Hong Kong: http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/HongKong?authkey=KYTNmWoZymE#
Macau: http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/Macau?authkey=ZXsWbZJlw4g#
Landing back in the Philippines was as usual extremely uneventful. Andrew and Brenda met up with Brenda's sister Marcel on out last night in Singapore, i caught up on some much needed rest, my internal clock continually gets discombobulated based on the fact that the sun comes up in the philippines at like 4AM, which is unreal, and sets around 6 PM. We managed to walk out of the airport in clark and directly find a bus back to manila, the two hour ride seemed like much less as we all slept on the way back. Once back in Manila we grabbed some lunch at a wendy's, mostly due to the fact that the bus dropped us off at the mall, and two we were absolutely starving. getting back to the hotel was a non adventure, their was a cab driver that wanted 700 peso's to take us back, i thought brenda was going to come unglued on this guy in tagalong. No worries though we finally made it back to the hotel safe and sound, then things changed, for me at least over the next couple days.
That afternoon and evening i started to feel a bit off, my throat was hurting, i wasn't hungry, the food didn't look good, or even smell good. Then it hit, for the next three days i spent all my time in the hotel room, doing nothing but sleeping. Luckily, brenda had helped me buy some robitussin and and andrew had passed along some advil so i was prepared their, but none the less i slept for probably three days straight, and didn't do a damn thing but stay in bed. That is one of my biggest fears while i am over here, getting sick with no way to get help! In the Philippines if you go to the hospital you have to have an attendant that you bring with you to get you any supplies you may need, me, i didn't have that, andrew left for korea, and brenda took off to go home. If worse came to worse, and i was in dire need of someone to take care of me i could have headed off to the nearest go-go bar and found a girl to take care of me their, it probably would have cost me 500 peso's a day, but it would have fit the bill.
After getting to a point where i could eat three meals a day (which i did for one day) i had to get out of manila, it was claustrophobic, i couldn't take the isolation, so i headed back to pampanga where the bars are plentiful and the place is a total party. I spent a couple days in Pampanga before deciding where to head off to next, but i did meet a really nice girl in one of the bars, she was a waitress who was really shy, i'm thinking of taking her out to dinner when i go back, but we'll see.
So having decided that it was finally time to do Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam I booked a flight to Macua. Yes that seems a bit out of the way but i have that on the list of countries to visit, and for those of you interested when thinking of Macua, think Las Vegas on an Island, the Mirage, MGM, Sands, Wynn, and the Venetian (which has a cirque de soleil show) all have hotels their. I took a bus tour of the city, and by bus tour i mean that i hopped on a city bus and took it around the city to see all the sites, i passed my final stop, the ferry terminal twice, but all the same got to see what little their is of the city. At the Ferry terminal it was about 142 MOP (1:7.4) for the ferry ride t0 Hong Kong, these ferry's put the one to Mackinaw Island to shame, they run every 15 minutes and it only takes about 45, super fast and very efficient.
After clearing customs in Hong Kong, i headed straight for the hotel, I was exhausted from the sight seeing in macua and the flight and early morning, which came very early as i did a bar hop that lasted to 6 AM, it has been a long time since i left a bar when the sun was coming up. The hotel was nice it was an IBIS, which is an Accor hotel, think Motel 6, as the rooms were about half the size, but it was a mattress and i was good to sleep!
Stayed in hong kong for another day, did sightseeing up to the olympic park where the equestrian events were located, this place was guarded tighter than fort knox, they wouldn't let me in to see the venue, as they were setting up for the paraolympic games and taking down the siganage and replacing it for the next round of games. from their it was off to central to see the business district. I got really comfortable with the subway system their and i think they were cleaner than singapore.
