Where to begin, it's been such a long time. Sorry for the long wait, I'm going to try to do my best to play catch up on all of the fun and interesting stuff that's been going on here in China, as well as be a little bit more consistent with writing stuff on my blog. There is a lot to report, but I guess I'll just start with the Philippines.
That's right, Maddy and I decided to go to the Philippines for a week, about two weeks ago. In China, Labor Day is actually a week long, and everybody gets off. So we thought it would be fun to go somewhere cheap, exotic, and a place that would be a little bit too far if we were traveling from the states.
So we booked round-trip tickets from Hong Kong which cost us just about $200, and headed off to Hong Kong where we spent two days hanging out. Maddy actually had a trade show to attend on that Saturday, so she left me by myself to explore the city alone. Hong Kong is basically like a Chinese version of New York City. It's far less crappy than Chinese cities, but nowhere near as cool as New York or other major American cities, in my humble opinion.
I basically walked from one and to the other, check out the botanical Gardens, the escalators that go up the road, and a bunch of other stuff. For me to really enjoy the city, it needs to be walker friendly. That means there needs to be some kind of priority with regards to the pedestrian. In Shenzhen, where cars pretty much dominate the landscape, you really can't walk anywhere which is both frustrating and extraordinarily dangerous when you have no choice. But in Hong Kong, there are places to walk, but it seems that cars pretty much still take priority. There are places to cross the street, but in order to cross these mega-highway's, big overpass structures had to be built which is a real pain in the ass when you're walking because they are basically these mazes that you have to walk through in order to get to the other side of any road.
The escalators are basically moving sidewalks built like an overpass over the sidewalks that go up pretty steep inclines. They lead to an interesting area where we had some food a few times. As I walked from one end to the other, I looked up and noticed that things looked strangely like mainland China, there were virtually no tourists, and it smelled pretty bad. I realized I had walked too far, out of the main Hong Kong area and into the Chinese area, and I had to turn back. That's when I ran into an odd character standing in the middle of the street with a pair of sunglasses, a tank top and extraordinarily short blue shorts. He was holding a long white stick and directing traffic. He was like Richard Simmons but it in Hong Kong, and standing in the middle of the street.
The botanical gardens were pretty cool. They had some interesting animals including ducks and lots of flowers.
There was a guy in a little shop selling basketball jerseys who was wearing a pretty funny shirt: "my game's so sweet it'll give you cavities."
Maddy and I took the ferry across to the other side of Hong Kong and checked out the Museum of science, or something like that. It was basically a rundown museum that didn't seem to have been updated in about 20 years. All of the spaceships and hands-on exhibits were extremely dated and most of the things were broken. It was actually quite amusing and Maddy and I made a lot of jokes about how shitty it was.
THE PHILIPPINES:
Sure, there was a United States travel warning saying that the Philippines was a pretty dangerous place to go due to terrorist activity, and especially bad during this time because May 16 was the elections. But we decided to take the small risk, (the terrorist activity they are talking about happens down south, and certainly there hasn't been anything reported in the tourist spots that we would be going to).
On Sunday, Maddy and I left for the Philippines. We got to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. I decided when we first planned our trip that we were going to spend as little as possible in this major city, since I just assumed that an Asian city of upwards of 18 million people has got to be more disgusting than Bangkok, and I hated Bangkok. So we braved one night because we couldn't get an immediate flight out to our main destination, Palawan.
We stayed at a decent hotel for about $50, and went out to dinner at a nice little place that had a dancing performance.
The next day we headed back to the airport and got our asses over to Puerto Princessa, Palawan. A driver from the resort we were staying at picked us up and we went for a 2 1/2 Hour Drive up the island and then west, crossing through a dirt road in our four-wheel-drive Jeep.
We stayed at a place called summer homes which literally looked like it was out of a postcard. Most of the time, you see a postcard of the place, and it never really looks like the place. It is always going to be lots of tourists on the beach, or the place will be kind of dirty, or the weather won't be as nice, or the water isn't clear. This place was as close to paradise I think we will ever get to visit.
The scenery:
the basic setting was a very small village that was virtually carless. There were about three or four little tiny resorts like ours. When I say resort, I mean about a dozen little cottages and a few rooms that altogether might hold 30 to 40 people. When we were there, there was virtually nobody staying in the entire town. We ran into a few tourists, but absolutely nothing like Koh samui or Koh Tao in Thailand. We were routinely the only people on the beach, we had boats to ourselves, and most of the time entire islands all to ourselves. The beaches were pristine, the water was clear, you could see fish and coral from the boat. The weather was perfect -- about 85° every day, with a lot of sun. there were geckos all over the place, around our room, all over the dining area, on the ceilings, around the walls. All over the place. But that was nice because they ate the bugs, which were not all over the place.
