To plan our trip, we went to the “Visitors Bureau.” There I met a Chinese wise man. I asked him, “Where are the Philippines?” He pointed me in the right direction. Or so I thought. Go find a globe of the world (real or online) and find the Philippines for yourself. Click here for some help.
01 Feb 2023 Elena and I flew to Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. The flight was due South of Shanghai and took three hours. This was the first time that I (Aaron) had the opportunity to leave China during the three years of Covid-19. On the day we left, we were in the midst of winter. When we arrived, we were in the tropics where the average temperature was 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). No coats or sweaters needed here!
The sand is clean. The water is transparent and calm. The people are very friendly. The food is simple and nourishing. The dogs are free to roam. No one uses an alarm clock here. They go out and buy a rooster.
The tide is out and the air is still cool. It’s early morning–the beginning of a brand, new day.
Go to your map and locate “El Nido Bay.”
Here is where we sat and had a fine vegetarian meal each day. Our favorite dogs joined us.
Reflections from my Youth
Here are a few things that I remember about the Philippines from my high school American History course:
- The Philippines have lots of islands. Over 7000. Only 2000 of the islands are inhabited by more than ten people. The remaining islands are very small. In most cases, these small islands do not even have names.
- Christopher Columbus believed that the world was a globe. Accordingly he reasoned that his three ships could sail West in order to arrive in China and the spice islands. When Columbus landed, he thus presumed that he had found a remote set of islands off the coast of China. But he was quite mistaken. Neither he or anyone else had anticipated that two huge unknown continents (North and South America) would block his access to China. Columbus went to his death puzzled that he did not find the large cities in China that Marco Polo had visited earlier.
- Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer sailing for Spain, was the first to sail around the world. In 1521, Magellan claimed the seven thousand islands he found as “Las Felipinas” as a tribute to King Philip II of Spain. Magellan believed [falsely] that every island he found automatically became part of the Spanish Empire and, as such, they were obliged to pay taxes. No one wanted them to organize or to reorganize their lives. No one wanted them to settle down and to take over running everything. The Spanish put the Filipino men into the gold mines and they put the women to work making vast gardens to feed the Spanish conquerors [los conquistadores]. They did this for four hundred years. Then there was a Revolution! More on this later.
- The only other thing I remember from Mr. Snr’s history course on World War II is that Japanese troops overwhelmed the Philippine Islands shortly after sinking a significant part of the American Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor on 07 Dec 1941. President Roosevelt called this the “Day of Infamy,” and, in just one day, the USA declared war against Japan.
- Shortly thereafter, General Douglas MacArthur and his staff fled in the dead of night in three PT boats. In so doing, he abandoned 70,000 American troops who were under his command in and around Manila. Short on food and ammunition due to the Japanese blockade, the American troops were forced to surrender to the Japanese and to eek out a miserable life as POWs. Have you heard about the “death march”? That was part of the “miserable life” suffered by those left behind. General MacArthur tried to save face by swearing repeatedly “I will return.” I took nearly three years for MacArthur to do so. He made good on his promise on 20 Oct 1944 when he began the reconquest of the Philippines. The campaign to liberate the Philippines was the bloodiest campaign during the Pacific War.
- Click here to see the famous picture showing MacArthur’s angry determination as he waded through the water to get to the dry beach. Some press commentators said that his anger was not (at that moment) directed toward the Japanese. Rather, he was mad because he had to suffer wet socks and squeaky boots for the next few days. MacCarthur had expected his landing craft to push forward onto the beach such that everyone would have dry socks. . . .
Q1. What do you know about the Philippine Islands that I do not know? [Post in comments box below. Indicate “Q1” in the topic section.]
Looking for Yuchenco Museum, I find an even better museum
02 Feb 2023 Elena went to her exposition in Manila. I, meanwhile, decided to visit the Yuchenco Museum. I calculated that this would be a short 20-minute walk. On my way there, however, I continually noticed “Museum” signs. Puzzled by this, I decided to explore and to find what “Museum” they were directing me towards. This was a happy choice. It turned out that, next to a lovely city park, I found the Ayala Museum.
