Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The best place to look for Catholic
religious art
is in Manila (see p.98), though antique shops in
other towns also have a selection. Wooden Catholic
statues called santos and large wooden crucifixes
are common. Cheaper religious souvenirs such
as rosaries and icons of saints are sold by street
vendors outside many of the more high-profile
pilgrimage cathedrals and churches such as Quiapo
in Manila and Santo Niño in Cebu.
BARGAINING
Prices are fixed in department stores
and most retail outlets in malls, but in
many antique shops and in markets,
you're expected to
haggle
. Bargaining is
always amicable and relaxed, never
confrontational. Filipinos see it as
something of a polite game, interjecting
their offers and counter offers with
friendly chitchat about the weather, the
state of the nation or, if you're a foreigner,
where you come from and what you're
doing in the Philippines.
Never play hardball and make a
brusque “take it or leave it” offer because
that's likely to cause embarrassment and
offence. Start by offering
fifty to sixty
percent
of the initial asking price and
work your way up from there. Foreigners
tend to get less of a discount than
Filipinos, so if you're travelling with
Filipino friends, ask them to do the
haggling for you and hover in the
background as if you're not interested.
Textiles
In market areas such as Divisoria in Manila, Colon
in Cebu and the Palitan barter centre in Marawi,
Mindanao, you can find colourful raw cloth and
finished
batik products
. Don't leave Mindanao
without investing a couple of hundred pesos in
a
malong
, a versatile tube-like garment of
piña
(pineapple fibre) that can be used as a skirt,
housedress, blanket or bedsheet. Ceremonial
malong
are more ornate and expensive, from
P4000 to P10,000. Another native textile is
Manila
hemp
, which comes from the trunk of a particular
type of banana tree. Both
piña
and Manila hemp
are used to make attractive home accessories sold
in department stores, such as laundry baskets,
lampshades and vases. The versatile and pliable
native grass,
sikat
, is woven into everything from
placemats to rugs.
Department stores everywhere have a good
selection of Philippine
linen products
with delicate
embroidery and lace flourishes. Some of these
are handmade in Taal (see p.116); a good set of
pillowcases and bedsheets will cost about P2000
in Taal's market, half the price in Rustan's or SM. In
beach areas you'll find a good range of cotton
sarongs, cheap (from P200), colourful and versatile
- they can be used as tablecloths or throws.
mother-of-pearl cost around P3000, and inlaid
serving trays P500.
Rice gods
(
bulol
; see p.98), carved wooden
deities sometimes with nightmarish facial expres-
sions, are available largely in Manila and the
Cordilleras. In Manila, they cost anything from a
few hundred pesos for a small reproduction to
P20,000 for a genuine figurine of modest size;
they're much cheaper if you haggle for them in
Banaue or Sagada. At markets in the Cordilleras,
look out also for
wooden bowls
, various wooden
wall carvings and fabric
wall hangings
.
SARI
SARI STORES
A Philippine institution, the humble
sari-sari
store -
sari-sari
means “various” or “a variety” - is
often no more than a barangay shack or a hole in the wall selling an eclectic but practical
range of goods. If you're short of shampoo, body lotion, cigarettes, rum, beer or you've got a
headache and need a painkiller, the local sari-sari store is the answer, especially in areas
without supermarkets. All items are sold in the smallest quantities possible: shampoo comes
in packets half the size of a credit card, medicine can be bought by the pill and cigarettes are
sold individually. Buy a soft drink or beer and you may be perplexed to see the store holder
pour it into a plastic bag, from which you're expected to drink it through a straw. This is so they
can keep the bottle and return it for the deposit of a few centavos. Most sari-sari stores are
fiercely
familial
, their names - the Three Sisters, the Four Brothers or Emily and Jon-Jon's
- reflecting their ownership.
The sari-sari store is also held dear by Filipinos as an uno
cial community centre. Many
sari-sari stores, especially in the provinces, have crude sitting areas outside, encouraging folk
to linger in the shade and gossip or talk basketball and cockfighting.
