Philippines 2009 Day 7

Slug's brother drove us all out today to Clark to buy fireworks, and agenda for tonight was to set them off right in Manila itself (sounds like some terrorists).

Clark was a two-hour drive away, and we reached a small town where various fireworks, firearms and local snacks are sold. The peak season is usually December, where the locals will be celebrating Christmas and New Year with fireworks, and therefore, all fireworks shops will be open and selling them at slashed prices. From what we could see, only two or three fireworks shops were open today.

We approached one and swept all kinds of sparklers and dynamite-like fireworks off the shelves. His brother's bargaining skills once again helped us save a lot on our purchase, which seriously does not come cheap. We had to listen to instructions really carefully because playing with fireworks is life-threatening.

Town in Clark that sells fireworks

Approaching the fireworks store

Nicely-wrapped fireworks

That's more dangerous

We browsed around the snack shops and bought an unique snack - deep fried pig skin. It is something like the deep fried lard used in soup noodles, except that this comes without the oil. First few bites were okay, in fact, rather fragrant and crispy, but soon after I felt like retching because of the lingering porky aftertaste. How can this be a tidbit?

Deep fried chicken skin, deep fried pig skin ... ...

... ... and deep fried chicken gizzards, chicken hearts, chicken intestines

After dinner, Slug's brother drove us to a part of the Pasig River where we unloaded all our tools of crime. We started off playing with the sparklers, those whizzing ones that could fly a distance and combust with a loud pop. A couple relaxing by the river nearby could not help but come up to us and ask if there was any special occasion for setting the fireworks. After explaining to him we were just tourists and we were just playing for fun, he still could not understand and kept asking if it was a public holiday or if it was anyone's birthday. I could not be bothered to explain so I handed him some sparklers to shut him up.

All the activities attracted a few street kids nearby who came to watch, and they really resembled detestable BLACK SOCIETY kids. They tried to lay their hands on our fireworks, they imitated the way we talked ... ... they were practically a useless bunch of nuisance.

Playing with huge sparklers

Their annoying voices evident here

For the next 30 minutes, we continued to set off the fireworks. They were nothing like those National Day ones, but nevertheless still spectacular. And then there was always the danger of fireworks taking such a long time to set off that you do not know if it was still active or dead. There was one that was absolutely silent for 3 minutes after lighting it, and just when we were about to walk over and collect it back, it suddenly exploded.

Slug holding an egg-shaped one happily

Guess who turned up soon and spoilt the party? The police. They said that fireworks were not allowed to be set off in the city, but actually, setting off fireworks along Pasig River is a common sight during December. No matter how much we reasoned with the policemen saying that we were just tourists / we did not know about this law / we just wanted to see the beauty of Manila etc, he still wanted to confiscate our fireworks and also wanted us to follow them back to the police station. Eventually, Slug's brother stuffed 300 pesos into their hands, and they just huffed, "Pack up and go" and drove off. Conclusion: Police here is cheap as dirt.

So we lugged all the unused fireworks back to Slug's brother's home, and hopefully we would be able to light them again when we return in December. Spent the night packing our luggage (and pineapples) as we would be returning home the next day.