Elena and I often do this sort of “open exploration” visiting. As it turned out, this museum had an exhibit on the 4th floor that portrayed the 4500-year history of the Filipinos—just the thing that I was looking for. If you do a web search of the museums of Manila, however, you will not find the Ayala Museum listed. The reason is that the Ayala Museum is a privately owned “family museum” now being owned and operated by the Ayala Foundation.
The Ayala Foundation was modelled after the Rockefeller Foundation in the USA. John D. Rockefeller Sr. first conceived the idea of the foundation in 1901. Rockefeller had made billions of dollars due to his creation and running of the Shell Oil Company. In the USA, most especially, extreme wealth amassed by the sale of natural resources was not well received by the working classes. Hence, Rockefeller decided to set aside $100,000,000 for setting up a permanent tax-free foundation for “corporate philanthropies for the good of Mankind.” [Details = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Foundation and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayala_Museum ]
The entire 4th floor is dedicated to the origins of Filipino identity going back 4500 years. This narrative is due to recent research by anthropologists during the last thirty years. The overall story is that gold was the currency of trade among the various tribes of the Philippine Islands. The exhibit shows that the same gold patterns in bracelets, necklaces, and earrings have been found on all the major islands and testifies to the navigational skills and craftsmanship of advanced societies. I was curious as to whether the hundreds of gold ornaments (worn by men and women equally) were “reproductions.” So I asked a guide. “No,” he said, “these were the originals.”
This surprised me. Did it surprise you? Q2. If so, tell us why. [Post in comments box below. Indicate “Q2” in the topic section.]
The Laguna Copperplate
Great attention was given to the Laguna Copperplate in this Museum. This exhibit consists of a hammered copper plate that describes the forgiveness of a large debt in four different languages. This testifies that (around the year 900 in our current calendar) the Filipinos had multiple written and spoken languages based upon a unified alphabet. Read this description to discover for yourself what cultural importance this holds for modern-day Filipinos:
Prior to the deciphering of the text on the Laguna Copperplate, historians had almost universally accepted that the history of the Philippines only dated back to 1521, when records had noted the arrival of Magellan and chronicler Antonia Pigafetta on the archipelago. Before this, there had been very little history recorded in a way that would have allowed it to survive. As such, the landmark discovery of the Laguna Copperplate pushed back the start of Filipino history by 600 years.
| The Laguna copperplate inscription: (one twentieth actual size) |
Sign at the Museum |
|---|---|
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Aside from the date, the inscription also provided other details about the culture and population of the country in pre-colonial times. Firstly, it was written in a combination of Sanskrit, Old Malay, Old Javanese and Old Tagalog. This fact alone provides conclusive evidence that, at the time of the inscription’s writing, the Philippines was already a society with international trading networks. This is only compounded by mention of the Chief of Medang Kingdom in Indonesia, which implies that pre-Spanish Philippines already had strong cultural and trade links with other empires across Southeast Asia.
Further information was drawn from the subject matter. According to Postma [the Dutch scholar who translated the text], the copperplate forgives the descendants of Namwaran from a debt of 926.4 grams of gold, as granted by the chief of Tondo (in Manila) and the authorities of a number of locations in Luzon. This also provides evidence for historians, stating outright that the archipelago was a nation with rulers at that time [900 CE]. [Source = https://historylearning.com/history-of-the-philippines/pre-colonial/the-laguna-copperplate-inscription/ ]
I spoke to one of the Filipino guides at the Museum who is in his mid-twenties. “What were you taught in school regarding the origin of your people? Does the Laguna Copperplate play a role in your cultural identity?” I was secretly pleased by his responses.
Q3. How does the training received by the guide help him to feel “proud to be a Filipino”? [Post in comments box below. Indicate “Q3” in the topic section.]
Reflections upon the 4th floor exhibit
Modern-day Filipinos are attracted by the narrative on the 4th floor. This proves to them that the Spanish Conquistadores that subjugated their people in the 15th century and treated the as “slaves” in their own homeland do not have the final word regarding Filipino identity. By force of arms, Spanish overlords had destroyed the faith practices of their forebearers and had substituted the Catholic faith as the only surviving identity permitted for the Filipinos. But, now, this is changing. . . .
