Typhoon Haiyan hits the Philippines

Today, the super typhoon Haiyan has hit the islands of the Philippines. According to the news it seems to be a really seriously strong typhoon. Initially it was expected to hit Manila, too. But it changed its route and is now passing at the south of Manila. At the moment, there is heavy rain in Manila, but not that much of wind. I have not seen any flooding yet in Manila, but that might still come later.
Anyways Makati City is safe. I was only affected by the typhoon by our planned dive week-end which had to be canceled. But other people in the center of the Philippines are probably affected much much worse.

A weird traffic pattern: Turns on a multi lane road intersecion

I keep noticing this very often: There seems to be a weird traffic pattern in the Philippines, that when cars take a turn, that they basically skip one lane into the middle of the new street. It seems like sharp turns are unpopular somehow. But the consequence is, that the outermost vehicle will have to squeeze in with the rest of the traffic, while the innermost lane remains unused.
If anybody knows why that is, or whether this is even the official traffic law, let me know. I am curious.

More strange patterns are about to follow.

The good and the bad

In this post I would like to list the positive and the negative points that I (being a Swiss citizen) experience in my every day life in the Philippines. I am aware that this list is very much biased and might look totally different for a foreigner originating from a different country than Switzerland.

The good

• The climate. I am coming from a country where the climate is constantly cold or cool. Sometimes the sun is hardly coming out from the clouds/myst for several days or even weeks. Here in the PH the temperatures range between 26 degrees and 34 degrees Celsius.
• The happiness. Filipinos are in a constant state of happiness that nobody can take them away. Even in the most stressful (for me) situations, someone around me suddenly starts singing a song. Just like that.
• There are no youngster groups hanging out here and mocking any person who passes by. Younger people are always respectful towards older people. This contributes quite much to a comfortable feeling when being in the public, as the average Filipino age is around 23 years only. This results in the situation that most Filipinos are younger than me. Voila. Here is the respect.
• As an expat I am in the lucky situation that I can benefit from my European salary but spend it in the PH where many things (not all things though) are cheaper. Particularly restaurants, taxis, personal services (tennis instructor, ball boy, house keeping, ...), traveling.
• I can go diving and playing tennis much more than I could in Switzerland. Diving because there are very nice dive sites just 2-3 hours away, and tennis because it is much cheaper here and the weather allows to play outdoor every day until 22:00.
• Traveling South East Asia Pacific region is very convenient from the PH.
• Proximity to the sea and to nice beaches
• The openness of Filipinos to foreigners and also among themselves. They are not afraid of getting to know anybody new.
• Restaurants and shops always have plenty of staff. As a customer you definitely get the attention you are looking for easily.
• As a foreigner I feel like sometimes I get a particularly good service in the PH. Or if I complain about something my complaint is being taken a touch more seriously.
• For a single man life in the PH (or may be generally in South East Asia) is much more relaxed than in Switzerland in terms of looking for female company. In Switzerland there are 70% males in every bar. Planes can not take off because they are over-weight (see this news article) having so many males compare over so few females aboard. These things would never happen here. Here it could be other way around, I get the impression.
• Virtually everybody speaks English in the PH.
• I can use the swimming pool every day. If I only would...

The bad

• Out of stock: So many times when you pick your dish on the menu of a restaurant, it turns out that this dish is out of stock right now. Or you need to buy some milk very urgently? Out of stock. The service technician who is supposed to install your land line telephone: Out of stock of cable. Needs to come back later. Toilet paper? You don't want to know.... Supply chain management is a problem all over the PH. I have still not found any satisfactory explanation why that occurs so frequently here.
• Out of change: In the Philippines you need to be prepared having the right change to pay for anything. Don't expect to receive change for cash which exceeds 3 times the price (e.g. if the taxi fare is PHP 300, you won't be able to pay using a PHP 1'000 bill). 
• The air in the city and the tap water are not clean.
• The relentless burocracy and the many forms you have to fill even for buying bubble gum. For each service you need to sign five times.
• Many Filipinos litter and are not aware that other people might feel disturbed of the trash lying around. This applies even to parks, beaches and historic islands. I guess the people who litter simply don't appreciate the beauty of the landscape enough, so they don't recognize its value.
• Traffic is very bad in the PH. Not only in Manila. There is hardly any railway or metro system. So all traffic flows though the streets. And the Jeepneys and UV taxis just stop everywhere, blocking the traffic behind. Often cars just stop anyways, for having a breakfast in a Jolly-Cheap, or for having a pee or whatever, and often they don't drive aside but simply stop right in the middle of a traffic lane. Cars always cut the turns. Pedestrians cross at red light. Tricycles (slow!) drive on highspeed roads, leaving no space to overtake. Roads always take traffic right through each city-centre or centre of the village, there is no such a thing like a perimeter road which keeps transit traffic outside of the cities, by-passing them. The cities collapse under the heavy transit traffic, and the transit traffic fights with the slow city traffic like tricycles. A lose-lose situation.
• Travel taxes: Every time I leave the PH I have to pay travel taxes of about 60 dollars. A cheap quick flight to HK, Singapore or Thailand gets easily doubled in price only because of the travel tax.
• Security feeling: I always feel safe around my neighbourhood. And I have never got into any trouble so far and not even whitnessed anything. But especially abroad people keep reminding me how dangerous it can be in the PH. I guess the truth lies somewhere in between.
• Despite the many cinemas around (each mall has one), the selection of movies they display is very narrow (selection is usually around 5 different movies only). Filipinos seem to like the blockbusters with superheroes. But to find cultural movies or movies which are not made by Hollywood or by the PH is very difficult.
• The internet connectivity between the PH and Asia or USA seems to be relatively slow. Despite having the fastest home internet plan available, I still can't watch a Youtube video without letting it pre-cache first.
• Electronic goods (cameras, computers, HIFI systems, TVs, ...) cost more than in European countries. And much more than in Singapore or HK.
• It is difficult for me to find my usual healthy food in restaurants. When I order something with vegetables here, the vegetables are usally only for decoration. Just a spoon full of vegetables. Meat and carbohydrates are clearly prioritized on local menus.
• Despite every body speaking English, sometimes accent-free, it can be surprisingly hard to get your point across to the conversational partner. And the flawless English you hear makes you believe that communication should be child's play. It's not.

