Manila

No fieldwork and almost no sampling since Bicol. Instead I've been in Manila, trying to assemble auxiliary data and checking out the city a tiny little bit.

Tuesday was my big day off. I took a cab downtown (listen, Icelandic taxi drivers: 45 minutes and 3 dollars) and was greeted by a Starbucks right at the entrance to the oldest part of the city. Being a good assimilated 'Mercan I went straight in and had myself a tall latte. For reasons hard to comprehend Filipinos don't fancy brewed coffee, instead everyone drinks instant 3-in-1 coffee, which is basically sugar mixed with some creamer and instant coffee. Therefore, a Starbucks is in order every now and then.

When traveling in SE Asia and other remote places (such as the Icelandic Highlands, the Arctic and on Route 17 in NY state), toilets inevitably become a topic of interest. Turns out the toilet (or comfort room, as the local euphemism goes) at this Starbucks is the most exquisite bathroom experience one is likely to have in the archipelago. There was even hot water! Some while later, after I had strolled around the streets of old Manila for a while, a second visit to a comfort room became necessary. I inquired at a small eatery/Xerox shop that I passed and was cordially shown to the CR by the master photocopyist. What a dramatic contrast! Here I found myself in a cubicle whose walls were impregnated with the stink of urine of generations past. A lightbulk was thankfully absent and therefore I never knew what served as a receptacle in there. Was it a hole in the ground, was it the bucket, was it something I couldn't even begin to imagine? Deciding it was better to die like Tycho Brahe than use this veritable shithole, I left with a smile and a big thank-you to the copymaster.

Then there is Manila.

Here, it's hard to know where to begin. It's big. It's huge. It's absolutely monstrous. The traffic is a nightmare. The pollution is worse. The people are friendly. The kids are beautiful. A white person is a spectacle and wherever she goes, people smile or point or say hello or make remarks about the white person's alleged beauty (I have to say, I admire their good taste). Since coming to the Philippines, I haven't seen more than 3 other white people at any one time and probably no more than 10 in all. That is not a lot, let me tell you that. Before I go here again, I'm going to overdose on tanning lotion and a dark hairdye. Maybe I'll get brown contacts as well. As is, I stick out like a martian. For all the attention I get on the street, I might as well be a green midget with flippers and two antennas on my head.

Sample scrample. I need more samples. Was planning to go to Bicol again but all efforts at getting a field assistant fell through. Therefore I'll be tagging along on a class fieldtrip leaving Manila tomorrow. I'll get to revisit some of the places I already sampled and I'll also get to see Lake Taal and Laguna de Bay and sample some rivers draining into those lakes. It should be fun. After that I plan to spend another day or two sampling and then take a day or two to visit some white-sand beaches (one cant spend a month in the Philippines without ever going to the beach...). Then on the 6th, I'll get on a plane again and fly back to Ithaca. Sooo nice.

My contact here at UP, Dr. Arcilla, has been doing some studies at Payatas and he took me along so that I could sample some water. In my next post, I might tell you about it. For now, I'll tell you this: I've rarely washed myself as obsessively as I did when I got back from that visit.