Daily Report: Light Blogging Apologies

Sorry about having been so light on the blogging lately. I just been focusing my attention elsewhere for the past few weeks. Got a lot to think about... The move mostly: What to do with my stuff I'll be leaving behind, the finances associated with moving, and the cats. (Anybody know a veterinarian in Pattaya who can fill out a National Health Affadavit? Anybody know how to fix the registration of a motorcycle that has been registered as the wrong color?)

Epril and I are having fun at Geordan's aikido classes twice a week, and lunch once a week with Stan. We're still doing our Friday night dinners out with the gang... but the thought of spending a few hours putting together a restaurant review these days is too daunting.

Anyway, that's it for now. Check back later for more updates... I'll keep writing.

Daily Report: Back To Cambodia

Epril and I did a visa run today: an old-fashioned, out-to-Cambodia visa run. It's the first visa run like that for me in eight months actually.

I couldn't get in touch with my old visa run company, and instead went to Key Visa Run, and they hooked me up with a tour group that does visa runs, called "Good Tour Pattaya."

I can't say it was much fun.

First off, this particular visa run company picks up people all over Pattaya, instead of having all of the visa runners meet at one place. We were picked up at 6:10 a.m. in front of Key Visa on Soi LK Metro, and then we drove around Pattaya for almost an hour picking up more people.

The secret to a good visa run is getting to the border early, before the crowds arrive. NB: The crowds are the people who use Good Tour Pattaya, who delivered van after van after van of visa runners. Instead of a brisk 30 minutes at the border as with earlier visa runs, we were 2 hours. Thus, our total visa run time was extended by an hour at the beginning running around Pattaya, and 90 minutes at the border. Instead of returning back to Pattaya at 1:30 in the aftenoon, it was 4:00.

Also, this visa run company — presumably all visa run companies — now have a bit of a scam going on. Welllll... it's not a scam per se. I have to be careful about that. Let me explain:

Thai border officials can refuse a visa to a person arriving at the border if that person cannot produce a ticket (or other evidence) that shows that he or she will be leaving Thailand within the time period of the visa they are requesting (e.g. 30 days). This is the law... and I believe it always has been; it has just never been enforced.

What I believe the visa companies have done is gone to the border agents and said, "Look: You enforce this law, demand to see an onward ticket, and we'll sell bus tickets (which will never be used) out of Thailand to the people doing the visa runs. You get some money, we get some money. Deal?"

So, when Epril and I got to the border, with no proof to show that we would be leaving Thailand in the next 30 days, we were forced (and I will emphasize legally forced) to buy two 200-baht bus tickets in order to get our 30-day visas.

Now, I will say that it could be the other way around, and the border agents said that they were going to start enforcing the "ticket" law, and told the visa companies to start selling the tickets. Like I said, I use the word "scam" only in the sense that it is an unexpected expense that Epril and I were only told about once we arrived at the border at which point it was too late to do anything about it. Any person who shows up at the border with proper onward ticketing does not have to purchase the 200-baht bus ticket.

All in all though, it is just one more sour visa run experience here in Thailand that I'm really happy to be escaping from. Remember kids: Right now, you can stay in The Philippines for up to 16 months on a single tourist visa, renewing every 2 months for 3,000 pesos in most major cities in The Philippines at the Department of Immigration, including where I'll be living in Cagayan De Oro.

Somebody asked me why I'm moving to The Philippines, and I realized that I really had not explained why. Well, I'll get around to all the reasons at some point, but visa runs and their ever-increasing difficulty here in Thailand is definitely one of the top three reasons.

Daily Report: Blue Monday

Sorry about the light blogging here at J.I.P. lately. I've been enjoying a bit of time away from the responsibility of putting up posts every day. I haven't been doing anything particularly noteworthy lately... although I did go out to TQ2 with Epril on Sunday night and saw all my friends.

Anyway, I'm still here, the weather is gorgeous, and Thailand is as interesting as ever. Wish you were here.

