Day 8. I've been in Iba for three days now, and I'm ready to leave. The accommodation is cheap, but in this case cheap equates with low-quality. The size of my P300 (about US$ 7) room is what you'd get if you took a big samurai sword and chopped through a dorm room down the middle. Quite small. Yesterday ants were crawling on the wall and they started to crawl onto the bed and then onto me. I squashed as many as I could, then moved the bed away from the wall so they couldn't access my bed that way. I'm also suffering from a lack of food options. There seem to be no restaurants around here, as well as no decent supermarkets. I can get fruit from a roadside stand, and fried food from a street vendor, but that's about it. I've been whittling down my peanut butter and jelly (staple food for me) supplies more and more. Also, there's not much to do around this place. I need to move on. Why have I stayed here for so long, you ask? Well, a few reasons. Number one: the cheap accommodation I mentioned. After paying P1,000 per night in Manila, I feel like I should savor the low-cost bed as much as I can tolerate. The room has a TV as well, so I'm not totally bored. I've been relaxing, reading my book, doing crossword, and watching the History and Discovery channels. Number two: the internet is extremely cheap here, so I can spend some extra time online without feeling it in my pocketbook. Reason number three: I needed to do laundry, and there are no self-service places here. The place I found had a next day turn-around, and I didn't find it until yesterday. I received my clean clothes today, but in order for me to make the most out of my next destination, I need to be leaving bright and early in the morning. Picking up my laundry prevented me from leaving at the desired early time.
The heat has been a constant annoyance for the last week, and one that I will happily forget when I move into the higher elevations in a few days. It takes a lot of water to stay properly hydrated here, so when I buy the stuff, it makes sense to buy the bigger bottles because they are more economical. I pay less per liter. Yesterday I bought a six liter jug. I'm just glad I don't have to carry it around, because it would just add to my already heavy baggage.
I've gotten very used to everyone on the street noticing me and asking about my height or making some comment about my size. Everywhere I go I get stares, smiles, shouts, questions, looks, and fingers pointed at me. I try to smile and say hello and answer their questions, but it's like being a celebrity I suppose. The funniest are the small children, toddlers. They stare and stare and stare some more. I'm sure they've never seen a white person up close, or such a tall person, or someone with blue eyes. And, they don't smile when I try to smile back. On the bus to Iba a little girl sitting in front of me turned around and stared at me for probably 10 minutes straight. At first it was cute, but she wouldn't smile back and wouldn't turn away from me. I started to get uncomfortable, then annoyed, so I stared back at her. Right into her eyes. Her face was stone-cold. She had neither delight nor malice in her eyes. She could be a poker player. I kept wondering what she was thinking, then realized she probably can't think much at her age. Eventually, for no apparent reason, she turned away and looked out the window for the rest of the bus trip. I guess in the end the rice paddies going by are more pleasant to watch than a short-haired sweaty American.
Well, that's all for today. This post is quite uninteresting, and that's because hardly anything has been going on. I vacillate back and forth as to whether I should have stayed stagnant like this here in Iba, but in the end it does very well for my budget. I hope everyone is doing well in other parts of the world. Take care!
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