The Longest Way Home Travel Blog

How to connect to the internet when you’re traveling in the Philippines

2009-11-06T14:57:53-08:00

Remote internet access in the Philippines (click to enlarge)

“How do you connect to the internet so often when traveling?”

It’s a question I get asked a lot from people planning their travel trips. Especially people going away for 3 months plus who want to bring a laptop, upload photos, and blog etc,.

For those who don’t have laptops I wrote up an article here called How to Travel Blog from a Cyber Cafe it’s more specific to connecting without a laptop.

For those that do have a laptop, or those who want to know some of the methods I have been using when in the Philippines- here they are:

The Philippines is a relatively well connected internet savvy country. And there are several ways to connect online – (this can also apply to many other SEA countries)

1) In any of the malls you will find a cyber cafe. General fees are an average of 30 pesos and hour.

2) Also in many of the Malls there are WIFI zones. Not all are free though. Head to the information desks and ask if there is free WIFI in the Mall, if not they may have scratch cards. But, do check around yourself anyway. I’ve found plenty of businesses in Malls who have WIFI that’s not password protected, and quite fast.There’s usually a place to sit nearby too.

The usb internet solution for travel in the Philippines

3) Out on the streets in many towns and city’s you will find plenty of small internet cafes. Some will just be gaming zones with no internet, others might have strange booths with guy’s and girls, and sometimes indistinguishable types using webcam’s. Best to avoid the latter cafes. Prices here are 15 pesos upwards. They don’t always have fast connections here I’ve found.

4) Nation wide roaming internet access with a doogle. This is something I used quite a lot. There are two main telecom company’s in the Philippines offering this method. Globe (philcom) and Smart. I don’t endorse anyone here. But I chose Smart as the queue was shorter! And, the people seemed to actually take an interest in what I was looking for.

For 1,999 pesos I paid for a Smart Bro plan that basically allows me to connect to the internet via my laptop and a usb doogle with up to 2MB/s speeds. I can access the internet anywhere there’s a mobile connection. Which is pretty much nationwide.

A more practical method evolved

The phone to laptop method is what I actually ended up using more often as the Smart doogle is a bit big for my USB ports. Again Smart have a package here, which is basically mini cd that has a program that allows an auto connect to their network via your phone.

I avoided the fee for this and just connected using Bluetooth or a cable. Almost like using the phone as a modem, but through Smart’s gprs/Edge/3G network. The only downside here is that it puts a strain on a phone’s battery. But for me this isn’t an issue as I have been using a fake i-phone with a staggering 2 week battery life.

I now connect my phone via bluetooth or cable with no issues. The mobile billing is quite cheap and works with a regular phone sim. Internet access is sold in blocks of time and not bandwidth here. About 10 pesos an hour at certain times in certain areas. Otherwise it’s about 30 pesos. And it does have good coverage. There are always promotions running so it pays to log onto your providers homepage every time you go online.

I will admit that the 2MB/s claim is a little generous. But, I can watch youtube videos etc. Though I wouldn’t as it’s a little costly after a while. You top up your account with ordinary telephone scratch cards.

I connect up via my fake i-phone and a usb

Some tips when using the above method of staying online while traveling:

1) Offline I write blog posts up on a word processor like Open office or MS office. I then get online and paste them in and I’m done. Staying online to write up posts simply takes too long.

2) Don’t read blogs! Sign up to their RSS feeds through a feedreader like Google Reader or FeedDemon. I use several, but I like FeedDemon as it’s fast and it allows me to catch up offline later.

If RSS is too much to handle, another great way to read blogs offline is to subscribe to email updates. If you don’t like getting a lot of mail then create a filter and a new folder in your email account so updates can go there rather than clutter up your inbox.

You can get my own journal sent to your email every week by signing up here. It’s free, you won’t ever get spam, and can unsubscribe anytime.

3) If you use Twitter, facebook or any other social site use the tabs on your browser and try to multitask as much as possible. It’s not so much about bandwidth here, but time. The less time online, the less you are spending on internet access fees.