Daily Report: Housing Settled, Blog Not

I've been over-sleeping a bit lately. I think the reason is that the sun is rising much later now than it did in the summer time (as it tends to do). I wait until the sun is up — at about 7:00 — before contemplating wakefulness.

I've been in touch with my next landlord in Cagayan in the Philippines, and he has a photo of my new front yard (which I forgot to snap while there during Christmas). So I present to you the view from my next house.As soon as the tax refund arrives, I'll be making the move to The Philippines.

I haven't figured out whether I'll rename the blog or not, or keep it as a Pattaya blog, and then start a second Cagayan Blog, or change this blog to a Cagayan blog.

Right now, the plan is to just keep posting about Pattaya news as it happens, post about my life in Cagayan, and add Cagayan news as well. I'm thinking about having one of my friends come on as a blogger as well to do some occasional writing about his life in Pattaya to keep a local perspective.

Anyway, give me some feedback if you have any other ideas or input for what I should do with the blog when I move to The Philippines in a month or two.

Daily Report: Moving Along

I'm relaxing a little bit from blogging this past weekend: After all, hobbies are enjoyable because you can put them down and walk away from them from time to time.

Work is fair. I was out with Stan today for lunch at Dao Café. I finally got a virus off of Epril's computer, which she downloaded through Yahoo Messenger. The weather has been spectacular here in Pattaya... as it manages to be for about 2 weeks per year: Cool (85°) and sunny at the same time.

Daily Report: Close to Perfect on the Recipe

Up early, but laid around in the sunshine which streams directly onto my bed every morning, nice long shower, blogged, and enjoyed my coffee until mid-morning. Then I got to work. Go and Epril went to Fuji and brought home dumplings and makizushi for lunch.

In the afternoon, Epril and I listened to music. I'm always surprised about which music Epril is familiar with, and which she has never heard before. For example, today I found out that she knows all of Toto's music by heart, but had never heard anything by Supertramp.

In the evening, I had leftovers from our Fuji lunch. I also worked on matching Bob's strawberry margarita recipe. He gave me the basic instructions, and I worked on simplifying the formula, and have finally gotten my own version: One large shot glass of lime juice, one large shot glass of sugar, 8 strawberries, 2 large shot glasses of tequila, 2 large shot glasses of triple sec, and a double handful of ice, all in a blender. It isn't quite as good as Bob's, but it's about 90%.

On television, Epril and I watched a billiard trick shot competition, "The Amazing Race, Asia", and "24", and then we went to bed.

Daily Report: Dancing Not Boxing

I lazed around in bed this morning, enjoying lying in the sunshine coming through the window. After that I watched the results of the New Hampshire primary on the internet. (I have no idea why I grew this intense interest in politics 10 or 15 years ago... I used to be all about Star Trek.)

I got a fair morning of work done. Then took a break for lunch (just some steamed peas), and got a little more work done in the afternoon.

At 3:30, I was out with Franky and his friend Amber to a late lunch at Jerry's poolside restaurant. Then it was back home for some blogging. Franky and Amber came back over to watch "Contender, Asia" (which is for muay thai boxing). Unfortunately, I was mistaken about the date (but not the day): It premiers next Wednesday.

Instead, we watched the movie "Happy Feet", which we all enjoyed thoroughly.

Daily Report: The New Store

I made several phone calls to TOT today to try to get my internet switched back on, which finally happened at about 6:00 tonight. Typical customer service in Thailand: I have three "backup" TOT numbers to call for when I have problems with my internet when the main line is jammed. Two of those numbers, the people just hung up on me when I told them I was having problems with my DSL... told them in Thai, no less.

Today was really the first day since December 20th that I put in a really full day of work in my full-speed accounts. With this past paycheck consisting of primarily vacation pay, this upcoming paycheck having last week's miserable production included in it, and the paycheck after that being used to pay for plane tickets to Laos, and the bank balance almost running on vapors while waiting for the big tax refund in a couple of months, fun money is going to be at a premium for a while. Oh well... At least I'm not going to be pulling out the credit cards this year: They expired last July and I didn't renew them.

