Well, today we finally made our way through the force field that surrounds Boracay, keeping people in. It took a laboured effort as Geordie complained that he didn't want to leave but we shouldered our packs and walked up the street where we were immediately accosted by a guy offering us a tricycle ride to the port. (A tricycle is a motorcycle with an attached cab. They are everywhere except on the beach path at Boracay.)
The ride to the port took 10 minutes, buying a ticket 2 minutes, walking to the boat 1 minute, waiting for departure, 4 minutes, and crossing, 15 minutes. From the port at Caticlan we were met instantly by a guy who asked where we were going, then lead us down a narrow alley to a parking lot filled with vans - we were settled in and left immediately for Iloilo. It's amazing how efficiently things work in less-developed countries. Try to match that schedule in Canada.
The trip to Iloilo took about 4 and a half hours but the van driver was very efficient. We think he may have been a misplaced race car driver, since the banner over the windshield read "American Racing" and there was a model of a red Formula 1 Race car on the dash. In any case, nothing ever passed us although we passed lots of vehicles. There were places where he had to slow down - a tricycle or a big truck would be in the way for awhile, but as soon as he could, the driver got around them. We also got slowed down some on the road closer to Iloilo which was under construction. The paving is concrete, so there were patches being prepared on both lanes, but staggered so that the traffic could keep moving.
The scenery was beautiful - the greenery lush and fecund - it's amazing how much can grow all at once. There were rice paddies too, some of them terraced, and along the way we saw water buffalo - including at least one pulling a plow. The water buffalo have by and large been replaced by mechanical beasts that look like giant lawnmowers but the old ways still exist.
There were also lots of signs to enjoy on the road - I saw a sign for the Butch Beautfy Salon, and on the wall of a mausoleum in a cemetery we passed was emblazoned M/V Last Voyage - much have been a sea captain.
Our hotel is not top notch, although clean and comfortable. The fuchsia coloured bedspread and drapes give an air of something - I'm not sure what, certainly not faded elegance. There is a restaurant on the river side though and we have a view of the river from our room and in the distance one of the hulking malls where you can buy anything you want, I'm sure.
We had lunch at another Italian restaurant - it was quite good in fact. Geordie had tiger prawns on mango and apple salad, while I had a salami and onion calzone. And the prices were much lower than the prices of similar food in Boracay.
We have a full day in Iloilo tomorrow so we will have to do a little exploring - there is a museum near by and a couple of cathedrals beckon, so we will get a little more culture. Then we are off to Cebu, another city, on another island, although this time we will be flying there. There doesn't appear to be a magic force field around Iloilo, so I'm pretty sure we will be able to tear ourselves away much more easily.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Rain and Officialdom
Geordie wrote an email and I'm adding it here, with a few editorial changes.
After our visit to the doctors yesterday afternoon at 5 pm we had a wonderful rain storm, very heavy. Much like the monsoon rains I remember from 1959. It was over after an hour. It sounded wonderful on the roof of the room and Geordie sat out on the bench for most of it, until he started to get wet. The rain really cooled the day down, so it was actually quite wonderful but I'm glad we weren't caught in it, we might have drowned it was so hard. We then walked out for food. No mud after rains as every street is sand.
Today we went to the Immigration Service Office here. I had talked to the woman twice last week so we were ready. She was very nice and so helpful. She has many Filipino friends in Vancouver and Alberta. P 4,300 each later and we had our 1 month extension which gives us 2 days more than we need. We are relieved to now be legal for the whole trip. The office was in the front lobby of a hotel on the main street and was quite busy. There were 3 French guys, a man from South Africa and then a couple more came in, all while we were getting our extensions done.
We tried getting more money from ATM's today. P 4000 limit per transaction (Cdn $95 and BMO charges $5 per international transaction). Geordie did 3 transactions. Pricey. Then there are the bank and exchange charges that we do not understand. Must buy BMO stock. We will be paying for our hotel with our credit card, but for that they will charge us 6.5% more. I think that's considered non-kosher by the resorts but their margins are pretty small, so I imagine that absorbing the costs would be costly for them when they are not in a very great financial position to begin with.
