Another grave, grave error on National Geographic.

Sometimes I wonder if they actually made a mistake and confused one language for another. Or if they just blatantly disregarded the obvious facts and for the sake of simplicity, just substituted one language for the other (who’s gonna know? Asians are Asians after all. They’re all alike). Given the fact that this is National Geographic and not some low-rate-documentary-channel, I’d think it was the latter (they better have some North Carolina health insurance for what I’m about to say).

Just to set the record straight and just to get it off my mind, let me say this to NatGeo:

WE ARE NOT INDONESIANS! We are Filipinos. Filipinos speak Pilipino (Tagalog). Not Indonesians. They have their own unique language. Don’t confuse the two.

I am referring to an episode in NatGeo’s Locked Up Abroad, a series where they document various people who find themselves locked up in foreign lands (for drugs or what not, but usually for drugs).

In this episode (Busted in Bali), an Australian busted for illegal possession of drugs in Bali, Indonesia finds himself in an infamous prison there. It turns out that NatGeo used Filipino actors to play the part of the Indonesians. Nothing wrong with that, ’cause we do have similarities (we’re all kayumangi!). But what I think was wrong is to have these actors speak in Filipino- Filipino!- while playing Indonesians.

That’s right. Instead of having them speak in Bahasa, the Filipino actors portraying Indonesians were speaking Filipino.

It’s all wrong if you ask me. Get it straight, NatGeo.

Food Lovers Guide to the Planet is a National Geographic segment that takes the viewer to various places around the world where food is unique and special. Before each food stop is a short intro of the place and the dish or delicacy it is known for. Like the fish boil in Door County, Wisconsin or the Spicy Biryani of South India (all that food makes me want to visit bestweightlosspills.net).

In one particular episode, they featured a supposed ‘Grill Master’ somewhere in the US (I forgot which state). During his interview, he says grilling is his life and that all he wanted to do since he was a kid was grill meat. Not just any meat, but huge, thick, gigantic slabs of meat. He then goes on to add that his specialty is roast whole pork and that he’s an expert in doing just that. Being no stranger to lechon and the mouth-watering, orgasmic deliciousness that it brings, I was of course intrigued. A lechon expert? In the States? This I’ve gotta see.

So the show featured him roasting a whole lechon. Everything from seasoning to spitting to roasting was shown (interestingly, instead of our traditional bamboo spit, our American counterpart used an aluminum pole and tied the pig up with metal clamps that they have to screw-screw!- on to tie the pigs legs firmly to the pole). The result?

The inside meat was worse- all pink, raw and wet

He then goes on to apologize by saying that the pork blew up and caught fire while cooking it. Tsk! What a shame.

I don’t know about you, but me thinks he should watch us Filipinos roast pork first before calling himself a master.

Oh, by the way, this is how real roast pork (lechon) should look like.

Golden, crispy, dripping with all that porky goodness

Zesto Wrappers

What can you do with leftover plastic wrappers, the wasteful by-products of an industrialized generation?

Burn them? Bury them? Throw them into space?

You’d be surprised. Zesto does none of these. Instead, Zesto Corporation donates all their (clean but) excess doy pack materials to Gawad Kalinga, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing shelter and livelihood to financially-challenged Filipinos. In turn, GK produces beautifully woven bags from these donated scraps right in their local chapter in GK Sunshineville, BF Resort Village, Las Piñas City, Philippines.

Their product include woven handbags, laptop bags, lunch bags, envelope bags, purses, bed mats, coasters, table tops, place mats, picture frames, storage cases and more.

Last week, I and my fellow bloggers, in coordination with Nuffnang and sponsored by HSBC, got the chance to personally visit GK Sunshineville.

We met up at Starbucks Bonifacio High Street early Saturday, and rode a van towards GK Sunshineville. It was half an hour’s ride away from Makati, and upon getting there, we immediately saw the GKers hard at work weaving strips of doy pack, sewing up bags, making envelops and creating all sorts of wonderful knick knacks.

