Pearl Farm Resort

I often wonder if Filipinos think the same way about tropical beach resorts as Canadians do. Canadians treat tropical resorts as the closest thing to paradise. I guess we think this way because there's no such thing as a tropical beach resort in Canada. At least, I've never sat on a powder white sands beach in Canada sucking back coconut juice out of a straw. It's the uniqueness of the experience that makes it like paradise. But if you're a Filipino, you must be used to this stuff. I know from my experience over here I'm starting to get used to this stuff. Before, if you were to offer me a coconut with a straw sticking out of it I'd be like, "OH WOW COOL, hand that over!" But now it's more like, "Oh, another coconut. Gee, how original, thanks." The resort experience is getting familiar but that doesn't mean it's still not fun to do!

Our travels for a beach resort brought us to Davao. Davao is located on the southeastern portion of Mindanao here in the Philippines. It consists of four provinces, namely: Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur. The region encloses the Davao Gulf and its regional center is Davao City.

We saw very little of Davao City. Once our plane landed we immediately took a cab to to where the resort's boat was waiting for us. The resort is called Pearl Farm Resort and it's on an island called Samal Island. In this photo, the boat behind my motley crew of resort hoppers is the boat that took us to Samal Island. As we approached the island I found myself thinking about that TV show Fantasy Island. Instead of a private plane taking us to the island we had a private boat.

Unlike the show Fantasy Island there wasn't a midget named Tattoo ringing a bell yelling, "Da plane, da plane." Or in our case, "Da boat, da boat." What we heard on approaching the island is some interesting jungle trance techno music. I loved the sound of it. Or at least, I loved the sound of it THEN. More on that later...

When we got off the boat we were immediately greeted by the Pearl Farm staff with a pineapple drink in a bamboo cup.

Here's Aimee standing in front of the Pearl Farm Resort sign. Incidentally, here's the write up about the resort of their website:

Nestled on the quiet side of Samal Island, The Pearl Farm Beach Resort is a mere 45-minute boat ride from the wharf. This fourteen (14) hectare spread was once a pearl farm, where thousands of white-lipped oysters transported from the Sulu Sea, were cultivated for their pink, white and gold pearls. Today, the resort beckons with the promise of a relaxing, private retreat, under the care of its friendly and charming staff.

Sulu Sea? Wow, it's taking a lot of effort not to say a Star Trek joke right now.

When you arrive at Pearl Farm Resort they not only hand you a pineapple drink but also a baby to guide you during your stay.

Seriously.

Okay, I'm joking. In behind Aimee and my niece are rows of bamboo built cottages. They are built over the water on stilts. We stayed in one of these. It's an interesting experience waking up in the morning to the sound to water splashing underneath you. Okay, I'm going to say it ... it's p-a-r-a-d-i-s-e.

Davao is known for many things. One of these things is the fruit pomelo. It's similiar to a grapefruit only larger and sweeter. During our stay at Pearl Farm we ate pomelo in numerous ways: freshly picked and peeled, blended into shakes, chopped into salads, you name it.

Obviously resorts mean relaxation. We did plenty of that.

At night we were serenaded by a band of three musicans who seemed to have endless knowledge of every song in the universe. My personal favourite of the band is the guy in the middle. I love his shades! He's so cool. Only cool people can wear sunglasses at night (IE: Corey Hart. I shall call my favourite man Pinoy Hart!).

This is a view from our bamboo cottage. You can see behind me in the distance the place where the boat dropped us off a day before. The boats arrive every 30 minutes. And every 30 minutes they play the jungle beat trance music. Remember that music? The music I loved? Every 30 minutes people. Every damn 30 minutes. It starts playing in the morning and continues playing into the evening. Every 30 minutes. 30 boom boom boom minutes boom boom boom. After a while I wanted to find out where the music was played from, go there and break the damn CD.

Hey, who let the pasty white guy into the pool? Behind me is that building again. The building that plays the jungle beat music. The second level up is the bar. Obviously we spent some time there since we're all drunks.

Here's Aimee and I practicing for Amazing Race Asia Season III. I discovered that time moves slower when you're paddling in a boat. We rented the boat and paddled to the island across from Samal Island. Once we reach that island we docked the boat, got out, and hung out for a bit. Once the novelty of being on a different island wore off we got back in the boat and paddled back to Samal Island. Our time in the boat seemed like an hour and a half but the time in reality ended up being thirty minutes. Either I'm out of shape and the pain in my arms from paddling made it seem longer or we were trapped in a time warp. I'm sticking to the time warp idea.

