Week 4 - Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea

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.