An Enlightening Transit

I was bound for Hong Kong, but a decision for a short detour led to a journey of discoveries.

 

The Philippines

When The Philippines first came into my mind (and many people’s mind), the first thought was terrorism. Fuelled partly by the media’s portrayal of The Philippines (commonly in the news segment), terrorism, volcanic eruptions, possible earthquakes and poverty struck my mind.

Nevertheless, I was keen to change my perspective of her.

Manila

The day before my flight, Typhoon Fengshen (风神) paid a visit to Manila. The scene on Channel News Asia showed gusts of strong winds blowing river water up Roxas Boulevard in Manila, a leisurely place supposedly well-known for a a good view of the sunset and for a nice stroll to reflect on things. I still remembered clearly how may parents woke me up from bed at 10am just to watch the news. Then again, I wondered, how long can the typhoon stay at the place, and it was lucky enough it struck the day before my flight.

 

 

23 Jun ’08, the time has come, as I arrive at the airport, worried. My flight was full, apparently because some of the passengers who did not manage to board their flight the day before filled this flight instead. I was the last to board the plane, a Tiger Airways A320 aircraft (first A320 in its fleet too), and I was very lucky to get an empty seat beside my despite the filled plane, it was the only seat empty in the plane I guess, haha.    

 

9V-TAA (1st A320 for Tiger Airways)

 

 

 4 hrs later, I arrived in heavy winds and a drizzle… 

  

Manila Clark Airport

 

 

The scene at the airport was overwhelming. For a secondary airport located 2hrs away from the city, it was surprising how I exited the terminal building  greeted by a huge wave of humans pushing into the arrival hall to wait for their loved ones. Since I still had some time to get to the bus, I decided to get the SIM card for use in my 2 1/2 days in Manila. I approached the machine dispensing the cards, but payment was made instead to the salesgirl standing beside it. Conveniently, she opened up the machine and took a card for for me. Amazing. It makes one wonder what the machine was for – more like a storage shelf.

 

I met up with my friend, Czarina, at the bus terminus of the airport bus, in Manila. Traffic was bad, but it was fun. Upon arrival, I headed straight to my hotel via taxi. Again, the location of the hotel was right opposite the US Embassy, so I had to pray that nothing  bad happened to the US Embassy, at least during my short duration in Manila. I think I’m paranoid. Surpringly, despite the morning drizzle upon arrival and the bad weather the day before, it was all bright and sunny when I reached the city. After putting my things down in the hotel I headed to Rizal Park and then to Roxas Boulevard, famed for its beautiful boardwalk and sunset.

  

 

 

One day ago typhoon created a storm here… the next day the sun came back…  

 

Sunset at Roxas Boulevard Mi @ Roxas (pronounced 'Rohas') Boulevard

Manila actually has tonnes of mega malls, to my surprise, it’s much of a shopping paradise which is undiscoverd by most people in Singapore. Mall of Asia was my third stop (after Rizal Park), and if I remember correctly, this is the third largest mall in Asia. Mall of Asia is divided into 5 sections, one for food, one for entertainment and I can’t remember what the others were. Security guards were deployed to check bags at the entrace to each section, obviously for security reasons, but I wonder if they did a thorough job, I shan’t elaborate further on this though. Here, I bought a sunglass and had some dinner and a dessert.

 

Inside the Mall of Asia

 

 

Food at a reasonable price, tastes ok…  

Sisig (a.k.a. pig's face) and Adobong Kangkong and rice

 And dessert… 

Hala-halo ice-cream dessert

After dinner, I hopped on to one of The Philippines’ unique transportation – The Jeepney. It was a messy affair at first, having to scour through the many jeepney services available at the terminus for the right one to our destination, and when we finally get one, it was like ‘Crazy Taxi’ as our Jeepney honked constantly while meandering through the heavy traffic. Here’s what’s interesting as well – each Jeepney seemed to be operated by an individual, and in the case of our Jeepney, it was a family of three (man, wife and baby) at the front seat, the husband driving while the wife collected the money from passengers. Here, I should really thank Czarina, for without whom I probably would not know how to ride on the Jeepney without getting lost. Inside the Jeepney, seats are rather comfortable.

Inside the Jeepney, seats are rather comfortable

My friend arrived at her other home, and it was time for me to head back to my hotel. I got on a taxi, and it was nice of my friend to negotiate a reasonable fare for my journey and to ensure that the driver had proper instructions to head to my hotel, but unexpectedly (or expectedly), the taxi driver pulled over 20m ahead and asked for a higher price from me The situation wasn’t threatening, just that he was hungry for money as he sounded out how hard it was to make ends meet with that little amount of taxi fare. The newly negotiated fare was reasonable (I can’t remember how much), and since I’m travelling alone for the first time, it made sense to accept the offer. 20 minutes later, I arrived at my hotel. 

 

Batangas, Tagatay

Then, it was a brand new day the next day… 

 I had booked a tour from a travel agency (CTC) in Singapore (fyi, it’s not easy to find a travel agency in Singapore offering tours in The Philippines) and I spent the morning travelling through heavy peak hour traffic to get to a volcanic site, to see the Taal Volcano in Tagatay. The Taal Volcano is the world’s smallest volcano, and it is also an active one, with it’s last eruption occuring in 1977. En route, my tour guide and I (I was the only customer, haha) went to a place called Peoples’ Park In The Sky to catch a view of the volcano, but what we could see when we were there was only the morning fog. As we travelled down the mountain, it seemed that anywhere else had a better view of the volcano than Peoples’ Park In The Sky, as the view is clearer at lower grounds. Here are some pictures of my journey…     

 

Overloaded Jeepney, or did the kids juz wanna have fun?