So what is my impression of Pearl Farm Resort? I liked it, but I think we stayed a day too long. We stayed for two nights when one would have been enough. The trouble with the resort is you're trapped on an island and you have to depend on the resort for everything. They had only one restaurant and after eating the same type of food three meals a day two days in a row it was getting boring. I think the resort needs to jazz the place up a bit. Bring it into the new millennium. That tiki bamboo look worked well in the 70s but I think it's old school now. Mix some modern stuff with the bamboo. And please, oh please, mix your music up a bit. The jungle trance music is going to make someone go postal one day.

Product Packaging

Product packaging is an important thing. If not only helps advertise and sell the contents inside the packaging but it also helps you recognize what what the product actually is. When you walk down the aisles of a grocery store you can usually tell the difference between the juice section and the cleaning products section. Here in the Philippines it's pretty much the same but there are a few exceptions. Here's a good example:

Two bottles: one contains a delicious beverage that will quench your thirst on a hot and humid Philippine summer. The other, if drunk, will KILL YOU!

You have a 50/50 chance of selecting the correct bottle for your drinking pleasure. But you also have a 50/50 chance of swallowing back some poison and killing youself. Are you willing to take a chance with these odds?

Let's start turning the bottles towards the labels. Halfway there. Some of you with a keen sense of product labelling may already know which bottle you're going to drink. Some of you may wish to keep turning the bottles to see the whole label.

Paint Thinner and Sugar Cane Beverage. Did you choose correctly?

The Sugar Cane Beverage is a delicious alcoholic drink that when chilled really makes you feel good during a hot and humid day. Like most alcoholic drinks moderation is is the best policy. Too much of this could make you sick but not as sick as...

Paint Thinner! For a bottle of paint thinner it definitely looks delicious and refreshing. I like how the label isn't even glued on probably. It's starting to peel off. Imagine if the label fell off; you would really be screwed. It's like playing Russian Roulette with a beverage. I suggest never storing your paint thinner in the same place as your liquor cabinet.

Taipei, Taiwan - Random Sites

During our trip to Taiwan we actually didn't get the chance to see that much. Since we went there during Chinese New Year, a national holiday, most of the tourist sites were closed. We were able to see a few landmarks - at least from the outside.

This is the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. It is a memorial to the Republic of China's National Father, Dr.Sun Yat-sen, and was completed on May 16, 1972. As the hall was opened in the very beginning, its main displays were revolutionary events of the national father at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Recently it became a multi-purpose social, educational and cultural center for the Taiwanese public.

I was impressed by the bright red colours only to discover it doesn't always look like this. Most of the time it's a basic concrete grey colour. The red was added due to Chinese New Year.

Although the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall was closed due to Chinese New Year, I was able to take this photo of the Dr. Sun Yat-sen statue through the window. It's a huge statue and deserves your respect! If you doubt this, look at the sign at the base. It reads, "Salute, Please." How many statues deserve this kind of respect?

Behind us in this photo is the 101 building. The 101 was the world's tallest building. It was overtaken in height on July 21, 2007 by the Burj Dubai building in Dubai. The 101 has a 360 degree observation floor at the top. Due to the lousy cloudy weather during our stay in Taipei we decided not to take advantage of the 360 viewpoint. There's nothing exciting about being on top of the world's second tallest building and seeing only grey clouds.

Behind us here is the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It is a monument erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of Taiwan. A new name for the structure, National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall was announced by President Chen Shui-bian on May 19, 2007. In subsequent legal wrangling, the legislature repealed the regulations supporting the new name. In effect this annulled the change, though legislators generally declined to declare the old name preserved. Legislators belonging to the President's own Democratic Progressive Party attacked the annulment move as infringing upon the power of the central government. The new name remains, as you can tell by the photo below:

The monument, surrounded by a park, stands at the east end of a large square framed on the north and south by Taiwan's National Theater and National Concert Hall. The entire plaza is located within sight of Taiwan's Presidential Office Building in the Zhongzhen District of Taipei.

