All of these particular photos are from May of 2013 and either in Bohol or Bogo for the most part. I’ve been meaning to upload various photos as I’m something of a photo-hound.. always taking photos everywhere I go. I have a backlog of images still waiting so I’ll try to sort through the best ones and get them online to share here. For now, here are some random notes about these pics..
As for that ‘ghost resort’.. yah, that was really weird. I was up in Bogo and went looking for a resort for the night. I ended up at this place called, ‘The Hideaway‘. And that’s what it was all right. A long, twisting, one-lane path into the jungle for about 3 acres from the main road into a gated resort. But this place really creeped me out, big time. For one thing.. totally empty. Not a soul there but maybe four employees. The grounds reminded me of some bizarre horror flick like, “Village of the Damned” or something along those lines. Anyway.. it was really creepy. I felt like I was in a horror movie about to start at sundown. I took a few pics before they let me leave. Who knows, maybe it’s packed during tourist season.. but in the off-season.. it was surreal.
You’ll notice I was sporting the beginning of a beard there in a few pics. It was just one of those weeks.. didn’t feel like shaving one morning.. which led to another, and another. Finally it got just way too itchy so I shaved it off. Don’t plan on doing that again any time soon. And then there was the ‘beach with no water’. The dudes working there tried to convince me the water would be back after dark. Yah.. like 5am dark? People were out there catching crabs or sea urchins or something. Me, I bailed. A beach without water is like a desert without sand.
The piggies are coming along at an ‘ok’ rate. All profits are going into more and more stalls until the farm can handle about 200 at a time. I like seeing them but, geez.. they smell like pigs.
And as for that dark stairwell.. I like to photograph dark places. I was at yet another province house and this was en route to my room. Not down the stairs, but above. It was an ‘ok’ place to stay. I slept fine even though it only had a fan. Bed was probably a bit hard for most people but I like it that way. Well.. enjoy the pics! 🙂
Henry “Reekay” V.
www.lifebeyondthesea.com
Author: Reekay V.
Since 2012 I’ve been traveling through various islands of the Philippines as a full-time Expat and spent 1999 living in Vietnam.
Share with me my ongoing adventures of life in the Philippines. Hopefully you find my observations helpful in your own adventures.
— Reekay
Thanks for the great pictures Henry, I wish more than anything that I was there with my asawa and this K-1 visa process was behind us, it is a most stressful process of waiting and wondering, but that’s another story. I’m surprised to see the dry beach where you are. Here in AK I live near a big bay where we have tides over 20 feet so the beach can be very short or more than 1/4 mile on low tides. One bonus here is the coal that washes in on every high tide. If you need free heat you can drive your vehicle along the beach and pick up all the free coal you can haul. It’s very pure high quality coal, no “klingers” but man, burning coal in my wood stove sure makes a dusty mess when I have to shovel out the ash every day or two whereas wood burns so completely I can go a week or two without ash build up & it doesn’t fly all over when I clean it out. Or better yet I just set the thermostat and only have to deal with paying the fuel bill. Now those are some issues I would appreciate not thinking about as I’m sitting on the porch watching the coconut leaves sway in the breeze. OK, to the point, I’ve thought about business ideas in the Phil & do appreciate your insight there, one idea is a piggery such as you have. As per my asawa her tatay has land we could use but the odor would offend the neighbors which is why there are non near her barangay. I Googled odorless piggery and found some interesting ideas. There are techniques that are being used in Hawaii and the Phil that claim to have conquered the odor’s without adding much expense. There’s been shows on PBS here discussing GMO’s and the negative effects GMO treated crops are having on livestock and human health. Have you looked into any of this? Maybe there’s some info that would help with your piggery.
At our piggy-farm, the smell is only for about within 15 feet of the actual stalls where some fresh poo has occurred. But we had the stalls built in a way so that they are very easy to keep clean with a drainage system and fresh water, which is done once or twice a day. We run a pretty clean operation. From more than 25 feet away you don’t even smell piggies, unlike some others I’ve passed by in the jungle. But we’re lucky since there’s a little river on the property to drain to. Nobody drinks or swims in that water and it flows well enough to keep clean. The real source of smell is when piggy-poo drainage collects in one spot and festers. That’s the problem with a piggy farm on flat land.
As to profits though, as I mentioned.. it’s our 2nd year now and we’re still investing in more stalls. We started with 3 Momma-piggies and now we have over a dozen plus about 45 baby-piggies currently. But if all you wanted was 3 Momma-piggies and kept selling the piglets every 3 months, you’d need to run it yourself to make a profit. I wrote about that more in detail here; https://lifebeyondthesea.com/ask-henry-running-a-business-in-the-philippines/
I had also a planning to start a business like your in pig farming. To get a care taker , my old classmate while I'm working in abroad.