Weird Things That We See:

Misty and I were talking while I was driving her to work this morning. The Pilipinos think we're JUST as weird as we think they are. That's part of the reason that we did this whole thing, in order to experience those differences first hand. Things that I've noticed that have caused me to pause recently include:

• Placing things in trees for storage
  
• Flowers that are perfectly good for a couple more days tossed out with the trash
  
• Lots more hookers it seems (Although we also think that we can recognze the subtle differences now)

I think I have the placing things in trees thing figureed out. I've not been here yet during rainy season. It floods here. Things that aren't secured (or in a tree) float away. Misty can't WAIT for the kinds of things that we'll get to see floating in the street... She already has her eye on a pair of rubber boots at a local store.

The flowers make perfect sense. They're EVERYWHERE. They bloom constantly, and when you chop down a plant here, it grows back. In days. This is what the tropics are all about for me. Even here in dirty, old, polluted Manila, plants and trees and flowers bloom like I've never whitnessed. A neighbor let me hack away a chunk of her Galangal plant (a ginger-like root that I use in Thai cooking). I brought it home, all mangled, and stuck it in a pot of dirt. Belma waters the plants every coupld of days, and now, about two weeks later I have a 5-6 shoot of new growth. We're going to miss that moving back to the states someday.

Hookers. Or Pok-pok as they're known locally. Maybe I've just been here long enough now that I can see the differences. It's subtle somtimes. The picture above this story is of bar girls out on the street in front of a KTV (Karaoke bar) joint. We've not been to one yet, but I _think_ you pick whichever one you like, take her inside, buy her drinks (which I understand are twice the price of a normal bar), and then pay a "bar penalty" when you and she go to a backroom/upstairs/your car. The bar penalty is the nifty little device that allows you to leave with this working girl and not have it considered prostitution. See, you're simply paying the BAR for taking another drinking patron/employee away. If she stayed, they'd be making money through your buying of her drinks... I have no idea how much a prostitute costs in Manila. I'm sure it's as insanely inexpensive as everything else. We have motto here. If you want western quality, you pay western prices...