Indonesian False Flower Signage

Fake flowers form letters.

"Congratulations / Grand Opening / Samsung Mobile / from Phu Hie Hai"

Instead of displaying large funeral-type congratulatory flower bouquet stands outside a doorway of a newly-opened shop, Indonesians have a practice of taking the flowers apart and arranging them in letters on large signage, and lining the streets with those. It's buttering up by a folk type of advertising, kind of a more beautiful "streamer predilection" than the Marawi version.

They remind me of fiesta decor made from corn husk and all that stuff. Except they're commonplace, and obviously haven't been replaced by the dreaded tarpaulin printers. And that is a nice thing. Although the flowers are fake.

"Congratulations / On Opening / Samsung Mobile / from Flamez 72"-- Nice touch with the umbrella.

Closer shot.

"Congratulations / On Opening / Samsung Mobile / from Batam Cellular"

Halo-Halo Girls

Bunch of cute kids eating halo-halo in Adams, Ilocos Norte.

Ilocano Halo-Halo and Ice Shaving Improvisation

Halo-halo in cups, waiting for ice and milk in Ilocos.

Other countries have this flower or that blooming, or some bird singing to mark the coming of spring, the Philippines has the gradual cropping up of halo-halo stalls to mark the coming of summer. This weird rainy summer is no exception.

Colored gulaman (seaweed jelly) and sago pearls at the Alabang market.

Propped up by a seasonal halo-halo economy of market vendors selling sweetened beans, garishly colored jelly, and colored (pinipig) toasted rice. Truthfully, there's a little too much color for my tastes in it, but once in awhile is okay.

Gulaman being molded in plastic cups in a kind of grody setting, Alabang market.

 Ilocos Norte is not usually the place you would expect halo-halo. Of course, it's all over the country, but you wouldn't be surprised not to find it in this relatively sedate province. It is terribly hot out there. Its delicacies consist generally of rice cakes on the sweet side, and deep-fried pork things on the savory side.

I was fiending for something cold, and had been asking the locals about halo-halo for days. I got some free time and stopped by a stall with some friends along Paoay Lake.

The stall, under a bamboo frame, with a curtain shading the owner from the harsh sun.

So of course, Ilocanos being the resourceful and the tightwads that they are (local stereotypes are fun), supplement store-bought ingredients (colored jelly and sago balls) with cheaper (but better) ingredients such as freshly grated coconut, boiled and lightly sugared sweet potato, and my favorite thus far (in place of the usual canned or yellow sweet corn), nixtamalized corn (usually used in binatog). It sounds fancy, but nixtamalized corn is really creamy, alkalized white, glutinous corn that does not have skin. More on that later.

Colored toasted rice, sweetened beans, sweetened sweet potato, sweetened banana, nixtamalized corn, and grated coconut.

Nixtamalized corn. Creamy and super delicious.

Grated coconut.

Another super great thing is that the woman manning the stall (sounds funny doesn't it. What-- womanning?) had invented an apparatus to keep the ice (made from water frozen in plastic bags) from slipping while she shaves it. It was made from pieces of wood and bottle caps.

Bottle caps nailed to a small piece of wood board.

The wood hold the ice while the vendor shaves, thus allowing her to exert maximum force.

Ice on bottle caps.

A nearly spent piece of ice. The board also has bottle caps as legs so it doesn't slip either.

Ice Man Ice Shaver.

Salon Towel Drying

A salon in Chinatown drying towels in the sun.

Recent Containers

It is always encouraging to see plant material being used for practical things. Despite the fiesta baratillo being filled with cheap, made in China plastic implements, Ilocanos still use bamboo and other woven things for practical purposes. This contributes to the stewardship of species and the general beauty of everyday life.

Bamboo baskets for catching and placing fish.

Bamboo pole lunch. Last time I saw this guy, his fish catch was dangling from the front portion of the pole.

A typical Northern Philippine backpack, except the two straps replaced by a snakeskin shoulder strap.

Inflatable Marine Animal Bonanza at Fiesta

An array of inflatable dolphins and penguins.

The inflating of them.

A Vendor and His Signs

A stylized male underwear price board, made with scrap paper and a marker..

I hear it gets boring sitting around all day waiting for people to buy your wares. I've also been told that if you're going to do something, might as well do it well.

Vendor and ornamentation enthusiast.

Working to fill dead time and attract customers.

A coinpurse price sign, covered in plastic. Note the soft shading between letters and as numbers' shadowing.

 

Indigenous Flood Warning Device

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

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

By The Rivers of Simsimon

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.