From Hong Kong it was off to Thailand. I misread my ticket thinking my flight left at 7 (but really 9) and got to the airport about 5 hours early, getting to the airport was a breeze, right across from my hotel was a ferry and bus terminal, for 40 HKD (1:7.8) i hopped on a bus that took me directly their. I fell asleep once we got out of the city, which took a route pasted all the car dealerships, if you could think of a type of car, its for sale in Hong Kong. When i woke up on the bus we were on a bridge, i looked out the window and all is saw was water, the bus was a double decker and i was up top, no guard rail, just the straits between the islands below me, it was quite unnerving, once i got my composure, the veiw was really good, and made me happy i took the bus and not the subway.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, S. Korea? Week 3
Monday was a free day in KL, Andrew had to head to the US Embassy to get additional pages added to his passport and i had to try to find the Laos Embassy to get my visa (one is available if you arrive by plane, but i was arriving via Bangkok and that wasn't gonna work). While at the US embassy Andrew did notice that everyone who came in and applied for a visa from Malaysia was approved, the guard even told him to have Brenda move their if she wanted an expedited visa..HMMM.
I had checked the local phone book for the locations of the embassies, and wrote down the address for the Laos embassy, I had no idea where it was, and neither did the front desk person at the hotel, so i decided to look online, their i found a physical address and thought i was good to go. Before setting out i decided to check with the travel agent located inside the hotel, this person had a different address, ok, this is going to be interesting. I asked her where the embassy was located and she said near the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Convention Center), well thats not far i can walk it. I set out on my walk heading towards the Petronas towers, as that is the heart of the KLCC. I walked for about an hour and ended up making a complete circle back to the hotel. Screw it, I'm taking a taxi, the taxi driver wanted 30 ringitt for the ride, i told him to piss off and walked a little further down the road where i found one for 20 MYR. The thing with KL is that you have to ask to the drivers to use the meter, the thing they don't tell you is that none of the taxi's have meters that work so your getting screwed regardless of what you want to pay to take a taxi. The driver and I set out to find the Laos embassy and go to the orginal address i had received from the hotel travel agent, nothing is there at that address, so i hand him the physical address i found online, we head their and its a furniture store....well Laos is a small country they might be in the back, no such luck, but the shop owner knows that the embassy used to be located their and knows where they moved to. She graciously gives us the address and we head further on down the same road. We find the embassy, if we were not looking I would have thought it was someones house, the sign that identified it as an embassy was overgrown with vines, and their was not guard or guard station. I just walked right in, the lady working the visa counter was actually shocked to see me, I don't think she was expecting anyone to come in. The fee for the visa to recieve it same day was 65 USD, the fee if you wanted to wait was 35 USD, as we were leaving back to singapore the next day, i didn't have time to wait. The next hurdle with this visa was that the embassy could not break a 100 USD bill. So i ended up paying for my visa with 100 MYR and 35 USD, if she would have accepted indonesian rupiah i probably would have paid her in that!
Now that i have my visa, its time to set out back to the hotel, i'm not real sure which way to head, but i can see the petrona's towers and the sky needle and head towards them, as the sky needle is closest to the hotel. As i am walking a guy passing me on the other side of the street tells me that the women down the road is calling for me, i looked at him like he was crazy and turned around, the lady from the embassy was calling me back, i thought o shit, something is wrong with my visa....and sure enough their was. As i got back to the embassy the women had written the wrong visa number on the application, i had to fill out two, one for the embassy and one to carry with me. the visa number eneded wtih 45, what i didn't know was that she had screwed up the first visa sticker and wrote that number on the application forms. Good thing i went back, or i may not be able to get into Laos.
After all this excitement i only walked about half way back and cought a taxi the rest of the way, the driver actually wanted to tell me that he didn't go to the area our hotel was at because of "traffic". I kept thinking to myself, their are 1.5 million people in KL and you don't want to drive in traffic, i think he picked the wrong profession or only wants to work in the middle of the night, negotiated the driver down to 20 MYR and made my way back to the hotel. Nothing exciting, just getting packed to head back to singapore, and play a couple hands of UNO with andrew and Brenda, which by the way she always seems to win.