As you leave the plaza (or enter the plaza depending on your point of view) you're greeted by this huge amazing arch. As we walked out of the plaza and passed the arch I noticed a friendly kind old man feeding the pigeons. What a nice old man, I thought, taking time out of his busy day to feed the poor hungry pigeons. My group and I stood there for a while watching the nice old man. This kind gesture made me feel at peace with the world. As I stood there thinking happy thoughts and started daydreaming I got dragged back to reality when someone in the group yelled, "that man just stole a pigeon!" I looked over to the 'kindly' old man and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He was still standing in the same spot feeding the pigeons. I said, "I don't see him stealing pigeons." After some debate I grew bored of the topic and looked away. Once again, a member of our group said, "look, he took another one. He grabbed it, put it into a paper bag and threw it into his car." I looked over again. I didn't see the evil pigeon stealing old man that everyone else saw. I just saw the kind old man feeding the poor defenceless starving pigeons. Was I blind or is the rest of the group insane? Sadly, for the sake of pigeon, I soon discovered I was blind. I finally saw what everyone else did. I saw him quickly (very quickly considering his age) grab a pigeon, throw it into a paper bag, and then toss that bag into his car. A friend of ours who lives in Taiwan said the old man is probably stealing the pigeons to train them to race. I hope that's the case. I hope these pigeons are given a better life training for the pigeon Olympics and not becoming this evil old man's next dinner.

The National Palace Museum is an art gallery and museum in Taipei. It holds one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artwork in the world. Thankfully it was open so we were able to go inside and see the awesome collection.

Here's Aimee, with her usual photo standing pose, standing in front of the National Palace Museum.

Rain. It was wet and it was miserable. Thankfully the happy baby blue umbrellas we were given made the weather experience slightly more tolerable.

Here's the clan walking around and seeing the sites.

Everywhere we went I saw arcades/shops filled with these prize machines. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hooked on putting money inside and attempting my skill (or is it luck?) with the magical grappling claw. With the amount of money I wasted on these machines I could have just went to a store and bought my own stupid cheaply made toy.

Look into our eyes. Play the machine, play the machine, play the machine...

On the Taipei subway I was amazed by the amount of safety signs plastered all over. The sign above is only slightly funny but the sign below really made me laugh.

OH NO! The baby might get blown over during a freak subway wind storm!

Yeah yeah, I know there can be harsh wind in the tunnels as the trains approach, but this warning sign still made me laugh.

Toilet Heaven & Toilet Hell

Now I'm not the kind of person who makes a big deal about toilets. You use them privately and you don't generally talk about the experience with others. I'm breaking the 'unspoken toilet rule' for this blog.

Upon checking into our hotel in Taipei I noticed we were given an executive suite. A beautiful and spacious one bedroom hotel room that had a separate living room area, bedroom area, walk in closet, and two bathrooms. The master bathroom even had an amazing shower with separate bathtub. If all this wasn't amazing enough I was totally blown away when I went over to use the toilet.
The toilet was computerized! It had a heated seat that was temperature controlled!

On the control panel you adjusted the temperature. Once you completed your messy business there was a choice between either a front or a back spout of water that came out to wash your backside. The water that came out of this spout was also temperature controlled with the added bonus of being able to control the pressure of the water. If that wasn't thrilling enough there was a temperature controlled blow dryer that dried the water off your freshly washed bottom. It's like a spa for your bum!

Normally all this awesome bum spa treatment is something I'd talk about privately with Aimee and only Aimee but I bring it up here because once we left the protective fortress of the posh hotel bathroom I had to use the toilet below:

What the hell is this? No heated toilet seat. NO TOILET SEAT AT ALL! No temperature controlled water kindly washing your nether regions. Nothing. The only water that comes close to washing your backside is the water that voilently splashes everywhere once you flush the damn thing.

The next time you're in a public washroom and the toilet seat is slightly dirty, consider yourself lucky my friends. You're in the world of luxury in comparison to THIS!

Taiwan - Food

Taiwan like most international cities has a wonderful diverse selection of foods to chose from. During our trip there we ate in Korean restaurants, Japanese restaurants, Chinese restaurants and most importantly, food from street vendors. I say 'most importantly' because street food vendors were everywhere. It's amazing the diversity of foods you can get off those small carts. Most of the foods you buy are portable. 'Food on a stick' is the easiest way to describe it.

