Impressions of an American visiting the Philippines…
I knew I was a long way from home before I ever reached the Philippines. The last stop inbound, before arriving in Cebu’s airport, was in Japan.
The bidets were in the men’s room and they caused me a double take. I had seen those before in a few films, and even made wistful jokes about the bidet, but never in person until now. No chance I’d use one in here, not even ‘to say I did’. A bidet seemed like the kind of thing you needed ’splaining about, if you didn’t know what to do… and no airport stranger was getting that kind of attention from me.
From “Siomai and Friends Fries”
by Chris DeBrie
Within a few days of being in Cebu region, I noticed that paper products were at a premium. At the Jollibee’s and McDonald’s fast food spots, no matter how much you ordered, you received one napkin (towelette?) along with. Instead of the U.S.’s eight- and twelve-roll toilet paper packs, markets carried t.p. singles. The Cebu City hotel I stayed in for a few days came with a single roll that was single ply—so, back to the SM to get more. The same went for condiments. Economical is one thing, but…
The penny pinching was understandable. Back home, I saved random napkins because they were always good to do a quick clean and wipe of the car interior. But mostly, I and other Americans went too far the other way—we wasted so many things, like napkins and paper, because there was an abundance of it for now. There had to be a medium in there, somewhere.
In the States, too, a lot of people who are operating out of scarcity will take the condiments. I knew this because I did it for years–take a handful of ketchup packets or plastic utensils for later. Well, in stopping that kind of pilfering, the Filipinos had us beat.
We bought a few packs of napkins at the SM market. I started carrying a wad everywhere we went, predicting the habit would come in handy. Hey, I’m a prophet now. And it came to pass, the first time that I was far from the motel and needed a public toilet: There was no paper in there. The t.p. had obviously been stolen. I would see this repeated in most places we traveled… Thank God for the wad.