Palawan Vacation, Part V, Flora

I did a post of wildlife, so now flowers and plants. This is such a beautiful place, I hope these pictures capture a little bit of that beauty.

This was taken from the patio in the back of our hotel room.

As we exited the underground river.

I can't tell you anything about these flowers, except that they're beautiful.

Palawan Vacation, Part IV-The Entrance to the Cavern

I just thought I'd post a few more pictures that I took while we were waiting for our turn to go into the underground river. It was really a beautiful spot.

Also, a few more pictures of the island near the entrance to the cave. After seeing mostly beautiful beaches here in the Philippines, these rocky and rough shores were quite different, reminders that the Philippines are part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and that these are volcanic islands. The boat in the picture is identical to ours--we could only tell ours by number. There is no dock at the park site, you have to splash ashore through a few feet of surf, which just made the whole thing feel cooler!

Mexica's little sister, Russia, enjoyed herself playing on the bank of the river while we waited. She and her dad played with the fish in river. Once she'd been there a little while, she had a playmate.

Not much to narrate here. I just went back over the pictures and decided some of them were worth sharing. In case you're wondering why there are few pictures from after we left the cavern; well, I was getting a low battery indicator on my camera and I didn't have a spare battery. By the time I took the pictures of the lizards, the battery was dead and I had to wait and recharge it when we got back to the hotel.

Mexica on the river bank

Palawan Vacation, Part III, Wildlife and Fauna

One of the things that has struck me about the Philippines, at least here around Manila, is the absence of wildlife. I really see very little by way of fauna. There are no squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, or anything similar. No raccoon, no opossum. I know that there are rats and mice, but its hard to really count those. There are dogs and many of those are feral. I live very near the coast, within sight of Manila Bay, but there are no seagulls or shore birds to speak of. I don't know why, maybe the super-dense human population, but there are few wild animals here. Palawan was different.

Once you got out of Puerto Princesa, you started seeing more domestic animals, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, goats and carabao. There were birds on the beach. It was different, more alive with fauna besides humans. Much as I appreciate the human species, I enjoy other animals too. Palawan has them.

When we got to the Underground River, the first thing I noticed was that there were monkeys on the beach, a small troupe of long-tailed macaques. They are also called crab-eating monkeys, and they live near the shore all around Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. The Philippine long-tailed macaque is a threatened species, protected throughout the islands, but in the wild and sheltered area of the national park, they seem to thrive. The cities of the Philippines, as I noted above, seem very hostile to any kind of wildlife.

Inside the caverns, there were hundreds of small, brown bats. I couldn't get a good picture of them (sorry), the ceilings of the cave were high and they were hiding in the dark. According the Wikipedia article on the caves, there are 9 species of bats native to the area.

When we got out of the cave, our guide took us back to the beach by way of a different path, and on this path we found monitor lizards. They were huge. The guide told us that they could be short tempered and did not like human contact, so I kept my distance! I know my grandson, Lukas, is boiling with jealousy that I saw these. I can only reassure you, Luke, that they're not an endangered species and they are easy to find here, so if you ever get out here, I'm sure you can see them.

I mentioned carabao, which is the Tagalog word for water buffalo. I saw quite a few of them on Palawan, still being used in the traditional ways for plowing rice paddies and hauling carts. They are large and seem very slow moving.

Carabao cart on the beach at Palawan

Palawan Vacation, Part II, Underground River

Me and my beautiful wife, Mexica, at the entrance to the park

The main reason we stayed at the hotel we did was that it is close to the entrance to the Underground River. Visiting the river was the highlight of our vacation.

First we took a small boat from a dock near the hotel to an inlet on the coast near the mouth of the river. As you can see in this picture, the island of Palawan has very rugged features, the cliffs in the background were typical of the whole area near the river.

These limestone cliffs are typical of formations all over the island 

From the beach, it was a short walk to the entrance to the cave. There was, however, another highlight of this area, monkeys! To be precise, Long-Tailed Macaques, the primary monkey of the Philippines. I had never seen a monkey in the wild before, and that was exciting in it's own right. There will be a separate blog on wildlife.

At the cave entrance we waited a while for our turn to enter. Entrance is strictly regulated to protect the delicate environment. Only 800 people per day can go in, and the only conveyance is a small boat powered by oar. No motors allowed. Each boat holds 8 tourists plus a guide/paddler.

The entrance to the underground river. 

As far as measured to date, this is the longest underground river in the world, about 8 km, and it is navigable for much of that distance, but the tour we took only goes in about 1 km. It was a very impressive 1 km. The limestone of the cave contains many wonderful and strange formations. From time to time, you could see an offshoot of the cave, going into the distance. Like most large caves, this one has never been fully explored. The darkness was so complete, I couldn't sense the closeness of the walls except when the spotlight was on them. In some places, the river was wide and the roof  was high above. In the highest point, our guide said the roof was 65 m above us.