I reflect now that the Spanish overlords had the advantage of a Bible that narrates their story of origins going back to the first Adam and Eve. I reflect, too, on the fact that the Negro slaves that gained their independence at the end of the Civil War (1865) did not have any historical narrative to establish their identity. For this reason, Black Americans have had to make due with borrowing the identity of the European settlers who arrived in the “New World” after the discovery of Columbus in 1492. In the 60s, the “Nation of Islam” was founded as an attempt to give Black Americans the opportunity to return to the faith of their ancestors before they were enslaved in Africa. But this attempt has only vague historical roots and Black Americans have been hesitant to give up their Christianity in favor of a faith that is emotionally and spiritually “foreign” to them.
I do hope that the Filipinos will find a more satisfying resolution to the unfortunate history whereby their original culture was systematically destroyed by the Spaniards.
Massage and Yummy Vegan Food
Elena was exhausted with her work. So, when we met, she suggested that we have a massage. So, together, we went to the Breeze Oriental Spa and Massage. Wonderful idea! This was the best massage I have had for the last five years! [See https://breezemassage.ph/ ] Yummy food at the Green Bar Cafe [See https://www.facebook.com/GreenBarCafe/ ]
03 Feb 2023 Elena and I visit the old section of town, affectionally known as the “IntraMuros” [Tr. = “Inside the [old town] Walls.”]. It takes a 30-minute taxi ride to arrive there. I get to “interview” two students at the University and I admire the artifacts found at the Silahis Art & Artifacts Inc—”A better understanding of the Filipino people is our goal.” I was not impressed.
What caught my attention was a large painting of St. Augustine (d. 430) in the church that bears his name. The notion of gaining indulgences that would liberate poor souls who were suffering in Purgatory only finds full expression in the Middle Ages. Nonetheless, here St. Augustine is being celebrated as the “liberator of the poor souls.” This illustrates how art and legend work to transpose the faith of 900 CE back into the time of Augustine.
The next thing that impressed me was the signage of how the USA troops that were encamped inside the Church were responsible for looting and vandalism. The Augustinian monks that made this signage were not impressed by the conduct of the Americans (despite the fact that they were risking their lives to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese invaders). “The American troops seized the Church and the Monastery and stole books, artifacts, statues and moneys. The walls and the roof of the Church were heavily damaged.” [Source = https://philippine-trivia.com/trivia-about-the-san-agustin-church/ ]
Q4. Why did the monks complain about the dammage done to the church during General MacCarthur’s campaign to get rid of the Japanese invaders? [Post in comments box below. Indicate “Q4” in the topic section.]
Propellers brought us to our tropical island
04 Feb 2023 We take a plane (ATR72-600) with two propellers for a 60-minute AirSwift flight from Manila to Elena Nido. The sound of the propellers is quite distinctive from the sound of jet engines. This recalls for me my early days of travel when all commercial planes had propellers. [Sound of Propellers here = https://www.videvo.net/sound-effect/airplane-twin-prop-23/395442/ ] Soothing!
We arrive at the very small airport at 4 pm. Elena has arranged for a driver of a tricycle to pick us up and bring us to our bungalow on the beach. And what a glorious beach this it! You judge for yourself. We settle in and immediately go snorkeling without fins in the pristine waters of the South China Sea. Yowzer! No seaweed. Just small ferns growing from the sandy ocean bottom.
As I go out, a pair of exotic fish spot me and come to nibble on me. They are bright yellow with eight black vertical stripes. I continue to go out into deeper waters. The pair follow me. I notice that they nibble on the underwater ferns. I continue to follow El. The pair continue to nibble me. I take this as a sign that they are welcoming me and that, as far as they are concerned, this find me to be tasty. Oh, so lovely to behold!
05 Feb 2023 After a great night of sleeping, the roosters begin to crow at 5 am but it is still pitch black. Maybe the roosters are crowing to welcome the hundred fishermen that are returning from all-night fishing. If you look closely, you can see (in the pic to the left) the lights of the fishing boats returning.