4) If you use wordpress to blog, use Gears which is available in settings. It downloads the most commonly used files on Wordpress and makes it a lot faster to use when you are online.

5) Use an offline desktop email application like Googlemail’s or Thunderbird. Download your mail as you are copying and pasting other things online. Get offline, read it. Write replies and then get online again to send them.

6) If you are using the doogle or phone method I mentioned, then set a timer on your phone or watch to go off 3 minutes before that time block of internet access expires. If you are charged 30 pesos an hour and you log off after 61 minutes, then you are charged for 2 hours. So be careful! And check the prices, as they will often change plans!!

7) If your pictures are small, then uploading them through the doogle/phone method is fine. But if they are big I wouldn’t. I prepare two sets of images. One for the website which are re-sized. I can upload them using the phone to laptop method with no problems. For larger 5MB -15MB plus photos I try to find free WIFI at a mall. Sit, have lunch, and maybe dinner while uploading. Or in a hostel with wifi, I simpy leave the laptop on overnight to upload.

Mobile Travel blogging

Mobile Blogging and emailing is quite easy and cheap in the Philippines as well. Until recently Smart had a 50 peso for 5 hours of internet plan on a ready to go sim pack for your phone (smart bro). There was also a 100 peso for 12 hour option on the same plan. The regular fee is 10 peso for 30 mins. This is by far the cheapest I’ve seen in my travels. Though they tend to turn the promotions off every now and then. At the moment it’s 10 pesos for 30mins.

On Mobile I use an application called Snaptu which works great as an all in one RSS reader, Twitter, Facebook and movie review application. Good news for travelers looking for an all in one solution on either blackberry, Symbian phones or Windows mobile. There’s also a really great photo app to view some stunning getty images. Snaptu’s support team is also great in fixing any issue you might have. Best of all, it’s free and they have a lot of new features on the way.

I use Worldmate and Psiloc World Traveler on mobile for multi currency conversions, weather reports and time zone checks across the world.

Skype works well with wifi on mobile but with gprs or Edge only via text.

Opera mini (Beta 5) makes browsing 10x faster and great for bandwidth hungry websites! It also supports tabs.

Not to mention google/nokia maps with gps for getting around with ease. I’ll have a feature about this coming up soon.

There are several other ways to connect online and upload that I mention in my article How to Travel Blog from a Cyber Cafe. Not everyone takes advantage of these methods, but I find it allows me to do a lot more than I would be able to otherwise.

So that’s how I am able to travel the Philippines and get online with ease no matter where I am – be it on a ferry, up a mountain, trekking in a jungle or when living on an island!

Coming Soon:

A very big question I have to ask in my journey to find home…

Great Food from The Philippines: Santol

2009-11-03T21:31:25-08:00

A Santol fruit from the Philippines, halved

The Santol fruit is about the size of a grapefruit, but looks like a round pear. Once inside there are 4 -6 stones (hard seeds) that are covered by a soft white flesh.

The fruit needs to be peeled. The harder flesh outside of the inner flesh is quite bitter. And, Filipinos like to eat it with salt. While the inner soft flesh around the stones is quite sweet.

The inner flesh has quite a unique taste. Almost like rose hip or something very flowery. I enjoyed this fruit, though found it frustrating as the flesh is hard to remove from the stone, so I treated it like a boiled sweet. It did leave a bit of an after taste though. But worth trying!

This post is one of a series featuring Great Food from The Philippines.

Cliff Climbing in El Nido, Palawan

2009-10-29T13:55:55-07:00

The cliff to climb in El Nido

Rex had mentioned cliff climbing to me.

“No rope, no gear, just climb the cliff.”

I treated his comment with a grain of typical skepticism. The cliff was likely to be a hill, and the rope comment was meant to generate interest or bravado.

I also had a deep desire to reach the top of a place that had been a home in name only for quite some time.

My gut seemed to be telling me something I knew already.

To hire a guide would cost 250 pesos, but it had a minimum or 2 people. Meaning I would either have to pay 500, find a tourist, or go alone. So I took another option …

“Rex, you want a free lunch today?”