So now to lunch. It's always challenging since there are tons of places, but they are all pretty generic. We haven't yet fallen in love with filipino food - their breakfast meals all seem to end in ..silog - tapsilog, cornsilog, lapsilog, etc. I think the first is chewy beef, the second canned corn beef, and the third fish - all served with a mound of rice and a fried egg. Our place does belgian waffles so that's what I've been having, and the place next door has really, really good coffee so I'm happy.
After our visit to the doctors yesterday afternoon at 5 pm we had a wonderful rain storm, very heavy. Much like the monsoon rains I remember from 1959. It was over after an hour. It sounded wonderful on the roof of the room and Geordie sat out on the bench for most of it, until he started to get wet. The rain really cooled the day down, so it was actually quite wonderful but I'm glad we weren't caught in it, we might have drowned it was so hard. We then walked out for food. No mud after rains as every street is sand.
Today we went to the Immigration Service Office here. I had talked to the woman twice last week so we were ready. She was very nice and so helpful. She has many Filipino friends in Vancouver and Alberta. P 4,300 each later and we had our 1 month extension which gives us 2 days more than we need. We are relieved to now be legal for the whole trip. The office was in the front lobby of a hotel on the main street and was quite busy. There were 3 French guys, a man from South Africa and then a couple more came in, all while we were getting our extensions done.
We tried getting more money from ATM's today. P 4000 limit per transaction (Cdn $95 and BMO charges $5 per international transaction). Geordie did 3 transactions. Pricey. Then there are the bank and exchange charges that we do not understand. Must buy BMO stock. We will be paying for our hotel with our credit card, but for that they will charge us 6.5% more. I think that's considered non-kosher by the resorts but their margins are pretty small, so I imagine that absorbing the costs would be costly for them when they are not in a very great financial position to begin with.
So now to lunch. It's always challenging since there are tons of places, but they are all pretty generic. We haven't yet fallen in love with filipino food - their breakfast meals all seem to end in ..silog - tapsilog, cornsilog, lapsilog, etc. I think the first is chewy beef, the second canned corn beef, and the third fish - all served with a mound of rice and a fried egg. Our place does belgian waffles so that's what I've been having, and the place next door has really, really good coffee so I'm happy.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monterrico
Yesterday we made our journey to Monterrico on our shuttle bus. It was quite new, and roomy with only six of us in all on the bus. The driver did chat a little as he drove at 100 km an hour down the highway. I remarked to Geordie that 100 km an hour here is similar to 30 km an hour on a highway in India. Not quite as scary, come to think of it.
And yes, Monterrico is hot! The thermometer on our clock only shows 30 celcius, so it´s not as bad as I thought it might be, but it´s plenty hot enough. The people here wear shorts and tshirts - they are not formal as they appear to be in Antigua - where only the tourists wear shorts. The town has one long paved street which runs from the Pacific Ocean to the lagoon on the other side of the peninsula. At that side there are barges lined up waiting for vehicles to get over to the highway on the other side. While we were there, a truck pulled up, pulled onto the barge and then sailed majestically up the lagoon, with a little outboard motor providing the power.
When we arrived at our hotel, we were greeted by a guy who wanted to offer us a morning tour of the lagoon - which would start at 5:30 am. Hmmm! It would last about two hours and the guide would be poling the boat so as not to disturb the wild life, which includes plenty of birds and even a four-eyed fish. We have not yet decided whether we want to be knocked up at that early hour - this morning I hauled myself out of bed at 9:00 am - which felt a little early.
Our hotel is similar to a motel, with little buildings parallel, facing eachother across a pool. To get our view we have to head up to the restaurant where there is a palapa roof, some nice breeze, a row of hammocks on either side of the table area, and of course some ranchero music playing constantly. The room is very basic, as you might imagine, with two beds, four walls, a thin plywood ceiling with a palapa roof above it, and a fan which creates a major strobe effect with the light which has been installed above it. It was impossible to read with that strobing so Geordie sent me out to ask for a stand up fan which I got. English is not well spoken in this area, so we are lucky that we know enough Spanish to get around.
