Happy days in Baboy's.

I'm really in the mood now, so I'll write a little more before heading off to Dumaguete on my trusty steed for Saturday night out.  It is quite a big event.

I left you having moved to La Fiesta, which I loved then and still do now.

I'll let you into a little secret here, I keep this blog up by going through my photos chronologically although I do tend to jump around a little.  Anyone who has ever spoken to me will know that this is the way my mind works anyway, so I'll jump ahead now.  There is now a very limited burger and chips menu in La Fiesta which was not there when I arrived and this may be extended soon by popular demand.  Other than the breakfasts and all day bacon and egg sandwiches the only food option was to eat with the staff at about 1800 - 1900 at night and you had to tell the girls before they went out to shop.  This is not to everyone's taste as a way of eating but I loved it.  You got to eat proper local food, prepared on two burners with the most limited equipment and it was always gorgeous.  I'll show you a few examples here.

Hazel's spaghetti and Manok.

I need to be careful what I write here as Hazel is sitting looking over my shoulder, so shall I tell you that it was absolutely delicious.  Really.  Actually, joking aside, and you know I like to be factual, it really was.  A couple more examples now.

Lechon Manok.

This is Lechon Manok, which effectively means barbecued chicken.  Manok is chicken and Lechon is a generic term for barbecued.  It is most often applied to barbecued pork.  The girls would go to market and get some and the make it up into various dishes.  I should add that, dependent upon ingredients, these gut-busting meals were costing me about 100 pesos apiece which is a little less than £1:50 - good value in my book.

The lovely Hazel.

Here we see chef enjoying the fruits of her labour. A damn sight more pleasing on the eye than Marco Pierre White, that's for sure.

A very odd meal.

The photo above is of a rather strange meal although it is instructive.  Philippinos, like most Asians, will utilise whatever is to hand and make it extremely tasty.  In many years of travelling round Southeast Asia, I can probably count the number of bad meals I have had on one hand.  So have a look at this.  The small dishes contain Lisa's chicken curry which is hugely tasty and almost volcanically hot, she really does not spare the chilli, it is wonderful.  Actually, Hazel cannot take it, it is even too hot for her.  Back, however, to my point.  You would never be offered this in a restaurant but there seems to be no worry about serving curry, toast, boiled potatoes, salsa and a few accompaniments all at once.  As always, it was delightful.

I am going to sign off nw, having made it to at least last month on the blog.  I'll try to get some more done later.  Speak soon.

The beginning of the end.

OK, where were we?  I was in a pretty posh resort that had about as much soul as a week dead haddock and no transport in the middle of nowhere.  Time to explore, says I.  Declining the offer of a hugely overpriced resort controlled taxi, I took to my feet again.  Up along the most convoluted track ever, evidently designed to circumnavigate the various fields, a quick altercation with some mad dogs in the neighbouring premises and I was back on the Highway in daylight.  The plan was to get a jeepney into town to see what was what and try to get a better place.  Across the road from the entrance I saw a building which looked for all the world like a bar although the "For Sale" sign outside was a bit off-putting.  Well, I have ever been a curious bugger so I wandered in.

Hazel, La Fiesta Restobar, San Miguel.

Almost the first sight I saw in what I now know to be the La Fiesta Restobar is the delightful Hazel here on the occasion of her 22nd birthday.  Hazel is variously barmaid, cook, chambermaid, laundress and various other things but we will come to that in due course.

I got talking to Magnus and Haken (Mac and Hawk), the Swedish brothers who had built the place to sell as an investment.  I'll jump a little ahead here and show you some photos of what is a truly brilliant place.

My home from home, La Fiesta.

This is where I live still, some six weeks later and, frankly, no notion of moving any time soon.

This is where I am composing this blog.  Hard life, isn't it?

So, I had a couple of beers and chatted wth the guys, who are absolute diamonds.  I found out that I could rent the cabin in the photo above for 500 pesos a night, which is one quarter of what I was paying in the morgue down the road.  Subsequently, I got an even better monthly rate but that will come in due course.

Yum yum.

For those of you who concern yourselves about my somewhat erratic eating habits, fear not.  I have even taken to eating breakfasts now and this is the reason why.  Delicious.

The lovely Lisa.

This is the purveyor of such gastrnomic delights, the lovely Lisa.  She is an absolute darling.  She is the girlfriend of the night guard who is a real nice bloke and not only cooks and cleans, she handwashes my laundry beautifully and even washes my rented motorbike for a few pesos.

Having served my sentence in Dumaguete Shits Springs, I walked up the track dragging my trusty £15 Whitechapel market kitbag behind me and took up residence in this lovely place.

Having negotiated the hire of a lovely little 125cc Suzuki Thunder to run about with at the ludicrous price of 200 pesos a day (about £3 or less) I was well set to spend a few days in and around Dumaguete.  Well, a few days as I thought but more of that in the next post.

I am feeling quite happy with myself now as I have actually been fairly productive today on the blog front.  Another week and I might even be up to date but somehow I doubt it.  Stay tuned.