Today I went to Ayala Mall, which seems to be a regular occurrence now, to extend my visa. If you arrive in the RP with no papers of any kind, you are stamped at customs with a 21 day tourist visa, which you can extend for short periods for up to one year before you have to leave. This can be done in person at the Bureau of Immigration, which most say is a simple process, or you can have a travel agency handle it all for you. Since I wanted to go to Ayala anyway, I decided to go the travel agency route. Just outside the mall entrance is an AMEX Travel agency and they were able to take care of everything.

After leaving the agency, the next item on the list was some shopping. There is a huge grocery store in Ayala which I had never visited before. All the standard items you would expect of grocery store were there and many were much cheaper than they are in the U.S. They also had many Asian products you couldn't get in a standard grocery store in the U.S., except at some of the Asian grocery stores in California. Now being in a mall, this stuff is cheap to me, but still quite expensive for the average local. My friend Michelle was surprised at what I was willing to pay for something like a can of Planters Peanuts, even though is was less than half what it might cost at a grocery store in L.A.



After that, the next item on the list was food. Michelle took me to a place called Max's, which has the slogan, "The House That Fried Chicken Built". Fried chicken is quite popular in the Philippines and there's plenty of it, cheap. Although we had a bit of fried chicken, the main thing Michelle ordered was this soup that had whole shrimp in it, heads and all. I tried the soup, and it wasn't that great to me, but she seemed to love it. Even if the soup stock tasted great, though, I don't know that I could have gotten past the shrimp with heads and little legs.

Luckily for me, they also had some batter dipped and deep fried shrimp as I would naturally expect. It came with a cup of some kind of sweet sauce to dip in and it was great. I also had some Shanghai style fried rice which was pretty good. The fried chicken itself, though, was nothing special in my view. I think the fried chicken at my hotel is better. It's amazing that it's so cheap. Not at this place, mind you, as mall dining can approach U.S. prices if you're not careful, but at most places you can get half a fried chicken for about $2 or $3. I can't imagine how cheap it would be at a place that didn't cater to foreigners.

In all, I realize I am probably spending more than I should on this first leg of my adventure, and I am not writing enough, as far a paying gigs are concerned. Of course, this is expected to some degree as I had no misconceptions that I would walk into a new place and environment and sit down and work 24/7. That is kind of what I am trying to escape also. Still, it is time to settle in and starting focusing on why I am here. I wrote, "I chose to take my chances, hop on a plane and head to South East Asia. With few exceptions, many places in Asia have a cost of living as low as 20% of what it might cost to live in Southern California. There I could conceivably sustain myself on my internet endeavors and have some real adventure to boot. Since I am doing my work in the wired, it shouldn't matter where in the world I am at any given time, as long as there's access. It would appear as though I can't lose." That is still the plan. Not to say I haven't been working at all or bringing in any money, but I am really starting to see the potential for what devoting just a few hours per day to internet business can do for creating an incredible lifestyle here.

The other day, me and my friend Michelle went to SM Mall, the larger mall I wrote of in an earlier post. I don't remember if we had a specific reason to be there, but on the list of things to do was eat. So we found this little, very authentic type, Japanese restaurant in the mall interior. We went inside and got our menus and I started going through it, wondering what to get. I saw Ramen on the menu but dared not try it, fearing it might be instant. As I continued to look, Michelle quickly ordered the Sushi, Sashimi and Tempura plate. I thought, "Wow, she knows her Japanese cuisine." I went ahead and ordered some curry, gyoza (deep fried pot stickers) and california rolls.

After the food arrived, and we began eating, I noticed that Michelle hadn't touched her main plate. I finally decided to ask her about it. "I thought it was going to be cooked." She said, clearly very embarrassed. It turns out that she didn't know her Japanese cuisine. She looked at the picture, thought it looked good, and ordered it.



I made a joke that she should tell the waitress, "Take this back in the back and fry it up right!" She laughed, but clearly as the meal wore on she was concerned that the waitress was noticing she hadn't touched her plate. She kept pointing out that the waitress was watching. Personally, I think the waitress was just doing her normal duty to make sure we didn't need anything, but Michelle was self conscious about her plate now. I told her that since we were in a Japanese restaurant here in the RP it was probably a common mistake. Surely she couldn't be the first. I don't know if that helped, but she finally broke the news to the waitress. She used my joke too.

In the end, I guess it was a good thing I didn't dare try the Ramen. The curry I ordered was instant. Luckily for me, Japanese instant curry is awesome. Still, you wouldn't get that at a restaurant in Japan. I mean, the entire thing comes in a silver pack, you boil it, open it and pour it over rice. When I had access to Asian food stores I used to eat it quite a bit.

Later on we contemplated going to see Hancock or Wanted at the fairly large cinema in SM Mall. We chose not too, but it was pretty tempting. I will definitely go see one of these sometime soon. We instead went to a place called Ice Castle, and it's all about ice cream. Here Michelle did it again. They had a sundae called the Macedonia which she saw in the picture and ordered. Luckily this time her choice worked out and it was very good. I had an Oreo Cookie parfet and it was quite amazing. The place has ice cream, sundae's, shakes, parfets, splits, all kinds of toppings, including tropical fruits of the island, and more. I will have to visit again sometime. Maybe I'll try looking at the pictures and trying something new next time.

I've had a number of different food experiences during my time here. Even though I mostly stick to Chinese food, I have started to sample some variety with very good results. Pictured above is a mix. One dish is traditionally Chinese, basically Yang Chow fried rice, and the other is a Filipino dish called Lechon Kawali. Filipino food may not be the healthiest cuisine on the planet but it can be so good! Lechon Kawali can best be described as bacon that is about as thick as it is wide. It has lots of fat on it. It is amazingly good! Lots of deep fried foods and lots of butter. What more could one ask for?!

Earlier today this girl took me to a Vietnamese and Thai cuisine place. That had to be some of the best food I have eaten since I been here. I had ribs among other things and even though my phone was with me, I never though to snap a pic of the spread we had before us. Pad Thai, BBQ pork skewers, fried rice, Tom Kha Khai soup, and probably a thing or two I am forgetting. Now this was an expensive joint at the mall, and we probably got enough food for five people, but it still didn't cost half what I spend on myself alone at Wokcano in Burbank. Most meals will run you less than $2.

Not everything is Asian style food though. Next door to me is a little coffee shop that serves American style breakfast stuff, eggs and waffles and the like. They also have these spicy hungarian sausages that are really good. Fried chicken is everywhere, even without the need for KFC which is out in force in this town. Half a fried chicken at the hotel here P95 which is $2 and a few cents. Yes that is half a chicken. For less than $4 you get the whole chicken. There is even a burger place next door, though I haven't tried it. Also, as if to make me happy, many places seem to have wings.

There are still many dishes just on the hotel menu I have yet to sample, and at least ten more places in easy walking distance. For this reason, I have decided to create a blog category for FOOD. I will report on more culinary delights as I experience them.