Project Director Bong Ragojos and the GK Beneficiaries

We met Brother Bong, the project director for the Gawad Kalinga Bayong ng Kabuhayan livelihood project. (Bayong in Filipino means large bag. Bayong ng kabuhayan means livelihood bags.)

He, with the help of his wife, voluntarily manages the Bayong project, as part of  his responsibilities towards Couples for Christ (CFC). The men and women of Gawad Kalinga Sunshineville choose to work for the Bayong project, as most of them are unemployed and with children.

I asked the women how many bags they produce in a day, and they said that on average, they could finish 5-7 each. They are paid about 7 pesos per bag they create. Each bag sells for about Php200-300. (But more when sold via retailers.)

Bayong ng Kabuhayan Samples

Here are sampler bayongs from the Bayong project. Lovely, aren’t they? From afar, you can’t even see that they’re made out of Zesto materials.

The generic silver bags are Bayong’s best seller. They’re a hit locally. Interestingly, foreigners and Filipinos overseas prefer those that show the Zesto labels. I completely understand. Who wants to walk around carrying a bag that matches your buddy’s snack? However, a local product is certainly something unique abroad.

I was enamored with the silver bag as well, but I’m not a fan of the handbag. I wanted a laptop bag, but the one they currently had on display had a black strap. I wanted the earthy brown strap they used for the other bags. They were only too happy to oblige, except that they couldn’t find a long enough strap to hold my laptop bag. Aw. However, they said they could do it, I’d just have to follow up. GK Sunshineville, I’m holding you to your promise!

If you are interested in purchasing these bags, they do accept orders and even customizations. You can contact Mr. Bong Ragojos via mobile phone 63.2.9173907861/63.2.9196120202 or email him at ljragojos2002@yahoo.com.

My thanks goes out to Nuffnang, especially Patty, for inviting us to this event, and Abby, for buying us lunch. Thanks to Gawad Kalinga as well for giving me a bag! (More on the next post!)

To see more photos of the trip, see the gallery below.

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Hey, I should start searching for free car insurance quotes! Because I might be able to drive one again! A car, I mean.

See, I lost my driver’s license card (along with my ATM, credit card and a wad of cash) a year ago when I stupidly placed my purse in the shallow pockets of a pair of red shorts and boarded a taxi in Cebu.

Minutes after Gim paid the taxi driver and we were walking to our destination, I suddenly realized my loss. Tried to run after the taxi, but by that time it was meters away and going faster and farther.

So careless of me. Fortunately, it only took a lengthy explanation to get a new ATM card and a phone call to have my credit card voided (it was gonna lead me to financial ruin anyway). But so not that easy to get a new driver’s license!

Gim and I started the process today. Because I’m nearing my renewal date, and if I had renewed it a year earlier, there would’ve been an extra fee of Php50. But the bureaucracy doesn’t stop there.

First we went to get a community tax certificate from the City Treasurer’s Office. Because if we didn’t, we couldn’t get an affidavit of loss. That cost me only Php5 because I said I was a student. (Well, technically I am!)

Then we went to get the affidavit, which, for a piece of paper saying I had lost my card, cost me Php150. And the lawyer wasn’t even there, so maybe his secretary forged his signature or something.

Thirdly, we went to the Land Transportation Office to get the form for a duplicate license. Filled it up and we were told to come back tomorrow. Oh and they don’t have any pens in there, so I had to buy a crappy pen outside. Why???

Checked for the cost of the renewal. Php472.63. What??? Here’s the breakdown.

Replacement Fee – 225 (For a little piece of laminated paper)
Duplicate Fee – 50 (Per year of unexpired portion, wtf?)
Certification Fee – 100 (Another piece of paper)
Clearance Fee – 30 (Another wtf?)
Computer Fee – 67.63 (For like, 5 minutes worth of computer usage.)

