big fish

welp my first night on the island of palawan was nothing if not an interesting one. it started off in the port city of puerto princesa with just the pops and myself enjoying two much deserved san miguels outside our hotel room after our long voyage from malaybalay (that's one three hour bus ride, one overnight ferry, two plane flights, three taxi rides and two tricycle rides to be exact - but that's another story). seated at the table a few feet away from us was a group of boisterous, big-bellied philippino men, the biggest bellied of whom kept sending glances and friendly nods in my direction. and wouldn't you know it, we had nearly finished our beverages when, as if by some sort of divine intervention, the waiter appeared and palced two fresh cold ones in their stead. as we gazed up at him with faces all adrawn with pleased perplexion he informed us that they were compliments of "Mr. Joey" and nodded in the direction of the biggest belly who grinned broadly and raised his glass and Malboro cigarette to us. he waved us over to their table and who do these men turn out to be but a few of the heavyweights in philippine politics, pun intended. we had in attendace the chief of police, the county auditor, a cargo line owner, and Mr. Joey the deputy mayor of manila, among others. after chatting for the better part of an hour they invited us to dinner at the home of the auditor. now, a homemade dinner with the upper crust of the philippines, that's just not the kind of thing a person can refuse, so we hopped into their escalade-esk vehicle (a far cry from the jeepnies and tricycles to which we've become accustomed) and headed for the outskirts of the city. the auditor and his quiet wife have a lovely home where they raise fighting cocks and banana trees and had prepared a huge spread on their front porch positivly brimming with broad, steaming dishes. there were two huge maya maya fish (i dunno, its delicious), beef stew, fried pork, pickled papaya and naturally lots of rice (and bananas). really nothing all that exciting or out of the ordinary happened, in fact we rather ate and ran, but when you are thousands of miles from your home and every article of clothing you have smells like a stinky foot its quite thrilling to dine with royalty (or close enought to it).