Talking of begging..... What do forum members think of beggars in the Philippines?
When I'm with the wife and her family and we're approached by beggars, usually kids or old women, the wife may give them a few coins but seems to give them the cold shoulder perhaps cos she can see them targetting me as a "rich" (I wish) Westerner.
Last year a kid came up to me with his hand out and all I had on me was a tissue, a pack of Polo mints and a wallet full of 1000 Peso notes. So there I am on holiday and it's hard to get money out of the bank in the provinces so I'm not going to give away P1000 to anyone who asks so I offer him the mints or the tissue. He couldn't have been that hungry cos he refused the mints I reckon most beggars aren't genuinely hungry they're just too lazy to work.
Anyway, I accept that there are a lot of very poor people in the RP but should we just hand out cash to everyone who hassles us while we're there?

Thoughts anyone?