Lucban, Philippines - February 18, 2006
Lucban is refreshing after Manila. I must have told my girlfriend about ten times how nice and normal people are here. First off, we met a cool local guy who just assumed we were married and had nothing but good quality curious questions (as opposed to the 'what can I get from you' type of 'hey joe' stuff from Manila. In addition to just normal people, no single mothers running around the streets with babies in their hands, no one staring at me, no one trying to get anything from me. It was just real enjoyable being back in a normal Philippines town once again. (When I'm complaining about Manila, I'm essentially complaining about Malate/Ermita though).
Anyways, Lucban is a very small town. But its very pedestrian and almost spanish in a way. Everything is condensed and there are people everywhere, although its actually a small town. The hotel was very nice (only one in town) and Buddys Restaurant across the street on the same corner had great food. In addition, once again, the people of Lucban are just amazing and cool. No one making special notice of me and doing anything weird or acting like an ATM machine just walked by. Very refreshing after Manila.
Even better, we were able to watch a 7-female band perform! One of which (the keyboardist) is my girlfriend's sister. On top of that, there is a high chance they will be signing an 18-month contract to perform in Korea! Even better. I was actually very impressed with the band. All of the girls are young (19-26 years old), and they can really sing and perform. On Sunday, they may be performing at Hyatt Hotel in Manila. I'm hoping so. They don't know yet, depends on their manager. But its going to be somewhere in Manila, and its for the Korean talent scouts. We'll go there for that too.
I was also once again thinking how much I loved the Philippines because of the talented musicians everywhere. In addition, the girls were so curious and interested to take pictures (in their cameras) of me with them. No pretensiousness or anything else about them, despite their talents, youth, beauty and whatever else. Generally I'd expect a young band to be filled with pride, arrogance, ego-tripping and the like, but the Philippines is far from a typical western band back in the U.S. They were just having fun all the way around, and just naturally talented. I was impressed.
Another thing it made me think about was male/female gender in Asia. Back in the U.S., its always the female as the sex symbol. But I've always noticed in Asia, its often the other way around. In both Korea and the Philippines, I often notice the media portrays it the other way of the woman seeking out the man. One of my favorite commercials of all time in Korea is a very attractive woman walking down the street who sees a guy, and runs into a pole on accident. That is just something you'd never see in a western/american commercial. Its just automatically assumed that only men are interested/attracted/noticed to women, and not vice-versa so much. Anyways, in the Philippines and Asia, it often seems the other way around.
For example, even when I was around the band, they were swooning about me, and continued to ask that if and when I go to Korea, can I introduce them to my friends. Here I'm thinking they are the talented attracted ones, and they wouldn't need anyone to introduce them to anyone. But they are hoping and praying that I would do that. Its just the opposite of what 7 talented young female musicians in a band in the West would be like.
Back to Lucban, another thing about this place is its high up in the mountains with a cooler climate! Its actually a little bit chilly here. I'm enjoying it after hot Manila.
More on the Philippines..
February 19, 2006
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Wintermoon2@yahoo.com