 

My tour guide and I at Peoples' Park In The Sky

 

Lunch with a view of the world's smallest volcano, the Taal

 

I requested to get closer to Lake Taal, to climb the volcano. It was at a cost of 5000pesos (S$160), but my tour guide suggested it was not safe, not so much because of the active nature of the volcano, but the ferry there may be poorly maintained. Thus, I opted for the alternative to visit another attraction, the Chapel on the Hill…  

 

 

 

Garden landscape at the Chapel premises

An interesting flower

The Chapel on the Hill, sits on top of a hill, as the name suggests, and with its stunning view of agricultural activites below, and surrounded by mountains, it is no surprise why hundreds of couples decide to hold their wedding here each year. There are also chalets there for people to live in. The only backlash though, is that the premise is rumoured to be haunted (apparently a white figured lady appeared in a photo taken with university students).

 

Then, it was back to messy Manila…

I met Czarina in a drugstore in Manila, and we headed to a man-made attraction, the Fort Santiago, which was part of a remains from the Spanish rule of The Philippines. After which we headed to meet her friend at a shopping mall, had a MacDonald’s meal for a price cheaper than that in Singapore, and then headed to Greenbelts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Interestingly, as each number goes higher, so does the fashion class, and of course, the price.

A visit to Fort Santiago

Then, it was back to my hotel.

I’ve eyed the Starbucks outlet right beside my hotel ever since the day I arrived at the hotel, and I decided that tonite was the best nite to pay a visit to it, to write my post card while sipping freshly brewed coffee and to enjoy my last night in Manila. But before that, I was subjected to a rude shock in my hotel room after a bath. ‘Boomz! Boomz! Boomz!’, large sounds were heard coupled by vibrations, and my air-con shooked. Was it a bomb, or was it fireworks? The sound rocked my room about 4 times before returning it to peace. I dressed up, and immediately headed downstairs to the reception. The girl over the counter told me that it was a celebration of Manila Day. Strangely, I have not read about that in any travel book. Not to waste a single moment, I rushed out of my hotel with my camera at hand to snapshot the moments of joy, and of the fireworks!

Then, I headed to Starbucks.

As expected, the prices of coffee (about 170 pesos (S$5.50) for a tall) in the Manila Starbucks was lower than that in my home country, and of course, drinking the coffee with a smaller hole in my pocket made me happy. I made my self comfortable at the balcony of the second-storey in Starbucks, before starting to pen down my thoughts on a postcard. Not long after, Starbucks were filled with people, mainly students and eventually all seats were filled.A teenager then approached me, and asked if anyone was sitting beside me, and I said no. So as he sat down with his homework beside me, we chatted. I realised he was a student of a University in The Philippines majoring in Mechanical Engineering, but I wasn’t sure why the Mathematics homework that he had with him looked like something I’ve learned in Junior College back home. Does that go to show the difference in the education in the University level between the two countries we reside in? No offense intended though. I learned also that there were many South Koreans heading to The Philippines, be it for leisure or for studies, vis-a-vis the number of Singaporeans visitng his homeland, which was rather insignificant, according to him. It was nice to get to know people around the world and learn new things from them, as they learn things from you too.

My new-found friend at Starbucks

And so, the final day of my holidaying in The Philippines came…

25 Jun ’08, 10.30am – I was awakened by a phone call from Singapore from my Dad, “Hey Ronald, did you here that that typhoon is now in Hong Kong? Is your flight to Hong Kong affected? How are things in Manila?”. My flight to Hong Kong was in the late afternoon, and this wake-up call came at an excellent time considering I had set my alarm for an earlier time but could not wake up. And the typhoon, Fengshen, was interesting too. A day before I came to The Philippines, I had read that 4 days later it was bound for Hong Kong, although its chances are low, and 2.5 days later, I hear that it has arrived in Hong Kong, where I was bounded for later in the day. I seemed to be trailing the typhoon wherever it goes.

At 11.30am, I checked out of the hotel, left my bag at the counter and went walking around my hotel for the last hour before I caught my taxi to the airport. Plagued by traffic jam along the way to the airport, my decision to leave early was right. For those who are intending a ride on a taxi in Manila (or perhaps The Philippines), a word of advice to you is to have exact change! Most taxi drivers in Manila do not have change for you, and in my case, while the taxi driver was kind enough to ask the other taxi drivers at the airport for change, I eventually ended up given him a tip of about 250 pesos (S$8) as he did not have change. The sum was not great, but it was a lesson learnt.

I ended my journey to Manila (and Tagatay) at 4.40pm, as I headed on my flight to Hong Kong. Over a short 2.5 days, I have certainly learnt quite a bit about The Philippines, in particular Manila. People here are very friendly, and they offer help to you rather willingly. The cost of living here is reasonable, sometimes even low, as compared to more developed countries like Singapore. In terms of landscape, to me, Manila is very much a messy city, with people surrounding you everywhere you go, and vehicles sounding the horn ever so often. But anywhere outside this city is ‘heaven’, with mountainous landscapes and more friendly people, in addition to the much lower density of people, and the tranquility.

Finally, for anyone who intends a visit to The Philippines, I would say, know a local, or get a guide. While Manila is a city with a proper public transportation system, anywhere outside is troublesome to get to. The Philippines is an undiscovered gem, for women it is a shopping haven and to nature lovers, it’s the volcanoes. To the rest, the contrasting feature of the capital city and its surroundings is enought to get you excited when you actually see it. So if you are looking for somewhere affordable to go, The Philippines is one highly recommended place by me!

Mabuhay, Philippines!

Smiles from Cebu Pacific crew

Disclaimer: The author was not paid by the Philippine Toursim Board to promote The Philiipines.

Special Thanks to Czarina for accompanying me around Manila!

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

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