We met a couple from Mendocino County in the USA on the bus and had dinner with them last night. They had planned to study Spanish for a week here in Monterrico, but when they went to the school, it had no record of them and no teacher available. So scratch the idea of taking a week of classes impromptu, which had been one of our options.
We also did a wander of the beachside restaurants yesterday. The sand is black here and thick so it´s not easy to walk on in the heat. We stumbled down the beach until we couldn´t take it anymore, then went inland to the sandy road, which is almost, but not quite, as hard to walk on.
We are staying here four nights in all - I imagine it will be all about where we will eat, how much time we will stay in the pool, how much we will read, and how much we will sleep. Pretty basic stuff. We have discovered that noone around here takes Mastercard or Amex, only Visa - the card we left at home. And there is no bank machine either, so we will have to ration our money. We were able to use MC last night at the Swiss-Guatemalan restaurant after about 10 minutes of them on the phone to get the right confirmations. But it worked so we may eat there again soon.
We are now considering our next move. Originally our plan was to go back to Antigua, take a shuttle to Guatemala City then a bus to Rio Dulce. But after tallking to Joanna and her husband, and considering the heat here, we are thinking maybe we don´t want to spend more time in the heat and humidity filled lowlands, so we just might to to Lake Atitlan, which is higher so will be cooler at night even though it is still quite warm during the day. There are many villages around the lake where one can visit and stay, so we are weighing our options right now. We´ll see.
One thing I must say about Guatemala. The people are really so very charming. In the restaurants you are welcomed the moment you enter and the service is always with a great smile. And the phrase "at your service" sounds so very genuine. On the streets people greet one with a smile, a buenas dias, or buenas noches, and everone seems genuinely pleased to meet you. We love that part of Guatemala, and the incredible scenery makes it that much more desirable to travel in.
And yes, Monterrico is hot! The thermometer on our clock only shows 30 celcius, so it´s not as bad as I thought it might be, but it´s plenty hot enough. The people here wear shorts and tshirts - they are not formal as they appear to be in Antigua - where only the tourists wear shorts. The town has one long paved street which runs from the Pacific Ocean to the lagoon on the other side of the peninsula. At that side there are barges lined up waiting for vehicles to get over to the highway on the other side. While we were there, a truck pulled up, pulled onto the barge and then sailed majestically up the lagoon, with a little outboard motor providing the power.
When we arrived at our hotel, we were greeted by a guy who wanted to offer us a morning tour of the lagoon - which would start at 5:30 am. Hmmm! It would last about two hours and the guide would be poling the boat so as not to disturb the wild life, which includes plenty of birds and even a four-eyed fish. We have not yet decided whether we want to be knocked up at that early hour - this morning I hauled myself out of bed at 9:00 am - which felt a little early.
Our hotel is similar to a motel, with little buildings parallel, facing eachother across a pool. To get our view we have to head up to the restaurant where there is a palapa roof, some nice breeze, a row of hammocks on either side of the table area, and of course some ranchero music playing constantly. The room is very basic, as you might imagine, with two beds, four walls, a thin plywood ceiling with a palapa roof above it, and a fan which creates a major strobe effect with the light which has been installed above it. It was impossible to read with that strobing so Geordie sent me out to ask for a stand up fan which I got. English is not well spoken in this area, so we are lucky that we know enough Spanish to get around.
We met a couple from Mendocino County in the USA on the bus and had dinner with them last night. They had planned to study Spanish for a week here in Monterrico, but when they went to the school, it had no record of them and no teacher available. So scratch the idea of taking a week of classes impromptu, which had been one of our options.
We also did a wander of the beachside restaurants yesterday. The sand is black here and thick so it´s not easy to walk on in the heat. We stumbled down the beach until we couldn´t take it anymore, then went inland to the sandy road, which is almost, but not quite, as hard to walk on.
