While we continue to be indulge in our lives, thinking of how to enjoy the weekend, where to eat, what movies to watch, who to go out with, which songs to put in our iPod playlists. Take some time to be grateful for our peace and safety. I am upset that gunfire is still ongoing at the terrorist act in Mumbai after 2 days. They must have carried a shit load of ammunition with them. Many have died from this unnecessary act. Hostages will be shot, innocent people will be caught in crossfire, terrorists will be sentenced to death. Either way, more people are just going to die.
All this because of religion and politics, maybe other reasons included. Wtf. Nonsense.
Showing newest 6 of 35 posts from November 2008. Show older posts
Showing newest 6 of 35 posts from November 2008. Show older posts
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Philippines Day 9 (Coco Loco Island)
The sky was cleared in the morning after a night of heavy rain due to the storm, I woke up quite early as the bed isn't the most comfortable one. Chose omelet for breakfast. All the meals are provided and you get to choose an item from an ala carte menu.
I don't get why you need such serious mosquito nets. The wind was strong on the previous night so I did not see any mossies.
In the photo of the toilet, the red pail is the only source of fresh water in the room. They are refillable upon request.
Left:My shoes are so screwed....
Right: the hammock that I was slacking in to watch Heroes 3.
View of my tiny house and it is the dive shop on the right.
Ok, I have to disclaim that some of the photos below may be highly misleading. It is is really the photos that make the place look good. You can make the judgment call, as far as I am concerned, I am never going back to Coco Loco again. The following photos were taken when I went to walk around the island. One round include stopping to take photos took me about 20mins. It is really small!
I just like this odd shape trunk.
These sea shells were picked from the beach and left to dry outside one the resort homes.
Taken from the viewing tower.
I wanted to play some pool for fun but I don't dare to touch the ball after seeing the state of it.
Right, the staff recommended King Prawns for lunch. They are the biggest prawns I've ever seen in my left! They are even bigger than the usual sized crayfish!
Some local kids.
I went for one dive on this afternoon with Rick, the dive master who works at the shop. We only did a shore dive and it was quite shallow, which means our air would last longer and we dived for 1 hr 5mins. The visibility was bad and there were a lot of particles but that doesn't mean the underwater life have to migrate, there were a lot of sightings! In fact, more than some of the dive sites in Boracay. Saw big ass trigger fishes, big ass lionfishes, murray eels, two murray eels side by side, schools of fishes in the hundreds moving back and forth, etc. The dive had at least compensated my ordeal to Coco Loco. It was just a pity that I did not have an underwater camera. I almost bought the recently released Canon G10 but their underwater case was not released in time. Saved me some money.
Right photo is a photo of the toys played by the boy in the earlier pic. It reminded me of childhood times when toys are scarce and we have to improvise and make use of our imagination.
This was the boat that we took to travel back to mainland the next morning.
After the dive, I was just slacking by the beach watching Heroes. I was watching in the hammock at first but the swarms of mosquitos were unbelievable! Big and bloody juicy ones. I am starting to feel itchy when I am blogging about it. I had so many bites even on my head, imagine how hungry they are. I must look like blood buffet for them. I got sick of killing them one by one, thats why I went over to the beach where the sea breeze was strong enough to keep the mossies off.
By the time dinner was served, things started to go wrong. I can't explain it but my body just felt terrible. I did not even finish half the dinner and told the staff that I needed to rest. Thank goodness, I managed to changed my flight to a day earlier in the afternoon after making several phone calls to the agencies. Had to forfeit a day's stay on the island which I already paid for but I really want to get back to Manila fast.
The night's sleep was bad. I woke up every single hour and my condition was getting worse, it feels like I was sinking into the mattress and I was feeling sick.
I don't get why you need such serious mosquito nets. The wind was strong on the previous night so I did not see any mossies.
In the photo of the toilet, the red pail is the only source of fresh water in the room. They are refillable upon request.
Left:My shoes are so screwed....
Right: the hammock that I was slacking in to watch Heroes 3.
View of my tiny house and it is the dive shop on the right.
Ok, I have to disclaim that some of the photos below may be highly misleading. It is is really the photos that make the place look good. You can make the judgment call, as far as I am concerned, I am never going back to Coco Loco again. The following photos were taken when I went to walk around the island. One round include stopping to take photos took me about 20mins. It is really small!
I just like this odd shape trunk.
These sea shells were picked from the beach and left to dry outside one the resort homes.
Taken from the viewing tower.
I wanted to play some pool for fun but I don't dare to touch the ball after seeing the state of it.
Right, the staff recommended King Prawns for lunch. They are the biggest prawns I've ever seen in my left! They are even bigger than the usual sized crayfish!