I had checked the local phone book for the locations of the embassies, and wrote down the address for the Laos embassy, I had no idea where it was, and neither did the front desk person at the hotel, so i decided to look online, their i found a physical address and thought i was good to go. Before setting out i decided to check with the travel agent located inside the hotel, this person had a different address, ok, this is going to be interesting. I asked her where the embassy was located and she said near the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Convention Center), well thats not far i can walk it. I set out on my walk heading towards the Petronas towers, as that is the heart of the KLCC. I walked for about an hour and ended up making a complete circle back to the hotel. Screw it, I'm taking a taxi, the taxi driver wanted 30 ringitt for the ride, i told him to piss off and walked a little further down the road where i found one for 20 MYR. The thing with KL is that you have to ask to the drivers to use the meter, the thing they don't tell you is that none of the taxi's have meters that work so your getting screwed regardless of what you want to pay to take a taxi. The driver and I set out to find the Laos embassy and go to the orginal address i had received from the hotel travel agent, nothing is there at that address, so i hand him the physical address i found online, we head their and its a furniture store....well Laos is a small country they might be in the back, no such luck, but the shop owner knows that the embassy used to be located their and knows where they moved to. She graciously gives us the address and we head further on down the same road. We find the embassy, if we were not looking I would have thought it was someones house, the sign that identified it as an embassy was overgrown with vines, and their was not guard or guard station. I just walked right in, the lady working the visa counter was actually shocked to see me, I don't think she was expecting anyone to come in. The fee for the visa to recieve it same day was 65 USD, the fee if you wanted to wait was 35 USD, as we were leaving back to singapore the next day, i didn't have time to wait. The next hurdle with this visa was that the embassy could not break a 100 USD bill. So i ended up paying for my visa with 100 MYR and 35 USD, if she would have accepted indonesian rupiah i probably would have paid her in that!
Now that i have my visa, its time to set out back to the hotel, i'm not real sure which way to head, but i can see the petrona's towers and the sky needle and head towards them, as the sky needle is closest to the hotel. As i am walking a guy passing me on the other side of the street tells me that the women down the road is calling for me, i looked at him like he was crazy and turned around, the lady from the embassy was calling me back, i thought o shit, something is wrong with my visa....and sure enough their was. As i got back to the embassy the women had written the wrong visa number on the application, i had to fill out two, one for the embassy and one to carry with me. the visa number eneded wtih 45, what i didn't know was that she had screwed up the first visa sticker and wrote that number on the application forms. Good thing i went back, or i may not be able to get into Laos.
After all this excitement i only walked about half way back and cought a taxi the rest of the way, the driver actually wanted to tell me that he didn't go to the area our hotel was at because of "traffic". I kept thinking to myself, their are 1.5 million people in KL and you don't want to drive in traffic, i think he picked the wrong profession or only wants to work in the middle of the night, negotiated the driver down to 20 MYR and made my way back to the hotel. Nothing exciting, just getting packed to head back to singapore, and play a couple hands of UNO with andrew and Brenda, which by the way she always seems to win.
Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia - Week 2
Back in Manila, We spent until Wednesday getting things suituated, I had to do a visa run to the Vietnam and Cambodia Embassies. Vietnam was a quick no problem Visa, Cambodia on the other hand would take three days. I'm still without that visa, but no worries, as i can still get a visa at any of the border crossings that I'm going into Cambodia from. I just need to recheck for those along the Vietnam border.
On Tuesday, Andrew, Brenda and I wanted to do a little sight seeing, in lieu of traveling to Bali (cheap tickets, ridiculous taxes and fuel charges 30 for the ticket and up to 300 for the taxes and fuel charges) we decided to go to Singapore, partly because Brenda used to work here and mostly because neither Andrew nor I had been here. We landed without issue in Singapore, although we were a little worried that Brenda might get denied access, something about Southeast Asian countries picking on the Pinoys. We of course planned accordingly and did not have hotel reservations so immediately took a cab, which drove on the wrong side of the street like the british to China town where we were under the assumption that Hotels were the cheapest. We were mistaken, the cheapest place we could find was in fact that...cheap, were pretty sure they rented rooms by the hour. So we caught ourselves into the nearest internet cafe to look for hotels, I found cheap rooms in the area of Geylung, this of course as we were to find out after a dinner of McDonalds (Andrew's Idea) is the heart of the Red Light District. There are prostitutes from all over southeast asia that have migrated here to work the streets, and i am serious when is say that they are lining the streets.
