Travel Blog

Funny Moments: Smiles From The Philippines

March 21, 2025 /

Again again again again again, see you again….

Every journey brings its funny moments, little encounters which we will always remember with a smile. We don’t always put these in our blog posts – sometimes they don’t fit with the narrative, sometimes they aren’t relevant to the remainder of the text, sometimes we demur just in case someone finds them offensive or insulting. But there’s been quite a few here, so here’s a sample….

It’s customary at tourist sites in the Philippines for those employed in the tourist trade to wear T-shirts with their name and job title on the back – you might get, for instance, “Archie – BOATMAN” or “Jayson – DIVE EXPERT” or the like. At Kawasan Falls we spotted a guy proudly sporting a similar style shirt emblazoned with “RANDY TOUR GUIDE”.

Again again again again again, see you again.

Buying ferry tickets, the girl behind the counter kept referring to the boat to Kapper City. We’ve never heard of Kapper City and definitely don’t want to head there by boat. No matter how many times we asked where it is and why we would need to go there, we couldn’t get an answer. The conversation had been round several circles before we twigged that it was mispronunciation of English…the sweet girl was referring to the boat’s Kapper City….. that is, it’s capacity.

My stock answer when any street or beach hawker tries to sell me a hat is that I don’t need one because I like my bald head to be suntanned. “You need a hat, Sir, for the sun, it is so hot” says a guy on the beach. Aha, I think to myself, time for my witty retort! “I don’t want one, I like my head to be brown”. “Well then you need to buy a brown hat”, he says, excitedly. Good answer. Hawker 1 Sharman 0.

Again again again again again, see you again.

Filipinos sing. All the time, uninhibited, out loud. Waiters, bar staff, tuk tuk drivers, shop assistants and cleaners, will all be making sweet music as they work, and so many of them have lovely voices which effortlessly carry a tune. It’s no surprise therefore that the nation is hooked on karaoke, usually found in what they call KTV bars. The mystery is this: how come if all the people sing beautifully all day, those who do karaoke are the only ones who sound tone deaf. Tuneless voices, bad timing, wrong emphasis, it’s all there in complete contrast to everything we hear everywhere else. They make my ears bleed.

Hawkers again. In a bar in Alona, one guy approached me completely surreptitiously, evidently encroaching beyond his permitted boundaries by coming into the bar. He pleads with me to buy, saying he has no food at home and desperately needs to be able to feed his family tomorrow – if he doesn’t sell anything tonight, his family will have nothing to eat. I look inside his bag – he’s selling mangoes, pineapples, bananas and nuts. Mate, I may not be Einstein but I think I can see at least one solution to your problem. 

Again again again again again, see you again. So this guy on the beach at Boracay is using this weird call as his pitch – you know, chanting it rhythmically over and over again as he tries to sell his wares, which in his case is the slightly unusual combination of bandanas and small towels. Where on Earth would he have picked up such a strange phrase, let alone use it as his market stall chant? Whatever has “again again again again again see you again” got to do with either selling, or bandanas? And, just as we chuckle for the umpteenth time at his offbeat techniques, we realise that he’s probably the only seller in town whom we both recognise and know exactly what he’s selling. Maybe, just maybe, he’s the smartest man in town…

Again again again again again, see you again…..

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