Fun in the Philippines

I barely jump out of the way of the severely overloaded moped driving on the wrong side of the dusty road, and where I land I almost trip over a big sack of chicken feed. Unfazed, I quickly regain my posture and wipe some sweat from my forehead – even though it's still before 9 am, the tropical sun is already torching the Philippine island of Negros, and on its east coast on the foothills of an imposing volcano the city of Dumaguete is a hot place.

I step out of the sunlight into the halls of the Dumaguete fruit market. This is not a place which had ever received any attention from interior designers and product placement psychologists. But it's a place with character. It's not just another replica of an optimized, slick supermarket scheme which could equally be located in Los Angeles or Cleveland. This is a not-super market. It's still a real market.

The market ladies see me and don't waste any time yelling over the street noise how good and fresh their fruit are. Near the entrance rows of woven baskets with small red chillies cover the floor. A few steps up into the main market area, stacks of fresh juicy mangoes, pineapples, apples and avocados are propped up on wooden market tables. In-between lay some ripe green guyabanas and bundles of lanzones – delicious fruits unknown in Europe. Bananas are strung up on top of the tables, and coconuts and gigantic spiny jackfruit lie on the concrete floor.

A big part of the market's character are its intense fruity smells. In 2015, images and sounds can be shared online the moment they are recorded; and written thoughts and feelings can easily be emailed to the other side of the planet. But we can't directly record smells, and the clumsy efforts at replaying them via “scratch & sniff” a few decades led nowhere. This is even more unfortunate since smells are such direct paths right into our emotions and memories. So I can only try to convey the Dumaguete fruit market's smells very indirectly, with mere words: rich and sweet, saturating the air with superbly ripe and heavy but still fresh, mouth-watering, intense odors. A base of banana, with a good dose of mango and a strong component of jackfruit. All evaporated from the piles of fruit by a humid heat without even a hint of a breeze. Heavenly.

Seriously: If you come to the Philippines, don't just sunbathe next to the resort pool. Go out and suck in the sights and sounds and smells and the unspoiled vibrant spirit of the country.