I went to the new Tesco Lotus Express store tonight. You know: The one about which all those people have been protesting. Idiots: Since these people were thinking that this store would put them out of business, I was under the impression that this store was nothing more than a slightly oversized 7-11... something that would threaten a typical little suburban Thai "mom and pop store". That's completely wrong. This is a down-sized Tesco Lotus, with almost everything that Tesco Lotus in town has. The people who are losing business because of this Tesco Lotus Express store is the Tesco Lotus Superstore Carrefour on Pattaya Central Road. If I need beer, chips, milk, phone card, or some microwaved instant noodles, I'm not going to drive 2 miles to the new T.L.E. past 7 or 8 "mom and pop" stores selling the same thing. However, when I need spaghetti sauce, coffee, apples, and razor blades, I'm not going to drive 3 miles through Sukhumvit Road traffic past a place that is selling those either.

Anyway, the new T.L.E. store is off of Sukhumvit Road behind that electronic store between Soi Siam Country Club and Soi Nerm Pleubwan, or off of that little road that runs between Soi Siam Country Club and Soi Nerm Pleubwan between Sukhumvit and the railroad tracks. If you live on the East side of Sukhumvit Road, I really recommend stopping by to see if this is a place where you might want to do your grocery shopping. I'll be shopping there for simple items, but for the more uncommon stuff (parmesan cheese springs immediately to mind), I'll still be heading to the larger stores in town.

Daily Report: Yeah... The Water Too

Standard morning wake-up routine: Epril wakes up with the alarm, and then climbs on top of me and pokes my nose and nuzzles me and flicks my eyelids. Then, I tickle her until she squeals and giggles. Then we go back to sleep for 20 minutes. Repeat three or four times.

I got the phone turned back on my my house, but the DSL isn't back up yet. I had a moderately poor day of work (as Mondays usually are).


So tell me about your Monday.
(source)In the afternoon, the water ran out. After a week with failing electricity, telephone, and internet, it only makes sense for the water to follow suit. We had the water truck stop by at dinnertime to fill our reserve tank up: 150 baht for 3 cubic meters of cloudy pond water. Sounds like a pretty good racket to me.

In the evening, Geoff and Honey Mae came over. Epril didn't tell them in advance that Monday night is Doctor Who night at the Jil Residence. Perhaps Epril mistakenly thought that I could have a conversation with Geoff and watch Doctor Who at the same time or something. Fortunately, Geoff (who had not seen an episode of Doctor Who in several decades) was immediately enthralled by the new Doctor Who, and the two of us (eventually joined by the two ladies) had 90 minutes of Sci-Fi heaven. (I still miss Christopher Eccleston, who some Sci-Fi guru (can't find the article... dammit Yahoo) agreed with me was the best Doctor Who ever, although this article says that David Tennant, who replaced Christopher, was polled as the favorite Doctor Who) After that, I watched "House".

At least the cable hasn't gone out yet.

Daily Report: Down But Next Door

I got home on Friday night from dinner out to find that my phone line (and internet) was out. Unlike the electricity, I'm pretty sure I paid last month's phone bill... but you never know.

Since the phone company doesn't open until Monday morning, I (with Mike's gracious acquiescience) moved my entire office to Mike's living room to use his dial-up phone line for the remainder of the weekend, where I've been plugging away at work ever since.

So, sorry about the light blogging in the meantime. I'm taking up somebody else's private space in order to get work done, not entertain the masses. However, Maid Go is going to go down to the TOT offices today with this month's phone bill to pay that and let them know that my phone is out. Hopefully things will be back to normal Monday or Tuesday.

Daily Report: Jil In The Dark

I was up at a pretty early hour for my first day back to work. Back in America, this morning represented the evening of January 2nd... the end of the first day where there would be patients visiting doctors offices since breaking for the holidays a week-and-a-half ago, or at least for before New Year's last Friday.

Unfortunately, just as I was logging on, the last of the work was being finished off by my coworkers in America at 6:00 p.m. No work left over for the night shift.

Well, there was a scattering of emergency room work trickling in, and I started work on that, just happy to finally have something to do.

Then the electricity went out... and stayed out.

