Gift ideas

[Kevo 69]

You know you can buy JB at the duty free store at Terminal 1, about $76 for 3 liters.

I don't want to lug around a 3L bottle from Manila to Pasil...she wants me to experience riding the bus and I'm thinking it's gonna be a rough trip.

I bought a fifth of JB for about $15 at the BX class 6 and I'll stick it in the suitcase.

Thanks all for the tips.

[GaryKO 49]

I don't want to lug around a 3L bottle from Manila to Pasil...she wants me to experience riding the bus and I'm thinking it's gonna be a rough trip.

I bought a fifth of JB for about $15 at the BX class 6 and I'll stick it in the suitcase.

Thanks all for the tips.

I should of said 3x1 1iter bottles , think it around $29 for 1 liter bottle, that was JB black. Anyway if you get a chance check out the duty free store, you may see something you need. Of course you can buy just about anything in Manila that you find here is US, but there is a value added tax think about 15%.

[Yo-Adrien 2]

Going to Kalinga 2morrow. Hand crank radio, solar lighting, lamp on a headband, ANY chocolate, herbal tea, sack of rice is GREAT idea, sack of groceries, perfume ( Walmart is good ) . . Got to remember out in country lots do not have water, refrigeration, toilets, TV, etc. have fun out there, I sure do.

[Kevo 69]

Adrian, from everything she's told me I get the impression that I'm going to a back-woods tiki-hut village. Which suits me just fine.

I'll be in Manila Tues & Kalinga on Weds, can't wait. I've been to alot of countries around the world, I get the feeling this will be the most exotic of them.

Maybe I'll see you there and we'll have a tagay!

[rlogan 2,036]

Yeah, they're going to be disappointed if they're expecting an American to bring them Swiss chocolate. Frankly, if Hersey's makes them think I'm cheap I really don't care. My goal isn't to make them think I'm rich. Actually, one of my concerns going in is her relatives trying to mooch off of me, so being labeled cheap may not be a bad thing, haha.

We are the ones responsible for this happening if it does. You are right to worry about coming in showering everyone with gifts and establishing the precedent it is a one-way street.

The extended family model in the Philippines is mutual reciprocity. Your family goes to help the uncle's family to harvest the field; uncles family comes to help build your house. This is exactly what is going on in the minds of everyone in the extended family: I help you...so you help me. This is a wonderful institution, healthy, and productive.

When the foreigner swoops in giving everyone wealth for nothing in return then the incentives are all screwed up. People start to use manipulative guilt-tripping and emotional blackmail to get things from you. (eg you gave him a gift for free, so it is unfair to me unless you give me one too.)

Think about the envy you create when someone gets money for nothing instead of doing something for you to get it. Nobody resents payment for work. People resent a reward given for nothing. So two bits of advice: first is to the extent humanly possible, work within the model of mutual reciprocity. Second, learn to say "no".

[kev_n_jena 89]

I don't want to lug around a 3L bottle from Manila to Pasil...she wants me to experience riding the bus and I'm thinking it's gonna be a rough trip.

I bought a fifth of JB for about $15 at the BX class 6 and I'll stick it in the suitcase.

Thanks all for the tips.

When we visit my inlaws now, we send a balikbayan box ahead of us to avoid the extra luggage. It worked out great last trip. I sent several bottles of various liquor for fiesta. Jena sent gifts and we also sent a blow up mattress for us. I don't sleep well on bamboo or concrete

[Yo-Adrien 2]

Kevo... We are now @ Ivory Hotel in Tuguegarao waiting for Rowena's daughter from Rizal, Kalinga to show up. $1500 pesos / nite & has pool, fridg, b-fast, WiFi, TV, shopping close by. Oh, REAL bed & HOT Shower. In a few days we will head to Santa Clara, Gonzaga, Cagayan Valley. U can have MNL to much a big city for me. Hope U enjoy your trip. Life is good.

[Darnell 8,478]

Solingen steel fish cleaners / de-scalers (not the cheap ####### made in China)

[Kevo 69]

Agree, Manila is too big and crowded. We're just staying one night to rest up before heading to Kalinga. At the Ramada near China town.

Damn time zones...it's 2:30 am here and I'm wide awake! I should've taken a sleeping pill earlier.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Kevo

[Kevo 69]

The trip was awesome and everyone loved the gifts. Pasil, Kalinga is a beautiful place - best way to describe it would be to imagine rural West Virginia in the early 1900's. Very isolated - about a 2 hour drive from Tabuk, most of it on a dirt/mud road winding through a mountain range.

I wish I would've brought more whiskey though...I drank way more of thier gin (4x4) than I brought. Next time I'll bring more...planning on returning in Feb for a little longer (21 days).

And for myself, I'll bring some handkerchiefs or tissues, Off spray/lotion, and benadrel for bug bite relief! Some kind of insect tore up my ankles with small itchy bites and another got me about 10 times in my upper thigh area and made quarter-sized bruises around the bites.

[James&Edlie 2]

So far I have bought shirts for her family at her request, I also bought regular playing cards. I will be getting her a hair straightener, Tolberone and a digital camera. One thing I have found out is that I may need to take baby wipes as well. You never know when it will hit you.

Zamboanga City bound 24 Dec - 2 Jan. Can't wait.

Edited November 23, 2012 by bkdlots

[Kevo 69]

Returning to the Philippines next week...

Good gift idea is chewing tobacco. Some of the men offered me beetle nut (they called it something else but that's what it was called in Guam when I was stationed there) to chew. They think it's strong and kept asking if I was dizzy or light-headed. It's actually very mild compared to Copenhagen....so taking a few cans with me - it's gonna be funny watching them have to sit down because they've never had anything like it.

Taking some spam too. It got old eating boiled chicken and rice almost every day.

[Darnell 8,478]

I ran out of Copenhagen when I lived in Singapura. No one sells it there. Only one place sold beetlenut.

Ug.