At 6 am, we get up with the sun. Elena begins her Yoga. I dress quickly and go down to the beach to see whether I can meet with a boat of fishmen that came in late. Oh, yes! I find them. Four men carry their boat onshore. Then they take their catch and transfer it into a plastic cooler. All squid. About a hundred and fifty of them, I would judge.
As the men begin to scrub down the hull of their boat, two women come and select three or four squid from their catch. These women are the wives of the fishermen, and they are selecting the squid that they will serve their family for supper. The rest of the catch are taken a stone’s throw away into a hut where more men are sorting the squid by size: small, medium, large. Once the squid are sorted, each of the three sizes is weighed, and the weights is recorded in a journal.
I find one of the sorters who is able to speak English well. He explains to me that the selling price for the squid varies depending upon the size. He tells me that the price for the “small squid” is the highest. All of the squid caught by the two dozen fishermen who have their boats on the beach will be packed in ice and sold by fish transporters. They will take the daily catch [roughly 700 pounds of squid] and distribute it to the various restaurants and open-air fish markets in El Nido, which is the second-largest town on the island with 1500 permanent inhabitants.
I ask a fisherman whether the lights on his boat serve to attract the squid. They do. “How do you catch the squid?” He takes out a small bait box and shows me one of his squid jigs (shown below). “Made in China,” he says with a big smile. He seems to imply that the Chinese have designed a refined way of catching squid that has vastly improved their nightly catch.
The key to catching squid lies in gearing up properly. People will say you can catch them by tying a tiny hook on a light line and using a sliver of bait, and this is true, but consider yourself lucky to catch two or three squid a night using this method. Serious calamari fishermen will want to fill a cooler and, to accomplish this, you need a proper [made in China] squid jigging rig that looks like this:
I would judge that the four fishermen that came in last with their boat would earn approximately US$200 for their catch. This breaks down to $50 for each of them. This is not much when one considers that they had to work ten hours to earn this. I guess this is why some of the fishmen raise chickens or pigs to supplement their trade as fishermen.
There is no refrigeration in this small village; hence, the squid or the mackerel that they bring in has to be sold or eaten in one or two days. When a fisherman butchers a pig, one can bet that he needs to sell most of the meat for use within one or two days.
Comparing Squid and Octopus
A squid might have tentacles with suction cups; yet, the squid is distinctly different from an octopus. Here are drawings of an artist that brings forward the difference. Both squid and octopus have the ability to squirt ink when they are attached. An octopus, however, has a skin that allows it to blend into the coral reefs that they use for protection. Squid, on the other hand, swim in schools in the open waters and their skin can change only slightly to disguise their presence. The fisherman I spoke to told me that the squid that had brown patches on the skin had been caught recently. After a few hours out of water, a squid loses all its color. It is transparent with a milky color.
Moreover, an octopus is a loner. A squid is a social animal that moves and live in packs (schools is the technical term). Both squid and octopi can get very large and can weigh nearly 70 kg. – but these stay in deep waters and rarely come to the surface. The movies that show entire boats being dragged down by a humongous octopus one-third of the size of the boat are pure science fiction. One such film is shown here (left).
Giant squid (Architeuthis) live in the deep ocean, and never come to the surface unless sick. Even with specialist deep-diving scuba gear, no human is ever going to get down into giant squid habitat (and no giant squid is ever going to break into a submersible), while any giant squid coming up into the depths a human might swim in will be too ill to attack anyone. [Source = Christopher Gilmore ]
Squid (left) and Octopus (right)
Elena takes a motorized tricycle in order to go 8 km. to El Nido where she will join others for a supervised refresher dive. This is a safety precaution since Elena has not done any diving for three years.
Elena prepares to go down into the depths (10-30 meters below the surface)
There are two kinds of scuba divers. The first kind wants to locate and explore the interiors of sunken ships (mostly coming from the World War II era). Click here to see a map of all the subs that are available for exploration in the Philippines. The second kind is a lover of nature who wants to observe marine creatures in their own habitat. Elena and her comrads are of the second kind.
06 Feb 2023 I join Elena on board a larger boat where twelve divers will go into the depths. Elena spots a giant sea turtle that is resting on a cabbage coral that is three meters in diameter. The divers made four dives at locations where there were known coral reefs and their associated sea creatures.