I'm pretty sure that the reason God invented women was to help guys like me remember when things like the electric bill are due.

Go came to me about 2 weeks ago with the bill and told me it needed to be paid, and I told her I would take care of it after I got back from vacation, and that was the last she mentioned it to me. Good execution, but poor follow-through.

Now when I was living in the mansion up on Pratumnak Hill, I also had forgotten to pay the electric bill a few times, and when the moment came for the electric company to turn off the juice, they sent a friendly fellow with a clipboard around to the house to let me know he was turning off the electricity if I didn't pay. I paid the guy the money I owed, and that was the end of it. Now, it seems the electric company just has a button with my name on it that they push somewhere. Zoop... out goes the lights. No friendly guy with a clipboard.

Fortunately, in the afternoon, after a long nap, I finally figured out that it was only my house without electricity, and I sent Maid Go down to pay the bill and get the power turned back on. My neighbors let me run an extension cord over to their house, and I had electricity to do work for the afternoon. The power company turned the house back on right around 6:00.

In the evening, it was over to visit Geoff and Honey Mae for drinks (and egg sandwiches). We sat around chatting until 10:00, until it was time to come home and watch "24".

Daily Report #1797

There was still no work to do this morning, and instead I spent the time wandering around the internet... and didn't find too much of interest. (Or at least if I did, I can't remember it now.)

I had a late-morning nap, and had Indian food for late lunch.

In the evening, I watched a fascinating documentary movie on The Discovery Channel called "Grizzly Man", about Timothy Treadwell, a slightly loopy and definitely hippy guy who decided to go to Alaska to become a self-taught bear expert. He spent 13 seasons with the grizzlies, was a bee in the park rangers' bonnets, chased away tourists, and was overall questionable in his methods, motivations, and the results he achieved... but at the same time he did become a master at interacting with grizzly bears in the wild, and educated lots of people and raised awareness. He and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by the bears they loved in 2003, and the 2-hour documentary film made about him is one of the most interesting things I've watched on television in ages. I highly recommend renting the movie or watching it if you haven't yet.

Daily Report: Friends In Distress

I didn't bother doing any work today, primarily because there was none to do. Instead, I'm putting in for some more vacation time over these few days to cover the lack of work. I spent most of the day blogging instead, and got the rest of the photos from my trip put up.

Riza's grandmother in The Philippines died today, and Mike and she went to the airport to see if they could get her on a flight to Manila. (Being New Year's Day, all the travel agents were closed.) They finally succeeded in finding a flight at 1:00 a.m. This was Riza's first grandparent to pass, and she was a wreck. She should be back here in Thailand in a week or so. She of course gets my condolences.

I also went with Epril to visit Willie at his house today. He is laid up in bed for the next few weeks while he recovers from being in a motorcycle accident. He has a good-sized cut across his nose and eyebrow, quite a bad cut around his outer three toes on his foot, and the worst injury is an extremely deep lengthwise gouging slice into his arm.

Willie was coming home from a bar, but wasn't drunk. He was pulling out into traffic on Second Road when he got T-boned by a guy driving on his motorcycle way too fast. (I kind of wish Willie was really drunk and caused the accident himself: I hate being reminded that you can be doing everything right while out on the road, and still have calamity find you.) Anyway, Willie is pretty pained, and Epril and I will be stopping by to see him as often as we can.

Epril and I spent the evening watching Law & Order, and then a documentary on Francis Scott Powers, and his U2 shoot-down.

Daily Report: Happy New... Doh, What A Long Day

I was up fairly early — at 10:00 — considering that I walked in the door from the airport at 3:00 a.m. Maid Go wasn't there to greet us last night: She was up in Bangkok with Riza visiting her ill sister. I uploaded the photos from the trip to my computer, and made phone calls to all of my friends.


Lunch at the Dao Café was great
as always. Best pizza too.

Epril and Franky peacing out.I tried to get some work done, but the New Year's holiday (along with Thanksgiving) marks the least amount of work that there is available during the year, and I simply had nothing to do. Therefore, I spent a little time blogging.

