vigan
i'm so happy to see that some people have been commenting about the philippines! please, continue! i am most definitely going back after my contract is up, probably for a rather extended period of two to three months. all opinions and comments about good places to visit, ways and places to teach english or otherwise find expat employment, and discussions of filipino life and culture are more than welcome!
that said, to continue my travelogue (yes, i know, almost a month later. yes, i'm lazy) i need to touch upon vigan.
the busride to vigan was pretty long. i don't remember the exact number of hours, but we got to watch Black Rain, a Michael Douglaus movie from the 80's. while not exactly deep and 80's to the point of being comical, it was the perfect movie to watch while riding a bus. when half of you is looking out the window, watching anything more substantial than a young Mr. Douglaus riding motorcycles in leather and wearing aviators requires too much attention.
considering that we were watching movies on this bus, AND considering that it had aircon (wha?), i was pretty amazed yet again with the filipino public transport system. from what i can tell, in Luzon, what bus company you end up taking depends largely upon where you are going. i was on the west coast of the island, and took Partas to vigan, and back down to san fernando and manila later on. every Partas bus was aircon and had a movie. this was certainly not the case with other companies, though a bus traveling around the mountains, which are wonderfully temperate and beautiful, hardly needs aircon and michael douglaus.
anywho, again i met a really nice person on the bus. he was a filipino who had been living in orlando, florida for a long time. he was back in the philippines for the first time in many, many years, and told me lots of stuff about Luzon. obviously really happy to be back in the philippines, he said he was supposed to be back at work a long time ago, but kept calling to postpone his return. at first, he had just gone for a week or so to see his family, with nothing but a backpack (he was around 40 or 50, so i was impressed that he had come with just that); he had been there for a month (?) or so when i met him. a clear example of midlife crisis, but nonetheless impressive and somehow admirable. i have no problem with mid (or quarter) life crises like that.
when i got to vigan, i stayed at a place recommended by LP. my bus companion gave me other recommendations, but i think they were a little posh for me, so i just stuck with the LP. it was perfectly fine, though spartan, and had a nice restaurant downstairs at which i ate dinner that evening. vigan itself is an incredibly beautiful place, albeit a little overrun by tricycles around the main plaza. a former spanish colonial city, it has an amazing mestizo district with tons of buildings from the spanish colonial era. in fact, it's a World Heritage Site because the architecture is largely intact. apparently imelda marcos had it preserved while her husband (the former dictator) was in power. good move. the cathedral in the central plaza is particularly great, and in fine condition.
also nice about vigan was the public market. several stories high and teeming with food and crap (both useful and useless), it's good fun for the traveler. though this was a prime place to get ripped off (an old lady tried to suck me dry for a mango), it was well worth the extra cost. im sure you could bargain down the price if you wanted to, but i figure as long as you bargain it down to a not-absurd level, you as a comparatively rich foreigner can afford to pay a little more. if i ever moved there, though, that lady better watch out. i love to bargain...
another nice thing about vigan is the university. well, i dont know much about the university, but the bookstore rocks, and lets you know it's there. i got a book on tagalog and a few things for my students in taiwan. their education materials were much more, hmm...lucid? i dont know. these things must exist in taiwan, but i just have a tough time finding them because i don't speak chinese.
in this bookstore (one of the national chain's stores, conveniently called National Bookstore), i also realized how much LP books cost. all the other books were marked down to prices that many people in the philippines could presumeably pay. the LP books, however, since they would ostensibly be purchased by foreigners, were ridiculously expensive! they also seem expensive in taiwan, but the philippine made the disparity look crazy. this doesn't mean i won't buy any more LPs, but i've definitely realized the excess of my consumption.
so the time i spent in vigan, though short, was wonderful. a town with a spanish feel, a respectable bookstore (though let's face it, it ain't no Kramer's or Chicago Seminary Co-op), and a market full of mangoes (my new favorite thing) rates high on my list of places to live for more than two months. so let me know if you know how i can accomplish that! :)
that said, to continue my travelogue (yes, i know, almost a month later. yes, i'm lazy) i need to touch upon vigan.
the busride to vigan was pretty long. i don't remember the exact number of hours, but we got to watch Black Rain, a Michael Douglaus movie from the 80's. while not exactly deep and 80's to the point of being comical, it was the perfect movie to watch while riding a bus. when half of you is looking out the window, watching anything more substantial than a young Mr. Douglaus riding motorcycles in leather and wearing aviators requires too much attention.
considering that we were watching movies on this bus, AND considering that it had aircon (wha?), i was pretty amazed yet again with the filipino public transport system. from what i can tell, in Luzon, what bus company you end up taking depends largely upon where you are going. i was on the west coast of the island, and took Partas to vigan, and back down to san fernando and manila later on. every Partas bus was aircon and had a movie. this was certainly not the case with other companies, though a bus traveling around the mountains, which are wonderfully temperate and beautiful, hardly needs aircon and michael douglaus.
anywho, again i met a really nice person on the bus. he was a filipino who had been living in orlando, florida for a long time. he was back in the philippines for the first time in many, many years, and told me lots of stuff about Luzon. obviously really happy to be back in the philippines, he said he was supposed to be back at work a long time ago, but kept calling to postpone his return. at first, he had just gone for a week or so to see his family, with nothing but a backpack (he was around 40 or 50, so i was impressed that he had come with just that); he had been there for a month (?) or so when i met him. a clear example of midlife crisis, but nonetheless impressive and somehow admirable. i have no problem with mid (or quarter) life crises like that.
when i got to vigan, i stayed at a place recommended by LP. my bus companion gave me other recommendations, but i think they were a little posh for me, so i just stuck with the LP. it was perfectly fine, though spartan, and had a nice restaurant downstairs at which i ate dinner that evening. vigan itself is an incredibly beautiful place, albeit a little overrun by tricycles around the main plaza. a former spanish colonial city, it has an amazing mestizo district with tons of buildings from the spanish colonial era. in fact, it's a World Heritage Site because the architecture is largely intact. apparently imelda marcos had it preserved while her husband (the former dictator) was in power. good move. the cathedral in the central plaza is particularly great, and in fine condition.
also nice about vigan was the public market. several stories high and teeming with food and crap (both useful and useless), it's good fun for the traveler. though this was a prime place to get ripped off (an old lady tried to suck me dry for a mango), it was well worth the extra cost. im sure you could bargain down the price if you wanted to, but i figure as long as you bargain it down to a not-absurd level, you as a comparatively rich foreigner can afford to pay a little more. if i ever moved there, though, that lady better watch out. i love to bargain...
another nice thing about vigan is the university. well, i dont know much about the university, but the bookstore rocks, and lets you know it's there. i got a book on tagalog and a few things for my students in taiwan. their education materials were much more, hmm...lucid? i dont know. these things must exist in taiwan, but i just have a tough time finding them because i don't speak chinese.
in this bookstore (one of the national chain's stores, conveniently called National Bookstore), i also realized how much LP books cost. all the other books were marked down to prices that many people in the philippines could presumeably pay. the LP books, however, since they would ostensibly be purchased by foreigners, were ridiculously expensive! they also seem expensive in taiwan, but the philippine made the disparity look crazy. this doesn't mean i won't buy any more LPs, but i've definitely realized the excess of my consumption.
so the time i spent in vigan, though short, was wonderful. a town with a spanish feel, a respectable bookstore (though let's face it, it ain't no Kramer's or Chicago Seminary Co-op), and a market full of mangoes (my new favorite thing) rates high on my list of places to live for more than two months. so let me know if you know how i can accomplish that! :)
posted by bethany at 09:29
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