Some local kids.
I went for one dive on this afternoon with Rick, the dive master who works at the shop. We only did a shore dive and it was quite shallow, which means our air would last longer and we dived for 1 hr 5mins. The visibility was bad and there were a lot of particles but that doesn't mean the underwater life have to migrate, there were a lot of sightings! In fact, more than some of the dive sites in Boracay. Saw big ass trigger fishes, big ass lionfishes, murray eels, two murray eels side by side, schools of fishes in the hundreds moving back and forth, etc. The dive had at least compensated my ordeal to Coco Loco. It was just a pity that I did not have an underwater camera. I almost bought the recently released Canon G10 but their underwater case was not released in time. Saved me some money.
Right photo is a photo of the toys played by the boy in the earlier pic. It reminded me of childhood times when toys are scarce and we have to improvise and make use of our imagination.
This was the boat that we took to travel back to mainland the next morning.
After the dive, I was just slacking by the beach watching Heroes. I was watching in the hammock at first but the swarms of mosquitos were unbelievable! Big and bloody juicy ones. I am starting to feel itchy when I am blogging about it. I had so many bites even on my head, imagine how hungry they are. I must look like blood buffet for them. I got sick of killing them one by one, thats why I went over to the beach where the sea breeze was strong enough to keep the mossies off.
By the time dinner was served, things started to go wrong. I can't explain it but my body just felt terrible. I did not even finish half the dinner and told the staff that I needed to rest. Thank goodness, I managed to changed my flight to a day earlier in the afternoon after making several phone calls to the agencies. Had to forfeit a day's stay on the island which I already paid for but I really want to get back to Manila fast.
The night's sleep was bad. I woke up every single hour and my condition was getting worse, it feels like I was sinking into the mattress and I was feeling sick.
chicken padi
Too busy the past few days to blog about my Philippines trip. Been coming home late every night and had to try sleeping early to wake up on time the following day.
One of my clients had her macbook screen shattered. One of her kids stepped onto it in the dark. I have never seen anything like this before. It does cool kind of arty farty. If your screen looks like a natural mount everest without having to change the desktop then you are fudged for good. I advised her to get a new macbook instead. Replacing the screen alone is $1200.
Wed, had Kushinbo (Japanese buffet dinner) with some of the guys. I don't have much of an appetite since I just recovered. Spent some time learning how to extract the meet from the crabs the fastest way possible. I got quite good in the end, accumulating a full bowl of nothing but crab meat but we can't finish it. It was quite a waste. The spread is not bad but thinking back again, for that price, you can have a really filling dinner at most casual Japanese restaurants.
After the dinner, we went to Mimolette, this super ulu club at Fairways Drive, near the stables. Freya and Nardo had a gig there and we were there to support Freya as it was her 2nd performance since she graduated from the DJ course. I think she did well but there was this bitch who drank more than she could handle coming up to Freya, asking her to change the music. Even she is not a hip hop/rnb fan but she could at least show some respect to the DJ. I could see that most of the people in the house were cheonging away on the dance floor. I can't stand idiots who think they are rich so they can own anyone. There is this default rule that customer is always right, whatever *in times new roman hand sign*. I use to have a client like that whom I refuse to work with after that. I did it because I can and it is my choice.
//
My poor niece was admitted to the hospital 2 days ago for diarrhea problem. Visited her for a while at the hospital yesterday. She seemed better and should be discharged soon.
One of my clients had her macbook screen shattered. One of her kids stepped onto it in the dark. I have never seen anything like this before. It does cool kind of arty farty. If your screen looks like a natural mount everest without having to change the desktop then you are fudged for good. I advised her to get a new macbook instead. Replacing the screen alone is $1200.
Wed, had Kushinbo (Japanese buffet dinner) with some of the guys. I don't have much of an appetite since I just recovered. Spent some time learning how to extract the meet from the crabs the fastest way possible. I got quite good in the end, accumulating a full bowl of nothing but crab meat but we can't finish it. It was quite a waste. The spread is not bad but thinking back again, for that price, you can have a really filling dinner at most casual Japanese restaurants.
After the dinner, we went to Mimolette, this super ulu club at Fairways Drive, near the stables. Freya and Nardo had a gig there and we were there to support Freya as it was her 2nd performance since she graduated from the DJ course. I think she did well but there was this bitch who drank more than she could handle coming up to Freya, asking her to change the music. Even she is not a hip hop/rnb fan but she could at least show some respect to the DJ. I could see that most of the people in the house were cheonging away on the dance floor. I can't stand idiots who think they are rich so they can own anyone. There is this default rule that customer is always right, whatever *in times new roman hand sign*. I use to have a client like that whom I refuse to work with after that. I did it because I can and it is my choice.