Vertical cliff Climbing in El Nido

It was 2 hours up, 2 hours down. Rex had pointed out the cliff from his boat once. I figured there was a back way up the cliff side that was not so vertical. But no. As we meandered through a local settlement, up over some loose rock and into a forest area we were soon confronted with a vertical cliff face.

The volcanic rock was in truth really easy to climb. It was sharp and very porous; making easy to grip. Much like the volcanic rock I found on one of the islands it also sounded like metal if tapped.

It was 7am when we started. A good time to avoid the suns heat. The surrounding trees sheltered us a little as well. But as soon as we were in a clearing the sun made sure to remind us of its heat.

What you walk on when cliff climbing in El Nido

I was also glad to have strong boots. Even Rex was wearing shoes, something not that common in the Philippines as most simply wear rubber sandals. The rock we were walking on was not smooth either. Sharp outcrops of jagged stone lined are path. The only choice one had was to walk on the topside edge of these formations and balance.

It was easier than it sounded. The porous metallic rock gripped onto my boots with ease and I found I could lean to either side with great flexibility and no fear of toppling over.

A sheer vertical climb was never so easy. I feared ripping my one good pair of combats that I still had. Yet again this amazing rock did not snag at my clothing.

At the very top of the cliff the view was spectacular. All of El Nido was stretched out in front of us as we perched there. El Nido’s little horse shoe look, with it’s blue translucent water and idyllic skyline was a paradise no doubt.

We sat there for longer than expected. Rex was his usual one sided conversational self as I commented on how bad the local biscuits were. I bought them the day before and wondered if a relative of his had made them. Turned out he thought they were bad too.

“I don’t like the bread in the Philippines,” I confessed.

Rex made one of those Filipino grunt noises.

“You make a lot of it here,” I continued. “And it really is bad. Tastes of dry dust.”

View of El Nido from the top of the Cliffs (click to enlarge)

Rex laughed and blew out some of the dusty biscuit he was eating.

“Do you eat bread?”

He shook his head.

For all the bakery’s I’ve seen around the Philippines, I’d yet to see a Filipino actually eat bread with a meal.

I finished up our dead conversation with something that always makes a Filipino smile, “Come on, lets get some rice.”

I could have stayed up on top of the cliff a lot longer. But felt a strange obligation to get Rex back to his lunch.

Strange as it seemed, but this climb, the overlooking view of Palawan, and Rex’s continued silence called me to attention. Maybe this was my final conquest in trying to live on an island …

Coming soon:

How to connect to the internet when living on an island? Inside tips on how I connect to the internet when traveling

Great food from the Philippines: Sizzling Pork Steak

2009-10-27T12:37:23-07:00

Sizzling Pork Steak from the Philippines

Sizzling pork steak from the Philippines

One of the things many travelers will notice about meat in the Philippines is that it usually come’s chopped up. One of the reasons for that is Filipino’s generally prefer small portions, little pieces and tender meat. Hence in local eateries it’s not so easy to get a knife.

Sizzling pork Steak is usually only found at special fiestas or night time food markets. You’ll see long strips of half inch think pork steaks with a back of fat lined up on plates. They BBQ the pork steak and then chop it up into small bite sized pieces.

The downside here is that you don’t get the satisfaction of carving up your own meat. It’s also quite fatty. The plus side is that sizzling pork steak makes great finger food and goes very well with San Miguel beer. So you won’t feel the guilt of eating the calorie high consumption until the next day!

This is an additional post and one of a series hightlighting Great food from the Philippines

Walking on water in El Nido, Palawan.

2009-10-21T12:06:42-07:00

Reflecting on El Nido, Palawan (click to enlarge)

El Nido is beautiful, of that there is no doubt. I will take that back once the developers arrive. And from what I hear, they are on the way.

I continue to write, and I get a lot done. But, I am feeling pressured. The weight of 4 + years of searching is bearing down, or is it that there is so little distraction around me. It’s not home. Then why am I staying here? Ah, to prove a point about living on an island.

