OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker)

There is always a long line of Filipinos standing outside of terminal 1 of the international departure building.  The OFWs are very easy to spot at the airport.  They always hand-carry some sort of an envelope with their travel and work documents secured in it and a lot of times they travel in groups with the same type and color envelopes.  In the airport, the OFW signs are everywhere to guide these workers through the right lines, the right gates, and the correct immigration check points.  I have always wondered if the OFWs view themselves as expats abroad of if they perceive themselves as cheap labor working overseas…  For the Filipinos that go through these designated lines and check points, are they happy to be reporting to their jobs overseas or are they uncomfortable being viewed as a cheap labor source in neighboring countries?

Her name escapes my memory but I remember our conversation as we waited for the flight to Taiwan that early Saturday morning.  She is an OFW who has worked in Taiwan for two years and she returned to the Philippines to see family and was on her way back to Taipei to work.  She shared with me that her job is to take care of a 80 plus year old lady.  She calls the lady ah-ma (grandma) in Taiwanese.  “I have only been back for three weeks to see my family but I miss my ah-ma so much.  My ah-ma texted me and told me that she misses me a lot and wanted me to return as soon as I can.  I am so lucky to have a good ah-ma, she’s so nice to me and I really love her.”  She really loves her job, I thought to myself.  She is probably one of the most enthusiastic employees that I know!  “Do ah-ma’s grandchildren love their grandma as much as this overseas Filipino worker?” “Will the grandchildren take care or pay for their ah-ma to have a helper in this day and age?” I can’t help but wonder…  We chatted and I helped her set up her mileage program assuming that she will be traveling from and to Taiwan every so often.

The OFWs are scattered around Asia and they fill such an important role for so many people in this very modern society.  The young woman that I met was a caretaker and a grandchild for the 80 plus year old Taiwan lady.  Meiling is my mom’s helper and the 3^rd daughter that my mom occasionally exercises her nagging rights.  Ahyuan is grandma’s companion and cook during grandma’s very sick days.  There are also so many OFWs who are building the roads and raising the children of Asia.  I am still not sure how the OFWs view themselves, but I hope they know that they have very important roles in this very busy, industrialized, and fast-growing part of the world.

Sonya's Garden

Ms Sonya doesn’t look like who I pictured her to be.  I thought she must be an older lady in her 70s or 80s who wears a farming hat and plastic boots that trot in the soil of the gardens.  Maybe she’s not very social and maybe she is extremely finicky about her organic garden and vegetable farm.  The picture that I painted of Sonya was not even close to who she is in person.  Ms. Sonya was in white with a colorful beaded belt wrapped around her waist when she visited her guests at the open-air restaurant.  Her shinny pearl earrings brought all the attention to her confident and friendly face.  She must be in her late 50s or early 60s.  She’s fashionable, sociable, and she has great taste not just in building her cottages, selecting items for her collections, but also a specialty in enjoying life!  I was impressed with her presence, she seems peaceful, down-to-earth, and relaxed which definitely echoes with the décor of the cottages, the taste of the food, and ambience of the entire property.

Sonya’s Garden is approximately 30 minutes by car from Taal Volcano.   As soon as I stepped foot onto the property, I was relaxed, less anxious about this Tagaytay trip, and ready to settle down for the rest of the weekend.  The garden Ms Sonya planted is filled with colorful flowers, leafy green trees, and European garden sculptures and fountains.  If I had to describe the style of the property, it is English country meets Asian crafts.  The elements are not easy to pull together but Sonya’s property weaved the decors together seamlessly.

We began our stay at Sonya’s Garden with a fresh farm salad, an effortless pasta, three types of deserts, and refreshing Tarragon tea.  We rested and recouped from our Taal adventure before we headed out for our massage treatments.  It was a few meals and few spa treatments later that we packed up to return to Manila.  Sonya’s garden was incredibly relaxing, beautiful, and peaceful, I would definitely recommend it!

(Tr)Ashy Volcano

Out of desperation to get out of our hotel from the night before, I called Sonya’s B&B for a room viewing the very next day.  However, the transportation was still a problem to get around Tagaytay, the hotel arranged a 3 hour “tour” for P1,800.  As soon as we got in the sedan, the driver suggested that we head to Taal Volcano for a very beautiful scenery.  The best in Tagaytay, he said.  I agreed happily.  Afterall, that was the purpose of the trip!  The road from the hotel to the volcano was windy and it wasn’t until we started descending that I realized that we were so far up in the highlands.  About 30 minutes later, we stopped at a “resort”.  “Why are we here?” I asked.  “This is where you take the boat to the Volcano! Mam, you have to go on the boat, then the horse, then you will see the volcano.”  The driver replied.  “Seriously?” I thought to myself.  I have to transport my senior citizen parents on a boat and then a horse to see the volcano? 