//
My poor niece was admitted to the hospital 2 days ago for diarrhea problem. Visited her for a while at the hospital yesterday. She seemed better and should be discharged soon.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Philippines Day 8 (Palawan / Coco Loco Island)
I was quite hyped up for this day where I will be heading to Palawan without much information of what is over there. For Boracay, a few of them went before and gave me a pretty good description so I knew what to expect. Palawan was a mystery and I just made my own optimistic assumptions. The plane was at least bigger and more comfortable than the one to Boracay.
Manila airport, centennial 2.
So when I arrived here at Puerto Princesca after a 1.5hrs flight, the arrival hall was quite ghetto. Things started to feel a little weird. There was a makeshift counter with a staff to promote tourism on the island. It was no surprise that she was surprised that I was alone and furthermore clueless on where I want to go. I was looking at the map behind her counter and pointed to Coron and told her I wish to go diving, how do I get there. She said it will take about 2 or 3 days to reach there from the airport. Almost fainted. Asked if there is anywhere else to dive nearby, she said no. I started to panic. At Puerto Prinsca, the two main attractions were honda bay and the underground river. Honda Bay looks like a great place to go but you can cover it in a day but I have 4 days to spend on Palawan. I spoke to the lady for a long time discussing my options which was really quite depressing and limited. The best bet was to go to the nearest travel agency to check on flights to El Nido which is near to Coron Island. Hired a tricycle to take me to the agency. Along the way to the tricycle, there were many people distributing flyers promoting their hotels and resorts, I just grabbed a few along the way.
Stepped into this tiny office with 2 ladies working in the dark because of an electrical blackout. The first flight to El Nido is on the 20 nov, which I will already be back in SG! Diving options seems to be diminishing for me. The other place with photos that I think is nice is Dos Palmas. It is a high end private resort island which is super commercially expensive. I was quoted 13 500 pesos a night, that is about S$400 / night which includes land, ferry transfer, meals and 1 dive. They had to include that for that kind of price. I thought for a long while and almost decided on Dos Palmas but something didn't feel right. I don't want to trust the photos from brochures. 3 nights stay at that resort will cost S$1200. Furthermore, if it is over commercialised, it will lose its local vibe. Then I look through the stack of flyers I collected earlier on and saw one on Coco Loco. I asked the girl for a comparison, she made a few calls to check on the price and room availability. It was 1900 pesos a night and there will only be electricity from 6pm to 6am. Price is good and the limited electricity may actually keep me off work. It sounds exciting and I paid upfront for the 3 nights.
Took the tricycle to the Terminal.
Found the public van that goes to Roxas.
Luggages were secured to the top of the van. The flyer on the right is the only information I have about coco loco. I borrowed the lonely planet guide from a backpacker and there is only one line saying it is a lovely island. That wasn't very helpful.
Waited for a long time for the van to get moving because it was waiting for the passengers to be filled first. Even though the schedule time to leave is 2pm, they will delay if there are not enough people. When ours was filled, it was REALLY filled. They made use of any space possibly available. The floor was filled with rice or flour sacks and there were goods all over. I shared the back row seat with 2 other backpackers from Spain. I felt asleep shortly and concussed for almost the entire journey, waking up towards the end because it was cold. The ride also started to get really bumpy. There was an old lady in front of me who started to puke. The van windows were closed because it is air conditioned. Besides, it was raining heavily so we can't open the windows either. I felt really bad for the lady because she was embarrassed enough and I know she didn't wish for this either. I knew how she feel because I tend to get motion sickness as well and puke frequently when I was younger. If not for the hangover which made me slept during the van ride, I would have probably puked too.
After arriving at Roxas, the weather was bad. Rain was still going strong. The ground is all wet and muddy. I should have wore slippers instead. Our tricyle transfer arrived after a short wait and it took us to the jetty. Even the resort's own tricycle looked super chut chut. With its rusted metal plates all over, it looks like a tricycle wreck fished out from a dive site.
When we arrived at the jetty. All of us were quite disappointed. The weather and all looks like a mess. Our hopes went down. We had to wait for another 2 to 3 hours for the boat to come pick us up. All this wait and transport can be really tiring.
The adventure of the boat ride was described in my earlier post. My shoes were screwed and I am just glad to survive when our boat had to go through a storm.
This is the dining area of the resort and picture on the right shows the dinner I had. Think it was fish something.
For the night, I was just chilling in the bamboo hammock outside my door watching Heroes (season 3) since I have already finished the most current episode of Prison Break S4.