I think LTO just likes to make up these phantom fees so they could extract every single peso from our pockets. *Blood pressure shooting up*

Wait, we’re not yet done. Tomorrow, there’s still the matter of acquiring extra documents such as the Certificate of Good Health from a government physician (which apparently requires an xray worth around Php300 by itself) and a Drug Test from an LTO-accredited office. So all of that will probably cost me around Php1000.

Still with me? We’re racking up almost Php2000 worth of fees now. And I haven’t even gotten my card yet. Guess what they’ll say tomorrow when I finally pay ALL the fees and submit all the supporting documents? They’ll say, hush hush, that if I want my request to be processed immediately, I should hand them over around Php1000, under the table, if you know what I mean. Or even more, depending on how rich I look at that particular moment.

I should know, because that happened to me the first time around. And if I don’t pay this transaction fee, it will take me eons to get my license. And I only have a week before I’m returning to Manila.

So. Do other people pay half the monthly minimum wage to get a crummy plastic laminated card, or are the Filipinos just doomed to eternal governmental fail?

This is for those of you who are interested in making money off your blog or the Internet in general.

Clickbank has now opened its doors to the Philippines. That means that Filipinos can now promote Clickbank products (be an affiliate, in other words). You can browse through their product catalog and choose whatever product you think your users might be interested in, ranging from diet pills to stock trading software.

Of course, this means you have to have a host. For the cheapest hosting, I recommend WebHostingPad. With a coupon, you can get umlimited space and bandwith for only $2.99 a month for 12 months. I would have committed to their hosting, except that they didn’t accept Paypal payments. Bummer! (I switched to HostMonster instead, and so far so great.)

Now that I’ve bought and paid for some much-needed hosting, I can finally try this affiliate marketing I’ve been hearing about for so long. I’d love to convert this blog over to WordPress but then I would lose too much linkjuice from all the changed links. (Is there a way to save site structure when moving over from Blogger to WordPress? Anybody?)

And… I’m off to tinker with my CPanel!

Michael and Gloria Lim live in an apartment building (called Gramercy) in Manhattan. This apartment is leased to them by the Missionary Sisters of Sacred Heart (MSSH) nuns. For breakfast, the Lims like to cook tuyo (dried fish) or tinapa (smoked fish).

These Filipino dishes are truly divine, especially when eaten dipped in vinegar, and prepared with sunny-side up eggs, fried garlic rice and tomato slices on the side. (Mmm, I am already salivating.) They smell quite strongly, too. For Filipinos, the scent is truly inviting. But I guess New York nuns think otherwise.

They thought the smell came from a decomposing body. Okayyyy. (Overactive minds, much?)

They called the New York fire department, then NYFD knocked down the Lims’ front door because nobody answered. Who calls the fire department on a decomposing body???

Now the nuns are suing the Lims, stating that the smell of the fish was “potentially dangerous to life and health”. (Tell that to the ever-growing Filipino populace.) They want $75,000 from the Lims. To their credit, they do have a house rule that states “Cooking smelly food is not allowed”.

Still though, isn’t $75,000 a bit too much to ask for a broken rule? Are these nuns racist?

I may turn writing about Filipinos a regular thing here. I’m checking to see if this stretches my net. Be forewarned.

He’s the Philippines’ celeb god. Like Tom Cruise without the craziness. He’s so godlike and awesome like that, he even married a model. George Clooney’s got nothing on the guy.

Plus, Richard Gomez blogs too. FYI, if he floats your boat.

Early this year, my friends and I went on a trip to Baguio, where the air is a mite chilly, strawberries and pine trees flourish, and horses abound.

We went to Mines View Park, a famous hilltop that overlooks the city. A lot of foreign and local tourists go there for the sights, so peddlers, traders and all kinds of merchants line the streets.

Horses, especially big large pretty ones, are not a common sight to Filipinos. So we are quite fascinated with the beautiful animals. In Baguio, many horse keepers allow visitors to pose for horse pictures, for a fee. This one pair was such an arrangement.

