THE HOUSE THAT SHRIMP HEADS BUILT

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.