Nickel and Pesoed

So I'm sure "pesoed" isn't a word, but most people know the expression "nickel and dimed." Well, we felt completely nickel and pesoed after a week in the Philippines for Chinese New Year. Yes, we were just in Thailand for Christmas and this break was WAY too close to that one which may have contributed to our feeling of "I just want to go home." But, if Kenny and I had a peso for every time someone said to us, "that will be xxxx pesos more than your reservation/menu/contract/agreement says" we'd be rich. Well, not rich, but we could buy a few more of their delicious mangos.

Here are some of the positives for our trip:
- In general, wonderfully friendly, beautiful, hospitable, generous, English speaking people
- Manila is Little America as far as shopping, restaurants, English signage if that's what you're looking for in a vacation
- Great food. We were hosted in both Manila and Bohol by coworkers of Kenny and their families. We had some amazing Filipino food and wonderful hosts.
- Beautiful beaches, seas/reefs and nature (unfortunately it seems animal welfare and protecting the environment are not high priorities here, more later).

A few of the negatives:
- Aforementioned request for more money around every turn

- A couple of bad hotel experiences and a terrible experience with Philippine Airlines

- Scariest taxi ride of my life and that's saying something after some that we had in Egypt. I think the guy was drunk or stoned, but he WOULD NOT take us in the direction we wanted. Our friends provided us a driver on the first two days, but we ventured out on our own the last day. They told us they all have drivers because it's safer and now I know why. I was in the back seat with all three boys when things got serious. Kenny was yelling at the guy in the front seat and I was quietly telling the boys to be quiet and if I say move, they don't ask questions. I told them to just bail as fast as they can while I continued to mentally calculate how to grab all three of them. At that point we luckily slowed down and I saw a hotel and yelled at the guy to pull over. I grabbed the boys and ran to the security guard. They driver obviously had something to hide because he was one of few people that didn't ask for any pesos and drove off.

- Animal welfare and environmental protection, or lack thereof. A quote from the front of our tour book reads "Filipinos pollute like they smile - copiously." Very true, although this was not glaringly obvious to me (I think because I see so much litter here in China every day) until we went on a snorkeling boat. The beautiful water is literally littered with trash. When we got out to the "protected" reef we were asked for more pesos for an entrance fee and asked to rent (more pesos) boots so we could walk around on the reef - what??? And that's exactly what people were doing. Anyone who has dove or snorkeled knows a reef can't last long when treated like a mountain. I felt bad the whole time and Luc was so good about trying not to touch or walk on anything. Jack was freaked out by the current and was on the boat with Dominic most of the time.

It seemed that every attraction we wanted to see we were unwittingly paraded in front of animals kept in very sad conditions. On the walk up to the highest point on Borocay there were monkeys, bats, raccoons, etc. in little cages. Some were missing feet and legs because of trappings for display. Outside one restaurant we ate at there was a monkey tied to a tree, pacing back and forth. Then there is the legal cock fighting. I was hoping against hope for a somewhat gentler answer than I figured was coming when I asked a man how they determine the winner in a cock fight. He started out giving me a little hope by saying there are judges. I thought, "maybe they just peck each other a bit and then a winner is declared." The explanation went on, but ended with "Ma'am it's really pretty easy to tell though because the loser is dead." Well, there you go. Don't ask if you don't want to know.

I know, I know....poor Kerry had to travel twice within a month boo hoo, but I really think a lot of my negativity comes from just not being ready to travel again after Christmas (except for the animals and litter, those still bother me).We probably should go back someday when we're really ready for a vacation and like I said the Filipino people are some of the nicest we've ever met. Now we have a dry spell until a break in April so I'm sure I'll be ready to go again by that time. All these breaks are also the reason our kids don't get out of school until almost the end of June. The boys had a great time. As long as they have a beach and a pool that makes for a perfect holiday.

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