Text 23668, 103 rader
Skriven 2015-02-04 03:47:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: latest trip 164
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The soup of the day was congee. I passed so can't report.
Garlic rice and tomato pasta. Sardines, which I eschewed
in favor with some almost palatable chicken sausage with
herbs. Later I rethought my decision and went back for a
sardine, but they were gone by then.

Today there was, for no discernible reason, a lot of
difficulty getting a cab, as in an hour. 

Our destination: the Southwestern bus terminal in Uniwide
Coastal Mall, whence we were to ride to Tagaytay and the
famous Taal volcano. When we got there a dispatcher waved
us onto the Celyrosa Express (not unlike United Express),
to which we paid P60, half what the air-conditioned nonstop
buses cost. I think we lost half an hour using it, but I
doubt that was crucial. It's a local bus, but it uses the
same route as the fancy ones. This all was fine, but the
ride was so fraught with strange mechanical noises that I
was fearful that the bus might break down at any moment. In
fact, the only unscheduled stop was halfway, for gas. I'd
probably happily do it again, though the un-air-conditioned
nature of the ride meant that back at the hotel I scraped
untold amounts of soot and grime off my skin.

Problem. I thought I'd conveyed my hoped-for destination
(the jeepney terminal) to the conductor, but the guy put us
off in the wrong place in Tagaytay. Not too bad, as it was
near the local Jollibee, and having seen stores all through
metro Manila, Lilli thought it was time to try it out. Now
the stores in the city heavily advertise chicken and fries,
so that's what she had her mouth set for ... only chicken
was off, fries were off. By way of consolation, she had a
Champ (Big Burger Goodness), an apparent competitor of the
Whopper. This was super-dreadful, the burger being a soggy
meatloaf analogue. It being well into lunchtime, I had
garlic pepper beef and rice with three "Shanghai rolls" for
half the price of the burger. The flavor of the food wasn't
too bad - discernible spice, lots of garlic chips on top -,
but the meat itself was just a bunch of gristle. I didn't
particularly object, as I like gristle; what I objected to
was that the Shanghai rolls - little lumpias filled with
vegetables and pork, sort of like flautas in size; these
aren't bad in concept, but in reality they tasted as though
they had been boiled in soap. I blame rancid coconut oil.
Some guys who were sort of randomly hanging out on the stoop
of the restaurant tried to sell us a kris, pretty weird.

From here we took a jeepney (new minimum 8.50) back through
town and to the terminal, where someone tried to talk us
into a trishaw ride to our destination for a hugely inflated
price - I offered 1/3, or five times what the jeepney would
cost, and he said no. The jeepney costs P18 to People's Park
in the Sky, designed as a retreat for Ronald Reagan on his
scheduled visit to see his friend Marcos - when Marcos was
deposed, the project was abandoned, and now what's there is
a shell designed for a palace with what is said to be one of
the finest views in the country. Of course, when we arrived,
it almost completely socked in. Also rather cool and very
windy - the whistling through the radio tower and the ruins
could have served as the soundtrack for a film about Scott's
explorations. We waited around for an hour for the fog to
blow off, but it didn't. Got a jeepney to take us to the bus
stop, where more touts ushered us on to another bus, this
time air-conditioned and rather nice but with the regular
small seats, run by Cavite Batangas. For 78 you get not only
the a/c but a movie, today the recent thriller Lucy, which
stars Scarlett Johannsen and Morgan Freeman, though from our
spot in the back I could tell them only by voice (there was
a speaker a couple feet from my head). This was also a local
local and took almost as long as the ramshackle one had; it,
unlike what the guidebooks say, didn't return us to the bus
depot but rather let us off at a busy crossroads several
blocks away. At rush hour. No taxis. Seeing our bewilderment
a tout came to our rescue and flagged one down by the easy
expedient of standing in its way in the middle of the road.
The quoted rate - meter plus 50. I gave the tout 20, and the
taxi driver gave him 20, and everyone was happy. This driver
too got us expeditiously back to the hotel, where a shower
and a beer were most welcome.

Lilli having been disappointed with her lunch, we went off to
look for fried chicken. Not particularly wanting same, I
returned to the place that had the good satays and picked up
a skewered stuffed squid for a buck and joined Lilli at KFC,
where the only breast they had was a spicy (she wanted the
skin but can't eat spicy), and the only thigh they had was a
mild. In addition, with the "loaded meal" they threw in a
regular wing, gravy and mash, two big lumps of rice, and
beignets with chocolate sauce that Lilli likened to Bosco.
So I got the skin and leavings of a breast piece, most of
a thigh, and the less attractive (to her) bits of the wing.
The thigh skin went to satisfy her crunch craving.

My squid was unfortunately stuffed with hashed unripe tomato
with a little onion, no more. I squeezed out this
unappetizing mixture and ate the body, which was pretty
good, with one of the lumps of rice.

The beignets were sort of like erasers.

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