April 29, 2013

Sitting here on Friday morning listening to round 1 of the NFL draft and Skypeing with my NFL buddy John Jayson.  Love the Raiders trade out of the #3 to the 12th and 42nd pick, but not sure about DJ Hayden.  Al always loved a speedy man to man coverage corner and his ghost is helping direct Reggie's hand.  My buddy is a Bills fan, and while he was happy with trading down from 8 to 16, they took EJ Manual?   Going to be funny to talk about that pick a year or two from now.  Haw haw.  He talked me into having a drink with him while we watched it together, which was nice, except it started at 8AM here and now need to go take a nap.

OK...am back.  Gotta watch out for those morning drinking sessions as that can get ugly for a guy without a job.  I love asparagus and they have a good variety here and eat it quite often.  Am always amazed at how fast it reacts with urine and creates that pungent smell.  Last night, I ate a bunch and literally smelled it in my pee 10 minutes later.  I read that it is due to a sulphurous compound in asparagus called mercaptan, but that not everyone experiences this smell as the enzyme in the body that does so is distributed genetically.  I thank my gene pool for bestowing me with this fabulous gift.

I've mentioned before how Betty is darker skinned than your average Chinese and how bent she gets when they assume she is Filipina.  The other day, she needed a quality passport sized photo for some visa and went to a local photographer to get it taken.  As she is leaving, the women tells her that she will touch up the photo and Betty told her to please not do anything.  These Taiwanese are so pathological about their skin and it looking like tofu, that the photography lady ran right through Betty's stop sign and gave her a digital makeover.

I have not laughed as loud or hard in a long time.

April 26, 2013

I have become friendly with the dude that runs the English language based community center here, and as we share a love for baseball, he asked if I would write up an article about what it's like in Taiwan.  I just sent them the below...let's see if they use it.

When I first learned that we would be moving to Taipei last July, the first thing I did was go to the Internet and search ‘Things To Do in Taipei’ lists.  They all had Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum, but none of them recommended attending a local baseball game.  After you have taken the elevator to the top of 101, and seen every scroll and ceramic bowl at the museum, then what?  If you are like me and want to get some real local flavor, next to a night Shrimping, there is nothing better than catching a Taiwanese baseball game. 

Quick personal disclosure; I grew up at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles (Garvey/Lopes/Russell/Cey era), and have watched, played, coached, lived, and breathed baseball ever since I can remember. 

Baseball in Taiwan has a history dating back to the 1920’s when it was introduced to the island by the Japanese, and has been played continuously ever since.  The current professional league (CPBL) was founded in 1990 and faced its toughest test in 1997 when a gambling scandal nearly caused the league to fold.  Currently, the league fields four teams that play a 120 game schedule beginning in March and ending with the Tawian World Series in October.  Taiwan has produced a few pitchers that have made it to the US Major Leagues including Hong-Chih Kuo, Chien-Ming Wang, and current Baltimore Oriole Wei-Yin Chen (12-11 with a 4.02 era in 192 innings in 2012)

The Tawianese adore their baseball…the NT$500 note has baseball players depicted on it for crying out loud.  During the recent World Baseball Classic, it was impossible to get a pizza delivered during the Taiwanese teams games, and local Taiwanese friends of ours that I had assumed had never had baseball cross their minds were geeking out about to me about obscure minutia of the game from the night before.  We went on opening night this year and the joint was packed.  We had to buy scalped seats and paid NT$500 for NT$250 seats, and as we are walking in, we see this pack of TV camera crews in a herd following somebody that we could not see.  We asked an usher what was up, and he said they were following the President’s wife to her seats.  It seems the First Lady is a big fan of the Brother Elephant team, and she did not have tickets either, but managed to buy some for her group in the bleachers, where she sat and enjoyed the game.  There are not many countries in the world where the wife of the head of state can, and will, sit with the people in the cheap seats.    