Point proved yet?

My daily expenses:

Accommodation – $-4 (it keeps going down)

Food – $1.50-2 (yes really, and I eat meat)

Keep in mind the above is not a ‘travel budget’ but a living on an island budget.

That’s it. But, there are hidden costs. Visas. Travel to Peurto to get visas. Internet costs and the occasional soft drink, coffee to stay in touch with today’s world at a local cafe.

Blissful life if you work a 9-5 job in another country and come for a 1-2 week holiday. But for any longer and …

Occasionally I look up and out of my window to see a miracle. A man walking on water. He is actually walking on water. But one inch below the water is a coral and rock plateau. He’s not just doing this to impress the strange foreigner who keeps pointing a camera at him every evening. Throughout the whole area are small sea urchins and other shell fish that the man is searching for.

He’s living off the sea. A nightly walk can bring back some side dishes to break the monotony of rice. Or quite simply to feed his family.

This man walks on water every night. I don’t know what he does during the day. But as dusk approaches he is always there. It was when I was watching him one night that two worlds collided.

I remembered back to my 48 hour Pakistan train journey with the good Colonel. We stopped over the Hindus river and he pontificated that the local man serving curry at the station knew no more than to make curry and serve it. Therefore he was a happy man. And it was a good life. I disagreed at the time. If the man knew about the outside world, maybe he’d fight tooth and nail to get to it. Africa taught me that.

But maybe I’d missed the keywords in the Colonel’s point. “He doesn’t know anything else.”

It’s a hard concept for someone bombarded with internet, TV, media and a deluge of culturally diverse people to understand. There are some people out there who’ve never been in that environment. The words 24, Beyonce, Oscars, interest rates, economic collapse mean nothing to them.

“It’s a simple life that brings peace to your life,” the colonel said.

I didn’t get it at the time. And even now, I know that I don’t actually want it.

But, I do feel it. Perhaps I understand it now.

I decided one evening to try this walking on water thing myself. It gets strange the further out you get.

Turn around, and the shore is really quite far away. Just sea separating you from all sides. I didn’t go looking for shellfish. But, I did walk on water; and I knew what it meant.

Walking on water in El Nido, Palawan

Coming soon:

Cliff climbing anyone?

Great food from the Philippines: Sizzling Prawns

2009-10-19T12:33:13-07:00

Sizzling Prawns from the Philippines

Sizzling Prawns in the Philippines

Famous for it’s seafood there’s no escaping the delights of fresh prawns in the Philippines. They come in different sizes. Large, largest and mini lobster sized. In fact the largest Prawns I’ve ever seen have been from the Philippines. And, they are good.

Though sometimes made into adobo, they are usually cooked on a bbq or fried. Some night market stalls will serve them on a sizzling hot plate for extra pizazz.

The smaller the the prawn the cheaper it costs. Personally I go for the jumbo sized bbg prawns, there’s a lot of meat on them so only a few are needed.

This is an additional post and one of a series hightlighting Great food from the Philippines

Finding a job in the Philippines as a foreigner

2009-10-14T02:30:59-07:00

Chilling out with a milkshake in Palawan

It’s not easy for Filipinos to find jobs in the Philippines, let alone a foreigner. In Manila I met expats with diplomatic jobs, and big corporate jobs. I also met the cocky kids of these expats. Unfortunately I also met a few of these kids who were on vacation in Palawan. My ears are still burning.

The moral and ethical dilemma

After working in capacity building projects one learns what it means not to take a job from someone. In developing countries I don’t believe I can, nor should take nor have a job that a local can do. I would rather be paid to teach someone what I know, so they can than teach others; and then move on.

In this case Palawan. It’s a small island. There’s not much to do. And jobs are not plentiful. Many have suggested … why not open a business here? Well, lot’s of reason why not to. One, cash, or lack of it. Especially when it involves not owning anything. In the Philippines there are basically two ways to own a business. Marry a local, or start a co-op with 5 Filipinos. Then hand over all your cash, and …

No thanks. In Manila I met three foreigners who had lost everything. Including their wives trying to open a business. Strangely I don’t get a good vibe about having a business in the Philippines.

