Wednesday 5 October 2011

Singapore

Singapore...Ohhh, Singapore...what a lovely clean city!!!...(and not as strict with the rules as i expected)

We arrived via aircraft from Cebu, Philippines and conquered the city's metro system (very easy and high tech) from the airport to probably one of our favourite hostels, Betel Box located on Joo Chiat Road in Malay Village. We stayed in a 20 - bed dorm, which was very clean, equipped with lockers, internet and free breakfast! It had a wicked common area which was perfect for meeting new friends.

Betel Box Common Room


Travelling to Singapore made me extremely happy as when we first landed, I found out that they had a Universal Studios!!! So obviously we made that our first sightseeing trip on our first day! We got up bright and early to make sure that we beat the lines to the park and have as much time as we could exploring the area. Ed ended up befriended a couple girls from the UK and invited them along as well for the adventure. I was so excited, I pretty much ran all the way to the entrance to buy our tickets and make our way to the first attraction. It was definitely not the same as Orlando but it was still a great time. They had all new rides from recent movies such as Madagascar, Shrek and Revenge of the Mummy. After spending many hours walking around the park, visiting every attraction and eating 3 churros each, we decided to call it a day and visit a Candy shop, run fully clothed through a fountain then head back to the hostel.

Testing Out Fancy Hats at the Brown Derby



Fooling around with the Jelly Belly Mascots


The second day, we decided to take it easy and tour around the hostel, visiting a couple of temples but mostly reserving our energy for our big night out with a bunch of other travellers at Clarke Quay.


Like I mentioned before, Singapore is strict with no chewing gum or spitting, but they do allow a whole bunch of partyers to drink as much as they want on the public bridge. We didn't believe till we saw it and sure enough here they all are. We ended up making our way to a packed club and enjoyed a long night of dancing till we all headed home for some good conversations and 711's finest, instant mashed potatoes with gravy.

Our final day in Singapore, we decided to see a bit more of the city around Clarke Quay till our next flight to Phuket, Thailand!

Outdoor Pool on a Boat on top of a 3 tower Hotel - Amazing!



Until next time!

xoxo
K

Monday 3 October 2011

Boracay, Aklan, Philippines

Boracay. There is a lot of hype about this place but it is what you would expect it to be = beautiful, busy and extremely touristy. Our tricycle ride over was filled with unexpected hitchhickers, all of a sudden I heard a lady's voice, turned my head and we had another one. While we were walking the beach strip to find a place to stay, Ed savagely but unbeknownst to himself knocked a little girl to the ground and she hit her head. The father was completely unimpressed so we just smiled and waved . . . not actually though. Poor Kelsey was still really sick so Ed and I went on a chicken noodle soup run for her. He thought we'd find it but I knew we wouldn't (it's Asia) and although Boracay did have a lot of westernized cuisine options there was no chicken noodle soup to be found. However, we did have a very entertaining walk down the strip. There are restaurants, bars, nightclubs, food vendors, singers and flame throwers everywhere with "Yes ma'am" and "Yes sir" being thrown at you from all angles as some sort of tourist greeting. A toothless woman asked Ed if he wanted a massage and he asked her if it included a happy ending. All of the ladies were like, "Oh no sir" and laughed and they asked him who I was and I replied, "His wife!" and pretended to slap him. They were quite entertained. Lately we have been pretending that Kelsey is Ed's girlfriend but I'm his wife. Kelsey doesn't like it but it entertains the locals. Since the strip was quite busy Ed decided to play his "put on a crazy face and pretend to be a weirdo" game to get people out of the way. He definitely scared a few of them including a woman who he danced up on (the poor overweight Asian woman did not know what had just happened). That night Ed and I went on a nightlife adventure which included getting unexpectedly drenched and wading through the ocean while salt water hit us in the face and waves crashed against the shoreline. There was an electrical storm and flashed of lightning kept lighting up the sky. I have decided that no bar-hopping is complete without a need to wade through the ocean to get there. We finally ended up at a club called Epic, which turned out to actually be epic and we danced for hours.

The next day we had breakfast at Epic - my first eggs benedict on the trip so I was over-the-moon. And then Ed and I coaxed Kels to not stay in the room and come to the beach with us. The beach here is so gorgeous with white sands and bright turquoise waters and it's supposed to one of the best beaches in the world. It was incredibly calming and relaxing gazing out at the water.

So that night Kelsey was sick again and Ed and I somehow turned a seemingly boring and low-key night into a crazy all-nighter. We started by just walking the strip and while we were pondering to just make it an early night we got side-tracked by some people watching. We were observing a drunken group of people and after speculating for awhile for how they knew each other we decided to find out for real and ended up hanging out with them for the entire night. It turned out that they were all working together in Manila and were just in Boracay on a weekend trip. I decided then that that is the best deal - live in Asia while making a salary in your own country's currency - you could live like a king and save so much at the same time! So Ed and I had an amazing time partying and dancing with our new friends-for-the-evening. At one point we all went out to the beach and played around in the ocean and then stumbled back to our hotels as the sun rose.