For the baseball junkie, the game itself does not disappoint.  The quality is comparable to Double A minor leagues in the States, with pitchers throwing from 120 to 150 kph (75-95 mph).  With only four teams in the league, it is easy to get to know the players and follow them during the season, and with all the games broadcast live on local TV, you can check in with your favorites nightly.  One of the drawbacks for someone that cannot read Chinese is an inablility to find a box score with the player’s names written in pinyin, but you can get around that by following them using their uniform numbers.  Since the language of baseball is international and grounded in statistics, it is not too hard to follow along. 

 

Each CPBL team is allowed three foreign players, who are typically American or Japanese minor leaguers, and are paid between US$ 5,000 to US$ 12,000 per month.  The CPBL got a huge bump in popularity and international exposure this season with the arrival of Manny Ramirez to the league.  You can say a lot about Manny, and a lot have.  On one hand, he was one of the purest and most feared batters in baseball during his prime, and arguably of all-time, and was a critical component of the Boston Red Sox team that won the World Series after 98 years of frustration.  On the other, he often times spaced out on defense, and was suspended from baseball twice for using performance enhancing drugs.  Most people sum up his antics by saying “that’s Manny being Manny”.  After his Red Sox time, he was traded to my Dodgers and had one of the best summer runs in our history and led us to the playoffs, so he is OK in my book.  Manny is now 40 years old, and with his recent track record and declining skills, could not find a job in the US, so he accepted an offer of US$25,000 a month to come play for the CPBL’s EDA Rhinos this season.  So far, attendance at Rhino games is easily doubling the normal average attendance of 3,000 with many sell outs.

 

Games are played in 12 different stadiums throughout Taiwan all week long.  The teams are the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions from Tainan City, the EDA Rhinos from Kaohsiung, last years champion Lamigo Monkeys who based in Taoyuan County, and Taipei’s Brother Elephants.  They will trade off home team duties based on proximity of the stadiums to their home bases.  As an ex-pat with kids at the Taipei American School, we were drawn to the Tian-mu neighborhood to live, and the decision to pick an apartment near the Takashimaya Department Store was made partially (my better half might say primarily) due to the presence of the Tian-mu Baseball Stadium right across the street.

So some of you might be saying to yourself at this point…that’s great for you, but I don’t know much about baseball, or baseball is soooo slow and boring, so why would I go?  To start, it is a cheap night out with tickets costing at most NT$250, and less for the kids.  That is cheaper than seeing a movie, and unlike a movie, it is literally a night out (side).  Picture yourself with some friends and/or the kiddies on a warm evening, with Yangmingshan looming just over the outfield wall changing colors as the sun sets, enjoying a soda or couple of adult beverages, while chatting the night away.  As mentioned, the biggest complaint about baseball is that it is slow and boring, but that is precisely why it is the best sport to attend live as there is ample time to have a conversation.  People have a tendency to open up at baseball games, and it is the perfect opportunity to get the kids to spill their guts, reconnect with your spouse, or have that friend of yours tell you a ridiculous story. 

While baseball in the States is a spectator sport, baseball in Taiwan is far more participatory.  The first thing you will notice once the game begins is the chanting.  Backed by some percussion, and sometimes with a horn section, a guy with a microphone will lead his team’s supporters in rhythmic chants about wanting a base runner or homerun.  At least that’s what we think they are singing…we tend to make up our own words and scream along.

 

  On top of the dugouts are some “cheerleaders” that help spur the crowd to sing along with the songs, do a few dance routines with some pretty rough choreography, and basically help keep the beat.  For their part, the fans sing along while banging in unison on their noise makers.    After their team finishes their at bats, the other team will start up with their own cheers and the beat goes on.  It is impossible to not get swept up with the crowd cheer along the team whose side you are sitting in…everything is done in a good natured way and everyone goes home happy.