Manila airport, centennial 2.
So when I arrived here at Puerto Princesca after a 1.5hrs flight, the arrival hall was quite ghetto. Things started to feel a little weird. There was a makeshift counter with a staff to promote tourism on the island. It was no surprise that she was surprised that I was alone and furthermore clueless on where I want to go. I was looking at the map behind her counter and pointed to Coron and told her I wish to go diving, how do I get there. She said it will take about 2 or 3 days to reach there from the airport. Almost fainted. Asked if there is anywhere else to dive nearby, she said no. I started to panic. At Puerto Prinsca, the two main attractions were honda bay and the underground river. Honda Bay looks like a great place to go but you can cover it in a day but I have 4 days to spend on Palawan. I spoke to the lady for a long time discussing my options which was really quite depressing and limited. The best bet was to go to the nearest travel agency to check on flights to El Nido which is near to Coron Island. Hired a tricycle to take me to the agency. Along the way to the tricycle, there were many people distributing flyers promoting their hotels and resorts, I just grabbed a few along the way.
Stepped into this tiny office with 2 ladies working in the dark because of an electrical blackout. The first flight to El Nido is on the 20 nov, which I will already be back in SG! Diving options seems to be diminishing for me. The other place with photos that I think is nice is Dos Palmas. It is a high end private resort island which is super commercially expensive. I was quoted 13 500 pesos a night, that is about S$400 / night which includes land, ferry transfer, meals and 1 dive. They had to include that for that kind of price. I thought for a long while and almost decided on Dos Palmas but something didn't feel right. I don't want to trust the photos from brochures. 3 nights stay at that resort will cost S$1200. Furthermore, if it is over commercialised, it will lose its local vibe. Then I look through the stack of flyers I collected earlier on and saw one on Coco Loco. I asked the girl for a comparison, she made a few calls to check on the price and room availability. It was 1900 pesos a night and there will only be electricity from 6pm to 6am. Price is good and the limited electricity may actually keep me off work. It sounds exciting and I paid upfront for the 3 nights.
Took the tricycle to the Terminal.
Found the public van that goes to Roxas.
Luggages were secured to the top of the van. The flyer on the right is the only information I have about coco loco. I borrowed the lonely planet guide from a backpacker and there is only one line saying it is a lovely island. That wasn't very helpful.
Waited for a long time for the van to get moving because it was waiting for the passengers to be filled first. Even though the schedule time to leave is 2pm, they will delay if there are not enough people. When ours was filled, it was REALLY filled. They made use of any space possibly available. The floor was filled with rice or flour sacks and there were goods all over. I shared the back row seat with 2 other backpackers from Spain. I felt asleep shortly and concussed for almost the entire journey, waking up towards the end because it was cold. The ride also started to get really bumpy. There was an old lady in front of me who started to puke. The van windows were closed because it is air conditioned. Besides, it was raining heavily so we can't open the windows either. I felt really bad for the lady because she was embarrassed enough and I know she didn't wish for this either. I knew how she feel because I tend to get motion sickness as well and puke frequently when I was younger. If not for the hangover which made me slept during the van ride, I would have probably puked too.
After arriving at Roxas, the weather was bad. Rain was still going strong. The ground is all wet and muddy. I should have wore slippers instead. Our tricyle transfer arrived after a short wait and it took us to the jetty. Even the resort's own tricycle looked super chut chut. With its rusted metal plates all over, it looks like a tricycle wreck fished out from a dive site.
When we arrived at the jetty. All of us were quite disappointed. The weather and all looks like a mess. Our hopes went down. We had to wait for another 2 to 3 hours for the boat to come pick us up. All this wait and transport can be really tiring.
The adventure of the boat ride was described in my earlier post. My shoes were screwed and I am just glad to survive when our boat had to go through a storm.
This is the dining area of the resort and picture on the right shows the dinner I had. Think it was fish something.
For the night, I was just chilling in the bamboo hammock outside my door watching Heroes (season 3) since I have already finished the most current episode of Prison Break S4.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Philippine Day 7 (Boracay / Manila)
Day 7, had to leave Boracay for Manila for a day's rest then to Palawan the next day. Would have a chosen a direct flight to Palawan but Philippines Airline doesn't have that flight.
Took this photo on the air to the jetty. There are many creative ways that you can seat and and hang on to tricycle. I have also shown Alvin some of my personal creative moves in the subway and jeepney.
At the jetty, had to take a 15min boat ride to the airport.
This photo makes me feel bad. I was taking this for the sign that shows the name of the airport. At first, I thought there were 2 kids at the corner then I realised that one of them was a handicapped man. I hope they are not thinking that I am taking photos of them. To reduce my guilt, I gave all my coins to him.
