My Buddy Ashwin

Today, I’m sharing a photograph of Ashwin, also known as Win-Win. Ashwin is the provincial Filipino version of a 15-year-old boy. He is also Desiree’s nephew. I’ve been hanging out with Ashwin for the last two weeks, but yesterday he flew back home to his province.

I’m going to miss him. He’s a bit goofy at times, but Ashwin’s a really good kid. He’s respectful, pretty good with English, and not afraid to laugh at himself. You can’t ask for much more than that if you’re an old guy from Montana visiting the islands and looking for pleasant company.

I hope to see you again soon, buddy!

Hanging Out with Win-Win

—Mitchell Hegman

The Wet Market

At the top of my list for adventure when I’m in the Philippines (any Asian country, really) is wandering through a wet market. The inputs feeding into you there can be overwhelming at first.

First and foremost, the great discordance of sound created by the market as a whole feels less like something heard and more like something encountered, closer to a wall than anything else. Once you step inside, everything arrives in a rush: hundreds of voices talking at once, knives and cleavers thwacking cutting boards, cubed ice pouring into bins, the bustle of traffic still reaching in from the streets.

Visually, it’s no gentler. Displays rise vertically and stretch horizontally, each one asking for your attention. I’m drawn to the fruits and vegetables, bright and varied, many of them unfamiliar to those of us confined to the Rocky Mountains. The fish and meat section can be more challenging for anyone accustomed to thinking of chickens, fish, and four-legged animals as things that begin and end in tidy packaging. Here, their parts hang in displays like trinkets on a macabre charm bracelet. Fish are stacked into shining heaps. Everything is being reduced, piece by piece, as you watch.

And the scents refuse to settle. They shift and layer as you move along, never letting you land on any one thing for long. Fruits and vegetables offer sweetness and earth, while the meat and fish press in with something heavier. You are reminded of damp stone, of overturned soil.

Given all of this, I love the wet markets. This is honest stuff. Life without the courtesy of packaging.

Vegetables

Fish on Display

Fish Up Close

—Mitchell Hegman

A Post for Alan

This post is for my friend Alan Bouchard. Having worked on the communication/data side of the electrical industry, I suspect he’ll take a particular interest in the street wiring photographs I’m sharing today. As it happens, these feature some of the more orderly examples here in Metro Manila.

These pictures are what I’ve come to call “drive-by shootings,” quick attempts to catch a moment through the window of a moving car as we slip from one part of the city to another in a Grab ride. The results are not always perfectly framed, but they tend to be authentic.

In time, I’ll try to share a few captures of what I consider the more… improvisational work in the outlying neighborhoods as the opportunities present themselves.

Street Wiring

Street Wiring

—Mitchell Hegman

The Durian Thing

If you glance at the first photograph I’ve posted today, you’ll see, in the foreground, some large spiky-looking fruit. That’s durian. If you are unfamiliar, durian is the train-wreck of fruit in the tropics. This is due to the horrendous, off-putting scent emitted from the fruit once it is sliced open.

Travel and food writer Richard Sterling states that "its odor is best described as pig-excrement, turpentine, and onions, garnished with a gym sock."

Interestingly enough, the smell is only the opening act, a kind of olfactory toll you must pay before marching in for a taste. Once cut open, the flesh inside is soft and custard-like, with a flavor that seems to argue with itself: sweet, savory, faintly nutty, and somehow reminiscent of things that ought not belong in fruit at all. Some swear by it, speaking of durian with something near unwavering loyalty. Others recoil at first encounter and never quite recover. Here in the Philippines, though, it is treated not as a novelty but as a matter of fact—another offering from the tropics, equal parts challenge and reward, waiting patiently for you to decide which side of the argument you fall on. 

I tried durian while in Vietnam in 2009 and tried it again here in the Philippines recently. I would describe the flavor as sweet at the start, with a weird, chemical, industrial-cleaning-agent finish. The smell is such that many establishments in Vietnam would not allow you to bring it inside. I don’t wholly object to durian, but it is not a favorite by any measure.

Durian on Display (and Desiree)

Open Durian Fruit (Wikipedia)

—Mitchell Hegman

Metro Manila

We have settled onto the 43rd floor of a tower in the Uptown Parksuites in Taguig, Metro Manila. Three bedrooms, a full kitchen, a living room and dining area, and balcony views stretch out over modern Manila below.

This is the highest floor I’ve ever occupied. Standing out on either of our two balconies can be a bit dizzying, but I don’t let that stop me.

Naturally, I’m sharing a few balcony photographs here today.

The City Below

A Corner Room

On the Balcony

The Expanse at Night

—Mitchell Hegman

Apple and Star Apples

One of the servers at the resort tiki bar was a diminutive girl of perhaps twenty named Apple. I love the name. It’s a simple twist on a common word, but for some reason it stays with me. Unfortunately, I did not get a photograph of her to share.

But I will be sharing a couple of photographs of another kind of apple: the star apple. It is a rather softish fruit I had not encountered before coming to the Philippines, known locally as caimito. From the outside, it does not look particularly remarkable, usually a smooth purple or green sphere about the size of a small apple. But when it is sliced across the middle, the seeds inside form a small, natural star, which explains its name.

The flesh is soft and slightly jelly-like, with a gentle sweetness that reminds me a bit of grape and custard combined. It is typically eaten chilled and scooped from the rind with a spoon, as the skin itself is not eaten. It’s one of those simple tropical treats that seems perfectly suited to a warm afternoon, when something cool, mildly sweet, and refreshing feels exactly right.

Star Apples and Tangerines

Star Apple Ready to Eat

—Mitchell Hegman

Goodbye to Mövenpick Resort

Today I am sharing a few parting photographs from the beautiful Mövenpick Resort. Our time here has come to a close, and the next several days will find us in the Manila area.

Our Private Beach

Waves Rolling In

At the Pool

—Mitchell Hegman