This picture shows a taxi stopping in the middle of the street to have a breakfast at the Jolly-Cheap (food stall) at the side of the street. This is normal and nobody seems to care. Even in peak traffic hour.

The West Philippine Sea

It is remarkable how offensive and blunt China is trying to underline its claims over disputed geographical areas. Recently the biggest Philippine book-store had to pull out its China made globes because those globes labelled the sea in the West of the Philippines as part of the South Chinese Sea:
Read Chinh's News for a detailed article about it.

Picture courtesy of Rainier Allan Ronda

With the new Chinese Passports there was a similar story: The passports labelled foreign or disputed territories as Chinese territory:

Read the full story here.

Italianni's restaurant: Why you should not buy the discount card

I had a discount card of Italianni's Restaurant (http://www.italiannis.com.ph) which costed P1'500 and allowed me 20% discount on all bills at Italianni's and some other restaurant for one year.
Unfortunately, one of the Italianni's restaurants didn't bring me back that card after I have settled the restaurant bill. And I didn't notice it. It's gone.

Now it turns out (typical for a paper-based country like the Philippines. Nothing is ever stored in a centralized computer system.) that they can not replace a lost card, although I had to register my name, address, phone number and e-mail address when purchasing it. I had to purchase a new one instead.
When purchasing a new one at the Italianni's at Greenbelt 2 in Makati, it turned out that they are out of stock of the card. They only had the Premium card for P2'500 on stock. A bit frustrated I went for that one and bought it.
Now I am home and noticed that they didn't give me the booklet containing all these vouchers which make the difference between the cheaper standard card and the premium card! When calling that restaurant, they really suggested to keep the booklet until my next visit, so I could collect it then. Wow, this is bad customer service! Just a pity that they serve the best Broccoli Aspargus Ravioli I ever had. Otherwise I would avoid that restaurant from now on...
My rating:

• Kitchen: (8 out of 10)
• Service: (3 out of 10)

New perspective of the Phillippines on Mindanao

During New Year I spend a bit more than a week on the island of Mindanao, in the south of the Philippines. Together with Tes and Papa.
Mindanao is huge, we only saw the small areas around Davao, Malita and Samal Island.

In Malita we met parts of Tes' family, particularly the family of ate Menchie and kuya Mar who were taking care of us very kindly.
Davao City is a relaxed city which does not feel like a big city. There are only about 2 tall buildings, and only a hand-full buildings which are more than 2 storeys tall. The Peoples' Park impressed me with its size, cleanlyness and attractions. It invites to hang out with friends. In one thing Davao City is more advanced than Manila: The public ban of fireworks (particularly during New Year). This reduces the number of injuries, and makes it harder to fire guns as it would be heard and prosecuted immediately (unlike in Manila). It made me sad to read in the local news that two children had been killed by stray bullets in Manila on New Year's eve.

Davao City - seen from my hotel room at Marco Polo Hotel. In the background the island of Samal.

Tes and Mar

Our local transport: The pickup truck of kuya Mar

Our beach in Malita

The host family who maintains our beach. And Papa, Tes and me. I look so tall on this picture... :-p

Tes (right) with two of her sisters: Menchie (left) and Bernadette (center). In the background: Left is our house and right is the house of the host family.

During our little stroll through the back of Lacaron Beach, the terrain was so difficult and steep that everybody was struggling. This is the remembrance I took from that stroll.

The area of Malita seen from the hill side

One of the daughters of the host family.

The Pearl Farm Beach Resort on Samal Island. We just spent the last 2 nights there.

Scuba diving holidays in Palau

This month I could spend 2 beautiful weeks of scuba diving holidays in Palau. Here you find Palau on the map:

The islands of Palau look very particular and distinct:

Perfect for diving, but not too many beaches, as most of the islands have a steep cliff.

Papa, Tes and me, we stayed 4 days in a hotel on Palau, then 8 days on the Palau Siren for diving. This is Papa with the Palau Siren:

Here are some scuba pictures. Good that I just completed the NITROX dive course before, as we were all diving with NITROX exclusively.

This is me in front of the wreck of the Taisho Maru. The Taisho Maru was a Japanese ocean liner which was sunk by a US submarine torpedo on October 26, 1944 (the ship had been converted into a military transport ship during the war).

More pictures are available on my Picasa web album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104727839447798652971/PalauJan2013?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Here are my dive profiles:

Sick at home

Currently I am staying sick at home. I have a nasty caugh that lasts already for about 3 weeks. Let's see what the chest x-ray will reveal. I am already on a antibiotic treatment.

As I have plenty of free time at home now, I can watch Youtube videos all day long. :-) Watch this video about the Tarsiers (as seen on Bohol, Philippines):

And one more about Sloths:

And about the Angler Fish:

Fairwell video for Christian

Christian from Avaloq Zurich stayed with us here in Manila for a couple of months. He helped us to streamline the interaction between Zurich an Manila, and helped us to improve our organization a lot.
The team made a great video for his fairwell:
http://vimeo.com/57844907
Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this nice video!