Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

Its been around for a long time, I assume to try and combat illegal logging.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

Be aware, Philippine geckos are after your beer. Years ago I used to see one of the large geckos licking the beer tops I left on the top of the fridge on the veranda, never saw it again after Yolanda went through. Lately when I open a bottle and the cap drops into the catcher a normal sized gecko or two run out but are quickly back in again and last night one actually crawled into my beer glass and was happily supping away. I stupidly tapped the side of the glass and instead of running away it fell in so it and the remaining beer ended up in the garden.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

So they can even judge how drunk you are, and when to provoke you into spilling the whole lot over the side. Brilliant!! :thumbsup:

(j/k of course)

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

Not sure where to put this....Oddities or Humorous episodes.

I have a very good friend who was telling me that she had to pay her electricity bill today. Remembering my time before, I told her I can remember having to queue (stand in line) for about half an hour in the blazing sun to pay my bill. She said it was no problem. She gets there early. The place opens at 8.00 and she is there at 7.15. She gets a ticket that she is number 5 in the queue. She is very pleased about that. gets served at 8.25. Now....she had to get up at 5.30 to get the jeepney into town. Got home after waiting for said jeepney at 12.25. When I mentioned that in the UK we do it on line and takes a few minutes.....I sensed that I could have been talking black magic and witchcraft to her.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

I think she rises early anyway and enjoys the early morning ambiance outside. It's cool and you're in a select group of people out at that time.
She feels good as she has got to fifth in the line. I wouldn't go so far as saying they enjoy lining up here but from my observations I don't think they see it as such a pain as we do.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

In the west we lead busy lives so queuing in line is a disruption, here it passes the time of day as they actually talk to each other in the line.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

I never really queue when paying my electric bill. I just take my dog with me who is quite a good crotch sniffer and am always waved through the queue quite quickly one place at a time until I reach the front.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

I do not have to queue, I Go straight to the managers office. We have on grid solar power system so we export elecric to the grid. The electric company does not have the software program to ajust the bills so it is done manually. It takes about another month for the local office to get the bill so we are always a month behind.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

Whilst on the subject of elecric supplies I have been listening to the Philippine News and by all account it is informing that there could be many more brown outs ( Luzon) due to high useage and the generating system unable to produce a sufficient supply. The odd brown out is livable but continuous disruptiion could be a real headache. When there is a brown out the biggest inconvienience to us is no internet and no water pressure due to the electric pump being unable to work. The brown outs we suffer are always in the daytime, because we do not use aircon during the day its not a problem, however if the brown outs occurred at night we would struggle to sleep as we use aircon at night.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

We have had constant brownouts for the last 12 years. For things like a few lights, WiFi, PC or TV etc get an inverter and run it off the car battery or a spare car battery and a trickle charge solar cell, normally gives about 6 hours use, or if it going to be a long one just restart the car every 3 hours. It even runs my water booster pump for a short period.

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I have just bought a bottle of citric drink. It is a slightly cloudy clear liquid named Pocari Sweat. Not exactly an inviting name.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

It's the go to after a bout of the runs.
There's a sports shoe shop in the vista mall Balanga called athletes foot.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

It is originally from Japan, hence the somewhat awkward name. It is an iso-tonic drink, meaning that it is intended to replenish salt, minerals and such after sweating. However, as with all soft drinks, has a lot of sugar been added.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

Not so much an oddity here but would be elsewhere in the world

Contractor for DPWH damaged a National Grid submarine power cable - in the real world the contractor would have to pay for the repair, but not here. Here to cover the cost of the damage the electric companies will be increasing the customer power costs by upto 15% until December when they say the repair, that would normally take less than 2 days to be completed, will be finished.

A couple of weeks ago Panay Water came out with a brilliant statement that 'Heavy rains have caused water shortage'. They then followed that up a while later blaming the customers for the cloudy water coming out of their taps.

The problem here is that no one questions it.

Re: Oddities in the Philippines
 

We noticed an anomaly here with our electricity bill many years ago. Upon enquiring, we were informed that the additional amount was to cover the cost of electricity stolen from the local grid. So, rather than the company (or shareholders) having to forfeit the loss, they just deduct it from the honest households that do pay. As you say, no one here bothers to question it.