Tuesday is here and last night the discussion of fried chicken came up and i mentioned that i hadnt tried Filapino KFC.
It is 29 Degrees at 9AM and we have just had our hotel breakfast, the breakfast is 3 options…….
- Filapino Breakfast
- american Breakfast
- eggs on toast
not amazing but hey its better than paying for it i guess…
today we will commute down to Calapan on the scooter… to get KFC . but firstly i had done some digging and there is a old Village here that has an old tribe living there to the island, they still practice the art of Bamboo Weaving and there products are still owned and made by the Mangyan village and it gets exported all over the world to help fund their village and schools.
to be part of the village you have to be born their and you will be taught the weaving as part of your childhood.
The Mangyan village is about 5 KM away and will take us past the white sand Beaches that apparently are a site to see.
First stop we need to make is an ATM but according to my research there is only 3 ATMs on the whole island which seems a bit ridiculous in my eyes but marge vaguely remembers one on the main street that we navigated past in the evening.
so we located that and i went and lined up. there are 2 ATM machines outside this particular bank and its not overly busy, but the left machine i got to had 1000 Peso’s left in it, which wasnt enough so we decided to use that to fill up the Scooter and there must be one in Calapan.
filling up scooters is cheap its about 350 Peso’s from empty and that will get you around 150KM range cruising and a little bit less when driving a winding road that demands more acceleration and deceleration.
we head west up to the Mangyan village passing the White sands beach which we couldn’t easily make out where the entrance was and agreed that we should worry about it tomorrow as we had a bit of a ride ahead of us.
the Mangyan village is located off the main road at the bottom of a small valley, when you pull up you have to Pay for a tour guide that cost’s 300Peso’s to go to a waterfall that i didnt even know existed
and also another 100P to go into the village area.
we agreed to do both and the first part was a trek up a hill that takes around 10-15 minutes.
the Path winds around the hillside and across a few river beds, and a particular member of the marching group had to stop and give herself a break on more than one occasion….. we got to the top with no one stroking out however the sweat dripping of my viral infected body was enough to make even the dirtiest street dog think twice before a sniff!
the Waterfall was about 10 meters high and had a small area at the bottom where you could swim and cool off. my Shirt was literally soaked in sweat and sickness so i got straight in and the water was refreshing and cool.
the tour guide also did a climb to the peak of the mountain which takes around 1 hour 30 mins from the waterfall and i was interested in the panoramic views of the island but marge didn’t look so thrilled so unfortunately that story will have to wait for another day.
the Descent takes about 15 Minutes and Allan took us into the entrance of the Village, He lives in the village and showed us his house of where he lives with his family. further down the village, there are roosters roaming around , chickens clucking away… the odd dog lying in the sun and kid playing.
the Village does have a Govt registered school as well so the kids can get an education while in the village so they can learn English and mathematics. The village has around 50 Houses in it and the township is around 200 People. each family must build their own Hut when they marry and so forth.
the huts are made out of bamboo and look relatively stable for the materials used , they have diesel generators that help them to do tasks like power tools and charging of mobiles.
the town also has a set of old fashion stocks where criminals are tied up in the sun.
if a crime is committed in the village, the villagers families get together and decided the punishment which i the time frame the person must be immobilised.
general crimes in the village are theft or fighting and the longest someone has stayed in there is 7 days, the victims lie on there backs with there feet in the stocks and get fed minimal food and water.
they have never had a murder or rape or anything heinous like that.
after Allan had finished showing us the village we went back to bike and plugged in our trip to Calapan,
on the map its only 56KM but travel time due to the nature of the road is around 1 hour 20 minutes.
this road will take us down the coast road that winds along the treeline of the water below where it will eventually straighten out in the last 15 KM to Calapan.
Calapan has 145000 People in it and is really just a central hub to the island, you will find most things in this city but its a heavy density population area which makes navigating the streets hard.
the ride to Calapan was relaxed and enjoyable, we passed a few villages and also a nice waterfall that we will stop at on the way back.
So the whole reason for the trip down here was money and Chicken.
on our way into town we spot a Bank that has an ATM outside, so we pull over and i get some cash out to last us the next few days….. from there i check my phone which leads to Poppa bear asking 30 questions about cars so i had to speak to him for 20 Mins and tidy up a few loose ends.
we then navigated to see the Colonel about some secret recipe herbs and spices.
the KFC restaurants here are exactly what you would expect in New Zealand but everything is not the same on the menu…… for all the KFC lovers out there…. you cant get:
-Chicken on its own
-Quarter pack meals
-no Wicked wings
-No Fries
but they do have :
-crazy meals with Rice and vinegar for the chicken
-zinger burgers
-some chinese glazed chicken (and its gross)
-pasta salad
– only gravy
-no mashed potato
So i dunno…. really reather deflating after all the journey time we made… i ordered a zinger burger but the mayo is different here and there is no red onion… the chicken is slightly more juicy here but lacks the salty punch of what the Australasian market has…. so all in all very disapointing trip.
after the lunch of disapointment marge told me to stop at Jollibee’s as she wanted a Pastry pie thing… sort of like an apple pie from mcDonalds but not from Mcdonalds… you get the picture.
it was just edging on 2:30 Pm and we decided that we should get back to try and miss as much of the traffic as possible for end of day. leaving Calapan we made great time on the straights and Marge wasnt tapping me to tell me to slow down , so we pretty much have this tandum riding sorted now.
the winding road slowed us down but we had to stop at the Falls we passed on the way down to Calapan.
then we stoped at the road marker for the Puerto Galera Province and tooks some photos with gerald in the middle of the road trying to avoid being run over by any crazy mad man in his bus, van, car or Bike.
Its been a long hot day in the sun and we stop off at the local Supermarket to get some beers and Soju (Japanese liquor) for us to realx by the pool with and rehydrate.
The pool is warm like the oceans here and we sit on the edge and nurse our dry skin from a day of riding and walking in the sun, after I have cooled off i tell marge i am going up to the resturant to start on my blogs that im behind on and drink beer.
the time ticks as i type and by the time i look up its dark and amazingly there are 4 empty bottles of beer around my computer. i text marge and ask where she is and she is having her granny nap recouperating from the heat of the day. she comes up and we have dinner. dinner was the following…. over priced….. tasteless and expensive…. and there was only one other person dining there … which goes to show that even when the resort is booked up no one eats here… wont be making that mistake again
another day down, i flick on the TV to the HBO channel and watch a movie that i worked out to be “Venom”….wouldnt rave… wouldnt complain… but it just became background noise as im just finishing my 5th book off for the trip so that takes priority as i would like to get one more read before i leave manila next friday.
on that note…..
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
-Desmond Tutu- 1931 -2021
Quantum Entanglement 