Ten Random Things I Didn't Blog About

There is so much to this experience and I realize it's hard to capture everything into these short vignettes so here's my list of things that I forgot to mention:

#10 - Place Settings
The tradition here is to eat with a fork and spoon instead of a knife. It took some getting used to but by the end of the month we are all experts - who needs knives! Ironically, the only time they give you a knife is if you are eating pasta (I know all the Italians are crying about that!)

#9 - Paper
Seems to be a carefully guarded commodity here. The restaurants are all very frugal about giving you napkins even though most of the food can be eaten by hand. Toilet paper is also rationed in our hotel and housekeeping is reluctant to give you more than what is 'allowed'.

#8 - The Dust
I have been coughing for the entire month here. At first, I thought I just had come down with the cold or flu but after a round of antibiotics, OTC medicines, and allergy pills, I'm still coughing. I think it's primarily all the dust in the city combined with the constant in and out of air conditioning.

#7 - Walking
Most of our team generally doesn't mind walking from place to place. It's not that big a city and we are all fairly active people. The local Bacolodians are always surprised by that. The insist on arranging cars to take us places, even if it is only a few blocks away. Nobody walks here - if you have a short distance to go you take a trike which costs around 15 pesos. Longer hauls you can hop on one of the Jeepney routes for 7 pesos. At night we generally splurge and take taxis for around 50 pesos (1USD).

#6 - Dudos Rules!
There is only one Starbucks in town but it seems like there is a Dunkin' Donuts around every corner. Makes me feel more at home knowing there is coffee and donuts nearby.

#5 - Creature Comforts
Speaking of feeling at home, I have tried to go as 'local' as possible, eating the local cuisine at each meal and trying to experience the local culture. I broke down last weekend though as there was I think from home I just couldn't go without any longer - BOURBON. I actually found a bottle of Maker's Mark and took it with me to Danjugan Island. Ah.......

#4 - Match Making
I don't have a problem with this since I pretty much look like a Filipino Chinese but the rest of the team has received multiple almost daily inquiries about their marital status - particularly Guillermo and Jaana. Guillermo now has girls bringing him pictures that they took of him for him to autograph and Jaana has also had many young lads from the local colleges try to Facebook friend her after she presented her seminar. :)

#3 - The Meals
I know I've talked about all the wonderful food that we've had but what I failed to mention how often people here eat. At a minimum the meals are breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner but some people will eat as many as 8 meals a day!

#2 - Hospitality
Everyone here bent over backwards to make us feel at home and welcome during our stay. We are always greeted with warm smiles and a friend 'Good afternoon' or 'Good morning'. It's really the antithesis to Manhattan.

#1 - The Spas
Okay, so I have to admit I've not written about this before because it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. You can get a 60 minute full body massage here in any style you like (swedish, thai, shiatsu, pinoy, hawaiian, etc) for the equivalent of about $4 - 6 USD depending on if they are running a special or not. That's right folks, for the price of an Extra Value Meal at McDonalds you can get pampered for a full hour.