And I definitely made the most out of the next day by waking up at 3:00pm. Kels and Ed got up early to finally get Kels some medication for her hurting tummy and then they went back to sleep as well. When I got up I went back to Epic for another eggs benedict. It was amazing although the strobe light testing that they had going on did wonders for my hangover. That night we just walked the strip and I went dress shopping. Ed and I played a game in the ocean where we got owned by large waves. We thought that since we've done Epic for breakfast and clubbing we may as well try it for dinner and it was really good - my first cheeseburger in Asia that was not at Jollibee's (the most popular Filipino fast food restaurant - more popular than Mcdonald's!) Kels and I played a game at dinner that involved pretending you were at a club and a guy tapped on your shoulder and you have to give him the most unattractive face when you turn around. We were crying laughing and holding our stomachs because they hurt so much from our new brilliant game. The three of us also witnessed this horribly drunk girl dancing onstage and being escorted away by six 'tourist police' only to fall over onto a bunch of stools before drinking some more. Overall, Boracay was an awesome experience. Oh and I realized that I have a soft spot for all living creatures when I felt sorry for a cockroach that was flailing on it's back and I helped it flip over. Never thought I would be helping a cockroach. I guess traveling really is full of new experiences!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

After the long long wait for our flight that we prayed did not get cancelled, we finally made it to Puerto Princesa, a quiet town with beautiful things to see.
We arrived by tricycle to Aniceto's Pension, a cheap hotel that we read about in the kindle. It was an old building with a lot of character, passed on through generations, rooftop patio, ants in the bathroom...the usual. The three of us again, snug as a bug in our air conditioned room, which by the second night we couldn't use because Ed became sick with a nasty cold and the air con didn't help him at all through the night.

After a legit deal that we struck with our tricycle driver, we ended up signing up for two tours for a good price with Ed's bargaining skills. Our first full day at Puerto Princesa we travelled to see the Underground River. Our group was apparently very lucky to obtain a permit to access the river as there was about 1000 people after us waiting for one as well. With that, it resulted in us receiving the last time to access the river. So to keep us busy during the day we travelled to the small town of Sabang where we finally were able to enjoy the most beautiful beach and crystal clear waters. They also fed us very very well with an excellent buffet. (see asiaoceania2012 on YouTube).

We later trekked quite a way down the beach heading to a destination which we had absolutely no idea what we were going to see. Something about mango trees or mangrels. We later found out that they were actually called mangrove trees, which resided all along a river bank. So paid a bit to cruise down the river with our singing guide.

After many long hours, it was our turn to head over by long tail boat to the island of the Underground River, by this time it was pretty much completely dark but since we were heading into a dark cave, it really didn't matter. In the end it was well worth it. Amazing attraction, bats hanging from the ceiling, incredibile rock formations (pegasus, Mary, 3 wise men, vegetables...) and sparrows whizzing in all directions (one of which hit a women in the head).

After a 9 hour trip which turned into a 15 hour trip, Ed and I tried not to fall asleep in the crazy van ride home so we could take photos of Mal as she kept on swaying every which way, falling in and out of sleep. (quite a good laugh)

After a quick dinner, we rushed back to our place and immediately hit the sack to try and get as much rest as we could for our 2nd tour the next day. We ventured to the islands of Honda Bay by long boat to enjoy many hours of snorkelling, swimming and eating. It was quite an amazing sight compared to what we had experienced in the big crazy city of Manila just a few days before. One very funny incident while we were snorkelling that i must not fail to mention is when i mistaked Ed for someone else. You should know that large bodies of water kinda freak me out, so i have to make sure that i am in the zone and focused/alert when my head's in the water. After a few minutes of finally feeling comfortable, I felt someone swimming way too close to me, assuming it was Ed, I used all of my strength to push him out of my swimming bubble. As I pulled my head out of the water to give him a dirty look, I noticed that the man i pushed did not have the same shorts as the ones Ed had on, as well it definitely was not Ed because him and Mal witnessed the whole act as I saw them rolling uncontrollably with laughter a few feet away.

Later that night we spoiled ourselves by going to the most popular restaurant in the city called Ka Lui. Definitely a good time. Delicious food, great atmosphere and good company.

Our 3rd day in Puerto Princesa, we hired a tricycle for the day to see the City. Our first stop was the prison, where the inmates roam free throughout the grounds, completing certain jobs to raise money (rice farming, arts and crafts and dance).  We were a little skeptical of the whole "prisoner roams free and does not escape" idea but a wall full of WANTED posters with escapees answered our questions. Note that the reward for capture is a 1,000 baht and 1 bag of rice.