 

Traditionally, one of the things people look forward to at a baseball game is chowing down.  The way the concessions work at Tian-Mu Stadium is that whatever team is the designated home team, they arrange the concession stands that night.  The Lions or the Brother Elephants are considered home teams in Taipei, and when the Brother Elephants are the home team, there are a series of local food carts selling treats like sausages and stinky tofu (usually good).  When it’s the Lions turn, as they are sponsored by 7-11, then you get  7-11 catered food (‘nuff said).  When the stadium is packed you can stand in line for an inning just to get a nasty corn dog.  They do allow you to bring your own food into the park and you can see McDonald’s bags and prepared lunch boxes everywhere, and going this route is highly recommended.  The beer lines are never long however, and at some games, the Suntory Girls are roaming the stadium with kegs on their backs selling beer seat side.  Just try and not buy one from them. 

While games are played throughout the week all over Taiwan, local zoning in Tian-mu allows the league to play games there only on Saturday or Sunday evenings with a total of 15 games for the 2013 season.  Remaining games at Tian-mu this year are on August 17, 18, 24, and 31, and September 1, 8, 15, 21 and 22.  See you there.

April 23, 2013

Got some really good news today...they are fixing the pool at our apartment and it'll be ready this summer.  We were so bummed when we got here last July to learn that it was out of order and they were not certain that they were going to invest in the repairs.  No question that we will be so thankful to have it this August when it's time to knock 20 degrees off of our body temps.

Am forever peeved by a certain behaviour (I know...me peeved by others?), so am going to pass along some parenting advice.  When you are with your kids around other adults, watch and listen to how they react when they are spoken to by a grown-up.  If they answer with "fine" or "good" out of the side of their mouths while looking away, it's time to start working on their communication skills.  Kiddie improv classes are good, but just working them on replying to further a conversation would be so appreciated.  It helps as an adult when we ask a question that does not allow for the one word reply...'what did you read about in English class?', instead of  'how was school?' is a great place to start.  That is something I am constantly working on and am always surprised at how many adults will give you a conversation shut down answer as well.  Being awkward or shy around people is a horrible thing to happen to a person and is unnecessary in most cases, so make them comfortable with people early and they will have such a happier life.

Paul gets home from his MUN trip tonight and I better get more than "good" or "fine" out of him.  Will respect the fact that he may be gassed and not chatty this evening, but expect some info soon.  The teacher that is leading the trip, and who took an early interest in Paul this school year to get him on the MUN team posted a bunch of photos...sharing a couple.  First of all...talking with his hands.  Nice to see him demonstrating his Italian genes.

 

 

The Taipei American School Model UN team...as a slacker from the Valley, very hard not to make a Geek alert crack

Pre/post something or other

And a candid moment

Not a lot of postings on her lately, mainly cause things are pretty quiet in these parts.  I was asked to write an article about Taiwan baseball for the local English language community center and will share that when its done.  Also spending some time planning our summer break.  We hit the road June 8th, spend 4 days in Seoul before going to California and Seattle till August 8th.  If you have any hot tips on things to see/stuff to eat in Korea, please pass them along soonest.  And if you live in or are in California or Washington this summer, reach out soon so we can book some time to play.

April 18, 2013

I'm changing the sheets this morning, and in the bed is a Seattle Public Library card.  What? 

Pretty boring week around here.  Betty has been out of town, and Carolyn went on a 3 day school camping trip to a place called, what else, Camp Taiwan.  You know how some people are just plain lucky and how much you hate them for it.  It's been raining constantly here for the last 2+ weeks, but the morning she leaves for camp, it stops and is sunny in the high 70's for the entire trip.  Literally as their bus is pulling back into school yesterday, it starts raining again.  I have got to remember to let her pick my exacta box at the track from now on. 

Carolyn came home last night, and this morning, Paul left for a 5 day trip with school to Kuala Lumpur.  He is on the 8th grade Model United Nations team representing Israel.  The team has 14 members and will be working with international schools from all over Asia (Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, etc.)  How cool is that?  To his credit, he has been working very hard on his position paper/proposal about ways to discourage "brain drain" from lesser developed countries.  He has to present his position in front of the entire group, defend it from questions from the floor.and then work on the sides to get the votes for it while negotiating giving his vote to other proposals.  So wish I could be a fly on the wall. 