Also I only have a tourist visa. And to work in the Philippines with only a tourist visa is illegal. I am not interested in illigal work in the Philippines. I don’t need the hassle. I would really be off to a bad start if the Philippines really was home, and I was working illegally. But, desperate times may make this all change quite soon …

Expat’s and the non PC reality of life overseas

“They wouldn’t think twice about taking your job if push came to shove.”

So said a friend from another country. In reality he is right, it’s just not often put that way.

A local expat suggested I do private TEFL work. I really wonder if anyone has sense sometimes. Filipino’s speak English, and it’s an official language. Then I found out about the underbelly TEFL work going on. Koreans. One can give private lessons to Koreans who come to the Philippine’s for cheap language lessons. A foreigner is worth even more. But …

You are again illegally working. So when said Korean (or any nationality) stops paying you, what can you do? Nothing. And if you do threaten them. The person you are tutoring can just say “Go away, I call immigration tell them you working“. What’s worse is you probably taught them how to say that!

NGO work exists. But again, its a connections thing. And for some reason, they don’t publicize themselves that much in the Philippines. The Philippines is separate from SEA in many respects. Work I believe is one of them. It’s a huge obstacle to overcome. Not just for me, but for Filipinos too.

Working for yourself

Photography work is not too hard to come by. As is website development. In the Philippines reputation dictates a higher payout. So if one particular local photographer has a reputation, they charge a fortune even for the most basic of photo shoots. Likewise for website work. In fact for the latter it’s not unheard of for people to charge many $100’s for very simple things. The local business has no clue, but pays anyway as they are baffled by tech talk in both photo work, and web work.

What’s more most of this “ego and rep for money” comes from local people. I’ve seen terrible portfolios come with huge price tags. And the business/person pays out based on the price tag - it must be good if it cost that much – Expats do the same thing, though a little more subtlety.

Personally I take the expose approach and am quite up front with the cost of things. What’s more, as mentioned earlier, I prefer to pass my skills on. But, there’s still a buy buy, for now now mentality in the Philippines. People prefer to buy a service than learn a skill. At least from my experience in these sectors.

Maybe I need to knock the development mentality of my approach out of my head! And go with the flow?

The future

For the moment I will continue to ask questions, and gather info about earning/living on an island. But I’m for sure starting to side on Palawan not being one of the greatest places to find work. To invest a fortune, if you have it, and can take a loss just in case, yes it could well be a gold mine. I don’t have the capital, nor do I want that risk.

I also have a terrible feeling that in under 5 years it (El Nido) will become another Boracay and loose it’s charm.

To make the odd website, take some photographs of people, business and brochures. Sure. But it doesn’t exactly spell longevity. At least not in El Nido. Then again, connections are needed no matter where you are in the world these days. So it might just not be Palawan, but; my way of thinking that needs to change in this regard …

Coming soon:

Walking on water – the meaning of a good life

Great food from the Philippines: Rice (there’s more to it than you might think)

2009-10-11T21:42:36-07:00

Bowl shaped serving of rice

I will be the first person to admit, I am not a huge fan of rice. It does little for me. The Philippines staple food is rice, and it’s everywhere. Not only that but it’s hard to get anything else but rice, aside from fast food eateries.

The thing I found about rice in the Philippines is that the servings are usually really small. In fact it’s a small soup bowl that’s used to fill most servings that’s then turned upside down on your main plate. Though in some night food stalls you will get a small parcel of rice in a banana or palm leaf.

In the markets the rice obsession continues as you will see more varieties of rice than just about everywhere. A lot of people are even paid in just rice. Give a Filippino some bread and they will still be hungry, give them rice and they are happy.

The unfortunate thing about all this rice is that most of it is imported. If you’ve read my journals from the rice terrace in the north of the Philippines and about the rice terrace devastation in the Philippines then you’ll know what I mean. The Philippines is well capable of growing most of it’s own rice, but does not.

