Philippines Diary

NephroPlus has been operating in the Philippines for about six years now. So, many people were surprised that I had not yet visited the country yet! Heck, I was surprised myself. Even though we started operations in Uzbekistan after we started in the Philippines, I had already been to that country. Well, in my defence, my trip to Uzbekistan happened when we launched our Tashkent centre, the largest dialysis centre in the world!

So, when Rohit Singh, our Group CEO mentioned that the Philippine Society of Nephrology was holding their annual conference in the third week of April and if I would like to attend, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Why The Philippines and not simply Philippines?

I read up on this before my trip. As it turns out, the country is a group of about 7,600 islands! It was colonised by Spain for a long period, followed by shorter periods by the US and Japan. The country was referred to as the Philippine Islands which was shortened to the Philippines.

The main language spoken is Tagalog, though many English words find their way into daily spoken Tagalog.

The people are very warm and affectionate and their cheerful demeanour can be infectious. Many of them told me I looked more handsome in person than in pictures and over video calls! See, they had a good sense of humour as well!

Vegetarians Beware!

Rarely have I seen a cuisine so dependent on meat, seafood or eggs like the cuisine in the Philippines! A vegetarian like me needs to do some good research and find options if they did not want to stay hungry. On my first day here, I learnt a hard lesson. We walked into a restaurant and my colleagues asked the waiter for vegetarian options. The waiter promptly pointed her to two pasta dishes. My research prior to leaving home in India had taught me to know better. I asked if these pasta dishes used fish sauce. The waiter thought a bit and responded that they both did! 

Many Indians have made Manila their home and this has led to a few Indian restaurants coming up which was a relief for folks like me. 

Dialysis Sessions

NephroPlus currently has 43 clinics in the Philippines. I am always relaxed when I have to get my dialysis sessions in a NephroPlus clinic. The staff is usually happy to accommodate my nocturnal treatments. I prefer night treatments to 4-hour sessions during the day. Getting dialysis at night gives me longer hours which allows me a liberal fluid intake limit and does not need me to watch my food too much. It also frees up my day so I can either put in a full day's work without any interruptions or have some fun on holidays. I underwent 5 sessions during my stay there and apart from a little insomnia, I did fairly well.

Snorkeling

I had one Sunday to myself during this trip. With an old friend, Ravee Dikshit, I managed to do some fun stuff. We drove down to Batangas where we did some snorkeling and lazed in the pool. The resort we went to had a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the ocean. Ravee also packed up some really nice Upma and Poha from an Indian restaurant. I enjoyed the Upma on the way to the resort and actually had the Poha for lunch after swimming. The resort folks did not object!

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Overall, I am really glad I was able to visit the Philippines. It was a great trip work-wise and I was happy that I could do snorkelling and some swimming on Sunday. I look forward to visiting again and next time, plan to visit a couple of other holiday spots like Palawan and Cebu.