Nov. 11, 2013

Tacloban DZR Airport

Dried flying lizard cure

I was walking downtown and passed by this street vendor selling this. I glanced at the sign and said in my head, "tamumukaw.. tamumukaw.. tamumukaw". After passing two shops, I did a doubletake and said to myself, "tamumukaw??" I went back and asked the guy if I could take a photo. I also asked him what a tamumukaw was. It turned out, it's a flying lizard that's a cure for asthma and cough. I asked how it's eaten, he said you just nibble on it. But he was laughing so I asked if he would eat one. He said, only if I eat one too. It's true though, kids with asthma get to eat this lizard and it's believed they're cured of asthma forever. The tamumukaw is hard to catch, but it's not an endangered species yet. The catching of this is allowed by the DENR since it's used for medicinal purposes, but vendors need to have a permit to catch and sell the flying lizards.

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Old bench (with chicken)

(Photo by JFD)

U.P. Tacloban's Oblation

The Oblation at the University of the Philippines, Tacloban.

A photo of a photo exhibit

Yesterday, I went to the mall because I heard there was an exhibit of local food products (haha), but it was the last hour of the last day, and the food had almost ran out. The exhibit was called Bahandi. And they were closing up. I went to another exhibit, a photography exhibit of the Camera Club of Leyte and Samar, and that's the photo above. (I didn't know there was such a club here, although one member is a friend of mine, a very serious photographer.)

I didn't like the first prize winner, nor the second, I like the basket photo at the bottom more. It's all subjective of course.. That's why I don't trust art competitions. Do you ever want your art to be "judged" by another? Usually even, by a lesser artist than you are?

Fake designer sunglasses for sale

65th Leyte Landing Anniversary

65 years ago, Gen. MacArthur landed in Leyte as he promised and drove away the Japanese troops. A battle ensued until the official surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. Every year the Leyte Landing is commemmorated by officials with many Filipino, Japanese, American and Australian war veterans attending. It's one of the big events in Leyte's cultural activities. It always make me wonder why we love to celebrate wars. We have war festivals and war museums. The peace treaty signed between the US and the Japanese aboard the USS Missouri that ended World War II is not even remembered.

But anyway, this year, the Leyte Landing will be celebrated again at the scorchingly hot McArthur Park in Palo, with the President of the Philippines attending. But it will also be celebrated at the new a/c Robinson's Mall, so I wasn't surprised to see a replica of the McArthur monument at their entrance. It was nicely made too, better sculpture even than the original bronze at the park. When I touched it, I was surprised that it was sculpted from styrofoam. It is amazing, don't you think? I didn't get the name of the artist who did this tho.

Wooden wheelbarrow

Sto. Niño Church: Interior and Altar

With the original 'miraculous' Sto. Niño statue on the altar.

Balyuan Tower

This place used to have a watchpoint tower made of iron railings and a "tower" at the top. It kept being renovated all the time, until it was finally demolished. The tower was used as a lookout point for Moro pirates. This arena-like area (added in the 80s) is used for concerts, competitions, free outdoor movies, and cheap dates. You can buy streetfood barbecue behind it. This looks out to the bay (and to the tower) and you can see the sunrise and moonrise from here.

It's called Balyuan because this was the place where the bigger Sto. Nino of Basey Parish was exchanged with that of the smaller Sto. Nino statue of Tacloban. 'Balyu' in Waray means 'exchange'. A festival is held here every year to celebrate that exchange. The statue is supposed to be miraculous.

(Of course, balyu could mean 'trade'. Balyuan, a place where you trade.)

Fire! No Fire!

So I was picking up my mail at my cousin's shop this morning, when I saw this crowd staring up at an old house. I saw a guy holding a pail throw water to the roof of the house (which obviously made the crowd laugh because the water wouldn't reach that high). Then another guy started throwing ice to the roof, it reached that high, but it didn't melt that fast. The crowd laughed again. Another guy carrying a fire extinguisher climbed out a window from the upper rooms but wouldn't step on the G.I. sheet roof because either it was too hot (from the sun) or he was scared of getting electrocuted. The crowd was cheering him on, until finally he was able to aim the fire extinguisher at the sparking and smoking electrical wiring inside the outer ceiling (dunno what it's called). The crowd cheered although you couldn't really tell if there was still smoke coming out of the roofing. There was. Then the firetruck arrived (5 to 10 minutes later), and that's the photo above. The fire was out but they broke through the ceiling to look at the damage, then the electrical company guys arrived to fix the wiring. Fast action. The city is scared of fire here, because of the wooden houses and their proximity to one another. (Sorry, no picture of the three stooges.. I was laughing too hard, or the crowd because I was one of those watching, or the house because the firetruck was covering my view. But it really happened.)

(Happened this afternoon at Sto. Nino St, between Burgos and Imelda Sts, near the gasoline station.)

And the lunch was good

Grilled tonto which really, really tasted smoky and juicy.

Cancabatok Bay

Fishing boat

The white one at the back is for hire, or for sale.

Mending his own business

Closer look

Don't forget the cap

Doghouse

Also at the shed, I saw some purebred animals (I think Dobberman or Rotties) kept in the biggest doghouse I've ever seen. Nice view for them, but the smell of fish must drive them nuts.

Fishermen saying "fish"