Franky came over at 1:00, back in town for a month. (Franky is president of the J.I.P. Fan Club (i.e. this blog's first regular reader, amongst others) for those of you who don't know, and is a really enjoyable fellow from Arizona.) We spent time looking at the 300 photos I took from my week in the Philippines.

After that, it was out with Epril and Franky to The Dao Café for pizza. I tried the Pizza Orientale (chicken, sausage, onion, peppers), which wasn't as good as other types, but still quite nice. After that, we went back into the bar area and had some beers, while Franky turned on the charm and in no time flat had garnered several marriage proposals from the local lasses assembled for his entertainment.


Franky with one of the
Dao Café cuties.

Patented Franky move: Give
the cute bartender the sad
puppy dog eye look from
behind the beer bottle.After a couple of beers, Franky went back to his apartment, while Epril and I went home and spent the afternoon enjoying some quiet time. Maid Go finally got back from Bangkok and got to work on the massive pile of dirty laundry that she found in the suitcases stacked outside her door, I read my book for a while, and put up another few days' worth of trip photos on the blog.

In the evening it was out with Epril to Bob's BBQ for dinner. Bob is pleased as punch at his new location, and told me that this December has been his best month ever since starting the restaurant four years ago. I'm really happy for him. Many of my friends saw their business efforts really start to pay off in 2007.

After Bob's, it was off to Rick's bar for the New Year's countdown. It was there that I found out two things: First and foremost was that one of my best friends, Willie, had flown in from Arizona on a surprise visit the day after I left for The Philippines. Unfortunately, last night at about the same time my plane was landing, Willie got in a bad motorcycle accident and got mangled pretty badly on his face, arm, and foot (as well as about a dozen other places, according to Rick, who spent the entire night and today at the hospital). No broken bones, but cuts that sounded truly gruesome. Willie was apparently home in bed unconscious on narcotics for New Year's Eve. So that stained the evening, knowing that Willie was here, and in such poor shape.


Da, Pui, Epril, Riza, Maid Go,
Baby Sara, and Rat.The second thing I found out shortly thereafter was that Rick has hired Pui (my ex-girlfriend) as the nighttime bartender for his bar. I'm not too happy about it, but it's something I can live with. Pui and Rick's wife, Da, are as close friends as I am with Rick, and it's no surprise and perfectly reasonable that they took her on. Pui had been working at the Buffalo Bar on Third Road, but she's found some new boyfriend whom I saw briefly (seems European, in his 60's or 70's) who is paying Pui a few extra thousand baht a month to work for Rick.


The fireworks this year
were nice, but only a
fraction as many on Soi
Rungland as in prior years.So Pui The Old and Epril The New were hanging out together with Riza, Da, Rat, and Maid Go for New Year's. (This is actually the second time Epril and Pui have met, the first being on Buddha's Birthday earlier this month, when Maid Go and Epril went to the beach, and Da and Pui showed up and joined them.)

Anyway, it was a low-tone countdown. The vikings from next door did barely anything for fireworks this year. (In 2005/6, we guessed it was 40,000 baht's worth of fireworks they set off; in 2006/7, probably around 10,000; this year was barely 4,000.)


Miss Ahm, Shooters manager Ray,
and Epril enjoying New Year's.

Walking Street was packed.After midnight, Epril and I went down to Walking Street to find Stan. I finally reached him on the phone, to find out that he was "pissed as a fart" (that's British lingo in case you didn't know), and was walking home. So, Epril and I stopped in at Shooters for a drink with Ray. Epril and I also chatted with Sam for a while as well. He's still putting out some great Mexican food there, if you are interested, and Shooters still does have the best beer selection in Pattaya, bar none. (Sam and Ray want me to let you all know to keep an eye out on the Pattaya Secrets board for upcoming meal specials... which I'm happy to do.)

So finally, after Shooters, it was a stroll back down Walking Street, trying to share space with all the drunk foreigners some of whom tended to saunter down the street like they were 3 feet wide, bumping into any and all in their way. So, seeing that the fun part of the party was already over, Epril and I got on the motorcycle and made our way home safely and slowly by the empty back roads.