We are staying here four nights in all - I imagine it will be all about where we will eat, how much time we will stay in the pool, how much we will read, and how much we will sleep. Pretty basic stuff. We have discovered that noone around here takes Mastercard or Amex, only Visa - the card we left at home. And there is no bank machine either, so we will have to ration our money. We were able to use MC last night at the Swiss-Guatemalan restaurant after about 10 minutes of them on the phone to get the right confirmations. But it worked so we may eat there again soon.
We are now considering our next move. Originally our plan was to go back to Antigua, take a shuttle to Guatemala City then a bus to Rio Dulce. But after tallking to Joanna and her husband, and considering the heat here, we are thinking maybe we don´t want to spend more time in the heat and humidity filled lowlands, so we just might to to Lake Atitlan, which is higher so will be cooler at night even though it is still quite warm during the day. There are many villages around the lake where one can visit and stay, so we are weighing our options right now. We´ll see.
One thing I must say about Guatemala. The people are really so very charming. In the restaurants you are welcomed the moment you enter and the service is always with a great smile. And the phrase "at your service" sounds so very genuine. On the streets people greet one with a smile, a buenas dias, or buenas noches, and everone seems genuinely pleased to meet you. We love that part of Guatemala, and the incredible scenery makes it that much more desirable to travel in.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Play With Your Food
We're in South India now, and the food service here is just a little different. This is the land of no forks and knives, although you might get a small spoon. But, you are expected to eat with your hand - your right hand that is. We have hit several restaurants in the area of our hotel, including our own, although we have been avoiding that one since Geordie accidentally over-tipped. It set a precedent so when we have been there since we get over-attentive service and a waiter who hangs around after we have received the bill practically salivating. MInd you we have noticed that we are intiguing in most of the local restaurants where the waiters seem to enjoy standing next our tables watching us eat. A little unnerving, but we are coping.
Breakfast: We had our first South Indian Breakfast this morning - a Masala Dosai, which is a very large thin rice batter (I think) pancake with a filling of potato, onion and curry type flavourings along with four small pots of sauces to eat with it. Included in the sauces are a dal (split peas, but very thin), a coconutty, oniony flavoured white paste, a bright orange red sauce with a tomato base perhaps but spicy too, and a yellow-green sauce whose provenance I cannot explain, although it is tasty if also hot!
The point is to pour at least the dal or is it a sambar, onto your dosai, then place the other mixtures which are thicker, on the banana leaf provided (It's under the dosai), for dipping or mixing. With your fingers. Right hand only. It is hard to remember that, as I hold down one side with my left hand I suddenly remember to let go and do my best to tear the pancake with only my right hand.
We had coffee with it too - milk coffee which is served with a small metal cup, and a bigger open bowl. The coffee is poured from bowl to cup to bowl, repeatedly, ostensibly to cool the coffee although I think it also serves to mix the sugar in. Not being a fan of sweet coffee, I don't mind leaving the sugar in the bottom of the cup. The coffee has been tasty though, so no complaints.
Lunchtime: Here is where the thali comes to the fore. Usually the locals are provided with a large banana leaf which they first wet down, pouring the rest onto the table which I suspect sticks it to the surface. Then they are given dabs of diferent mixtures again, similar to the breakfast sauces although there are a few more - including a really sour yogourt which I can't bring myself to eat, and a raita of the same yogourt with slices of red onion. The sambar is the most liquid of the sauces. These dabs are provided by men who walk around with their containers, three of them attached and adding piles of the mixtures if you want more. It's all you can eat, by the way.
Onto the banana leaf is then piled a heap of steaming white rice, and a big poppadom is added as well (that's a crunchy yellow cracker like bread, a little spicy, very crispy). The trick is to mix the flavourings into the rice with your fingers, getting it good and saucy, then pinching up a pile with the fingertips and stuffing it into your mouth. The locals seem better at it than me, no doubt it's the practice, but we have been doing fine. I haven't yet dropped a heap onto my trousers. I watched a woman nonchalantly mixing everything, doing the mixing over and over until she seemed to have created an almost solid object to pop into her mouth. I'm not as efficient.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the first thing one does before eating is go to the hand washing facility and wash up. Everybody does it, so we have to remind ourselves to do it too. Don't want to look gauche.