At two of the dive sites, I used my scuba gear (without fins) to explore the deep water surrounding where the boat was anchored. At one point, I was inspecting a coral reef that was ten meters deep. I didn’t see any movement. Then, all of a sudden, a school of 100+ rabbit fish appeared.
What had happened was that these rabbit fish stopped swimming when they detected my presence above them. Motionless, the fish were invisible to me because they blended in nicely with the colors of the coral. Once I stood motionless on the surface; however, I became invisible to these fish and they began to swim again such that I was able to easily notice them.
The dive included lunch. I was anticipating a box lunch with a sandwich and piece of fruit. Not so! They provided a fully cooked meal that included a baked fish, fresh salad, and steamed vegetables. Fresh pineapple was served for our desert.
08 Feb 2023 On our last day, Elena and I returned to the reef that was only 100 meters from our bungalow. Elena and I snorkeled side-by-side. We found a small coral reef that featured all sorts of colored fish the size of a human hand. Elena spotted a small sea turtle. We followed it slowly. Possibly we made the little fellow nervous, because it swam away. We didn’t want to disrupt its privacy.
At 11 am, we had packed our bags and Jack, our tricycle driver, took us for the half-hour ride to the airport. At the entrance of the little airport, an official was checking our names against the roster of six pages. He didn’t find our names. So, he checked again. And again. And again. Elena checked her iPhone copy of our flight details. Yipes! She made an error. Her ticket was purchased for the next day.
So our perfect planner Elena does, on some rare moments, fail to get things right. Elena was crest-fallen. But I consoled her saying, “No need to be ashamed. Your solution to the problem was good and swift.” Hence, together we said, “All is well that ends well” (as Shakespeare wrote).
Q5. Do you know the name of the play of Shakespeare that ends with these words? [If so, post in comments box below. Indicate “Q5” in the topic section.]
Here is a mystery picture (to the left). There is a hole in the sand. What could have made this hole that was only five meters from our bungalo? [Post in comments box below. Indicate “Q6” in the topic section.]
(a) 
Captain Ahab visited this island. He lost his foot to a nasty whale (shown right).
(b) A mama sea turtle buried her egg here. When the baby turtle was ready, it broke out of its shell and went to the sea to swim away. This is the hole left behind.
(c) The hole was made my the gardener who waters this flowering plant by pouring water down the hole.
(d) Hermit crabs burrow into the sand at night in order to sleep. When the roosters started crowing this morning, the little crab washed its face and exited from his sleeping quarters in order to crawl into the sea water where breakfast wss awaiting her.
(e) None of the above.
Q6. Write your guess below in the comment box. Leave your name and the key clue as to Why you made the choice that you did? Indicate “Q6” in the topic section.
Q7. If you don’t like this contest, then please write (in the comment box) what you found most interesting in this journal of our adventure in the Philippines. Say a few words why this interests you. Thanks for participating. [Post in comments box below. Indicate “Q7” in the topic section.]
Q8. Here is a pic of Aaron and Elena on another adventure. Do you have any clues as to (a) when this took place, (b) where it took place, and (c) why we might be laughing. [Post in comments box below. Indicate “Q8” in the topic section.]
Interesting topics for further study
Impact of early colonization by Spain = https://countrystudies.us/philippines/4.htm
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542 = https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/bartolome-de-las-casas-describes-the-exploitation-of-indigenous-peoples-1542/
María, a slave in Manila who resisted sexual exploitation = https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-maria-a-slave-in-manila-who-resisted-sexual-exploitation-110182
Friarocracy of the Philippines = https://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Philippines/sub5_6a/entry-3836.html
Violence against women in the Philippines = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_women_in_the_Philippines
The Water Cure = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/02/25/the-water-cure and https://digg.com/video/christopher-hitchens-waterboard-vanity-fair
Topics = Q2, 4, and 8
[You need not respond to all the questions. Choose those that have a special importance for you. At the top of my responses, I indicate the Questions I intend to answer, namely, Q2, Q4, and Q8.]
Peace and joy in learning deeply,
Aaron and Elena