The trip to Puerto was long, but uneventful. I took a van, so it was far more comfortable and speedier than the ride to PB. Anyway, I went straight to the airport under sunny skies. The only problem was that I arrived a good 7 hours ahead of flight time. I felt I needed to be cautious, given my proven experience that 'anything can happen'. So, I hung around the airport... and it's boring because the Puerto airport is like a third world postage stamp.... colorful, but very small!
At around 4pm, I decided that it might be good to go down the street and find some food. I felt this was good timing... eat, have a couple beers, get back to the airport by 6... two more hours till flight time... Sounded like a perfect plan!
I ended up at a place advertising on a chalkboard "International Food! Happy Hour!" I ended up ordering delicious shrimp curry. As Im sitting there a man walks over to me to strike up a conversation. Turns out that he is from Kansas. He's talkative and quickly informs me that he is retired (67 yrs old) and 'living the life' here in Palawan. So far, so good. I like to hear success stories!
He goes on to tell me that he married a filipina and he enthusiastically pulls from his wallet a picture of his bride. She is beautiful. She is 19 (I'll save you the math, thats a 48 year age difference). Turns out he met her in a brothel in Angeles City, the center of the sex industry in Manila (how romantic!). Essentially, Angeles City is the worst, seediest part of Manila, which is already a really really dirty and seedy place to begin with! What he tells me next is nuanced, so I hope I can do a good job of describing how horrible this man really was.... Anyway, he moved her away from her family to Palawan because he liked Palawan better than the city she grew up in. He was just so angry with her because he felt that all she did was ask him for money to help her family. It turns out that her family had suffered greatly through Typhoon Yolanda last year, losing their house and most of their possessions. He felt she was constantly nagging him to help her family get back on their feet. "I told her, 'when we got married, I promised to take care of YOU, not your family too'". Besides, he was paying for her medical treatment, which, since she had genital herpes, was quite expensive. Ok. so the marriage was losing its luster!
They finally agreed on a compromise... since, if they hadn't met, she would still be working as a prostitute to funnel money back to her destitute family, he had reluctantly agreed to offer the family a monthly stipend of 400ps a month (around $10US) to cover for their loss in income due to the marriage. He felt this was very fair.
All this I got in the span of a beer. But he went on.... she was off visiting her family, which she does far too often in his opinion. And boy did she have a surprise coming to her when she returned! He was going to kick her out of his house permanently! Apparently, he was kind enough to buy her an iPad type device as a Christmas gift. He even bought her internet access! Guess what she did? She went to visit them and then quickly sold the device so that she could give the money to her family.... he just wasn't going to abide this.... it was just too much... how dare she???!!! Yep, as soon and she got home he was going to throw what little possessions she had right out in the street and he didnt care how she would get back home to her family... he was done with her!!!!! He didn't work all his life to let a two bit whore drain his money from him a drop at a time!
Well, how about that... does a story get any worse? Honestly, I felt sick in my stomach just hearing him. I just had to leave, paid my bill, and walked out. Could a human being be more awful than this? I am sure.... of course... but sitting next to this depravity for even just a little while just pissed me off.
I think its the first time Ive been pissed in the past 5 months!
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