Spend the first day in singapore on Sentosa Island this is the southern most point in continental Asia, more of a tourist trap than anything else, but the weather is HOT and the sunny all day long, as well as the skys are blue and the place was cleaner than Hoover Dam.
Back to the hotel where the entire day i took a ribbing on picking of steet walkers, when whom should get caught taking flash photography from their room...Andrew and Brenda, they had a pimp and three girls trying to break down their door, they gave up after a couple minutes but it was still funny all the same to give them crap about having girls in their room!
Singapore is exceptionally clean, the food prices are still less than 3 USD for a good meal (i prefer the chicken and rice, which is the national dish) The people are nice, its very business like here, not a lot to do for tourist, or sight seeing, i don't mind this cause travelling with andrew is like travelling with a group of japanese tourists all rolled into one, he wants to see everything and take three pictures of everything, it has made for some exhausting days.
Day two in Singapore we decieded to take the ferry to Batam Indonesia. This is a nice quant little part of Indonesia, nothing like Sumatra, or Borneo, and absolutely nothing like Bali. The city is gearing up to be a tourist haven by 2010, although no one we asked was able to tell us what the billboards meant, least of all the taxi driver. Landing and clearin immigration in Indonesia is quite easy, its 10 USD for a 7 day visa, the bad thing for andrew at least, is that he doesn't have that many passport pages left, and most places require two empty pages for entry, he's right about at that limit.
Once we cleared immigration and customers it was into the arrival hall of the ferry terminal, some knock off items being sold, but the decision to be made was breakfast and touring. The ferry ride only took an hour, so we were ready to get the day under way. We had breakfast of rice, dried anchovies and cucumber, and of course coffee, it was tasty, but i'm coming to the realization that the portions are nearly big enough for all the touring that we have been doing.
We enjoyed breakfast quickly and then outside of the ferry terminal we were faced with the question of how to see the sites. The taxi stand let us know that we could rent a taxi for 8 hours for 70 SGD (1:1.48). We jumped at that opprotunity, and had our taxi driver, unfortunately we had the one with the best english and his english was far from understanding everything we were talking about, he did however understand the japanese tourist we were with and that pulling over every 5 minutes for andrew to take a picture was a wise choice!
We travelled through three Islands in Indonesia, they were nice, all the way to a southern island where the Japanese had an interment camp for the Vietnemese. One similarity i have found travelling through asia is that the Japanese have been just about everywhere and terrorized the populations, and then the Brittish, or Americans come in and shoo them off, it has happened in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines as well as Indonesia. Just a quick observation. The area for the tourists regarding the interment camp was very poorly detailed, and we were befuddled on finding an accurate map of the islands/cities. We spent about 3 hours touring around the southern island through the vietnam internment memorial, as well as the monument to the boat people and continued back to the main parts of Batam. Their was a monument wall to the Vietnamese prisoners, this was exactly what it was titled, a wall (completely blank) in the back of a cemetary.
We finished with Batam by 3, and asked the taxi driver Sam to take us some where for a seafood lunch, he took us to this fantastic seafood place where we actually got to see lunch before it was made. Their were pools and pools of fish, prawns, clams, crabs, sharks, turtles, mussels, and just about anything that could be pulled out of the ocean. We settled in for a lunch of bbq prawns, chili prawns and pineapple fish, all was fantastic, and Andrew ate the entire fish by himself. For those that are interested, the fish, prawns, and crabs come whole, none of this peeled, deveined and butterflyed stuff over here. and its customary to suck the brains out of the prawns (for those that are asking what is a prawn, its a shrimp, americans are the only ones that seem to call them shrimp). and the best part of the fish is the head, its not a difficult as it seems to eat the fish while heels looking at you!!!
