Batayan 2 - more motorcycle fun, again without getting hurt

Pissing rain this morning, so I was going to split my time between the internet and food, but as I was happily munching on my crepes (out of my budget) I remembered that I had told the kids from yesterday I would meet them at the square today, (gasoline to drive over there also out of my budget). The thought of them waiting anxiously for me to arrive made me feel a bit guilty, so I got on my bike and headed over to Batayan town.

They were indeed waiting for me, so I would have been kind of a Grinch not showing up. After they went back to class I ambled around the town for a while trying to find a library but had luck, which is a bit depressing, everywhere needs a library - mado this can be another of your plan Bs if everything in CA goes to hell. Vincenta said she had a few books I could borrow so I headed over to her school, getting to test out my off-road motorcycling skills on the way, which I would say left something to be desired and need a bit more practice.

The school was somewhat like I had expected, ramshackle, small classrooms, even smaller desks, 40 kids to a room, etc. I got there in the middle of English lesson and caused a huge stir that was very uncondusive to learning anything. Even after Vincenta had closed the doors to the classroom there were still about 30 kids with their faces pressed against the window watching me like I was a circus freak. I'm going to go to the drugstore tomorrow and buy them colored markers because the classroom didn't have any, and also give some money for new paint for the classroom.

Since I was already in Batayan town, and had three mangoes left over I decided to head up to Kota Park again and see the people up there I had met the day before. The kids loved the mangoes, and I made friends with one of the girls my age from a fishing family. She was in kind of the same boat as me - IT worker who got laid off because of the financial crisis. She said she was getting really bored living at home and wanted to move back to Cebu city, but couldn't find a job. Hopefully that won't be me when I go home for the summer.

They were all extraordinarily welcoming, the men even asked me if I wanted to come out fishing with them, but I declined because I think I would have just gotten in their way, and anyway, none of them spoke English, so I could have confused "great white shark coming this way!! for "dive in and untangle that line there please" and that would not have been good.

Before they left the father even did some strange medical procedure that apparently was supposed to be for if you feel sick, even though I told them I felt fine. He took ground up ginger and rubbed it first on my forehead, then on the back of my neck, then the insides of my elbows, knees and finally the bottoms of my feet, said something weird and waved his hands a few times.

They wanted me to stay overnight, but I didn't want to take up their space since I don't think they had enough of it, so I said goodbye and did the hour long drive home in the dark.... it was cold. The end.

Bantayan - Motorcycle fun! note to parents: I am stil alive

Sidenote: I'm publishing these now because I'm sick of being a month behind on my blog posts, so they might be a bit out of order. I wrote all of the posts in between but then accidentally left them on a computer on Malapascua, so I'm hoping that someone there will find them and mail them back to me so I don't have to rewrite all of them.

I liked Batayan much better than Malapascua even from my initial impression of the island- less tourists and more space. The guy who helped me find a place to stay also told me he would teach me how to drive a motorbike if I wanted to, which I obvio did, so the same day I rented one for an hour and had a lesson. It was hard at first but within half an hour a was hardly wobbling at all and could stop and turn etc without killing anyone. Riding a bike is pretty fun as well, and pretty cheap at least as far as gas goes; with the gas prices these days I'm amazed that everyone doesn't ride a bike.





I had an awesome day the next day:

1. Woke up, had my daily ration of peanuts and one mango (I'm trying to only do one meal in a restaurant.. and anyway, I'm sure mangoes and peanuts are both very good for you) Then went into Batayan town on my bike, about a 30 minute ride from Santa Fe

2. Made friends with some kids in the park who wanted to play with my camera, then started talking to one of their moms who was a teacher in one of the elementary schools, going to go hang out there tomorrow

Haha.. bankrupt like my company


4. Back on the bike again and drove up to the way north end of the island and watched the fishermen drying shiny silver fish in the sun




5. Made some more friends


6. Went back to Santa Fe and had dinner at the former white sands, which is run by an awesome French dude who made his fortune at 30 and then has traveled for 40 years, finally settling down here and opening a restaurant which has VERY good food - hes pretty fun to talk to, basically I want to be him

7. Ended up eating dinner with a guy from Seattle and his Pilippina finance, who seemed pretty cool and talked my ear off despite saying that he was stoned which should have made just stare at the wall, and kept telling me I was giving him hope for the future generation even though I'm pretty sure I wasn't saying anything earth-shatteringly intelligent.

One thing that is starting to get to me about the Philippines though is the massive amount of attention I attract. It was much less noticeable when I was traveling with Liam since people are much less likely to cat call at you if you are walking with a guy for fear of getting pounded into mincemeat, esp if the guy is big. Now all of my conversations seem to be:

pinoy guy: "whats your name"
me: "liz"
Pinoy guy "you want to go to the disco?"
me: "no"
Pinoy guy "are you single?"
me: "no I have a boyfriend"
Pinoy guy: "where is he?"
me: "united states"

Thats about the extent of my convos, I've also been asked if I wanted to get married to a few guys by their friends.

Not a big deal but its kind of like being constantly in Vegas in a short dress and heels, despite the fact that I have dreds, have about 6 articles of clothing and am wearing no makeup.

Other pictures from Batayan: