Mangos morning noon and night

When I land in Manila it is hot.  Really hot and humid, high nineties with humidity.  Summer is beginning I am told.  The hotel is okay but without any of the nice extras; spa with hot tub and sauna or nice restaurants.  I discover that nearby is a nice shopping area with a lot of restaurants and this is where I go after the sun goes down.  In the morning I eat breakfast in the hotel and notice two middle aged white guys drinking beer for breakfast.  It looks like they have been out all night. As I eat breakfast I ponder how & why they ended up here.

I am picked up and head to the airport for the flight to Gacayan de Oro on Mindanao.  I ask about the safety of traveling to this region (a little late to do anything about it), but I am told that it is safer than Manila.  I am quite naïve about the dangers of traveling and rely completely on the knowledge of the local people guiding me – either I am lucky or my strategy works.  Once again at the airport I see the middle aged expats with a young Pilipino wife and a baby in the arms.  The women are incredibly small, about the size of a 12yr old kid.

At the airport I am met by four expats and one local who are to join me on the trip.  It seems that the assignment is either more important than I thought or they don’t have much work to do.  Immediately starts the professional assessment; where and who you have worked for in your career and who you know in the industry.  Once we confirm that we know the same people and have worked in similar settings, we relax and tell stories about the people we know.

Upon landing we are taken to the plant about an hour away. The drive is along the coast and traffic is surprisingly light.  The shoreline without a real beach and the water is calm.  Just trees right down to the water.

 Upon entering the plant site I notice that the plant security company is called “double tap security”.  I think that this a very aggressive name for a security company and explain to the others that “double tap” is an expression that can mean two shots to the head to ensure you have killed the person.

We are feed well throughout our stay there, and each meal is accompanied with mangos for dessert.  So stuff myself with them, eating one mango with every meal.  I asked the locals if they ever get sick of mangos and they just smiled and said no.  Do we get sick of chocolate?

After a day at the plant we are taken to the guest house where we will all spend the night.  It is quite a nice one, with swimming pool and tennis courts.  The rooms are very nice too.

While we are waiting to leave for dinner, I watch an ad on TV showing a very fat Pilipino little kid enjoying some food.  I am shocked to see that it’s an ad for candy.  It seems that being fat here is a sign of being healthy.  This country is in for some high health care costs in the future.  And there could be some good job prospects for some American kids – spread the word.

The coast line

The plant jetty

For $7 a day you too could load 40kg cement bags by hand

The guest house pool

The guest house apartments

On Sunday I head to the airport alone as the others had taken earlier flights back to Manila and I find out I have to pay a $5 departure tax, and they only accept cash.  Having no cash I try the ATM but it rejects my card (the chance of success with foreign ATM’s is indirectly proportional to your need for the money).  So I start asking around for other options, but the airport is quite small.  Fortunately the policeman at the help desk is quite nice and lends me the money.  He said I looked honest and I promised to pay him back.  I took his name and phone number, gave him my business card and will try and get the money back to him (with interest).  When you consider that a driver makes $20 a day, $5 is quite a bit of money.