As this is his first real trip away from home alone, it was interesting watching him prepare, both physically and mentally.  The other day, Carolyn and I are sitting on the couch watching some TV, and Paul is in the other room playing some X-box shooting game while talking to one of his UN teammates about her project.  From the one sided part of the conversation we could hear, sounded like she was spitballing her presentation and he was giving her some input.  At one point, she must not liked his advice and then we here him say, "look, just using my big brain here."  Like the confidence, but later I heard him telling his friend how dumb he feels when working with some of the other kids that are more experienced and prepared.

Physically, I realized I need to stop doing everything for the kid.  Am talking about stuff like making sure his PE clothes come home and are ready for school, doing his dishes, all the Mom stuff, so when it came time to get his clothes out and pack, it was as if he had never seen a suitcase before.  Heard questions like, "How many pairs of underpants do I need?"  At the same time, they have to wear suits and such, so I had to teach him how to tie a necktie, which he was able to learn pretty well.  What I'm saying is that he is in that age range where he is equally grown up and still a baby, and it is making me recall some awkward moments of my own.  A dance at the end of Junior High School in particular is coming to mind.  How painfully awkward was I?  In retrospect, everyone was, but it seemed like it was only me at the time.  At the same time, I remember how awesome it was dancing with Joanne Reilly to Van Halen's Runnin' With The Devil. 

Anyhoo...good luck Buddy.

 

As I'm on the topic of kids, was forwarded me this article on Third Culture Kids from the local ex-pat magazine.  In short, first culture are kids that have lived in one culture only, while second culture are kids that have migrated from one into another culture permanently and have assimilated into it.  This article is a recap of a study of kids that have grown up in different cultures and ultimately don't claim one as their own.   The pros are what you'd expect, but it is the cons that we need to be diligent about making sure our kids are able to adapt as adults.  I've talked about how much of a bummer it is to see people you just start to get to know leave, but the TCK's can later keep a distance with people in fear they are going to disappear on them so they don't get hurt.  Feelings of rootlessness, a prolonged adolescence and frequently moving as adults.  It goes on to say that they found that only 1 in 10 ever feel attuned to life in the US once they return and that 90 percent feel disassociated with their own age group throughout their lives.  Am thinking that the Internet may dilute that cultural disassociation (I was out of the States for 6 months in 1986 and had no idea what a Twin Peak was and felt totally left out...).

April 9, 2013

Last Thursday and Friday were public holiday's.  As always, am never 100% sure what the hell is going on here, but I think that Thursday was National Youth Day and Friday was Tomb Sweeping Day.  Traditionally, you go to your ancestors graves to pay respect and clean them off, but it also is an opportunity to celebrate the coming of Spring, the planting season and general rebirth.  Seems like a pretty decent reason to celebrate, and is similar in some ways to the Easter holiday also celebrated around this time of year.  While it is close, I am giving the nod to Easter over Tomb Sweeping day only due to the deliverance of chocolate covered peanut butter eggs by the Easter bunny.   Our cousin Sharon invited us to go outside of Taipei with them for the day on Friday to hang out and see some sights.  Knowing that Paul is a bit of a junkie for it, she wowed us by arranging a tour of the Kimlin soy sauce factory.  The tour of the factory itself was a bit of a letdown as we did not get to go inside the factory to see how they make it, but we did get to stand in the rain looking at the fermentation tanks while Betty and Sharon translated what the tour guide was telling them in Chinese.  As usual, pretty sure they made up their own narrative just to screw with us.

They seemed overly impressed with the importance of that sky bridge and its ability to allow for the movement of product from one building to another and kept waiting to hear about some mythical sky bridge that transported the spirits out of darkness or something.

