Long day in Batangas.

Day 4: Well it was quite a day in Batangas on this my fourth day in the Philippines. It really started very early in the morning around 2:00 am when I woke up to find that my air conditioner was out and that half of my room's power was out as well. It seems that the inclimate weather that I mentioned in my previous blog was actually a borderline Typhoon that hit Manila that night and here in Batangas we got some of the residual winds and rain that knocked out power to a lot the the city. Which was no surprise because you can see bundles of low hanging power lines all bundled up together in a mess. So, it wasn't a surprise that we were running on the hotel's generator and we were without Internet to start the morning. Really, the whole hotel was a piece of work. To start, it had this musty smell when you entered into the room that made me gag, to the point that I had to buy some apple scented air freshener spray just to make the room habitable. Also, for breakfast, their continental breakfast consisted of two pieces of untoasted bread, some watermelon, what looked to be two slices of those individually packaged cheeses, and a goop of something, and they gave somebody in my group a cracked glass full of orange juice. And, oh, did I mention that the toilets were not working in the morning. Fortunately, my boss' room actually had some sort of flooding going on and he could not get rid of the musty smell in his room. I say fortunately, because all the factors combined made him decide to stay at another hotel. Particularly, the hotel that was 5 minutes down the road from us, where we had eaten lunch the day before. The name is the Ponte Fino and I will provide a more detailed description later in the blog. After securing some rooms in the new hotel we headed back to the port of Batangas to work on the boats. We uncovered them and got to work. Unfortunately, it was still raining a little so I had to construct a crude tent over me to cover up the work I was doing on the roof of the boat. So, imagine working on the roof of the boat, in extreme humidity, while being covered by a thick plastic sheet. I was dripping sweat. In minutes I had sweated through my shirt and was dripping all over the radar dome that I was installing on the roof. I was drinking plenty of water and taking occasional breaks outside of my plastic green house. In time the rain subsided and I got to work without the plastic tent. And it actually turned out to be a pretty decent day in which we got done all the work we needed to on the boats. There are some pictures of the surrounding landscape at the bottom of the page. But although the surroundings were quite beautiful, not everything at the Port was as nice, in particular the bathroom. Actually here in the Philippines they call bathrooms comfort rooms. (Insert you own personal joke here________) But although it may have been called a comfort room the bathroom at the Port was anything but. It looked as though nobody had cleaned it for five years and the toilet seat seemed to be deteriorating or was slowly being eaten away by something. I really couldn't tell. And of course, no toilet paper. Miraculously after seeing the condition of the comfort room my urge to go to the bathroom somehow disappeared. Funny how that works. Anyway, as the day drew to a close we returned to our new hotel and entered into what became paradise. As you enter into the Ponte Fino hotel you're greeted by an ultra friendly staff that treats you with the utmost respect and courtesy even though you look like a hot mess. In the lobby the sounds of a recorded harp player gently sooths your fried nerves as you listen to harp renditions of you favorite songs like "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeplin. But it's soo relaxing that you just melt. After going to my good smelling, clean, and spacious room and taking a shower, I returned to the lobby and just sat there and bordered on the edge of consciousness as the harp playing took me to a state of absolute restfulness. Then we went out to eat at the hotel restaurant where they served me an incredible adobo flavored short rib dinner that exploded with Filipino seasoning. And just a incredible as the food, was the attention given by the serving staff. Like 3 waitresses combined to serve us our food and even poured my bottled water when it was getting low in my glass. Yes, that's bottled water not out of a pitcher. The waitress actually came behind me (I was wondering what she was doing) took my water bottle, and filled the rest of my cup, and then took away the empty bottle. I felt like a king and that was just what I needed after such a long day. Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Batangas stay at the Ponte Fino because it is an oasis among the craziness of this Port town. See you tomorrow.

Philippine Marc