The return trip from Batam was very easy and we were back in Singapore by 6, we spent the evening in the hotel, as we were all extremely tired. The Next day we got packed and headed off to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
We headed off to the main tour bus area in Singapore near the harbor front. We booked a luxury coach for 30 SGD a piece and would be in KL by 6 hours. The bus ride was nice and very comfortable, the driver made three stops, and immigration was a breeze both leaving Singapore and entering Malaysia. We had to stop at one side of a bridge for Singapore, and the other side for Malaysia. The bus dropped us off right at the Pudo bus station, directly across the street from our hotel (Citin). I booked the "budget" accomodations, and we were right in the heart of everything, near the Petrona's towers, the KL Minera (space needle), China town, and the central market where andrew could by all his cheap souveniers. I've become to really dislike China Towns, they are very congested, and i always feel like someone is going to pick my pocket.
We got checked in just fine into the hotel and grabbed some flyers for this tour service called the hop on hop off bus. This was our ticket for Sunday, we headed off to China town to catch the bus, the cost was 38 MYR (Ringgits 1:3.38). the tour was very simple, the bus made a circuit about every 1/2 hour, the ticket that you buy was good for 24 hours, you could get off the bus at any of the 22 designated stops, and get back on at anytime the bus was running during your 24 hour window of your valid ticket. We saw the entire city of KL this way. We started about 10 Am and ended about 6 PM.
We saw the central market, china town, petrona's towers, the national monument and gardens, and more muslims than you could shake a stick at, they came in all shapes and sizes, from those wearing simple shawls over their heads to the full black gowns that only showed their eyes, and even the rare few that had the mesh over their eyes so you couldn't see them. Malaysia is a muslim country, and from what i gathered from the newspapers not exactly conservative, they goverment is recieving increased pressure in the upcoming election to take on a more conservative Islamic agenda.
Once we were back at the hotel, we opted for dinner at the hotel, none of us had any energy to go out again, i think we were all asleep by 10....
On Tuesday, Andrew, Brenda and I wanted to do a little sight seeing, in lieu of traveling to Bali (cheap tickets, ridiculous taxes and fuel charges 30 for the ticket and up to 300 for the taxes and fuel charges) we decided to go to Singapore, partly because Brenda used to work here and mostly because neither Andrew nor I had been here. We landed without issue in Singapore, although we were a little worried that Brenda might get denied access, something about Southeast Asian countries picking on the Pinoys. We of course planned accordingly and did not have hotel reservations so immediately took a cab, which drove on the wrong side of the street like the british to China town where we were under the assumption that Hotels were the cheapest. We were mistaken, the cheapest place we could find was in fact that...cheap, were pretty sure they rented rooms by the hour. So we caught ourselves into the nearest internet cafe to look for hotels, I found cheap rooms in the area of Geylung, this of course as we were to find out after a dinner of McDonalds (Andrew's Idea) is the heart of the Red Light District. There are prostitutes from all over southeast asia that have migrated here to work the streets, and i am serious when is say that they are lining the streets.
Spend the first day in singapore on Sentosa Island this is the southern most point in continental Asia, more of a tourist trap than anything else, but the weather is HOT and the sunny all day long, as well as the skys are blue and the place was cleaner than Hoover Dam.
Back to the hotel where the entire day i took a ribbing on picking of steet walkers, when whom should get caught taking flash photography from their room...Andrew and Brenda, they had a pimp and three girls trying to break down their door, they gave up after a couple minutes but it was still funny all the same to give them crap about having girls in their room!
Singapore is exceptionally clean, the food prices are still less than 3 USD for a good meal (i prefer the chicken and rice, which is the national dish) The people are nice, its very business like here, not a lot to do for tourist, or sight seeing, i don't mind this cause travelling with andrew is like travelling with a group of japanese tourists all rolled into one, he wants to see everything and take three pictures of everything, it has made for some exhausting days.