Then it was time to go inside the Soyseum to learn about the long and rich history of soy sauce and it's importance to the world.  On one of the walls was a chronology of soy sauce.  In the excerpt from the wall in the picture below, there is a line about the Japanese that I found telling. 

It is hard to see on this condensed picture, but it says..."Japan not only learned Chinese characters, production of tea, clothing and architecture from China in the Tang Dynasty, they also learned the technique of making sauce from dried beans and grain."  So before the Chinese, the Japanese were drinking plain water and eating unflavored food while sleeping naked in caves?  How funny that they have to give a subtle slap to the Japanese by saying "not only" did they teach the stupid pagans everything they know on the wall of a soy sauce factory.  The irony is that the most popular soy sauce worldwide is the Japanese brand Kikkoman. 

That's Sharon's son Dede in the picture by the way and we all love that kid.  Dede means little brother and we all call him that and am embarrassed to say that we don't know his real name.  Another  confusing Chinese-isms...they call him little brother, but he is an only child and therefore does not have siblings, so why do they call him a brother of any kind?  I tell you this so to help you understand why I am never sure what the hell is going on. 

The tour guide later demonstrated the different stages the ingredients go through before it becomes soy sauce and at one point, opened a container of partially fermented soy beans and started fanning the smell our way so we could take a whiff.  Feeling the need to pay it forward, I produced a sample of fermentation odor from my own personal brew and hand fanned it in her direction.

We then got to meet the cast of Kimlan Soy Sauce characters.  Didn't catch his name, but he is obviously some kind of Soy Super Hero.

And buying his t-shirt was a no-brainer.  How great is it that the head is a bottle of soy sauce?


Not sure if these were his side kicks or enemies, but my favorites were Aunt Showmy

 And the twins...Loser Bow and Winner Bow.

Sharon and Betty refused to ask what had gone wrong with the Bow's relationship, nor what is coming out of their noses.  And it also looks like Paul took one too many hits out of the partially fermented bean pot.

But the highlight of the factory for me was the men's bathroom.  I've pee'd all over this planet, and to paraphrase the great Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora...I've seen a million bathrooms, and have rocked them all,  but have never been in a urinal where you can gaze directly into the eyes of another urinator.  I know that some fellas complain of stage fright, but this set-up must cause some serious cremasteric reflex. 

I made Betty come in to take this picture of Paul and I with her phone and still cannot figure how to get these right side up...

Don't have enough time today to devote to the best part of our tomb sweeping day excursion, which also happens to be the best thing I've seen in Taiwan so far, but will tease it with this photo.

April 12, 2013

I guess that April is the rainy season here.  The temps have fallen off to less than 70 and it has been raining pretty consistently for the last two weeks.  No problem for yours truly.

To put a cap on our tomb sweeping day, our cousin Sharon took us to the Cihu Mausoleum last Friday.  Located in the hills about 30 miles outside of town, it is the current resting place of Chiang Kai Shek.  He isn't buried, but rests in an above ground coffin as his desire was to be buried in his home province in China once Taiwan retakes the mainland.  It is a lovely setting...a lake sits in front of the house that hoses his body, while a mountain rises in the back...which is said to be THE feng shui to be interned. 

We were there on April 5th, which is the day that Chiang died, so it was a special day at the mausoleum.  Sharon said she planned to be there on this day, but we suspect otherwise.  Regardless, there were a lot of people there and his resting place was lined with flowers and very solemn.

We walked up during the changing of the guards, and the ceremony was similar to other such rituals I've witnessed, but what made it special to me were the shiny silver helmets that the soldiers wore.  Reminiscent of this scene from Animal House.  A pledge pin?!...On your uniform!?