Philippines Trip Day 10

Epril with her parents at the airport in Cagayan.We had an uneventful trip home to Pattaya.

Filipinos are supposed to show return plane tickets when they leave the country, but I decided to try getting Epril out without one, and if the people at the airline counter asked, I would just tell them that our next stop after Thailand would be Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam, and that we didn't know exactly when we would be going back to The Philippines, or what city we would be flying from. However, the people at the airport in Manila didn't ask to see a return ticket once.

(I was later to learn that we were just lucky: A German fellow with his Filipina girlfriend, with whom we shared a taxi back to Pattaya, tried the same thing and wound up having to buy a ticket at the request of one lady at the counter... a ticket which was never asked for by a different person whom they saw at the same counter 30 minutes later.)

I have to remind myself that getting out of The Philippines costs over 3,000 pesos in taxes per couple: Epril had to pay a 1,620 peso tax to immigration for leaving her own country, and then each of us had to shell out a 750 peso airport tax. (I had forgotten how much all those taxes cost from last time, and only left myself about 2,000 pesos in cash at the end of the trip... and had to hit the ATM again before leaving.)

Philippines Trip Day 9

We rode up into the mountains outside the village of Jassan today. About 30 minutes out, we got this view of Epril's village on the peninsula.The Philippines has great baked goods, as this bakery in the village of Jassan illustrates.
Threshing rice near Epril's family's house.
Village scene, kids playing.
Little boy outside house with coconut palm leaf roof.
Little girl walking with colorful chicken.
Old lady walking to the store.
Kids play while lady burns leaves she swept up.
Two little girls who were following me around.
Kids watching me through a fence.
Neice Doreen, father Eddie, Dimple makes a peace sign, Inday behind her father, pretty little Chupel, and her brother, C.J.
Tonight's movie was a little boring.

Philippines Trip Day 8

Epril and I did some after-Christmas shopping in Cagayan De Oro before heading back to the village. We bought little sister Inday this cute outfit, and bought little sister Dimple a Barbie backpack for school.The stereo and television I bought on Christmas Eve were delivered yesterday.Neighbor girl mugs for the camera.Personal pizza for lunch. Toppings: Hot dogs, mushrooms, peppers, pineapple, raisins, a white Velveeta-style cheese, and a pink chili sauce. I have no idea why it tasted good, because it really shouldn't have... but there you are.Local neighborhood boys making noise: Hollow bamboo logs wrapped with rope for strength, and a small hole at one end. They spray window cleaner or some other flammable liquid inside, and then wave it around in the air to fully aerosolize the mixture, and then hold the end with the hole in it over a flame until it explodes. I was secretly hoping for a mishap, but none occurred.Inday holding baby Poknat.In the afternoon, it was off to Rock Spring Resort, the second of two swimming pool resorts, where we had a wonderful time splashing around. I taught the local kids how to play "Marco Polo".Local teenagers sitting on a rock at Rock Spring Resort.Empty rice paddy, with small house out in the jungle.Cousin-in-law Jean and cousin-in-law Ida holding baby A.J.In the evening, it was off to Epril's elementary school homecoming dance. This was her seventh anniversary of graduation, which you wouldn't is special, but in The Philippines at homecoming, each graduating class (called a "batch") for a certain span of years has to get up and do a dance. This year covered 1960 up to 2000... so it was Epril's class' first turn to dance. If not for the constant drizzle, mud, and standing around, I might have stayed longer.Epril's mother and father relaxing in front of the television.The local bug-eater, called a tuko, one of which inhabits the rafters of Epril's house. It is about 12 inches long, and everyone is scared of him. I played a great joke on Epril's family by claiming that I would catch him in a pot and set him free outside. I then went back in the kitchen by myself where nobody could see me and pretended to catch the creature in the pot and cover it, and then made a big show of struggling to hold the enraged lizard inside the pot while trying to take it past the family to the outdoors. Then right in the middle of the living room, amidst everyone, I pretended to trip and have the cover of the pot fall off, and gave out a big yell. Everyone ran for the exits before figuring out that I was playing a joke on them, and then we all laughed for about an hour.

