My new room in Legazpi, Philippines. My old home in Legazpi was booked by a large group for today and tomorrow, and I was asked to move out. I was just staying day to day, so technically I didn’t have a reservation and they gave me the boot. I moved to a very basic kind of place on Rizal Street called something like “J&Y Dormitory”. I thought I’d go old-school, and I rented their cheapest room – a fan-only closet-sized space for 250 pesos a night ($6). It doesn’t have a lot of frills, but I feel quite at home there. The fan keeps it surprisingly comfortable, and it even has its own bathroom with a shower. Can’t beat that for $6. The staff are friendly and helpful and they even let me carry my bike up the stairs and store it in the room for security.

By the way, it is official: greenbacks are not wanted in the Philippines. I had some US cash in crisp new hundred-dollar bills with me and I set about trying to change them into pesos. Legazpi is drowning in banks. There is a bank on every street corner. But NONE of them wanted anything to do with my US cash – no matter how crisp and new the bills were. I had a meeting with a bank vice president in one bank, and he explained that the US dollar was too volatile. They would buy the dollars and by the time they did something with them, they’d lose value and they’d lose money. So the bank stopped accepting them. At least that was his story. Doesn’t sound right to me. But it was fun to be ushered into the VP’s office to discuss banking policy – and me in my sweaty and dirty shorts and shirt.

I did manage to change the money at a money changer in a big shopping mall. Of course, I could have used an ATM, but I wanted to use up this cash first.

Tags: changing money, dormitory, Legazpi, Philippines Bike Trip 2013, US, VP