I went back to the beloved Philippines last June 18 since my last visit of more than two years ago. It was a breeze trip - I wouldn't even call it a vacation - two weeks of a hectic schedule of attending weddings and shuttling between Gapan, Nueva Ecija and Las Piñas City. Having The Filipino Channel (TFC) in our cable in Singapore has prepared me to what to expect of life in Manila. I was no longer surprised of the many changes that have happened since I last left. Though I am now as impatient as a Singaporean taxi driver stuck in a slow flow of traffic, and that I got scared whenever there are brave pedestrians crossing the street when there are a lot of cars rushing through or that cars are swerving in the midst of huge buses in the busy street of EDSA.
When I first stepped inside an SM mall, I nearly drooled after seeing all the food stalls selling different kinds of grub you could think off at such low prices. I bought a box of brownies from Brownies Unlimited for as low as S$4, which I'm pretty sure that in Singapore could only afford you a slice of a decent brownie. Dieting be damned, I ate slices of pizza with pork ham - the real meat lovers heaven (no Halal in the Philippines, baby); in Singapore, you'll have to make do with turkey ham. Josh became acquainted with Jollibee, which he probably taught was a toy store, for he was only interested with the toy in a Kiddie meal. Nothing really compares to the joy of eating chicken with gravy be it from Jollibee, KFC or Kenny Rogers Roasters; Singaporeans haven't even heard of chicken with gravy - a nation wherein they have stickers at food courts telling the customers to ask for less gravy in their food (health conscious pricks!).
Here are just a few peeves: Jollibee no longer use disposables when you dine in their stores (yikes!) and that the spaghetti is not as good as before; servings at Kenny Rogers are so small and the food tastes different. Herman was even surprised when they gave him the half-slab of ribs he ordered; it looked like an over-sized hamburger patty. Though they now offer other flavours for muffins, the size has gotten smaller and the original corn muffin tastes different (but nothing beats the bad taste of muffins in Malaysia). Kenny Rogers Singapore maintained the quality and that theirs is what I'd say value for money (especially if it's a Pinoy doing his OJT who's filling up your plate), except that they don't have gravy for my chicken; a fried chicken that's great with ketchup would only come from Max.
Though your dollars could still go a long way back home, prices of primary commodities have risen to atmospheric heights. It's no wonder that most of them are sold in sachets: coffee, oil, sugar, cheese, butter, shampoo, detergent and softener. A serving of a pasta dish in Sbarro is almost of the same price in Pastamania, but my sister recommends their Chicago’s Deep-dish pizza highly.
After seeing commercials aired on TV, I've come to realize that just watching a local channel could introduce you to the type of people in that country. In Philippine television, you'll see a barrage of shampoo, toothpaste, detergent, soap, and mobile phone provider's commercials; in Singapore, on the other hand, you'll see lots of commercials on slimming, spas and of new models of hand phones. From these commercials, you can conclude that Filipinos are very meticulous with their personal hygiene and are SMS (text) crazy: with just 15 pesos a day, you can have unlimited text (doesn't matter whether your phone's model is already five years older). Singaporeans are very much fuzzy with how they look (forget about taking a bath everyday long as you weigh less than 50 kg); mobile phone providers only give subscribers 300 to 500 free messages a month for people still enjoy talking through the Bluetooth ear piece of their latest model phones.
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