Back at Manila, Alvin was there to pick me up. Along the way I noticed an unusual sight. There are open public urinals in pink by the road sides. I was told there too many motorists pee all over so the government installed these. Nice choice of colour.
Buko (coconut) can be found everywhere. In Singapore, they would cut a hole on top, pass you a straw and spoon. Over there, the buko man has this flexible metal strip which enables him to shave the flesh of the coconut, serving you a full ball of the inner fruit with the juice in it.
Took this photo while waiting for a taxi outside our hotel. I am intrigued by their power lines. It is something you can't see in SG and my professor did explain about that before. Sg doesn't have power lines like that for aesthetic and safety reason. We waited too long for the cab so we took a tricycle (the manual kind) ride out to the main road.
Then I took my first jeepney ride. It was actually fun but a little cramped and you have to bend really low to walk in and out of it which can be a challenge if you have history of back injuries. To complete the jeepney experience, I also tried to help pass the fares and the change between the driver and the other passengers.
Cute random kid on the streets.
First we went to Greenhills and it is no surprise anymore that it is an another big mall. They just don't seem to have small malls cos it will not be worth building. I like Greenhills, it has hundreds of small stores in it selling tshirts and stuff. Kinda of like indoor pasar malam with better quality stuff without the street food.
For dinner, we went to HK Sun Plaza with the similar concept of shopping for fresh seafood at the wet market then bring it over to the restaurants to get it cooked for you.
This is one of my favourite photo. The cages in front of the vendors sitting down contains crabs.
We had oysters, squids, pork sinigang soup and tempura prawns. The meal was cheap (considering the seafood that we had) and great. Unfortunately, we suspected that the oysters from this meal was the culprit for causing my food poisoning.
After dinner, we went to Malate to chill. This is the church of Malate which looks like the perfect venue for Theme Park in Sports Camp.
LA Cafe. Had a major culture shock here and I will probably talk about it in a later post.
Reached back the hotel at about 3 or 4 in the morning. I can't remember but I had to wake up by 6 to catch my flight.
Took this photo on the air to the jetty. There are many creative ways that you can seat and and hang on to tricycle. I have also shown Alvin some of my personal creative moves in the subway and jeepney.
At the jetty, had to take a 15min boat ride to the airport.
This photo makes me feel bad. I was taking this for the sign that shows the name of the airport. At first, I thought there were 2 kids at the corner then I realised that one of them was a handicapped man. I hope they are not thinking that I am taking photos of them. To reduce my guilt, I gave all my coins to him.
Back at Manila, Alvin was there to pick me up. Along the way I noticed an unusual sight. There are open public urinals in pink by the road sides. I was told there too many motorists pee all over so the government installed these. Nice choice of colour.
Buko (coconut) can be found everywhere. In Singapore, they would cut a hole on top, pass you a straw and spoon. Over there, the buko man has this flexible metal strip which enables him to shave the flesh of the coconut, serving you a full ball of the inner fruit with the juice in it.
Took this photo while waiting for a taxi outside our hotel. I am intrigued by their power lines. It is something you can't see in SG and my professor did explain about that before. Sg doesn't have power lines like that for aesthetic and safety reason. We waited too long for the cab so we took a tricycle (the manual kind) ride out to the main road.
Then I took my first jeepney ride. It was actually fun but a little cramped and you have to bend really low to walk in and out of it which can be a challenge if you have history of back injuries. To complete the jeepney experience, I also tried to help pass the fares and the change between the driver and the other passengers.
Cute random kid on the streets.
First we went to Greenhills and it is no surprise anymore that it is an another big mall. They just don't seem to have small malls cos it will not be worth building. I like Greenhills, it has hundreds of small stores in it selling tshirts and stuff. Kinda of like indoor pasar malam with better quality stuff without the street food.
For dinner, we went to HK Sun Plaza with the similar concept of shopping for fresh seafood at the wet market then bring it over to the restaurants to get it cooked for you.
This is one of my favourite photo. The cages in front of the vendors sitting down contains crabs.
We had oysters, squids, pork sinigang soup and tempura prawns. The meal was cheap (considering the seafood that we had) and great. Unfortunately, we suspected that the oysters from this meal was the culprit for causing my food poisoning.
After dinner, we went to Malate to chill. This is the church of Malate which looks like the perfect venue for Theme Park in Sports Camp.
LA Cafe. Had a major culture shock here and I will probably talk about it in a later post.
Reached back the hotel at about 3 or 4 in the morning. I can't remember but I had to wake up by 6 to catch my flight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