Day two in Singapore we decieded to take the ferry to Batam Indonesia. This is a nice quant little part of Indonesia, nothing like Sumatra, or Borneo, and absolutely nothing like Bali. The city is gearing up to be a tourist haven by 2010, although no one we asked was able to tell us what the billboards meant, least of all the taxi driver. Landing and clearin immigration in Indonesia is quite easy, its 10 USD for a 7 day visa, the bad thing for andrew at least, is that he doesn't have that many passport pages left, and most places require two empty pages for entry, he's right about at that limit.
Once we cleared immigration and customers it was into the arrival hall of the ferry terminal, some knock off items being sold, but the decision to be made was breakfast and touring. The ferry ride only took an hour, so we were ready to get the day under way. We had breakfast of rice, dried anchovies and cucumber, and of course coffee, it was tasty, but i'm coming to the realization that the portions are nearly big enough for all the touring that we have been doing.
We enjoyed breakfast quickly and then outside of the ferry terminal we were faced with the question of how to see the sites. The taxi stand let us know that we could rent a taxi for 8 hours for 70 SGD (1:1.48). We jumped at that opprotunity, and had our taxi driver, unfortunately we had the one with the best english and his english was far from understanding everything we were talking about, he did however understand the japanese tourist we were with and that pulling over every 5 minutes for andrew to take a picture was a wise choice!
We travelled through three Islands in Indonesia, they were nice, all the way to a southern island where the Japanese had an interment camp for the Vietnemese. One similarity i have found travelling through asia is that the Japanese have been just about everywhere and terrorized the populations, and then the Brittish, or Americans come in and shoo them off, it has happened in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines as well as Indonesia. Just a quick observation. The area for the tourists regarding the interment camp was very poorly detailed, and we were befuddled on finding an accurate map of the islands/cities. We spent about 3 hours touring around the southern island through the vietnam internment memorial, as well as the monument to the boat people and continued back to the main parts of Batam. Their was a monument wall to the Vietnamese prisoners, this was exactly what it was titled, a wall (completely blank) in the back of a cemetary.
We finished with Batam by 3, and asked the taxi driver Sam to take us some where for a seafood lunch, he took us to this fantastic seafood place where we actually got to see lunch before it was made. Their were pools and pools of fish, prawns, clams, crabs, sharks, turtles, mussels, and just about anything that could be pulled out of the ocean. We settled in for a lunch of bbq prawns, chili prawns and pineapple fish, all was fantastic, and Andrew ate the entire fish by himself. For those that are interested, the fish, prawns, and crabs come whole, none of this peeled, deveined and butterflyed stuff over here. and its customary to suck the brains out of the prawns (for those that are asking what is a prawn, its a shrimp, americans are the only ones that seem to call them shrimp). and the best part of the fish is the head, its not a difficult as it seems to eat the fish while heels looking at you!!!
The return trip from Batam was very easy and we were back in Singapore by 6, we spent the evening in the hotel, as we were all extremely tired. The Next day we got packed and headed off to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
We headed off to the main tour bus area in Singapore near the harbor front. We booked a luxury coach for 30 SGD a piece and would be in KL by 6 hours. The bus ride was nice and very comfortable, the driver made three stops, and immigration was a breeze both leaving Singapore and entering Malaysia. We had to stop at one side of a bridge for Singapore, and the other side for Malaysia. The bus dropped us off right at the Pudo bus station, directly across the street from our hotel (Citin). I booked the "budget" accomodations, and we were right in the heart of everything, near the Petrona's towers, the KL Minera (space needle), China town, and the central market where andrew could by all his cheap souveniers. I've become to really dislike China Towns, they are very congested, and i always feel like someone is going to pick my pocket.