Next stop on our tour was the crocodile farm, lucky for us as we were heading there, our tricycle broke down in the middle of nowhere, so I decided the three of us walk to our next destination and trust that our driver meet us there to pick us once his friend assisted him with the spare.

Another kicker was the the crocodile farm was actually closed at the time of our arrival, so we decided to stop at the nearby restaurant and try their organic, home-grown cuisine of Crocodile Sausage. Not bad actually.

We ventured back to the city and ended our tour at the pier where we decided to rent a bicycle with a side cart. Fun for us, not so fun for the rest of the bystanders at the pier. Ed was first up and he yelled " Beep, Beep, Beep" at anyone who got in his way, almost hitting a couple who darting in opposite directions and actually apologized to Ed. Next was my turn and I barely could get the thing going. Next thing I know, a little girl on another bicycle/side cart crashed in to us and a women going the same direction on a bicycle crashed and fell over as i was parked. Probably not a very good start. Mal did a bit better as she didn't hit any people just knocked over a few large statues. No biggy.

Lucky for me that night we ate at Kinabuch Bar and Grill where i later found out I conjured up a 5 day food poisoning stint which left me bed ridden and visiting the hospital in one of the most beautiful beaches of the world of Boracay!

Well, Thanks for tuning in!

xoxo
K

Thursday 15 September 2011

Manila, Philippines Continued

So staying with Lewis was the best choice we could have made for
finding accommodation in Manila unless of course we wanted to stay at
the Shangri-La . . . but the chandelier in the room just wasn't large
enough to hang my tiaras. So we opted for staying with a stranger
instead, who turned out to be completely awesome and had two extra
bedrooms for the three of us to sleep in. He was really open, friendly
and accommodating and on the first night he took us to a
hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Pandacan where we feasted on Tapsilog
(marinated beef, egg and rice), a Filipino specialty for 40 pesos each
($1 Canadian) - it was a steal! We went there the next night as well
and I indulged in baconsilog (bacon, egg and rice), which was almost
like having breakfast for dinner and no one can argue with the beauty
in that.
The next day was our first opportunity to explore Manila. We had a
great time finding our way to Intramuros, hoping that we weren't going
to get robbed the whole time. Intramuros is 'old-Manila' so it's what
Manila looked like before parts of the city were bombed in WWII. So
the area was okay, the best part was Fort Santiago where we learned
about Jose Rizal, a revolutionary leader. We had used the ipod touch
(courtesy of our overly anxious Mother who is full of gadget-wizardry)
to look up how to say 'thank-you' (salamat po) and 'no' (hindi) in
Tagalog and got pretty good at it except when Edgar said 'hindi,
hindi' to a guy who was trying to give him change when we were paying
for admission. After the fort we decided to make our way over to
Manila Bay to the only other place that I read should be checked out
in the city beside Intramuros, and ended up walking though the
sketchiest part that we had been in so far. I mean dirty, poor streets
with half-naked men sleeping on tables. At one point Kelsey wanted to
turn back but Ed and I thought we shouldn't appear lost and backtrack
but just confidently walk on and not seem easy targets. Clearly we
made it out of there alive and continued our way to Manila Bay and
ended up stumbling upon Manila Ocean Park where we munched on cotton
candy (decidated to our mom) that stuck to your hands and face like
HP's devil's snare due to the humidity and then we went on a virtual
4-D ride through a volcano and then with King Kong himself. So that
was an interesting day in Manila. It wasn't until later that we
realized that the sketchy area that we were walking in around the pier
was close to Tondo, the one area that we were told not to go to. We
weren't right in Tondo but it wasn't that far from the place we were
at - oops! Don't worry, family, we'll be more careful next time.
That night Ed, Lewis and I went out for a night on the town (Kels
wasn't feeling well and opted to stay in bed). The three of us had
such a hilarious night. We couldn't get into Republiq - this really
nice club in Resorts World that apparently is really hard to get into
- due to my lack of proper footwear. I was wearing flip-flips, which
they call slippers, a big no-no in nice clubs apparently. I didn't
have any choice though! Who thought that I had to pack heels for my
trip around Asia? So after pleading with the door people - we're
traveling, these are the only shows I have, we're only in Manila one
night, all of the shops are closed so we can't buy shoes, etc. - I got
a stroke of brilliance. If you don't have proper footwear - find a
stranger who is willing to part with theirs. Understandably though,
this is not the easiest task. I asked a girl at the info booth first,
she was very nice and understanding but said she was working so she
couldn't do it and to try the casino's lost and found. Once Lewis
realized what I was trying to do he got so into it and together we
tackled the casino front desk. While Edgar hid my shoes from their
suspecting eyes, we explained to the front desk that I had lost my
generic shoes sometime at some place and were hoping we could check
out their lost and found to see if they were there. They said that
they hadn't found anything but would keep an eye out for them. And
unfortunately, I couldn't borrow their shoes either. So after 20
minutes of that we resorted to asking random people in the hotel.
Everyone was really nice but couldn't help us. Lewis had lent Edgar a
spare pair of dress shoes so he should've done that for me too - geez.
We ended up trying to get into Opus, the other club, but it was the
same story there, with the same dress code. They probably thought we
were some crazy foreigners. Finally though, we were successful. While
Lewis and Ed were trying to con their way into the club, I was able to
beg a girl sitting in Starbucks to borrow her shoes while she drank
coffee with her boyfriend. After a lot of begging, pleading and
batting eyelashes, she gave me 15 minutes. So we went into Opus. And
even though it actually sucked inside, not busy at all - it felt like
such an accomplishment to be there! So after a few pictures and a
quick look around we left after 10 minutes to see what Republiq looked
like. Even though they usually charge a cover we got in without paying
- probably because we had distracted them so much before. "Ma'am! You
got shoes!" "I know!" While I lift up my grey, strappy heels that are
a size too big for me. It was a nice club too - if I didn't know that
I was in the Philippines I would've thought I was just in a normal
club in Vancouver. We danced like crazy for five minutes and then like
Cinderella I hurried out of there to return the shoes to theie
rightful owner. Luckily, their rightful owner was awesome and let me
use and abuse her shoes for the next thirty minutes - some of the best
minutes of my life ;)
The next day Kels, Ed and I attempted to leave Manila but we hadn't
bought our tickets yet. Naive as we were as new and unexperienced
travelers, we learned the hard way that this was not always entirely
possible. After numerous airline offices, cab rides, sold-out flights
and a 'travel agent' stalking us on the street - we decided that it
was a huge group fail. We ended up booking a flihgt to Puerto Princesa
in Palawan for the next day. After a lot of pondering about the pros
and cons of sleeping in an airport, I gave Lewis a call and luckily he
accepted up back with open arms. We spent that evening munching on
Mexican food at the Mall of Asia and I discovered that he thought that
Kelsey's name was Kasey the whole time :)
So the next day we repeated our departure. We even all wore the same
outfits as a 'let's try this again' sort of thing. Our departure this
time was quite smooth except for the fact that our plane was over four
hours delayed due to a typhoon, as was the case for many other flights
too. Everyone would get up and cheer when it was finally their turn to
board. It was a little sad how much time we wasted in airports in the
last two days but oh well, you live and learn. Do not attempt to book
same-day flights! Now we know.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Manila, Philippines

