Boracay infrastructure

This will be my last day on beautiful Boracay, so Today's subject is something completely different. Infrastructure. Ok, it has been raining quite a lot recently (probably due to the hurricane raging in the north). The rain showers here are currently pretty serious, and the wind is much stronger than usual. But look at the photo of the 10+ centimeter water in the street. And look in the middle where the sewer hole (kloakdæksel) is raised to the highest point :-). This means that after rain you can sometimes even days after walk in 10 centimeter of water.

Continuing with the infrastructure. Boracay has in principle only one road. Ok, they call it a highway. Well it has the size of a small silent road in the suburbs of Denmark. Instead of busses or real taxis, they have basically one long row of '3-wheelers' (a motorcycle with a funny extension leaving room for 7 (!) extra people. They literally drive so close that it looks like a very long train. If you want a ride, you raise your hand and jump in. When you reach your destination you tap the driver on the shoulder and he lets you off. Leaving a giant chaos for the 'train wagons' behind who all want to overtake and get one step in front. It costs 7 pesos for a 2-3 kilometer ride, which resembles around 10 eurocent or less than 1 danish krone). But it seems to work, even though the smell is not too good on the 'highway' with all these motorcycles which have not seen anything to pollution limiting elements! You can also book them for 'point-to-point' transport, but this will cost you almost 50 eurocent (4 DKK). A cheaper solution for point to point is a normal motorcycle ride. This is around half the price of 3-wheeler.

The last photo is of my first Hoegarden in 2 months. I found a restaurant on Boracay where they sell them. Cheap? No. Around 8 times the price of 'local' beer ( but ok the local beer is also VERY cheap; the 'local' beer is for various historic reasons San Miguel). But damn, I enjoyed the Hoegarden!

Finally, I have found out what a typical daily salary is for e.g. a factory worker. I found out by talking to a young girl working for an international company. She works 12 hours a day. With a 4 hour break in-between so that her 'workday' becomes 16 hours. And she earns 384 pesos a day. Or less than 6.5 Euro and less than 50 DKK per day!
This explains a lot about many things in Philippines. Why you see 60+ year old western men with 20 year old girls. And they are married. It also explains why a waiter is extremely happy if you give them 20 eurocent in tips. And it explains why Filipinos and maybe in particular Filipinas prefer working here at Boracay compared to a factory. Because here there is a chance of tips on top of their 6.5 Euro daily salary. And the tips may here (I hope!) easily be larger than their salary. Or for the girls, there may be a chance to marry a foreigner. Which would from day 1 change their own and their family's life totally. However giving too much tips will ruin the place and move the tourist to other places in Philippines.
It is a different world out here.....