Likewise the Philippines does not seem to take heed of other nations from the past who relied only on one crop. Should a crop disease hit Asian rice, the Philippines is in trouble. The same is also true for shortages as was made evident in 2008/9 during the food shortage problems. Rice prices soared and the people suffered.

I hope for the Philippines sake they reinvest in their own agriculture and diversify a little.

This is an additional post and one of a series hightlighting Great food from the Philippines

How to go squid fishing in El Nido

2009-10-06T13:43:12-07:00

Evening boat trip in El Nido

I like Squid. But I have no idea how to catch them. I thought it was through deep sea netting. But in local cantina’s all over the Philippines there are squid for sale. So I figured that theory went out the window.

El Nido tour agency’s offer trawling tours, fishing tours and squid fishing tours. All at very high prices, unless you are with a group. Rex, it seemed, was my answer. I asked him if he ever went fishing. Turned out he didn’t. But that said, for the price of the fuel alone we went out for a night of squid fishing.

El Nido at 6pm takes on more of an orange than golden sunset glow. Our banka (pump boat) chugged along the quite waters around

A paraffin lamp used in squid fishing

the bay. Rex was his usual silent self and it all seemed pretty relaxing. It could be a long night as I wasn’t so confident that we’d catch anything.

As darkness fell over El Nido Rex brought the Banka to a halt, dropped anchor and showed me the whole process of how to catch squid.

The most important element to squid fishing is to attract the squid. This comes in the form of bait, and a source of light. In this case a pump action paraffin lamp hanging over the side of the boat. It took longer than one would think to set it up, but once working it lit up sea below.

A myriad of tiny little blue fish swam by. A huge jellyfish listed gently off our starboard side. And every now and then something would knock off the boat side.

Squid fishing bait and bucket

I wasn’t so concerned it was a giant killer squid or anything, but the strange knocking, and splashing had me wondering.

“Flying fish,” said Rex in a lispy accent.

I stared at one of the banka’s floats for a while and then caught a glimpse of a small blue backed fish piercing the still water. Then another, only this one ricochet right off the boats wooden hull. Noise explained.

Taking out his bait bucket he showed me the 4 oblong white fish. All strapped to a line as if cowboy captives in an old western. At the tail end was an inverted umbrella of hooks. The idea is to drop the bait, the squid then come up to it, wrap their tentacles around the fish and and start munching.

You then yank the fishing line at random intervals in a hope that there is one squid latched on and in turn you spear it with the hooks.

Quite easy. Rex tied four lines to the four corners of the boat. Then we waited. Every 3 minutes he’d pull at the two lines at his end, and I would do the same.

I took only 40 minutes before he let out a shout for the first catch. A tiny little squid no bigger than a large thumb. It squirted water out and was thrown into the bucket. It seemed my own line tugging abilities were not as good.

Freshly caught squid

We moved location after Rex was on his 4th squid catch. I was guessing it was because he was sitting beside the light. My luck changed with the new spot though. Giving one of my lines a tug I felt it drag a little more than usual. I tugged hard and then pulled up the line quickly as Rex came over with a bucket.

Sure enough there it was, even smaller than my thumb, my first catch of the night. With that I then became paranoid and began pulling the lines up more frequently, thinking they were heavier than usual. It was hard to judge, and as Rex continued to trawl in more and more little squid I calmly let my own tugging down.

Then, one more tug later I felt the heavy weight of something real. I pulled at the line quickly as Rex had said, so as not to loose the squid. The waters surface broke and out came the catch of the night. A squid the length of my forearm!

We could have gone on all night. But we already had more than enough to eat. The engines chugging we headed back to shore for a midnight BBQ.

Bucket of fresh squid

I only wanted my own catch of the day, but Rex insisted on cooking all the squid. A half hour of looking for firewood later, and soon the squid were sizzling away. I wouldn’t call Rex a gourmet chef. Calamansi, and … well … that was about it. But soon enough there was a row of Squid on the table.