One little thing - they don't seem to trust us. We have been getting what appears to be similar food as everyone else, but we are given ours on a metal platter, with a banana leaf cut to fit. We don't know for sure if ours is different - the dishes of savouries all look very similar to the rest but we just aren't getting the big banana leaf thing. I would prefer that because when you are finished you show it by folding your banana leaf at the centre rib, enclosing your mess and having a nice tidy package for the cleaning people to get rid of. Notice by the way how bio-friendly this is - everything is biodegradable, although I don't know how they get rid of the stuff - burning?, just dumped in the garbage?
Dinner is not different - it does seem that thalis are the order of the day at lunchtime while meals are smaller in the morning and evening. There are other choices of breakfast dishes too - iddlys which are small steamed rice puffs served with sambars, vadai which looks like a thick fried doughnut served with sambars again and no doubt things we have yet to identify.
It's all vegetarian too - lots of potatoes, cauliflower, carrot, onion, tomato, green beans and nary a bit of meat. Several restaurants in the area advertise non-veg so there are other choices, but we haven't tried any. Another option is Chinese food - fried noodles, manchurian flavoured dishes, and several things which are named but also have added the number 65, such as Noodles 65. We have no idea what it is, although I suspect it's a flavouring, probably comes in a bottle, hence the ease of name, anything with sauce 65 being so identified.
We think we are losing a little weight finally - maybe there is something to this vegetarian thing, although I must say, almost all the flavours are very similar, a la curry. I think the variety comes in the degree of heat, and the hot, sweet, salty sour flavours.
This is definitely not a tourist town which explains the fact that the food is geared to the locals. Once we hit a beach town where tourists hang out we will again be able to get eggs, omelets, toast, maybe porridge (lots of that in the north), banana or honey or chocolate pancakes and mixtures thereof. It's not exactly like home but there is the sense of it being comfort food so occasionally one just has to have it.
We are heading to the tip of India tomorrow evening, to another nontourist town, so we will be continuing to eat thalis. Maybe tomorrow we will convince the restaurant to give us a real thali complete with banana leaf - if we point and insist. There is one advantage to the food here though - it's cheap. This morning's breakfast cost a grand total of 65 rupees - that's about $1.50, for two people, yes, 75 cents each. Oh and that was with two coffees for me and one for Geordie. We have paid as much as 150 rupees here too, so it's not always so cheap (smile - what makes $2.00 a person expensive?).
We will be searching out another restaurant tonight - we are trying all of them, so we are having fun. Tomorrow we don't leave town until 10:40 pmor whenever the train arrives after that (an hour or two?), so we still have time to get that real thali. No matter, my fingers are at the ready, as soon as I go clean them, so we will enjoy the food no matter what.
Breakfast: We had our first South Indian Breakfast this morning - a Masala Dosai, which is a very large thin rice batter (I think) pancake with a filling of potato, onion and curry type flavourings along with four small pots of sauces to eat with it. Included in the sauces are a dal (split peas, but very thin), a coconutty, oniony flavoured white paste, a bright orange red sauce with a tomato base perhaps but spicy too, and a yellow-green sauce whose provenance I cannot explain, although it is tasty if also hot!
The point is to pour at least the dal or is it a sambar, onto your dosai, then place the other mixtures which are thicker, on the banana leaf provided (It's under the dosai), for dipping or mixing. With your fingers. Right hand only. It is hard to remember that, as I hold down one side with my left hand I suddenly remember to let go and do my best to tear the pancake with only my right hand.
We had coffee with it too - milk coffee which is served with a small metal cup, and a bigger open bowl. The coffee is poured from bowl to cup to bowl, repeatedly, ostensibly to cool the coffee although I think it also serves to mix the sugar in. Not being a fan of sweet coffee, I don't mind leaving the sugar in the bottom of the cup. The coffee has been tasty though, so no complaints.