I say it looks like the root of a giant, if discolored, tooth.

Of course, there were bats, many bats. Neither Mexica nor I got any good pictures of them, though. They were small, brown bats, hanging high in the ceiling of the cave, and the darkness and the distance made good pictures impossible for us. The guide warned us to keep our mouths shut when we looked up. The river, he said, was rich with bat guano. Luckily, the only drips on me were water falling from the ceiling.

We weren't the first ones here, but tourism has increased a lot with the river being named one of the "7 Wonders of the Natural World", so we are sure not to be the last.

3/18/37--Before my time

It was nice to see the sun again

Palawan Vacation, Part I, Arrival

Mexica and I took her mom, dad, and sisters Russia and Miami to Palawan for a few days last week. It was a fun trip. We saw some new things and some very different things. We had some adventures.

Adventure Number One was getting from the airport to our hotel. Our hotel was the Sheridan Beach Resort at Sabang Beach. The airport was the Puerto Princesa airport and they are about 75 km apart, over mountains, and through jungle, quite literally. We arrived at the airport at about 5:15 PM, so by the time we got our luggage and found the hotel shuttle and got situated for the trip, the sun was going down and we made most of the journey in the dark.  That made the whole thing feel very much like an adventure.

Once we got out of the city of Puerto Princesa, we were on a dark two lane road that twisted and turned, with switchbacks and hairpin turns, with only our headlights for illumination. The jungle felt very close. The road was often steep. Most of the time it was a smooth ride, but once in a while the pavement got rough and washboardy--and once in a while, the pavement just plain disappeared. The turns were sharp and it felt like the driver was pushing for speed, sometimes we jolted around and bounced like popcorn in a popper. I think the highlight was seeing a small sign by a wooden bridge, the sign said "Weak Bridge!" We crossed it.

All in all, the trip took about 2 hours. By then the hotel was looking pretty good!

Election 2012

I've never seen a phenomenon quite like Mitt Romney.

I've watched politics closely since 1964, when, I admit, I supported Barry Goldwater and handed out leaflets for the Republican candidates for state-wide office in Massachusetts; John Volpe, Elliott Richardson and Ed Brooke (Governor, Lt Governor and Attorney General, respectively). In 1967 I went away to college at BYU, and meeting Utah Republicans convinced me that I was not a Republican. I cast my first presidential ballot in 1972, the first year I was eligible, and I voted for George McGovern. I even split my ballot and voted for Ed Brooke, this time for US Senator. McGovern, of course, lost badly, but he did carry Massachusetts, and I proudly sported a bumper sticker that said "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts", when Nixon was impeached and forced to resign for being the crook he was.

With that in mind, I have to say that Mitt Romney is an amazing liar by any standard. Comparing Mitt Romney to garden-variety political liars is a bit like comparing Miguel Cabrera to a beer-league softball player.

More amazing is the pathetic media response to his lying. Instead of pointing out that he lied often and repeatedly  (his lies will not be detailed here, if you care you can find lists of them at other places, try http://www.politifact.com/). My favorite was when he said there were no tax advantages for moving a business overseas. Mittens said that if there were such advantages, he needed a new accountant. Well, Mitt, you need a new accountant, there are many tax advantages to such a move.

He goes on and gives his foreign policy speech the other day, and says that President Obama has signed zero free-trade agreements during his presidency, while, in fact, he has signed three; with South Korea, Panama, and Columbia. I'm not a big fan of so-called "free trade" but a fact is a fact, he's signed such agreements.

In his interview the other day at a newspaper in Des Moines, IA he said that there was no legislation pending he knew of, regarding abortion, that would be "part of his agenda." His running mate has out forth 30-some such bills. Maybe not a lie, maybe just being disingenuous.

The man lies so glibly and so often, you have to believe he has experience. Being a businessman in the cutthroat world of vulture capitalism is certainly nothing that rewards truth telling.

In any event, when he tells the truth, or what I think is the truth about his positions as they may be...we'll never know unless he's elected...his policies will represent a return to the failed policies of the GW Bush administration, on steroids. Lowering tax rates to increase revenues has never worked and won't work now. Lowering tax rates on the top tiers will only exaggerate the inequalities in the tax code already. Continuing to favor investment income over wages will not only hurt the budget, it won't help the overall economy and is just not fair or right. There is no moral or ethical justification for favoring the capital end of economic activity over the labor end of the equation. Both are necessary for our economy  to flourish. We need to keep a free economy in which business investment, if successful, is rewarded, but we don't need to make rewarding that one element of our society the be-all and end-all of our policies. There is more to life than the accumulation of wealth (sorry, Mitt, but it's true).

In sum, and no surprise to anyone, I plan to vote for Barack Obama for President. I am not 100% happy with him so far, but I am not 100% unhappy. I suspect that in 4 years of a Romney presidency  I would be about 0% happy with his decisions.