Our boat trips:
every day we went out on a boat, just us, a boatmen, and one or two people from the resort to cook the lunch and help out. The first day, we went snorkeling. Unlike Thailand where we snorkeled off of Koh Tao with a group of about 30 people, for this trip we were completely alone. Another day, we went island hopping. There are something like 18 little islands all around Port Barton, which was where we were staying. Each island was about the size of a football field. We could basically point to any place and say we wanted to go there. The beaches were completely empty and the water was as warm as bathwater, literally around 75°. One day we went to the "underwater river," literally a 30 foot wide river that flows underneath a mountain. it was pitch black inside, just like a cave, and I had to hold a little light as the tour guide pointed out all of the interesting stalagmite and stalactite formations that resembled objects. it was kind of amusing, since the tour guide didn't really explain anything about the formation of the cave or anything about the natural ecology of the area. The entire tour consisted of pointing out formations and saying how they looked like things. so we would be going and he'd say oh, that is the Virgin Mary, that is a mushroom, that is a nun praying, that is a mango, etc. there must have been about a hundred of these things. outside at the lunch area, a bunch of little monkeys and huge monitor lizards were crawling very close to our food and trying to get a bite. on the another outing, we trekked about 2 km to a secluded waterfall. Again, really cool, gorgeous, and completely isolated -- it was us and our tour guide, that was it. Along the way, we would pass these long lines of little buoys. It turns out, they are oyster pearl farms.
The PACKAGE:
we got a package deal. It included five nights, six days, and everything was included in the package. And when I say everything, I really mean everything. The 2 1/2 hour drive from the airport, three full meals a day that we could take off of the menu (which was a very long menu and amazingly delicious -- I will get to that later), and island hopping/boat trips by ourselves everyday. for food, we could take anything on the menu, and eat as much as we wanted, all was included, except for drinks. when we finally got our bill for six days, all of the boat riding, all of the drinks, all of the food, the Jeep ride to and from the airport, the room, the snorkel gear, Internet access, all of that. it came to $380 per person. unbelievably, it was as if we were millionaires on vacation, sparing no expense, and yet it cost almost nothing compared to any other place offering a fraction of the beauty and activities.
The food:
this place had a little restaurant and kitchen, but their menu was substantial, offering Filipino dishes, Western meals, Thai food, and all kinds of other dishes. The food was amazing. First of all, it was all freshly prepared. Fresh. When you ordered a coconut shake, somebody actually climbed one of the coconut trees and got a fresh coconut. When I ordered potato salad, they actually boiled potatoes from scratch to make the dish, which was served steaming. The pancakes in the morning were unbelievable. Whenever we went on day trips, they would pack a lunch for us and cook it when we got hungry. On our last night, they prepared a whole barbecue just for us and we dined outside by candlelight. They bought a squid specifically at Maddy's request. (I wouldn't eat that shit!)
Final thought:
Maddy and I both agreed, this was the most amazing vacation we have ever been on. Port Barton, Palawan offers the most beautiful scenery and beaches and costs a fraction of what Thailand or most other similar vacation spots would cost.
That's right, Maddy and I decided to go to the Philippines for a week, about two weeks ago. In China, Labor Day is actually a week long, and everybody gets off. So we thought it would be fun to go somewhere cheap, exotic, and a place that would be a little bit too far if we were traveling from the states.
So we booked round-trip tickets from Hong Kong which cost us just about $200, and headed off to Hong Kong where we spent two days hanging out. Maddy actually had a trade show to attend on that Saturday, so she left me by myself to explore the city alone. Hong Kong is basically like a Chinese version of New York City. It's far less crappy than Chinese cities, but nowhere near as cool as New York or other major American cities, in my humble opinion.
I basically walked from one and to the other, check out the botanical Gardens, the escalators that go up the road, and a bunch of other stuff. For me to really enjoy the city, it needs to be walker friendly. That means there needs to be some kind of priority with regards to the pedestrian. In Shenzhen, where cars pretty much dominate the landscape, you really can't walk anywhere which is both frustrating and extraordinarily dangerous when you have no choice. But in Hong Kong, there are places to walk, but it seems that cars pretty much still take priority. There are places to cross the street, but in order to cross these mega-highway's, big overpass structures had to be built which is a real pain in the ass when you're walking because they are basically these mazes that you have to walk through in order to get to the other side of any road.
The escalators are basically moving sidewalks built like an overpass over the sidewalks that go up pretty steep inclines. They lead to an interesting area where we had some food a few times. As I walked from one end to the other, I looked up and noticed that things looked strangely like mainland China, there were virtually no tourists, and it smelled pretty bad. I realized I had walked too far, out of the main Hong Kong area and into the Chinese area, and I had to turn back. That's when I ran into an odd character standing in the middle of the street with a pair of sunglasses, a tank top and extraordinarily short blue shorts. He was holding a long white stick and directing traffic. He was like Richard Simmons but it in Hong Kong, and standing in the middle of the street.
The botanical gardens were pretty cool. They had some interesting animals including ducks and lots of flowers.
There was a guy in a little shop selling basketball jerseys who was wearing a pretty funny shirt: "my game's so sweet it'll give you cavities."
Maddy and I took the ferry across to the other side of Hong Kong and checked out the Museum of science, or something like that. It was basically a rundown museum that didn't seem to have been updated in about 20 years. All of the spaceships and hands-on exhibits were extremely dated and most of the things were broken. It was actually quite amusing and Maddy and I made a lot of jokes about how shitty it was.