Fishballs (on a stick) and fruit stands.

Interested in some meat? This vendor had every species of animal on a stick you could possibly ever want. I opted for the tofu and squid selections (on a stick of course!).

After you chose your selection this guy starts BBQing your meat. After a couple of minutes on the grill your snack is ready - piping hot!

Meat on a stick isn't enough? This lady is selling corn ... on a stick.

More stick food. What I found interesting about the street food vendors in Taipei is although you can find them everywhere, it's actually against the law to sell street food. While we were eating our meat on a stick we noticed large groups of street food carts were quickly rushing in our direction. Suddenly the guy we bought our food from grabbed his cart and started pushing it quickly in the direction all the other street food vendors were going. Some of the vendors continued to cook while their carts were being pushed. Think of it as a massive caravan of food carts racing down the street! At the end of this caravan there was one police office on a motorbike forcing the food vendors to leave. We stood and watched this interesting site (occasionally biting into some meat on a stick) until all the vendors were so far in the distance we couldn't see them anymore. Five minutes went by and then I noticed the carts were all coming back! They came back, parked their carts at the same location as before, opened up shop, and started cooking again. Another five minutes went by and the police officer came back! Same as before, the caravan of food vendors grabbed their carts and started rushing away. Guess what? Once again they came back, set up shop, and continued to cook food.
I found out later that although it's illegal to sell street food the vendors never get punished. There's no tickets ever written or jail time ever served. The most the police ever do is chase the vendors away knowing full well they will be back. I guess the police know that these carts, for most of the vendors, are the only income they have. If you take that away they have nothing. So everyday there's this cat and mouse game played. The police come to chase them away but the food always gets cooked and eaten!

This shop was selling various snacky food in front of their store. The huge mound of yellow stuff is actually dried squid.

We stopped off for at this restaurant that specialized in wheat grass deserts.

The black stuff is the wheat grass. The other things in the bowl are flavoured tapioca.

This desert is called aiya. It's made from a type of seed (sorry, I don't know what the seed is). It has the consistancy of watery jello and served cold in a bowl with ice. It has a citrus type taste to it.

More eating! Yes, we did a lot of eating this trip! We stopped off at this famous restaurant that serves only oyster noodle soup.



This video shows how amazingly fast this guy was serving out the soup to the customers.



The restaurant had no tables or chairs. It was just a store front. After buying their soup, customers had to eat it standing up on the sidewalk and street. As you can tell by this video this place is pretty popular.

Next stop, an underground cocaine processing factory!

Just kidding, these guys aren't cutting and bagging cocaine, they're making dumplings.

See, dumplings! Would I lie to you?

This photo was taken at the Chiayi Distillery. It's famous for it's rice wines.

All of their wide selection of wines are packaged in special artistic bottles.

I was excited when I found out we were going here because it brought back memories of the great times Aimee and I had on wine tours in the past. Well, rice wine and grape wine are two different worlds! As we sampled the wines I felt my insides slowly being dissolved away.

And after a while, I couldn't handle the taste anymore. This photo is showing me sampling their rice wine that's fermented with ... chicken fat! Yes chicken fat! It apparently has health benefits. Health benefits or not, I wasn't enojying my chicken fat rice wine. It was pretty hard to swallow.

The distillery had a great informative museum attached to the wine shop. It documented the history of not only the distillery but rice wine as well. How rice wine is made. How it's aged. How it's bottled... There was even a section that showed a timeline of all the bottles used over the years.

As you can tell, they've had a wide diversity of bottles over the years!

Before we returned back to the Philippines we ate our last meal in a Japanese restautant. All of the food courses came out beautifully decorated. I really liked how they displayed this desert. I loved the chair. I was debating on hiding it in my coat and leaving the restaurant with it. It would make an awesome cellphone holder. Thankfully good Kenn beat out evil Kenn and I didn't steal the chair.



The finally posting on this blog is the awesome techno sounds of sushi. Now I know there's nothing original about a sushi conveyor belt. We even have them in Vancouver. I just thought watching the sushi slowly creep by with the sounds to techno music in the background is actually quite relaxing. So if you're feeling a little stressed, here you go! Watch the sushi ... all your troubles and fears will melt away!

I think I gained 5 pounds during this trip!