Street Food

To eat, or not to eat, street food, that is the question.

I'm familiar with the advice to avoid street food in third world countries, but I don't follow it. Instead, I have my own guidelines.

1. Don't be stupid: Look at the stall, the vendor, the food. Does it look right? Is the stall clean? Is the vendor presentable? Is the food hot/cold like it should be? Is there an unpleasant aroma? Just because you're considering street food doesn't mean you should volunteer to be a victim. If the food doesn't pass any one of these tests, give it a pass. There are more, I guarantee you, there are more. I think food hot off the grill is usually pretty safe, as long as things look reasonably clean.

2. Look outside places locals congregate: For example, just outside the local market near me here in Manila there are a wide array of vendors selling both fresh fruit and vegetables and prepared items. I'm leery of the fresh fruit, but sometimes Mexica buys some and it's better than in the stores, mangoes for example are generally more fresh and tasty at the street vendors, and cheaper.

3. What do the locals eat? They'll guide you, even if you're alone. Some stalls are more popular than others, and look closely at the more popular ones.

4. Do you recognize the food? If you recognize it, go back to step one, does it look right, smell right?

5. Easy does it: Don't feel like you have to buy the whole cart. Buy their smallest offering and give it a try. The great things about street food include a reasonable price, which usually means small servings, so you can afford (financially and physically) to just give it a try. Even if the food ends up seeming unpleasant to you, you haven't really lost much.

6. If you have a local guide, take their advice and let them do the purchase. Of course, this only makes sense as far as getting the right food, but you also protect yourself from being overcharged, There are no price signs on most of the carts here, so you have to know the price, and I don't.

Examples from the Philippines of street food I have really enjoyed include roasted peanuts (a real favorite), grilled bananas, grilled sweet potatoes, shawarma (the Arabian version of a gyro), and various grilled meat--chicken and pork skewers. I've avoided the grilled chicken intestines and the balut (fertilized duck egg, boiled and eaten in the shell). I've never been sick after eating street food (knock on wood).

Thai Vacation, Part V-Buddha

Not much to write in this entry, just an assortment of pictures of statues of the Buddha from some of the different temples in and around Chiang Mai. Fascinating in their variety and often very beautiful. My favorite is the green one. The material is glass, but our guide said it was a copy of a statue in Bangkok, and the original is made of emerald. I'd love to see that.

You see a number of monks and worshipers. We happened to be at this wat on a Full Moon Day, which is a day when a lot of people come to pray and be blessed by the monks.

The tiny specks of gold you see on the statue above are bits of gold leaf. Worshipers buy pieces of gold leaf and attach them to the statue at a place where they are experiencing pain in their own body, praying for healing.

 The reclining Buddha, this is the Tuesday image. This one is quite long and is in a wat in the old city of Chiang Mai.

The prosperous, or "Happy Buddha." At one of the wats we visited a man came up to me and rubbed my belly for luck, and said "Happy Buddha". Since he was also blessed with a large belly, I rubbed his belly and said the same thing.

 In front of the large bronze Buddha you can see a smaller green statue, that one is made of jade.

This one is made of green glass and is a copy of a statue in Bangkok. That one is made of emerald.

Saturday's image of the Buddha. The Buddha Seated under a Naga (Seven Headed Serpent), in Meditation. This pose depicts the meditation Buddha being protected from falling rain by the spread out hood of the Naga. I was born on a Saturday. The Naga appears threatening but is really a protector of the Buddha. I think there's a message there.

Mexica was born on Wednesday, and this is the Buddha for that day, collecting alms in his rice bowl. Remember the Buddha was a prince and he visited his father, who was upset to see his son begging for food. I see this as a symbol of humility.

Thai Vacation, Part IV-Chiang Mai Zoo

Chiang Mai is really an interesting city. In addition to many temples, they have a very nice zoo and picturesque ruins of the wall that originally surrounded the city.

My favorite part of the zoo was being able to get really close to giraffes. You could buy a handful of veggies for 10 Baht and feed the animals. They have long, snake-like tongues. There was a young boy there at the same time we were, and the giraffe just freaked him out! They are one of the few zoos outside China to have Pandas, and they had a juvenile Panda there, just 2 years old. Pandas may look cuddly to some people, but to me they look big and bad tempered. I would not want to meet a Panda in the wild. They had a pygmy hippo and I thought that was just cool. The zoo was laid out on hillsides, with a lot of open green space. The enclosures could have been better, but overall it was not a bad zoo.

The city was founded during an era of frequent warfare and was originally surrounded by wall. Not much remains of those now, but there are a few sections that survive. The city has outgrown the walls and the area inside the walls seems small, but many of the really great wats are inside the old walls. Here's a wall segment. Mexica got these pictures by getting out of the taxi and braving several lanes of traffic!