Lunchtime: Here is where the thali comes to the fore. Usually the locals are provided with a large banana leaf which they first wet down, pouring the rest onto the table which I suspect sticks it to the surface. Then they are given dabs of diferent mixtures again, similar to the breakfast sauces although there are a few more - including a really sour yogourt which I can't bring myself to eat, and a raita of the same yogourt with slices of red onion. The sambar is the most liquid of the sauces. These dabs are provided by men who walk around with their containers, three of them attached and adding piles of the mixtures if you want more. It's all you can eat, by the way.
Onto the banana leaf is then piled a heap of steaming white rice, and a big poppadom is added as well (that's a crunchy yellow cracker like bread, a little spicy, very crispy). The trick is to mix the flavourings into the rice with your fingers, getting it good and saucy, then pinching up a pile with the fingertips and stuffing it into your mouth. The locals seem better at it than me, no doubt it's the practice, but we have been doing fine. I haven't yet dropped a heap onto my trousers. I watched a woman nonchalantly mixing everything, doing the mixing over and over until she seemed to have created an almost solid object to pop into her mouth. I'm not as efficient.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the first thing one does before eating is go to the hand washing facility and wash up. Everybody does it, so we have to remind ourselves to do it too. Don't want to look gauche.
One little thing - they don't seem to trust us. We have been getting what appears to be similar food as everyone else, but we are given ours on a metal platter, with a banana leaf cut to fit. We don't know for sure if ours is different - the dishes of savouries all look very similar to the rest but we just aren't getting the big banana leaf thing. I would prefer that because when you are finished you show it by folding your banana leaf at the centre rib, enclosing your mess and having a nice tidy package for the cleaning people to get rid of. Notice by the way how bio-friendly this is - everything is biodegradable, although I don't know how they get rid of the stuff - burning?, just dumped in the garbage?
Dinner is not different - it does seem that thalis are the order of the day at lunchtime while meals are smaller in the morning and evening. There are other choices of breakfast dishes too - iddlys which are small steamed rice puffs served with sambars, vadai which looks like a thick fried doughnut served with sambars again and no doubt things we have yet to identify.
It's all vegetarian too - lots of potatoes, cauliflower, carrot, onion, tomato, green beans and nary a bit of meat. Several restaurants in the area advertise non-veg so there are other choices, but we haven't tried any. Another option is Chinese food - fried noodles, manchurian flavoured dishes, and several things which are named but also have added the number 65, such as Noodles 65. We have no idea what it is, although I suspect it's a flavouring, probably comes in a bottle, hence the ease of name, anything with sauce 65 being so identified.
We think we are losing a little weight finally - maybe there is something to this vegetarian thing, although I must say, almost all the flavours are very similar, a la curry. I think the variety comes in the degree of heat, and the hot, sweet, salty sour flavours.
This is definitely not a tourist town which explains the fact that the food is geared to the locals. Once we hit a beach town where tourists hang out we will again be able to get eggs, omelets, toast, maybe porridge (lots of that in the north), banana or honey or chocolate pancakes and mixtures thereof. It's not exactly like home but there is the sense of it being comfort food so occasionally one just has to have it.
We are heading to the tip of India tomorrow evening, to another nontourist town, so we will be continuing to eat thalis. Maybe tomorrow we will convince the restaurant to give us a real thali complete with banana leaf - if we point and insist. There is one advantage to the food here though - it's cheap. This morning's breakfast cost a grand total of 65 rupees - that's about $1.50, for two people, yes, 75 cents each. Oh and that was with two coffees for me and one for Geordie. We have paid as much as 150 rupees here too, so it's not always so cheap (smile - what makes $2.00 a person expensive?).
We will be searching out another restaurant tonight - we are trying all of them, so we are having fun. Tomorrow we don't leave town until 10:40 pmor whenever the train arrives after that (an hour or two?), so we still have time to get that real thali. No matter, my fingers are at the ready, as soon as I go clean them, so we will enjoy the food no matter what.
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