Lazy Day in Cebu

Friday, May 23, 2008--Cebu

I had been going through most of my clothes in Japan, so I needed to get laundry done. I had seen a couple of nearby laundry places yesterday while going past various tourist sites, so I bagged several shirts, a pair of pants, and a pair of shorts and took them there this morning. Unfortunately, they won't be ready until Sunday afternoon. I had planned to leave Sunday, but I guess I will stay another day. I am in no rush really.

Also nearby where I live are many colleges and universities. Schools are a big business in the Philippines due to the high birth rate and to the unemployment rate. It is not unusual for a person to have a university degree (even a degree as a doctor, nurse, or lawyer) and have no work or to work in a menial job at the mall. And of course, there are many with no work. Some of those go back to school to get another education. So schools thrive. The nearest school to where I live--just a block away--is the College of Education. But there are 3-4 universities in the area. That means there are plenty of cyber cafes (and cheap ones at about 33 cents per hour) and lots of small eating places around.

Something I had forgotten, but it is always a problem in a third world country, is the fact that one must guard his small bills. So many of the businesses are small, family-owned places. They don't keep lots of cash on hand. And it is never a case of the customer is right. If you take out your money to pay a bill that is 195 pesos and you have 2 hundreds but also have some 20s and a 50, they will insist on getting their payment in a combination of your smallest bills. So what I do is I separate my smaller bills from my money clip before approaching to pay so that all they see are the 2 hundreds (which should not be taking advantage of them when the bill is 195), a 500, and a 1000. Then they take the 2 hundreds. That way, I have a 20 when the bill is 18, a 50 when the bill is 35, etc., rather than being left with my 2 hundreds which are too big for trying to pay for a bill of 18 or 35. Of course, related to this problem is a problem with the ATMs; they only dispense 1000 peso bills!!! The key to that is to go to a large supermarket or mall and buy something small. Those large corporations will ask for a smaller bill, but they will have change to give when you say you cannot produce another due to the ATM giving out only 1000 peso bills.

I was at the cyber cafe for 2 hours after dropping off my laundry. Then I really had nothing special left to do. I decided to go out to one of the malls just to see what it was like. Well, it was much like everywhere else in the Philippines. Although it is probably only 20 years old, it looked to be 50. The floor tiles were chipped and cracked (although they were putting new floors in one small wing of it), the decorations were worn and dusty, etc. It was a huge mall with 3 floors and probably 75 shops on each floor. And it was full of people. So I wandered and looked. I tried to find a place to eat, but nothing really appealed to me. Their eating court area seemed rather dirty. The sit-in restaurants just didn't appeal to me, since they specialized in things such as Chinese, Italian, etc., food. The heavy rain of the day came while I was at the mall, however, so going there was a good idea so that I was occupied and missed the rain.

When I came out of the mall, it was sunny again and I headed back toward my hotel wishing it had a pool. Instead, I entered my room, turned on the a/c, and feel asleep. Afterwards, I turned on the TV and watched the end of a movie and then another film. By then it was evening, so I just went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and had homba which the menu described as "pork stewed in aromatic spices." It was a chunk of pork meat with the skin and fat layers attached that had been stewed in a sauce with onions. It came with a portion of rice, and I ordered a San Miguel beer to go with it. It was okay, but it still was not the tasty Filipino meal I am wanting!