Welcome to Cabadbaran
The flight from Manila to Butuan City was on time and was a good flight, the van was already waiting for me to take us to Cabadbaran a few hour drive, the whole family that I was to visit also took the trip over to meet me. The cost of the van was P1750, the passengers included 4 adults and 6 kids. Filipinos and Filipinas never refuse a free ride, this is why they rode to the airport. I guess it was also curiosity, to see that white man that will be with them for a few days.
While riding all I noticed mountains and rice fields on both sides, rice growers either harvesting the rice or drying the rice under the sun. Small growers dry the rice on the side of the road since they do not have room on the property. The property is either used to grow rice, and for the home. The homes are always surrounded by trees for shade. Larger grower do have a place beside the home to dry the rice.
Besides the rice fields I also noticed that most of the people that have homes on road side have a little business selling something, either fruits, junk food, or just a home cooked meal that you can purchase for P20 to P50, the only thing is that you must bring your own plate and utensils.
Speaking of utensils, in Manila I noticed that if you are a foreigner they will give a fork and a knife for the utensils, if you are a native they will give the native a fork and a soup spoon. They use the fork to hold the food while they cut the meat with the spoon, then they use the spoon to eat with, they do not use chop sticks in the Philippines. In other regions you cannot find a knife at all, you get the fork and the spoon. Eating with your hands was common in Cabadbaran. Hotels that I went to do not have wash cloths, they have towels but no wash cloths.
That afternoon we all went to the market to choose a piglet for the next days dinner, you can see the piglet that was chosen then placed in a bag for transport.
The next day we all went to the local beach. The local beach is located on the shore of the Mindanao Sea. Since the sun is so strong a little shack is a must to rent for the day. The cooked Lechon Pig was placed on the table with a large fish and all of the other food. And then we all pigged out, all eating with our hands naturally. It was the best pork that I ever eaten. I do not eat fish either, but in the Philippines I did and it was delicious.
Filipinos and Filipinas a great singers, they love to sing. They love to sing with the Karaoke. When they speak to you it is sometimes difficult to understand them, but when they read and sing they pronounce the words so well. All of the places that I have visited there was Karaoke. This gadget is a must all over the Philippines.
Food merchants, gadget merchants, junk food merchants are all over the regions that I have visited, I am sure that all of the Philippines have these merchants. When you need a wash room which by the way they call it a comfort room, you must pay P6. Entering the comfort room was a shock to me, it was the first public one that I was using, the stalls have no doors and the urinary well it is a cement gutter on the floor that starts from an opposing wall approximately 12 inches high from the ground to the other opposing wall 2 inches high from the ground. No water to wash your hands either.
The weather was just fantastic, always in the high 90’s with the humidity extremely high as well. The sun is so strong that all you want and look for is shade. With all this it is still a beautiful country, most of all the surroundings are picture perfect, with the flowers the fruits, all of the vegetation and not to forget all of the surrounding mountains, every direction you look you see mountains. All of the mountains that I have seen where always half way covered with clouds.
You may view the Banana tree photos with the Rice Viewer.
Princess Garnette
Yes this is this little girl's name.
FACTS
I noticed that McDonalds, Wendy, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi, Coke, Dunken Donuts and Star Bucks where all there. I have noticed a GM car dealer but never saw one, all of the vehicles are mostly I would say 90% are Toyota, except the Jeepneys they are built locally in Manila. They only use Diesel for the vehicles even the motorcycles. All of the vehicles are also standard shift, no automatic transmission. For the Jeepneys please see the Jeepneys section with photos, how they are built.
MORE FACTS
I stopped at a banana plantation, unfortunately all of the crop was purchased by Dole, so I could not go in and visit, I did take a few photos of the bananas. They cover the bananas with a blue plastic bag, this is to protect the fruit from the insects. The sun’s rays can still go through the plastic bag. It was the same thing for the coconut plantations and the pineapple plantations, Dole purchases everything there. I have noticed that the bananas are smaller in size then the Chiquita brand, that the pineapple is also smaller then the Hawaiian pineapple. I have never tasted bananas, pineapples and mangos that way, they tasted so good and fresh. I ate a mango at every meal. I also ate rice at every meal that is a custom there. My favorite rice was the garlic rice.