While all of that was nice enough, what made the Cihu Mausoleum a must see tourist destination for me was the Chiang Forest.  Watching the reaction of the world to Margaret Thatcher's death was similar to what you read about the legacy of Chiang Kai Shek...from saviour of the people to heinous butcher  What is indisputable is that he casts a long shadow over the history of China and Taiwan.  During the years between 1949 and his death in 1972, there was a cult of personality surrounding his family, and one of its manifestations was a large number of statues of Chiang were erected throughout Taiwan.  The first government elected that wasn't from Chiang's KMT political party was led by the opposition DDP leader Chen Shui-bian from 2000-2008.  Have been reading a lot about this period and will share another day, but a feature of this time was that the DDP removed all of the Chiang statues from around the country, and instead of pissing off all the Chiang loyalists and sending them to the scrapheap (or to Fremont in Seattle) like they did with Lenin, they placed them all in the park at Cihu Mausoleum.  Stretching as far as you can see are every kind of Chiang statues imaginable.

When sightseeing, some people love natural beauty or spectacular architecture, and while I am down with those too, kitschy and quirky is my favorite type of attraction and it doesn't get any kookier than this place.  Next to the Shrimping District, this is my favorite spot in Taiwan.  As we're strolling around looking at all of the different Chiang poses, Dr. Suess's Green Eggs and Ham was running on a loop through my mind.  So to honor this truly unique place, I give you my tribute to Chiang Kai Shek.

I am Chiang
Chiang I am
and I do not like
Green Eggs and Ham

Do you like them with a scroll?

Do you like them with a pole?

Do you like them with a chapeau?

Do you like them in a row?

Do you like them with a bible?

Do you like them in the saddle?

Do you like them from the rear?

Do you like them as you disappear?

Do you like them with your awards?

Do you like them with your wards?

Do you like them in a chair?

Do you like them with no hair?

Do you like them in the mist?

Do you like them when you're pissed?

And finally...
Do you like them in a sarcophagus?

Do you like them as you walk amongst us?

April 8, 2013

As promised, today's post will consist of random thoughts and observations we noted during our 5 days in the Philippines.  Let me preface the below with my limited preconceptions of the place.  As long as I've known Betty, a lot of people, mostly Asians, look at her and assume she is Filipino.  As a proud Chinese, it has always rankled her a bit, and my understanding of the Chinese is that many feel that the Filipinos are inferior to them and that they are the people that come to their country to to the dirty work.  To be fair, the Chinese think all races are inferior to them.  Have always assumed the fact that Betty has darker skin and larger boobs than your typical Chinese is what causes this confusion, but the fact that a lot of the locals came up to her and started in with the Tagalog assuming she was local is making me think she may not actually be Chinese. 

My impression of the Filipinos was that they are a happy people, very courteous and laid back.  I appreciated the fact that English is all  over the place with signage easy to read and everyone we met spoke it well.  The official language is Tagalog but English is also considered a national language.  By the way...every time I say or think about the Tagalog language, it makes me hungry for my favorite Girl Scout cookie...the Tagalong.

Something I loved and found comforting was that the entire vibe was similar to Mexico.  Makes sense as there is a long history of Spanish influence/colonization in both countries, but seeing just how close the two societies appear was interesting.  For instance, exactly like Mexico, when the street vendors wanted you to look at their products, they would ask for a Filipino minute and offer a Filipino price.

The very first thing we noticed about the people was their complete fascination with basketball.  The TV had 3 stations devoted to it and they showed games day and night from the NBA, NCAA, European and local leagues.  A very high percentage of the fellas, and quite a few of the ladies, wore basketball jersey's, seemingly equally split between the NBA and local teams, with Kobe's jersey outnumbering any other player 5 to 1.

Another thing we all loved was not having to wear bathing caps in the pool.  From research, we know that Taiwan is the only country in the world with the mandatory bathing cap in the pool requirement, so it was not unexpected, but was such a relief to not have to wear those horrendous things.

We have grown used to a lot of stray dogs in Taiwan, but we noticed an equal amount of stray cats roaming around everywhere.  They were quite cute and seemed mellow enough, but we dared not touch.

 

The Filipinos love the pork products.  At our favorite restaurant, we saw at least a half dozen cochinillio being served.  Basically, an entire baby pig roasted and served to your table.



