Well as I mentioned in my last post that my body clock hasn't adjusted to Philippine time yet so am always up extremely early. I waited until 4am to take a shower before heading out.
At 4:30am it was dark outside but the temperature was perfect. Although I normally walk along the main drag I have never walk it this early in the morning and I saw a lot of women dressed up with makeup on and can only assume they are prostitutes as they all looked at me and smiled. I walked by a group of 6 women sitting on the road and they all looked up at me smiling as if to say "pick me!" and I am thinking "Yup they are prostitutes".
As I approach McDonalds for my morning coffees I passed by this old 50 something guy staggering down the road with his arm around this younger attractive filipina and thought she had to be a hooker to be with this white trailer trash of a guy. This guy could have had a part on "The Trailer Park Boys".
As I sat down with my coffees these two came in and she sat down at the table across from me as he went to order. I looked over at her and saw that she was very attractive and thought too bad she is involved in her "trade". She could have been a model but instead has to hook up with white trailer trash for a few extra pesos.
One thing that annoys me are the young boys who as soon as they seen a westerner coming down the road they coming running up to you with their hands out looking for money like we are their personal ATM machines or something which makes me wonder if other westerners on "vacation" have given them money as they seem to expect it. What productive members of society they will be when they grow up. Another thing that really annoys me is taxi drivers are constantly honking at me to get my attention like "Hey mister, do you want a taxi ride??". Like if I wanted a taxi ride I would wave you down but I am walking along the side of the road going to my destination. CA$H is definitely KING here. As I was looking around town a women kept on pestering me "Hello? Hello? What are you looking for?" I tried ignoring her but she persisted and came right up to me smiling and I could tell she wasn't being Mrs Helpful Tourist guide but was hoping their would be money in it for her. Oh another thing that annoys me is although I have read about this from other expats online, their toilet seats are constantly coming off the toilet as they are very cheaply made (made in China?) and some don't even have the toilet seat on the toilet even in McDonalds!
Just to give you an idea of the wages here. A journeyman carpenter makes roughly $8US per day! Unskilled labour even less of course. Last night I ate at CHOW KING restaurant and had their 5 piece chicken with rice for $10US and realized it was more than a carpenter makes in a day of hard work! Personally I didn't like the way they did the chicken and ended up only eating half of it. I didn't really like Jollibees either so filipino food is not really my thing except I don't mind the street food here.
I was happy to find out that McDonalds is open 24/7 here so I may be visiting it at 3am when I get up. There are a lot of security guard jobs here and I have read they don't pay very much like $50-$100US a month or something like that. Most establishments have them since they are cheap enough. As I walked to McDonalds this morning I saw a security guard at a bank leaning back in his chair outside fast asleep!! I was going to sneak up on him and pull his gun out of his holster and take it. He would definitely have some explaining to do to his boss that day "But boss, I only fell asleep for 10 minutes, honestly!".
I walked down to the bus station as I was going to purchase a bus ticket for Dumaguete for Sunday morning but the guy there told me that I just have to show up at booth #6 with Ceres bus company and can get on at 5am at the earliest as many leave daily for Dumaguete. I have noticed a lot of the women here put a handkerchief over their nose and mouth while walking downtown. Since I can't smell I can only assume it is to do with smell or pollution or a combination of the two.
It was still early so I decided to walk up to Ayala center mall and was surprised with how posh it looked compared to the rest of the city. Many big banks skyscrapers and malls in this area and very first world looking. It was like Beverly Hills with nice manicured green lawns and palm trees down the center of the road and the fronts of the stores were all glass and it looked really nice. I wanted to go inside the malls but realized they open at 10am and it was only 7:45am so I have a couple hours to kill yet.
At 4:30am it was dark outside but the temperature was perfect. Although I normally walk along the main drag I have never walk it this early in the morning and I saw a lot of women dressed up with makeup on and can only assume they are prostitutes as they all looked at me and smiled. I walked by a group of 6 women sitting on the road and they all looked up at me smiling as if to say "pick me!" and I am thinking "Yup they are prostitutes".
As I approach McDonalds for my morning coffees I passed by this old 50 something guy staggering down the road with his arm around this younger attractive filipina and thought she had to be a hooker to be with this white trailer trash of a guy. This guy could have had a part on "The Trailer Park Boys".
As I sat down with my coffees these two came in and she sat down at the table across from me as he went to order. I looked over at her and saw that she was very attractive and thought too bad she is involved in her "trade". She could have been a model but instead has to hook up with white trailer trash for a few extra pesos.
One thing that annoys me are the young boys who as soon as they seen a westerner coming down the road they coming running up to you with their hands out looking for money like we are their personal ATM machines or something which makes me wonder if other westerners on "vacation" have given them money as they seem to expect it. What productive members of society they will be when they grow up. Another thing that really annoys me is taxi drivers are constantly honking at me to get my attention like "Hey mister, do you want a taxi ride??". Like if I wanted a taxi ride I would wave you down but I am walking along the side of the road going to my destination. CA$H is definitely KING here. As I was looking around town a women kept on pestering me "Hello? Hello? What are you looking for?" I tried ignoring her but she persisted and came right up to me smiling and I could tell she wasn't being Mrs Helpful Tourist guide but was hoping their would be money in it for her. Oh another thing that annoys me is although I have read about this from other expats online, their toilet seats are constantly coming off the toilet as they are very cheaply made (made in China?) and some don't even have the toilet seat on the toilet even in McDonalds!
Just to give you an idea of the wages here. A journeyman carpenter makes roughly $8US per day! Unskilled labour even less of course. Last night I ate at CHOW KING restaurant and had their 5 piece chicken with rice for $10US and realized it was more than a carpenter makes in a day of hard work! Personally I didn't like the way they did the chicken and ended up only eating half of it. I didn't really like Jollibees either so filipino food is not really my thing except I don't mind the street food here.
I was happy to find out that McDonalds is open 24/7 here so I may be visiting it at 3am when I get up. There are a lot of security guard jobs here and I have read they don't pay very much like $50-$100US a month or something like that. Most establishments have them since they are cheap enough. As I walked to McDonalds this morning I saw a security guard at a bank leaning back in his chair outside fast asleep!! I was going to sneak up on him and pull his gun out of his holster and take it. He would definitely have some explaining to do to his boss that day "But boss, I only fell asleep for 10 minutes, honestly!".
I walked down to the bus station as I was going to purchase a bus ticket for Dumaguete for Sunday morning but the guy there told me that I just have to show up at booth #6 with Ceres bus company and can get on at 5am at the earliest as many leave daily for Dumaguete. I have noticed a lot of the women here put a handkerchief over their nose and mouth while walking downtown. Since I can't smell I can only assume it is to do with smell or pollution or a combination of the two.
It was still early so I decided to walk up to Ayala center mall and was surprised with how posh it looked compared to the rest of the city. Many big banks skyscrapers and malls in this area and very first world looking. It was like Beverly Hills with nice manicured green lawns and palm trees down the center of the road and the fronts of the stores were all glass and it looked really nice. I wanted to go inside the malls but realized they open at 10am and it was only 7:45am so I have a couple hours to kill yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment