Have Internet Will Travel A blog about travel freelancing in the Philippines

In Costa Rica it’s safe to drink the water, but why would you when you’ve got all these other choices? ;) Costa Rica has one major brewery called Cerveceria de Costa Rica which is owned by the Florida Ice and Farm Co., but they brew a variety of beers locally. And there’s a few other canned beverage alternatives too. It’s the local custom to have your beer in a glass with ice, but as gringos we rarely had to ask for it without (’sin hielo’).

Read More…

Kelly and I are fans of sharing the big beer with a couple small glasses. It’s something we picked up in Brazil at the many restaurants where you get a seat at a plastic table in the middle of the sidewalk or sometimes in the middle of the street. You even get a giant beer cozy to keep it cool. It’s often a little bit cheaper, and there’s something very communal about it. 1 beer/2 glasses is often one of our first translations into the native tongue.

Read More…

After almost a month with an over heating video card stuck in 640×480 and $600 later, I’m back online. For most travelers it probably would have been a non issue till they got home using internet cafes in the meantime, but I have a number of client projects on the go and I’m usually not more than an arms length from my PC unless I’m underwater. Luckily I bought an iPod Touch before leaving Canada! I’ve often pooh-poohed how the iPhone and Touch are bulky MP3 players with not quite enough built in features to be true PDAs, but man was I thankful for the WiFi, browser, and email applications these past few weeks, not to mention the countless hours spent playing solitaire when the power was out. I was able to stay on top of client issues and steal Kelly’s Mac for emergencies. It took UPS almost 2 weeks to ship a new video card from New Jersey to Koh Tao in Thailand via expedited shipping. At least I didn’t have to install it with my Swiss Army knife screwdriver… I ended up finding a repair shop locally that had the proper tools, something of a rarity on some of the smaller islands.

So what does a nerd do offline in a tropical country? He stays hydrated…
Read More…

With a week left before we head to Thailand, we’ve attempted to mark off the last few random things remaining on our Philippines checklist…

#1. Try San Miguel Strong Ice

We’ve never seen anyone drinking it. Is it a cider? Nope, it turns out that it’s yet another pale pilsen. This time its ice filtered and packing a bit more of a punch. 6.3% alcohol, making it a close second to Red Horse Strong Beer.

Read More…

How cheap you ask? Well, at today’s exhcange rate of 39 Philippine Pesos for 1 Canadian Dollar, it’s a mere $0.71 for a can of Pale Pilsen from the supermarket. Now the question isn’t my beer budget. It’s how many situps I need to do to burn off 6 cans of beer. :)

We’ve been in the Philippines for 3 months now. Since we’ve finally settled we decided to throw a little housewarming party at our new place and invite a bunch of people over to celebrate. We started out the week by heading into town for party supplies. Off to Hypermart in Dumaguete, we loaded up a shopping cart full of Mexican food supplies, and another cart full of beer, rum, gin, and soft drinks. We nearly cleared the shelves of San Miguel. The grand total? About $200. I love how cheap food and beverages are here. Unless you’re wanting specialty items, nearly everything is 50% what we pay back home. Booze and beer is even cheaper with no government taxation like in Canada. Read More…

So last week after I updated my Facebook status regarding a bug incident there’s been a fair amount of people asking for more details regarding the critters around us here in the Philippines. And while we’d never want to dissuade anyone from visiting… while in a third world country a person should be prepared to deal with varying types of pesky pest issues.

So, back to the previously mentioned bug incident… I was cooking dinner the other night at the outside stove (some unbelievably tough steaks I believe) and while heading between kitchens for various ingredients, I failed to keep an eye on my can of beer. Cooking completed, we sat down to eat. Then as I finished the last of my beer, I felt the feelers of a fairly large sized cockroach on my lips. Needless to say, I was thoroughly grossed out and sprayed the table with the last swallow of beer. Dumping the roach out of the can, I smashed him good. Incredibly, minutes later when I wondered if the roach had crawled into the can or had been packaged there at the beer plant… I noticed he had managed to crawl a good 2-3 feet from where I had crushed him. I smashed him again, then lit him on fire just to be sure. I can understand why roaches will survive a nuclear blast. They’re near indestructible! Read More…

I wouldn’t call myself a beer connoisseur. More of a cross-sectional consumer, but I do like to sample a little bit of everything and the Philippines has a few very good beers. All come with little paper hats… which possibly serves some sort of sanitary purpose? Maybe to keep out flies while sitting on the bar waiting to be delivered? Perhaps to mop up the condensation which inevitably drips off the bottle and into your lap? No, it’s actually just so you can wipe off the lip of the bottle…

San Miguel Pilsen – Long live the stubby bottle! The standard beer of the Philippines. Ranges from P25 to P65  (Approx $0.50 – $1.50) depending how touristy the bar is. Light and refresing. Available on every corner in the Philippines and in British Columbia at most government liquor stores. An amusing tagline on the back of most bottles reads, “A truly satisfying beer with a refined well-balanced flavor. Perfected and brewed for over a century. The only beer that nourishes true Filipino friendships.” Read More…