And saw more than one of these giant pigs being slow roasted all day along side the beach.

Also beach side were numerous massage tables...300 pesos (US$10) for an hour massage...Betty got at least one per day and think she doubled up a couple of the days as she would disappear and come back all relaxed.  As we would walk by the massage places in the evening, the masseuses would loudly be hawking their services, and then would say to the fellas in a quieter voice, "upstairs massage".  A Google search of "upstairs massage" came back with some interesting results.

We also had frequent sightings of what has to be described as "lady boys".  I don't think they registered as such with Carolyn, but Paul noticed them.  We are not a homophobic lot, and have seen guys in drag before, but it was really hard to tell that these were not girls.  Note to anyone traveling to the Philippines, make sure you check under the hood before purchasing an upstairs massage.   

A couple of vacation nicknames were given...Paul definitely decompressed mentally from his school work and was practically a vegetable.  Brain dead and lazy.  Not complaining as that is exactly what a beach vacation should be, but one afternoon, as we're walking home from something, he refuses to carry the beach bag or groceries, but offers to carry the towels around his neck.  So his name became Towel Rack as in...
Me: "Where's Towel Rack?"
Carolyn: "He's in the hotel room watching Filipino Minute To Win It."

A food they had all over the place that we all love, but cannot find in TW, is chorizo.  Growing up in Argentina, chorizo is it's own food group to Betty, so she was loving having it offered in so many places.  Don't think she liked it, but we started calling her Choriza (rthymes with Teresa).

Our hotel included buffet breakfast, and both Paul and I latched onto a typical Filipino dish offered called pancit bihon , which are rice noodles mixed with veggies or meat.  Of course, the noodles originate from China (duh), but as with the Italians, they have taken it and made something magical.  We also ordered up some lumpias , which are basically spring rolls but smaller and wrapped tighter (another Chinese import done better).  Love those and the ones we had were good, but not as good as our friend Yvette's mother-in-laws recipe (hope there are some on the menu when we visit this summer by the way...).  And while it was kinda gross, being able to walk along the beach and have a dude crack open a coconut, stick a straw in and drink away was so very Castaway.

One day, as we are floating in the crystal blue ocean and throwing algae balls at each other, we stumbled upon a metaphor to describe our family dynamic.  First, the Korean peninsula was all over the news.  Second, it is no secret that we align along the typical Mama's Boy/Daddy's Girl stereotypes.  So as we're floating, we drift into a bit deeper water and Carolyn can't touch the bottom and she starts swimming in my direction yelling "Daddy Daddy".  Betty is between us and offers to help her, but she splashes right past her to me, obviously preferring a risk of drowning than having mom help her.  It then turned into an algae fight between Betty/Paul against Carolyn/Me that we equated to China/N.Korea v S. Korea/USA.  The similarities to the conflict on the Korean peninsula were scary.  Paul as N. Korea lobbing algae bombs at Carolyn/S. Korea with me (the USA obviously) protecting her, while Betty (as China of course) sorta telling little Paul Jong-un to knock it off but doing nothing to stop him while secretly providing more algae.  Paul/N.Korea even took it to the next level by lobbing a couple of salvos at Betty/China just to piss them off too.  Such a great way to learn about geopolitics.

April 7, 2013

Back from vacation in Boracay in the Philippines and we all loved it.  Boracay is a 7km long, 1km wide island in the middle of the Philippine archipelago (archipelago was our word of the week), so it is protected from the open ocean and made for calm and warm waters.  The sand on the main beach (called White Beach) was soft and powdery...

 

 



White Beach is 3KM long and there is an uninterrupted strand that runs the length of it. The strand is pedestrian only and is lined with the hotels, shops and restaurants.  Of course there was a Starbucks.

But the big find was a Shakey's located right next to our hotel.  Shakey's was huge in my youth, first being the place the baseball teams would go have pizza after games, and later as a place to load up with food during Bunch-a-Lunch in my poorer days.  Had to have a meal there for nostalgic purposes. 