THE PHILIPPINES:
Sure, there was a United States travel warning saying that the Philippines was a pretty dangerous place to go due to terrorist activity, and especially bad during this time because May 16 was the elections. But we decided to take the small risk, (the terrorist activity they are talking about happens down south, and certainly there hasn't been anything reported in the tourist spots that we would be going to).
On Sunday, Maddy and I left for the Philippines. We got to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. I decided when we first planned our trip that we were going to spend as little as possible in this major city, since I just assumed that an Asian city of upwards of 18 million people has got to be more disgusting than Bangkok, and I hated Bangkok. So we braved one night because we couldn't get an immediate flight out to our main destination, Palawan.
We stayed at a decent hotel for about $50, and went out to dinner at a nice little place that had a dancing performance.
The next day we headed back to the airport and got our asses over to Puerto Princessa, Palawan. A driver from the resort we were staying at picked us up and we went for a 2 1/2 Hour Drive up the island and then west, crossing through a dirt road in our four-wheel-drive Jeep.
We stayed at a place called summer homes which literally looked like it was out of a postcard. Most of the time, you see a postcard of the place, and it never really looks like the place. It is always going to be lots of tourists on the beach, or the place will be kind of dirty, or the weather won't be as nice, or the water isn't clear. This place was as close to paradise I think we will ever get to visit.
The scenery:
the basic setting was a very small village that was virtually carless. There were about three or four little tiny resorts like ours. When I say resort, I mean about a dozen little cottages and a few rooms that altogether might hold 30 to 40 people. When we were there, there was virtually nobody staying in the entire town. We ran into a few tourists, but absolutely nothing like Koh samui or Koh Tao in Thailand. We were routinely the only people on the beach, we had boats to ourselves, and most of the time entire islands all to ourselves. The beaches were pristine, the water was clear, you could see fish and coral from the boat. The weather was perfect -- about 85° every day, with a lot of sun. there were geckos all over the place, around our room, all over the dining area, on the ceilings, around the walls. All over the place. But that was nice because they ate the bugs, which were not all over the place.
Our boat trips:
every day we went out on a boat, just us, a boatmen, and one or two people from the resort to cook the lunch and help out. The first day, we went snorkeling. Unlike Thailand where we snorkeled off of Koh Tao with a group of about 30 people, for this trip we were completely alone. Another day, we went island hopping. There are something like 18 little islands all around Port Barton, which was where we were staying. Each island was about the size of a football field. We could basically point to any place and say we wanted to go there. The beaches were completely empty and the water was as warm as bathwater, literally around 75°. One day we went to the "underwater river," literally a 30 foot wide river that flows underneath a mountain. it was pitch black inside, just like a cave, and I had to hold a little light as the tour guide pointed out all of the interesting stalagmite and stalactite formations that resembled objects. it was kind of amusing, since the tour guide didn't really explain anything about the formation of the cave or anything about the natural ecology of the area. The entire tour consisted of pointing out formations and saying how they looked like things. so we would be going and he'd say oh, that is the Virgin Mary, that is a mushroom, that is a nun praying, that is a mango, etc. there must have been about a hundred of these things. outside at the lunch area, a bunch of little monkeys and huge monitor lizards were crawling very close to our food and trying to get a bite. on the another outing, we trekked about 2 km to a secluded waterfall. Again, really cool, gorgeous, and completely isolated -- it was us and our tour guide, that was it. Along the way, we would pass these long lines of little buoys. It turns out, they are oyster pearl farms.
The PACKAGE:
we got a package deal. It included five nights, six days, and everything was included in the package. And when I say everything, I really mean everything. The 2 1/2 hour drive from the airport, three full meals a day that we could take off of the menu (which was a very long menu and amazingly delicious -- I will get to that later), and island hopping/boat trips by ourselves everyday. for food, we could take anything on the menu, and eat as much as we wanted, all was included, except for drinks. when we finally got our bill for six days, all of the boat riding, all of the drinks, all of the food, the Jeep ride to and from the airport, the room, the snorkel gear, Internet access, all of that. it came to $380 per person. unbelievably, it was as if we were millionaires on vacation, sparing no expense, and yet it cost almost nothing compared to any other place offering a fraction of the beauty and activities.
The food:
this place had a little restaurant and kitchen, but their menu was substantial, offering Filipino dishes, Western meals, Thai food, and all kinds of other dishes. The food was amazing. First of all, it was all freshly prepared. Fresh. When you ordered a coconut shake, somebody actually climbed one of the coconut trees and got a fresh coconut. When I ordered potato salad, they actually boiled potatoes from scratch to make the dish, which was served steaming. The pancakes in the morning were unbelievable. Whenever we went on day trips, they would pack a lunch for us and cook it when we got hungry. On our last night, they prepared a whole barbecue just for us and we dined outside by candlelight. They bought a squid specifically at Maddy's request. (I wouldn't eat that shit!)
Final thought:
Maddy and I both agreed, this was the most amazing vacation we have ever been on. Port Barton, Palawan offers the most beautiful scenery and beaches and costs a fraction of what Thailand or most other similar vacation spots would cost.
posted by Jeffro @ 6:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home