Exploring Laguna

The goals for the day were to get USD converted to Philippine peso (PHP), get some good buko pie and to check out a cool floating restaurant. We also wanted to sample the ube ice cream we got as part of our "staples" at Solid Gold.

Putting a plan together with Jun.

Jun took us to a place to convert our USD but it appeared to be closed. We found an interesting sign posted nearby. I guess public urination IS a big deal there? 

We were able to find a Western Union in a small box of an office with semi A/C flowing. I showed more ID and signed more paperwork than when I bought my house just to get our money converted. To date, it was the least favorite activity experienced, but we got pesos and we moved on to a nice floating restaurant. I might've been a little bit hangry...

Not unlike these guys...

The humidity in Philippines is a lot higher than I'm used too in land-locked Oklahoma, so that might've had a little effect on my mood. The food fixed me right up though. Pancit, pork kawali, lumpia, kalamansi lime juice... all of my favorites on a cute circular banana leaf. *love*

 

Note to self: Grow bananas the second you get back to Oklahoma so that you can make cute little plates like this.... and have bananas!

Kamayan means ″hands" in Tagalog and is a communal feast where the food is laid out on a bed of banana leaves instead of plates and your eating utensils are your fingers.

The venue had gorgeous plants and an outdoor bathroom, which reminds me to mention that many places in PI do not have toilet paper and napkins. Most Comfort Rooms (CRs) have hand held bidet sprayers which I totally dug. In my mom's house in Laguna, some of the bathrooms have the spray bidet (and TP) and other bathrooms had a plastic tabo, used as a water dipper for various functions: to clean the toilet floor, to get water to flush the toilet, and to get water for personal cleanliness: for washing the anus after using the toilet, for washing hands, for shampooing, or for bathing the whole body.