Thursday, February 11

After visiting our friends in Manila and Calamba, we planned to fly down to Naga to stay with Jamie and Nera and to have Christmas with Nera's family.  As often happens, a typhoon loomed off the coast and our flight was postponed.  Jamie and Nera, it appeared, were right in the path of the storm but went to bed anyway hoping that it would blow itself out before it reached them.  Not so!  The wind and rain came in across the water and drove into the house.  Luckily, Jamie and Nera had spent extra money to ensure the house was typhoon-proof so it is still standing.

Overnight, a flood of water poured in across the balcony into their bedroom, down the stairs, through the downstairs rooms and out the back door.  There was no damage.  The floor mats were sodden but could be lifted up and dried out easily.  By the time we arrived, the next day, there was no sign of the crisis.  It's a great house, two storeys high and built right on the edge of the beach.  Years ago, Nera's father squeezed a traditional filipino house between Jamie and Nera and the sand and rented it out to a family with 14 children.  It would be great if that house weren't there but how can you evict 14 kids?

The town, Balatan, is a working fishing port and everything revolves around that industry.  There is a beach but it is more likely to be used for careening a fishing boat to scrape the hull than for swimming.  Bamboo platforms along the beach are used for drying fish and there is always activity.  

It's not a little village as we expected:  there are over 30000 people in the area.  The houses are small and built close together. Nobody closes windows so there is constant noise.  Karaoke is popular and everybody in the area can hear the tortured attempts at singing.  Whitney Houston songs are the ultimate torture.

Christmas was interesting.  Christmas dinner is taken at midnight on Christmas Eve and the leftover food stays on the table for next morning's visitors.  Nera's family are very well-regarded in the town so there was a constant stream of visitors on Christmas morning.  No doubt, some came just for the chance of a good feed, but that is encouraged.  Generosity is very much a feature of filipino life.

I was coaxed into hiring a videoke machine for Christmas Eve, $15 for 24 hours, and we sang all night, with hordes of locals hanging about outside, joining in.  The Philippines has a different idea of privacy!

On Christmas Day we drove Jamie and Nera to the airport to fly home, and then popped in to the shopping centre in Naga for a couple of things.  All the shops opened at noon, on Christmas Day!  We couldn't move for the crowds.  It was like David Jones on Boxing Day but with twice the crowd.  I'm not sure how much people were buying but going to the Mall is one of the Philippines' favourite activities, even on Christmas Day.