The bulk of the tourists were Asians; Japanese, Chinese and Koreans mostly.  The Koreans were funny as they brought their own kimchi along and broke it out at their breakfast tables to mix in with the hotel's buffet.  As is their custom, they all performed and endless series of pose-a-thons for the camera with obligatory flashing peace signs and jumping photos.  There were a decent amount of Westerners sprinkled into the crowd and we heard many Australian and European accents.  We seemed to set up our beach chairs next to these two girls daily for some reason.

Betty made friends with them and learned they came from Russia.  They stood out from the crowd so much that a parade of Asian dudes would come up and ask to take pictures with them.  We were a little more discreet.

As the beach faced west, watching the sunsets became a daily routine. 

The reason I included this picture is I wanted to share a comment that our friend Patrick posted on Facebook about it..."Nice camera work.  Very hard to get a picture of both the sun and the moon in a single shot"

The only mild bummer about the beach was the daily algae bloom.  There was a 2 meter wide slick of algae between the beach and the blue water that you would have to walk through.  Wasn't really that bad as the stuff was not thick or clingy, and had the smell of a new tennis ball.  Plus, it provided hours of entertainment as we would ball it up and chuck at one another, and of course create some performance art.

 

One afternoon, we hired one of these local boats for a 4 hour ride around the island.

 

 

We stopped for snorkeling and also at Puka Beach.  Puka Beach is one off the few places left where natural puka shells are found.  

I had to buy a necklace, David Cassidy style.

 

  

We sailed by Manny Paquiao's resort...they so love that guy.

And were gassed by the end of the ride (note the puka necklace).

Another afternoon, we went to the north end of the island to see what's what.  The north end is the rugged side and has the highest point on the island.  We rented ATV's and a dune buggy.

Betty proceeded to immediately drive into the bushes.

It was terribly funny at the time, but when we got home, we learned that one of the teacher's at school on vacation on another local island rode her scooter off of a cliff and died.  Sorry for the bummer, but it's a reminder not to get too nonchalant.

The view from the top of the hill was a full 360 and simply gorgeous.

From the ATV place, we went up the road to the zip line joint.  Turns out, only Paul had done a short zip line before on a school trip, and the one we went to looked really long and both the operators and equipment looked a bit sketchy, but we all agreed to go for it...still in our nonchalant phase.  We went two at a time and Paul asked why we chose to go one parent and one child at a time, and Betty told him it would be bad for the kids to lose both parents in an accident.  So reassuring.

The operators of the line offered to let the local dude that was taking us around on the excursions to ride down first so he could take photos of us as we came down.  As they were strapping him in, he looked a little giddy and we asked if he'd ever done it before, and he said it was his first time.   Off he went, and when we got to the bottom, he wasn't there.  Apparently, he smashed his face into the harness and cut himself open enough to go to the hospital.  Luckily, we didn't know that till we had zipped down.  They really don't prepare you well enough mentally for the "automatic" breaking system, which consisted of a series of 2x4's that the pully rig basically crashes into to slow down.  It felt like a mild car accident but we all escaped unharmed, although Betty has been complaining of whiplash since.

The mode of transportation on the island is called a Tuk Tuk, which is a 150cc mortorcycle with a sidecar attached. 

A tight squeeze for a family of 4 but still a fun way to travel.

The food we encountered was a mixed bag...other than Shakey's, we thought the local treat called a Halo-Halo was pretty gross.  Sounds better in that description that what we sampled, which was basically crushed ice and jelly beans.  We did find a restaurant that we loved...a Spanish joint called Dos Mestizos...that Betty and I both thought was the best Spanish food we have ever eaten.  Had a handful of typical tapas (the Spanish Tortilla and albondigas were standouts), a couple of soups and the best paella ever.  Was so delicious that we went back a second time.

That's it for today.  Since I like to judge things immediately and with limited information, I will provide my observations on the Philippines and Filipinos tomorrow.