After a very long, somewhat uncomfortable, 14 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan, we landed safe and sound at the airport. We toured the place, walking up and down the long hallways, hoping the next 4 hours until our connecting flight would pass by quickly, so we could jump on that plane and be on our way to our final but first destination of this journey. Whew! We've arrived! This is insane, we're actually here! We made our way to the customs line up, just to discover that Mallory forgot her customs form with all of her private information on the plane. Running around trying to look for another form and/or get past the guards to the plane, she luckily was able to obtain her customs form fairly quickly. After that, we decided each of us was allowed one f&%* up per day. We headed to grab our bags from the carousel, set them up quickly and put them on our backs. At that moment I decided it was too late to re-think what I packed in my bag considering I probably should have made it less than 30 lbs. With all in tow, we headed out of the air conditioned building, grabbing a few SIM cards for our 3...nono, 2 unlocked phones (courtesy of Richmond). Ed cashed in his f&%* up of the day by forgetting a very important piece of his iPhone at home, leaving us no choice but to head to the Mall of Asia to find a replacement. We decided it would be best to take the safer option of an airport taxi to this Mall as we heard this form of transportation was more reliable however, more expensive. We had a very eyeopening first peek of the city with some sketchy individuals trying to peer into our car windows. We luckily were able to navigate through the 3rd largest mall in the world and obtain this SIM card holder. After doing so, we attacked Manila's public transportation first hand by squishing into the back trunk of a small van, hopping from jeepney to jeepney (old army trunks left over by the Americans) and running for our lives amidst crazy Metro Manila traffic. Eventually, we made our way to Pandacan, where we were to meet Lewis, a British Uni student from Cambridge currently doing an internship in Manila. Mallory chatted with him online through Couchsurfing.com so we could secure accommodation for our time spent in Manila. Questionably as it was, he actually turned out to be quite a nice guy with a 3 bedroom apartment that we had a very good time with....

Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/AsiaOceania2012#p/u/37/6aUWukzD0tY - Ed's Video's on YouTube.
Until our next entry.......

See you soon,
xoxo
K