Iloilo, Philippines - March 16, 2008
It's been awhile since I've been in Iloilo as well. It's also still the same. It's interesting for maybe a day, but we spent two, and I am very looking forward to moving on. We did visit the Smallville Entertainment Complex of the city, and they have live music and a small scene of young people enjoying beer and socializing and such. This is also a college town. My wife was also telling me that Iliolo has a very high population of kid's parents who work abroad somewhere. I could kind of see that in the more wealth of the people who were sitting around socializing and drinking and eating much like foreigners do when they visit the beach/diving islands (which usually locals can't afford). I also noticed this same phenemenom in most cities, but Iloilo, it was real apparenent. The other thing I noticed was a presense of Korean students, which I didn't notice much in other cities I'd been to this trip. I'd heard that many Koreans prefer Cebu, Baguio and Iloilo for whatever reasons. There presense was here, although not overwhelmingly by any means.
From here I wanted to visit Kalibo on the way to Boracay. I'm wondering if they have a decent mall or might be somewhat liveable to some degree. At times, I wonder if I might settle in the Philippes with my wife. I've yet to find a place where I'd feel all that comfortable doing so for whatever reasons. Cebu and Davao might be best as the larger ones but more nicer honest people than say Manila. I'm hoping Kalibo might be decent as I'd think there would be enough foreigners around because of Boracay, that they might treat foreigners with a good mix of normality without the ATM treatment. We'll see!
Continued journal entries in the Philippines:
March 17, 2008
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