Strangely we were the only one’s around. In a lot of other countries the call of free food would have brought plenty out. Here, we had the feast to ourselves.

Grilling squid in El Nido

There was something new though. I thought Rex had covered several of the squid in salt as I could see the large crystals. One bite and I changed the idea to him having covered them in sugar. The squid were very sweet, and not really my thing. It turned out the salt / sugar was actually squid eggs.

The little squid were in fact females, and the eggs are a reserved delicacy. Still not my thing. At least my catch of the day squid was a male, no eggs. Just good meat.

Much like my previous entry, another surprise came the next day when Rex came back with amples of left over squid he’d made an adobo out of. No more sweetness, just good food straight from the sea.

Coming soon:

Looking for a job on an island

How I am cooking and eating on an island (refrigerators not included)

2009-09-30T07:21:25-07:00

Gas bottle outside a cottage

Eating out every night is not practical. For one thing, I like to eat during the day too. Eating restarunt food three times a day on an island gets pretty monotonous after a while. Also, buying and cooking for yourself is a lot cheaper.

Warning, if you have a delicate stomach, you might not like this article – it’s not pretty, it’s reality.

One of the things I learned in Africa is how to cook without electricity. The cooking part is easy, gas, wood etc,. What’s not so easy is how to preserve cooked food, or even raw food, particularly meat. In my island cottage in the Philippines I have no refrigerator. Just a gas stove. But, I have learned a few new things.

In Africa it’s common to immediately cook fresh from the slaughter house meat in the form of a huge pot of stew. Then if no refrigerator available, reheat the next day, and the next and so on. Or in the case of chop houses, cook all day long. This reheating process essentially kills off the bacteria which can make one ill.

A refrigerator does the opposite and essentially slows down bacterial growth. I lived like this for quite a while. And yes I did get sick on occasion, but most of the time I did not. And either way, I had no choice.

Beef Adobo from the Philippines

Learning from another continent

In the Philippines I’ve had a similar problem with refrigeration. I don’t have one. Eating out all the time is too expensive, and I am trying to see what living on an island is like. By virtue of this, I’ve discovered another way Filipinos make food last longer. I have discovered the antibacterial virtues of Adobo.

Adobo is a Filipino marinade made from garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar (plus lots of other things and variations that seem to change depending on the region). It’s quite nice. It wasn’t until I bought some beef adobo in El Nido and for one reason or another forgot to cook it for two days did I discover it was still edible!

Why? While posting a previous blog entry I read up on its Spainish history. The key ingredient is Vinegar, it stunts the development of bacteria. And there I was thinking it was used to tenderise the meat, but no, it prolongs the life of meat.

Old spanish sailors used this method, as do some Filipinos today, as am I. Though I do not recommend this to anyone, nor advocate it.

I usually just cook beef adobo. Pork adobo is okay, but the taste changes after a while. Chicken I prefer fresh. And fish … the smell alone turns my stomach. But I happen to know the squid adobo I eat at a cantina is often two days old, or at least reheated for two days. And, I’ve never had a problem with it.

But this is not Africa …

In africa it took me a while to master the length of time, or how many days you can reheat for. It all boils down to the heat and humidity of the days passing. Hence my learning curve involved an occasional backfire … no pun intended.

My Attempt at chicken Adobo (It tastes better than it looks!)

In the Philippines it’s really hard to tell how long adobo can last as it already has a distinct taste. And, I don’t want to push my luck too much. But it does help in avoiding daily market trips. Now it’s every other day.

Nohting beats fresh food. But I’ve learned something new, and something potenially valuable from living on island in the Philippines. What’s more it’s good to try and cook locally. I’ve noticed a few people relatively impressed at my attempts.

Old ladies give the odd nod at my attempts at buying ingredients. Sometimes they get a little too excited though, and an argument offten kicks off between two ladies over the exact quantities of what that I will need. But it gets everyone laughing. And when you can make people laugh, you must be doing something right.

Again, I do not recommend anyone to try this method of cooking or preserving food.

Coming Soon:

Learning how to catch squid for dinner