Pigs and pesos

Bretheren,
You are gathered here, no doubt, to hear about the Swedish massage. Well, I have sad news for you; This story has no happy ending. Nor any other funky or naughty content. Massage oils were indeed very liberally applied, but only in the most chaste way imaginable. It was just a massage - given by a lady who looked more like a Soviet female athlete than most petite and fragile Philippino ladies. Maybe that's the Swedish bit?

So Ride the Joe has landed me safely in Coron. Safely, though in something of a drugged stupor, since the local sea sickness pills dished out to all willing passengers by Captain Alan certainly did the trick. Nobody got sick during the 8 hour ride - though very few people could stay awake either.

Todays sermon will be about money, so gather round children. Money, in this archipelago, means pesos (roughtly 60 pesos = 1 euro). My daily budget is, roughly, 1100 pesos making this an expensive-ish country for South East Asia, but not compared to back home. So for about 20 euros I get my single room or cabin on the beach (usually with a shared bathroom and sometimes with giant cockroach, but always very very tidy!), I get three meals a day, occasionally a pina colada or two, and sometimes some roasted pig (Lechon) stuffed with what looks like the remains of one of the straw mats from my beach cabin. And of course I get to spend numerous exhaustive days in relative discomfort in various Jeepneys, some of which do not get engine trouble on the way. Also included in this amount are entrance fees, guides, my share of boat rents and everything else except for the flights.
I've also included pampering into my daily 20 euro budget: Swedish massage without happy ending: expensive at 5 euros, The worst haircut I've ever had (in Manila - cutting my bang so short I now look either permanently surprised or like I have a receding hairline): 80 cents (or with tip for bad haircut: 1,20 euros) and necessities such as stamps for postcards to Europe 17 pesos (under 20 cents).
So apart from the expense of flights, what I spend in a month here would just about cover a one week trip to some European capital.

There are many luxuries I will be missing when I return such as the fresh mango or watermelon shakes (divine!). And the sun. And the warm. But said it once, will say it again; the thing I really will miss are the smiling happy relaxed people around. Try smiling and saying hello to total strangers in Helsinki! They would probably just think you were drunk or else get worried that they should apparently know you but couldn't remember who you were. Over here everybody's just shouting big hellos and flinging gratuitous smiles at you all the time. Never mind, I comfort myself that even here they read Newsweek and only today someone was impressed that I was from Finland, since it is "The best country to live in the World". Newsweek couldn't possibly be wrong now could it!