After a short bargaining with the owner of the boats, we agreed to pay another P1,800 for a motor-powered long-tail boat to the bottom of the volcano.  The long-tail boat chopped through the lake while the lake water occasionally splashed onto us, we arrived the destination about 20 minutes later.

base of Taal

You can imagine my astonishment when we reached the bottom of the volcano that there was nothing but horse feces, horses for rent, and bus loads (or boat loads) of Korean tourists.  Each tourist saddled over a tiny Filipino horse guided by a skinny Filipino guide.  Off they went to see the volcano up close and personal.  By this time, I already feel like a silly tourist after the car and boat ride.   “Mam, each horse is fitted with a personal guide, go see the volcano where it shot up steam, you have to go on the horse to see!”  “How long is the horse ride?” I asked.  “Thirty minutes going up Mam”.  Thirty minutes up and thirty minutes down the volcano will murder my folks, I thought.  “Too long, we will look from here” I replied.  The salesman looked at me as if I was from another planet.  He must be thinking, “what is there to see here?” We bought a few coconuts and sipped the juice while we sat and watched the tourists line up one after the other and took off with their horses and handlers. 

coconut seller

The smell of animal waste permeated the air and the horse-riding vendors were a little too enthusiastic, so we decided to head back onto the boat after about thirty minutes.  I asked Winston, our motor-powered long-tail boat driver, to take us further away from the base of the volcano so we can have a complete view of the sleeping beauty.  Winston maneuvered the boat through the Tilapia farm that’s set up by the local fishermen and headed to one of the dead volcanoes that’s connected to the sleeping one. Birds were flying all over the bamboo structures that are floating on water, waiting to catch their lunch in the Tilapia farm.  The lake water splashed and splattered and my parents were delivered safely onshore after another thirty minutes has gone by.  Taal is definitely not the place to visit for older folks! 

Tilapia farm 

Our hotel car driver said to me “Mam, we have forty minutes left, where do you want to go?”  By the time we got into the vehicle, I was already “sea”-sick from the long-tailed boat ride.  “Take us to Sonyas’s garden for lunch,” I groaned.  I secretly hoped that Sonya’s would be a more suitable and relaxing place for this short weekend trip…  

Tagaytay Trike

Ever since I moved to Manila, I wanted to visit Tagaytay.  I heard so much about the Taal volcano close by, the restaurants that are worth 2 hour-ride from Manila to have a meal, and the nature and landscape that are vastly different than that of Manila’s.  When I got the chance to use dad’s birthday as an excuse, I booked our rooms with One Tagaytay Place Hotel and rented a van and driver to head out Manila on a Friday afternoon.

It was my fault that I didn’t check the Tagaytay weather before leaving Manila .  It was hot and humid in Manila but the Tagaytay highland was chilly and very windy.  I brought shorts, tank tops, and sandals and I knew that I had made a mistake as soon as the driver opened the door of the van.  To top it off, we found out from the hotel at eight at night that Tagaytay doesn’t have taxis to take us to the restaurants.   Hotel recommended that we take the only local transportation in the evening, a trike, to a restaurant that is 15 minutes away.  A trike is a motorcycle that is converted into a passenger ‘vehicle’ with one side of the bike attached to a cart.  Theoretically, the trike “comfortably” transports three passengers.  Mom and dad got into the trike’s passenger “seats” and I sat behind the ‘triker’.  The trike took off into the night with its loud engine and earth-shaking vibrations.  I was cold sitting behind the driver at first, but later on, I was warmed up by either the heat produced by the trike’s engine, vibration of the trike, or the adrenaline rushing through me as the trike climbed up the Tagaytay ‘highway’. 

trike

As soon as we got off the trike, mom lost it!  “Never ride this again, do you hear me?  It’s so dangerous; you’ll be tipped over if a car passes this thing with a bad angle.”  I protested, “How are we going to get here if not the trike? Besides, you learn how the locals get transported!”  “We could eat at the hotel!” mom said.  I guess she does have a point but the trike not only warmed me up, the excitement of an adventure also made me forget that parents are senior citizens these days and dad is approaching 80!  Afterall, maybe trike wasn’t such a smart idea to transport precious cargo!

trike "passenger" compartment

One of the employees at Fire Lake Grill helped us and arranged a P300 ride through another employee’s van to return to our hotel.  This morning when we were heading out for a tour of Taal volcano, we paid up for the hotel ride (P1,800).  Even though the trike ride was mom’s first, I have a feeling that we won’t be doing that again, EVER!