Anthony Bourdain was right. The Filipinos certainly know a thing or two
about how to cook a pig. We went out for a traditional Filipino meal last
night, and ate just about every part of the pig – ears, trotters, loin,
belly – all of it delicious. I’m not sure that it’s terribly healthy (and
judging from the size of most of the Filipinos I’ve come across, not
particularly low-calorie, either), but it certainly is tasty.

We’ve managed to avoid the flood waters – in fact, there isn’t any
evidence of flooding at all where we are. No, the big excitement here is
what happened in the shopping mall across the street.

We’re staying in Makati, which is the upscale business district in Manila.
Across the street is the Greenbelt mall, a collection of all the big
designer brands and jewelers. Sure enough, on Sunday night there was an
armed robbery of the Rolex shop. The thieves got away with 6m pesos worth
of watches, there was a shoot-out with the police, and one of the robbers
was killed. Needless to say, security here is pretty tight right now.

Our workshops are going well, and we’ve been given a warm welcome by the
team on the ground here. One thing that always surprises me is the pride
that people have in their country – no matter whether they come from
Manila, Bangkok, Calcutta, or Paris, there is a real desire to show off
their city and everything it has to offer. It’s no different here, with
our hosts proudly taking us to see the best of what Manila has to offer,
telling us stories of Filipino culture and traditions, and of course, lots
of food.

My super-hero status continues in the Philippines as it did in Bangkok –
like in Thailand, everyone here is convinced that I look like Tobey
McGuire (who played Spiderman in the movie). There are worse people to be
mistaken for.

We finish up here on Friday, then I’m flying to Bangkok for the weekend
for a few days off before heading to Calcutta on Monday night.