheap so they did not spare to drink it as freely. And indeed from the plenty of this liquor and their plentiful use of it our men called all these islands the Bashee Islands.

Alright? Just a note, the "berries" may have been duhat, but given that they were described as "small", I am betting on samak. Duhat yields fruit larger than the normal European berry.

Other northerly tribes apparently enjoyed basi more than the sugar, with Jenks claiming widespread fermentation of rice and cane wine in 1905 in the Bontoc area. (Interestingly, of sugar itself, he says: There is not much sugar made in the area, and a large part of the product is purchased by the Ilokano. The Igorot cares very little for sweets; even the children frequently throw away candy after tasting it.")

An Igorot basi vendor, from the Jenks publication.

The Jenks publication describes extensively how basi was utilized extensively in Igorot ceremonies (and it has cool pictures, do click on the link if you're interested).

An Igorot bamboo tube for carrying basi, from the Jenks publication.

So where is basi today? Since Dampier and Jenks, it has become a cottage industry in Ilocos, with many trying to "commercialize" it into a wine. None of these attempts have tasted good to me, however. And the Bashee Islands? They call their sugarcane wine palek now. What happened in between? We can only guess, and keep searching for clues.

Basi producer, Laoag.

Helmets, Pots & Plants

2010-07-08T23:21:00.004+08:00

To the right, a fairly new setup housing an array of protective gear.

Along the Bulacan highway, you will find more "garden shops" that you can throw beans at. You will also find, in particular, Victor's Helmet Pots & Plants, a store that sells just that. Helmets, in the plural, and lots of them, for passing cyclists.

This is charming, and is certainly along the lines of that one we always chuckle about, the image of a sign outside a gate in the province: Notary Public... Tumatanggap din ng labada ("Also accepts laundry"). Certainly once we see a dentist begin to put colorful tarpaulins advertising cellphone load, we begin to think that his practice is going under, or at least isn't quite supporting the kids' schooling any longer.

A duck pot sold at the helmet shop.

But since when have human beings been doing just one thing? The unquestioned dogma of the prefrerence for specialization and economic formalization promote inefficiency. The formal economy and its sister (thus far), irrational zoning, have concentrated opportunities not in places where they naturally flow (e.g. physical pathways commonly taken, local needs), but to the highest bidders. When a natural response to changing needs (like the vendors that pop up along busy thoroughfares) arises, it is seen as a blight, rather than a response to shifting human flows and local demand. It is best contained in a mall.

The popup market that has slowly instiutionalized itself along the Merville access road.

The norm and prestige of specialization help to deter people from being jacks-of-all-trades, or at least, hedging the risks of having only one skill, one product, one "career". Today, all academic training and mind-moulding is geared towards breeding you for a certain career. It is everywhere-- people talking condescendingly about the minor TV actor who sells health supplements on the side, the news bearing the tragedy of the farmers who must, during some times of the year, become fishermen. College children taking interdisciplinary courses are seen as loafers who "don't know what to do with their lives".

So "quirky" and "cute" may tide the multi-ventured microentrepeneur over until things begin to make more sense eventually.

Garden Gnomes, Potties O'Gold

2010-07-07T13:53:00.003+08:00

Garden gnomes that seem to resemble Bruce Springsteen.

Fiesta.

According to vendor, gnomes shitting gold into pots.

Street Colors

2010-06-30T22:09:00.006+08:00

A couple of vegetable stalls.

A man waits at what I like to call a "mini-deria".

Frighteningly colored pampalamig or cooling drinks, like aguas frescas.

A sari-sari store sponsored by both Coke and Pepsi.

Mother-in-law's tongue planted in a row.

Rainbow ginebra.

One of the many public declarations of personal attractiveness in public scrawlings.

Nice hues.

Today's Jeepney Mudguards

2010-06-22T08:43:00.002+08:00

Don $ Pulubi (pulubi = beggar)

Something "new" in my life.

The Dangerous Paths of Leksand

2010-06-18T03:16:00.003+08:00

Swenglish

2010-06-14T09:57:00.001+08:00

Swastika countered on bus upholstery.

In the bus ride to Leksand, the driver said through a microphone: "I beg you, take your seatbelts, it is a law here in Sweden to take them."

Sveriges Nationaldag

2010-06-13T00:24:00.011+08:00

National Day of Sweden last June 6. Dat yellow cross flag be everywhere in Stockholm.

Reuse

2010-05-31T21:21:00.001+08:00

Old cabinet panel, now the seat of a one-armed chair.

Sleepytime

2010-05-27T10:52:00.002+08:00

Damn

2010-05-23T20:29:00.000+08:00

It's hot out here.

Agua Bendita

2010-05-03T16:06:00.003+08:00

Outside St. Anne of the Sunset, Judah St.

Surely faith has repayment.

Boxes

2010-04-30T14:56:00.002+08:00

Giftwrapped.

Reyes Express: servicing El Salvador and Guatemala.

Uniting families (by way of moving goods and money around).

Portrait

2010-04-29T16:16:00.002+08:00

Could be the Philippines, but is actually in a Hispanic community of San Francisco.

Carboy Gardening

2010-04-23T17:36:00.001+08:00

Roses in used carboys outside a basi (alcoholic cane juice beverage) workshop.

Lightning Shields

2010-04-20T17:10:00.006+08:00

Palaspas or palm leaf vendors in Makati.

I do know the basics about palm arrangements for Palm Sunday. That they are hung outside doors or windows, that they are burned as forehead fodder for next year's Ash Wednsday. But what I didn't know was they are generally (even elsewhere in the world) believed to protect your household from lightning.

Seaside home with nondescript leaves.

Palm leaf manipulation for the occasion is a widespread craft in the country. I tremendously like it, as your resource is produced efficiently and cycles back as soil or spiritual nourishment. The small-town Ilocano version of the whole exercise involves a bunch of unidentifyable local leaves, unceremoniously snapped off, blessed at church during Domingo de Ramos (the local term for Palm Sunday) and left to dry at a strategic, bolt-deflecting point. So simple and nondescript do they look that I mistook them for instruments to shoo flies away. I like that too.

Protecting a pigsty from lightning.