Philippines Trip Day 7

More home hunting today.

First house: 15,000 pesos (12,000 baht, $360) per month, furnished. Located in "Grand Europa" housing estate, which was supposed to be a high-end development. Heh. That pretty much means high-end prices, and not much more. Condition inside was about the same as what you see outside: Straight outta Compton. Also it was about 3 miles away from the front gate of the estate.Same development, 35,000 pesos (28,000 baht, $850), unfurnished. Tiny place with no yard at all. Yawn.
Off to Camilia Homes development, which was even more of a rundown ghetto of a place. This place was 10,000 pesos (8,000 baht, $240) unfurnished. Didn't bother to go inside... was afraid the roof might collapse on my head.Then, surprise: Same development, Camilia Homes, all the way down at the end, right at the very edge of the top of the Cagayan river valley, were 7 gorgeous little homes under construction, never occupied, with first and second-floor balconies overlooking the river several hundred feet below, renting for 20,000 pesos (16K/$480) to 35,000 pesos (28K/$850) per month. Epril and I have (hopefully) found our new home. The houses should be ready for occupancy in the next few months.Around the back side of the homes is a private walkway. "Front" porches are on the left, and on the right is a fence after which is a steep slope to the valley floor several hundred feet below.In the evening it was out to dinner at a restaurant slightly out of town called "Leo's". It was pretty good.

After that it was out to Spooks, Cagayan's popular gogo bar. Here are two of the girls who work there. If Spooks were in Pattaya, it would have a pretty good claim to being the bar with the prettiest girls, but there aren't that many girls in total... only about 15 or 20 that I could tell. Well, this isn't Angeles City, after all.

Philippines Trip Day 6

Doreen after morning shower.Unlike Thailand, in The Philippines, gun ownership and being armed is legal. Hence, signs like this one below on the doors at banks. It is a bit weird to see guards with pistol grip shotguns at McDonald's though. Nonetheless: There is much less gun violence in The Philippines than there is in Thailand, where guns are 100% illegal.Today, we were back from the village to the city of Cagayan De Oro to go hunting for a house to rent. We saw this house below, 35,000 pisos (28,500 baht, $850) per month, furnished.We looked primarily in high end housing estates, which I found to be a bit of a let-down. The estates are so big (1000-plus houses) and lacking in any consistency of appearance in houses or construction that they don't seem like a development at all. In addition, the empty lots (of which there are many) are overgrown and nasty-looking, and while the houses... some of the houses... may be in good condition, the community as a whole feels neglected compared to what I'm used to seeing in Pattaya.

It was out to dinner at Countryside Steakhouse at the recommendation of my friend in C.D.O., Mike. I had spare ribs which were simply awful, but Epril had one of the best steaks she had ever had, and I can say that the calamari (below) were splendid. (Total price: 1,500 pesos (1200 baht, $36) including drinks.)I looked into the alcohol selection at liquor stores in Cagayan: Jack Daniels was cheaper than Thailand, but Johnnie Walker was more expensive. The beer selection was basically "any flavor of San Miguel you want", which is a bummer... although there is an ale called "Red Horse" which isn't too bad. Wines seemed to be moderately varied, but not more than 50 or 60 wineries. What seemed to be really lacking are cordials and mixers. No triple sec for margaritas was one that sticks in my memory. Looks like liquor runs to Manila will be in the cards if I want to live in Cagayan and have a properly-stocked bar.

Philippines Trip Day 5

Neighbor Mary Chris, little sister Dimple, and niece Doreen enjoying Christmas morning with teddy bears.I invited a manicurist over to do all the girls' nails. The manicurist's daughter watched me through the wooden wall of the front porch.Epril and Doreen chat while Epril gets a pedicure.Doreen sits in the front door, watching television.House on the water, fishing boat in the background. At high tide, this house is surrounded by water.A roadside store dwarfed by trees.Doreen shows off her karate moves.Cousin Emma standing in the road.It seems that babies named Vincent are naturally adorable. (Love the earring dude.)