Dumaguete's Flying Nuns

I only took my camera out of the bag late this evening. I needed to explore the terrain a bit first, get to know this small town. My first impressions of Dumaguete are of a land overtaken by palm-trees and bamboos, between which irregular clumps of one story houses proliferate. For a few hours today, I got to zigzag through the place from the back of a motorcycle, my designated form of transportation for the next two week. I'm going local. Holding on is not a problem, neither is safety on the road... my biggest problem are the bugs that splat up against my eyeball. Thank goodness I brought Visine!

This evening I saw Orion in the sky. He always reassures me. I don't know why, its just one of those things. Some people believe in Guardian Angels, well, I have Orion. I become instantly happy when I see the constellation in the sky, tensing its arrow, aiming it at the moon. All will be well, if Orion is here.

On a side note... Dumaguete proudly displays one of the oddest monuments I have ever seen. A larger-than-life tribute to six nuns who came here in the early 20th century. To me though, it looks like a frozen scene from "The Flying Nun". Why is Sally Fields not on that boat?

Gaston

Manila Sunrise

Here is my first impression of the Philippines, a 43 picture panorama stitch of the view from my window here in Manila, as the sun was about to rise. Jetlag provided me the time necessary to complete this composite. I'm getting funky tornadoes in the sky though, from all the stitching. Maybe Chris Alvanas can help me fix that...

And other than this view, that is pretty much all I have to report from the Philippines for now. In a few minutes I am leaving for the airport to board my last plane, toward my ultimate destination, Dumaguete City. This is my third day of travel and I am still not there. It's a far far faraway place!

From the little I've experienced at the moment, I find the Philippino people hard to pin down. They speak a language that is definitely South-East Asian, with all the m's, b's, p's and ang's of Indonesian and Malaysian, but their speech is peppered with a constant flow of English and Spanish words too. Most of the time, I can understand the conversation, because half or nearly all the words are in English. And when they speak their local language, I hear Spanish words at every turn of sentence. In addition, while most people smile with South-East Asian faces, some look more Chinese, others have definite European features, and a few look like they could be Australian Aborigines.

Just from my first few hours here, it is clear that the Philippines is a unique place - a crossroads where people and cultures have been meeting for centuries.

I look forward to reporting from the Philippines on this blog as often as possible during my 2-week adventure here. Stay tuned!

Gaston