We got checked in just fine into the hotel and grabbed some flyers for this tour service called the hop on hop off bus. This was our ticket for Sunday, we headed off to China town to catch the bus, the cost was 38 MYR (Ringgits 1:3.38). the tour was very simple, the bus made a circuit about every 1/2 hour, the ticket that you buy was good for 24 hours, you could get off the bus at any of the 22 designated stops, and get back on at anytime the bus was running during your 24 hour window of your valid ticket. We saw the entire city of KL this way. We started about 10 Am and ended about 6 PM.
We saw the central market, china town, petrona's towers, the national monument and gardens, and more muslims than you could shake a stick at, they came in all shapes and sizes, from those wearing simple shawls over their heads to the full black gowns that only showed their eyes, and even the rare few that had the mesh over their eyes so you couldn't see them. Malaysia is a muslim country, and from what i gathered from the newspapers not exactly conservative, they goverment is recieving increased pressure in the upcoming election to take on a more conservative Islamic agenda.
Once we were back at the hotel, we opted for dinner at the hotel, none of us had any energy to go out again, i think we were all asleep by 10....
Manila - Pampanga Week1
After Landing in Manila and spending the day with Andrew and Brenda, I went my separate way. I headed north to Pampanga to the home of Mount Pinatabu, the volcano that in lack of a better description drove the US out of the Philippines from the Clark Air base and Subic Naval base. I spent a week at the Marquis Hotel, a quaint little place costing about 1,200 pesos (1:44.3) a night, a great bargin, and close to the balibago. Although my initial plans were not to spend the entire time in Angeles City, but to in fact do the sight seeing tours of Pinatabu. This did not happen it rained every day and there was no reprieve. I did have the fortune of meeting a bloke named Martin on the bus ride up from Manila. He had traveled in northern Luzon before and was well versed in how to get around, as well as the scams to avoid. Come to find out, Martin was orginally from London, now in Dubai where he owns a GPS company, both selling and repairing. He does quite well their and was in the Philippines to do a little recruiting, but as it was the weekend he was off for some sight seeing as well. His story is actually interesting, he had travelled from Dubai via Thailand where he was to visit a friend, this friend never picked him up from the airport and, well his excuse for not doing so was that he had passed.
On the first night in Angeles, we did a bar hop (Martin, Jerry (another guy from the bus) and me) and stopped by the bar where another friend of Martin's, Geoff, frequents. Based on the description from the door man, Geoff was in the hospital as well, something along the lines of a heart attack. We would later find out that it was not a heart attach and the end result was a problem that was discovered with his liver.
Bar hopping done we headed back to the hotel, this process would repeat itself for the remainder of the week. On Thursday, we organized a boon doogle, due to the weather still be rainy and no Pinatabu viewing, to Subic, the site of the former USA naval base. This was interesting until the Americans left any area designated the naval base was off limits to the Philippina's, and now to travel through they need to pay a toll. The differences are remarkable, both in Subic and Angeles when it comes to seeing what was built by the Americans and what was built by the Filipinas. In Subic we met up with Martin's friend Geoff, He was recovering well and had been in the hospital in Angeles, where he has a home. We were unsure why he was in Subic, but later found out that he enjoyed getting away from Angeles and that he had just bought property and was looking at building a new home in Subic. Geoff told us the entire story of what had happened to him, and that he is recovering nicely, with a little swelling still remaining in his feet and that he should be in tip top shape before he knows it. In Subic we stayed at the Jonas hotel.
From Subic it was back to Angeles, where I made my way back to the hotel, and Martin made his way to Manila to actually fulfill the recruiting reason he had come to the philippines for in the first place. I did a couple more bar hops on my own, and was content with the pinatabu tour being cancelled. On Saturday I checked out and made my way back to Manila to meet up with Andrew and Brenda Again.
On the first night in Angeles, we did a bar hop (Martin, Jerry (another guy from the bus) and me) and stopped by the bar where another friend of Martin's, Geoff, frequents. Based on the description from the door man, Geoff was in the hospital as well, something along the lines of a heart attack. We would later find out that it was not a heart attach and the end result was a problem that was discovered with his liver.
