Some interesting observations about the Philippines

Some interesting observations about the Philippines...

1. You almost never have to buy bottled water. Hotels and guest houses normally have water coolers with good cool filtered water that you can help yourself to. Restaurants will always serve a glass or two of good water with a meal, regardless of whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner. We also managed to take water on most flights without an issue.
2. Knives as cutlery are rare. Most meals are served with fork and spoon.
3. Salt and pepper, and even soy sauce are rare. If there is salt on the table, it is almost impossible to get any out, as it is so humid. If I came again to the Philippines I would bring some small packets of salt with me, as the food is almost always under-seasoned.
4. Sometimes, instead of soy sauce as an accompaniment, spiced vinegar is served. Which usually has chili, garlic and other aromatics in it.
5. Many restaurants will insist that you take off your shoes before coming in. It is quite amusing seeing waiters and patrons alike walking around barefoot or in socks in a restaurant.
6. English is extremely widely spoken, and the people have a great grasp of the language, so you can converse with almost anyone. This makes traveling very enjoyable. Interestingly the locals will still speak to each other in Tagalog or one of the other languages or dialects.
7. People in the Philippines are GENUINELY friendly, and vary from shy to outgoing, but we never felt anyone trying to scam or take advantage of us. I’m sure in the big cities this is always a risk, but we felt comfortable chatting to locals without worrying they had ulterior motives.
8. Rice is served with EVERY meal, including breakfast, and this usually takes the form of either steamed or fried rice. We have seen shops selling over 6 varieties of rice, all at different prices, but all seem to take the form of a fairly short grained, sticky rice.
9. Breakfast is interesting! Most places will give you an option of Philippino breakfast, which is definitely worth trying! You get Tocilog (Pork Tocino), Dasilog (danggit/fried fish), tapsilog (beef tapa), etc - always served with Sinangag (Garlic Fried Rice) and Itlog (Egg) - this makes up the 'silog' part of the name!
10. Every greeting is a slightly high pitched “hello maa’aam” or “hello siiir”. I got tired of being called ma’am but laughed when I found out that the Pinoy ladies even call each other ma’am!
11. If you have the fortune or misfortune of flying Cebu pacific airways, you will discover three things about them: 1. They play awesome music before takeoff and after landing (mostly latest US pop hits); 2. They always have a competition onboard where you can win prizes (if you fly enough times you get to know the answers too!); 3. They are almost always delayed.
12. Pinoy food is very varied but we did find it had a lot of pork! A Jewish guy we met on the dive boat struggled a bit with this. We also found ourselves eating a lot of fish, especially fresh tuna which was great.
13. Public transport consists of two main offerings: 1. Tricycles or “trikes” which are basically a sidecar on a motorcycle, offering between 3-6 seats at a squeeze, and 2. Jeepneys, converted US military Jeeps that are known for their bright colors, kitch decorations and crowded seating.
14. Taxis are available in the cities and may or may not be willing to use their meter. We got stuck in Intramuros (Manila) one evening when a taxi refused to negotiate with us to take us to Pasay as he didn’t want to face the traffic. We thought we’d easily find another taxi but ended up waiting close to 30 minutes. By then we realized we didn’t have much bargaining power...
15. We found Uber worked well in the cities, especially Cebu, but can’t always be relied on (that night we were stuck in intramuros even Uber didn’t save us).
16. Traffic in the cities is hell. Any time of the day. We spent over an hour getting from Pasay to Intramuros in Manila, a trip of 10km! We also missed a ferry from Cebu to Bohol, as a result of traffic in Cebu city. And lastly missed the sunset from Cebus highest viewpoint, but that was also cos the Uber driver got lost!