Like I said, horses are not familiar things to us. The horse decided it wanted to pee and just that suddenly did. And we gasped at what we saw! Its thing was HUGE!!!

See for yourself!!!

Hee hee hee. (Forgive me for my immaturity, but I just had to post this.)

I blurred the thing because my boyfriend said I should. I said, it’s just an animal… But he said I should. So since he knows better about these male things, I decided to follow his advice. You can still click on the pic for the uncensored view.

So, are these things normal or is this horse taking horse supplements??

Well it’s a bit strange to this term “Mujeres Eyaculando” rising in the searches. Because you never see nonEnglish keywords up in the top 100 searched terms, obviously since there would be too few people searching for a word in their local language. Unless it’s China, maybe.

Well, “Mujeres Eyaculando” is Spanish. And it is the second most widely spoken language after English. Heck, even we Filipinos of Zamboanga understand some of it.

I don’t know what it means, exactly. But the literal translation for it, I’m guessing, would be “ejaculating women”. Now I wonder why so many Spanish-speaking people are searching for it. Hahaha. *Giggles*

Men will be men…

When you hear the word Bohol, the first thing that comes into mind are the Chocolate Hills. Did that last year.

The second thing are tarsiers.

Tarsiers are found only in Southeast Asia.

The Philippine Tarsier is, of course, found only in the Philippines, and most famously in Bohol.

It has often been called the world’s smallest primate and the world’s smallest monkey, but it is neither. However, it does carry the distinction of being the mammal with the largest eyes.

Due to the rising human population and the rampant deforestation, the population of the species is dwindling. In fact, it’s conservation status is defined as threatened.

The tarsier (the animal on the left) is nocturnal, which means it sleeps during the day and wakes up at night to hunt for food. It eats insects, mostly crickets and grasshoppers.

It was late afternoon when we got to see the tarsiers. Manong Driver dropped us off a place few tourists passed by, so we were able to get up close shots of the tarsiers.

As much as I preferred them to sleep while we looked on quietly, our steps inevitably woke them up, and for that I felt horrible.

The tarsier keeper, upon seeing them awake, decided to give them some food. He held up a stick with a pierced cricket up to a tarsier, and after a bit of prodding, the tarsier decided to take cricket.

Later on, the tarsier keeper asked us if we wanted to hold the tarsier. I was very uncomfortable (you can probably see that in my face) because tarsiers don’t like to be touched by humans (you can see that in the pictures too).

At the same time I really wanted to hold the tarsier… I know!!!! I am a horrible person!!!!

So I said, only a little while. (And don’t worry, we didn’t use flash the whole time.)

I didn’t want to be KJ (killjoy) too… there were other tourists looking on, and really it was only for a little while, then we let the little critter go back up the tree.

But, oh, I felt so sorry for the tarsiers… They don’t live long in captivity. Most of them die by their own hands, like drowning themselves or beating their heads against their cages. These tarsiers aren’t in cages (the practice is illegal, but there are still very bad people who do that), they’re free to roam around the trees, but still, the entire area is very small… they’re still captive…

I was relieved when we finally returned them to their branches. I hope they weren’t too stressed by our visit. I hope someday, their population will return to a stable size. They’re very good for the community. They don’t harm people, and at the same time, they prey on insects, which is a good thing because insects eat crops, and Filipinos are very dependent on rice.

Before we left, we had to take these silly pics of ourselves as tarsiers. LOL.

I was very happy to finally see the tarsiers. I’d always wanted to see them ever since Gim went to Bohol many years ago and told me all about them.

I hope to see them again someday, perhaps in a more natural time and habitat.

Read the other Bohol posts…
Bohol Tour Part IV: Hinagdanan Cave
Bohol Tour Part V: Panglao Island Beach Resort
Bohol Tour Part VII: Statues and Churches
Bohol Tour Part VIII: Snakes and Flying Lemurs