Bar hopping done we headed back to the hotel, this process would repeat itself for the remainder of the week. On Thursday, we organized a boon doogle, due to the weather still be rainy and no Pinatabu viewing, to Subic, the site of the former USA naval base. This was interesting until the Americans left any area designated the naval base was off limits to the Philippina's, and now to travel through they need to pay a toll. The differences are remarkable, both in Subic and Angeles when it comes to seeing what was built by the Americans and what was built by the Filipinas. In Subic we met up with Martin's friend Geoff, He was recovering well and had been in the hospital in Angeles, where he has a home. We were unsure why he was in Subic, but later found out that he enjoyed getting away from Angeles and that he had just bought property and was looking at building a new home in Subic. Geoff told us the entire story of what had happened to him, and that he is recovering nicely, with a little swelling still remaining in his feet and that he should be in tip top shape before he knows it. In Subic we stayed at the Jonas hotel.
From Subic it was back to Angeles, where I made my way back to the hotel, and Martin made his way to Manila to actually fulfill the recruiting reason he had come to the philippines for in the first place. I did a couple more bar hops on my own, and was content with the pinatabu tour being cancelled. On Saturday I checked out and made my way back to Manila to meet up with Andrew and Brenda Again.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
things are progressing
All right everyone, now for a much anticipated update. Traversing through the airports of Chicago and hong kong proved to be uneventful, wih the exception of Hong Kong when i asked for the best way to make my way to the national track, in unison the three reservations ladies from philippine airlines screamed NO. I asked why, i had a 5 hour layover and the MRT only took 30 minutes to the track...for those interested i wanted to go to the national track as that i where the olympic equestrian events are being held, they have also set up a really nice museum to equestrian events on the site. Much to my dismat i headed the advice of he people who probably new more and did not go, i did however get some pictures of the Olympic propaganda peppering the airpor.
landing in manila was easy, got through customs in as much time as it took for the immigration person to look a the white guy in front of them and stamp them through. From the airport it was off to the hotel where i met up with my brother and met his asawa (taglong for wife, even though they are only technically engaged). In the spirit of jet lag i was not in the least bit tired, so we found a nice bar with local bands playing 80's and 90's US rock hits. It was a great time. I did not go to sleep as I just simply was not tired and watched tv attempting to at least nap for a little bit. I waited for andrew and brenda to wake up and had breakfast from their is was off to the Mall of Asia (the biggest shopping mall in all of southeast asia) where i picked up a phone, sim card, and cell load. We met brenda's brother alvin for supper and had a really good meal at an all you can eat sushi place with the colored plates and the conveyor belt. between alvin, andrew and I we got our monies (Peso's) worth.
From Manila it was off to Pampanga and Subic, and then back to Manila. Next stop from manila is Singapore and still debating on Indonesia or Kuala Lumpur.
More to Follow from the exploits in pampanga and Subic
landing in manila was easy, got through customs in as much time as it took for the immigration person to look a the white guy in front of them and stamp them through. From the airport it was off to the hotel where i met up with my brother and met his asawa (taglong for wife, even though they are only technically engaged). In the spirit of jet lag i was not in the least bit tired, so we found a nice bar with local bands playing 80's and 90's US rock hits. It was a great time. I did not go to sleep as I just simply was not tired and watched tv attempting to at least nap for a little bit. I waited for andrew and brenda to wake up and had breakfast from their is was off to the Mall of Asia (the biggest shopping mall in all of southeast asia) where i picked up a phone, sim card, and cell load. We met brenda's brother alvin for supper and had a really good meal at an all you can eat sushi place with the colored plates and the conveyor belt. between alvin, andrew and I we got our monies (Peso's) worth.
From Manila it was off to Pampanga and Subic, and then back to Manila. Next stop from manila is Singapore and still debating on Indonesia or Kuala Lumpur.
More to Follow from the exploits in pampanga and Subic
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