Sammy and his son operate an outrigger boat, the “Lady Susan” in Batangas, south Luzon. Any time a camera would point remotely in his direction, he’d throw up the ‘OK’ hand signal, a nod to his scuba diving background.
Madame Lucy sits next to six other fortune tellers, each shuffling their cards in the shadow of Quiapo church, Manila. For twenty (or was it forty?) pesos, she told me my destiny, including all the things you’d expect to hear.
Troy took us Stand Up Paddleboarding along the Loboc river in Bohol. Like many young Filipinos he was drawn to Manila, where amongst other things, he worked in a Levi jeans factory and for Jollibee, a fast-food restaurant chain.
Needless to say he much prefers this.
I asked what was her best selling product, and was handed a six inch parcel of sticky rice, wrapped in coconut leaves, along with a tiny bubble of plastic food wrap filled with a dark brown goop. The goop was phenomenally sweet. The rice was claggy. The combo wasn’t really my thing. But because she was watching me expectantly, I had to eat the whole lot.
The two gentlemen below own a small turquoise boat, the ‘King David’, a fishing vessel in El Nido, Palawan. Lucy and I spent a few hours tempting the fish with simple hand line reels, a couple of hooks each and a foil packet of diced squid. These guys, unsurprisingly, were way better at it than us. Between us we caught (and kept) seventeen fish, of which I caught two.
But one of my two was a barracuda, which I felt particularly manly about.
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Just out of shot, he’s holding his rooster, which was having a blade tied to it’s leg before it’s upcoming bout.
The Godfather of the Cockpit. Everyone knew him, his nickname given because someone years ago had decided he looked vaguely Japanese. He took me under his wing, if you pardon the pun, pointing out the myriad complexities of cockfighting. When I said I wasn’t going to bet, he was incredulous. “No betting, No exitement!”, he exclaimed, and lit up another cigarette.
This guy kept giving the Aussie tourist next to me tips on which rooster to put money on. He was 100% wrong three times in a row, after which, no more bets were placed…
Not your average vet, I think you’ll agree. He and two others worked on rapidly expiring chickens in their laps, frantically trying their best to patch them up. If the chooks didn’t make it, off they went a stall outside the cockpit, to be plucked and boiled.
Sometimes even the winners don’t really win.
Nympha is a tour guide for Smokey Tours. She showed me around the markets in the Quiapo area of Manila.
I’d totally recommend her, she knows her stuff.
My wife. Before snorkeling.
© 2026 Tommy Nagle
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