From HK to Manila

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Lazy people we were, we woke up at 10am. Before we left the hotel, we decided to iron all our wrinkled clothes as we were uncertain of the amenities we will be getting at our budget accommodations in Philippines. We were scheduled on a flight to Manila at 19:30 today. Our plan was to meet Alan, our travel buddy for the next two weeks or so, at the airport as soon as we were ready. I also spent the morning sorting out our hotel. We were supposed to be spending the night at Tune Hotel in Malake. It's brand new and their opening night. Good thing I called to confirm because they had issue getting their occupancy permit (sounds sketchy), so they had to move us to the Malate location in Manila.

By the time we got our act together to leave the hotel, it was 12:00. Perfect timing to meet Elaine for lunch. We went to a Cha Chang Tang in Central. Essential that's a hong kong style cafe. Anders had his first taste of a toasted bun with condensed milk, staple snack item in HK. I should really stop writing first times for Anders going forward. Basically Asian experiences is so far removed from anything he knows, everything will be first... Catching up with Elaine was really nice. She's doing well, still working at PwC. Apparently the benefits at PwC is not too bad, 20 days holiday on top of public holiday and when there's down time she takes off without using holiday. Maybe Anders and I could reconsider thinking about going there, just need to find the right company. The meeting was too short, but we agreed to have dinner when we return on our way back to Norway. Elaine lives by Sai Kung, the seafood place.

We were planning to go to Mong Kwok afterwards, but it was already close to 2pm. Instead we decided to get Anders a touch up haircut. In search for a salon, we eventually found a fairly decent one for 148 HKD, very very cheap. We showed him the picture from the guy that looks like Anders in the tv series Suits, and he got close to that cut. Anders had a slight dilemma on paying, as he didn't know if he needed to tip. In the restaurants, the tips were automatically charged and he didn't know if it was the same for services. He looked to me for advice, but just because I'm Asian, doesn't mean I know. Anyhow he decided not to and the hairdresser looked very disappointed when he walked away. Oh wells. He will never be returning there anyways.

Somehow we were always behind schedule. We had to rush back to the hotel to get our bags and head straight to the airport to meet Alan. Thank goodness for the efficient transport system, we made it to the airport in no time.

We found Alan with his Yankees cap slouching on a chain in a coffee shop. It was a nice feeling to see Alan again. It's been a while, but things always seem to pick up where it last left off. I'm glad to see he is doing well an been having an awesome trip touring south america the last month or so. Before checking in, I stopped by to pick up some typical cookies and sweets from the bakery, including a Chinese moon cake. I wanted the boys to try it before we departed hk.

Our bags were 17kg, 13kg, and 12kg...guess who had the heaviest? Alan, me, then Anders. This is the lightest Anders ever packed in any trip! He usually packs tons more than me. I claim my bag is heavier because of the toiletries and the meds I had in my bag for us. Who knows. The line through security was fine, especially since we ate our sweets on the way there. Anders questioned if the low mai chi was liquid and if so he could do us the pleasure of eating it! Hahaha.

We had roughly one hour prior to boarding. We took that time to eat something and plan our next day in Philippines. Ordering food is a constant dilemma for me. I always want to make sure I get the best. We eventually ordered a fried rice, Singapore fried noodles and Yangzhou fried rice. All very good. Alan and Anders also tried the half coffee / half tea drink. Alan claimed it's an acquired taste. Efficiently Alan and I worked, while Anders enjoyed his food. We booked our flights to Palawan and our stay. It doesn't seem like the weather is cooperating with us at this point, but we cross our fingers the rain storms will blow over Philippines. The place we booked was around 50 usd for a room for three. It was relatively cheap to us, but I'm sure decently expensive by Philippines standards.

The Cebu flight to Manila was relatively comfortable, although we all sat in different seats. I took the time to read a bit more about where we were going and blogged, while Anders desperately tried to catch up on some of the material provided to him by his new job. He needs to know all about gas by the end of this trip, a subject he's constantly concerned about right now. I am confident he will pick it up while we works.

Due to my preparation skills, I knew we needed to get cash prior to departure and a yellow metered taxi to our hotel. The cash machine were a bit of a challenge. They charged us 200 pesos per 10,000 peso withdrawal. Alan had to try a few ATMs before he was able to withdraw money. After being cash prepared for the next few days, Palawan has one ATM machine in the whole island, we wanted to head off to our taxi. Anders wanted to change his red and white checker pants to more modest shorts. He was concerned about being "flashy" in a place like this. I refused him since it was already 10:30pm.

As we headed for the yellow metered taxi, we got stopped by the white taxis claiming they were a cheaper flat rate of 750 something pesos. I recall it costs 170 pesos into the city. Yellow taxis it is. They were on the other end of the exit, but we successfully caught one. Around 250 pesos, we got to our hotel. That's around $5.50 for a 20 min cab right. Dirt cheap!

We went to the Tune Hotel, which I booked for $19 a night. All was a bit skeptical, but it was actually very clean and basic. Exactly what we needed. Alan had a quick shower, while Anders watched some TV and I planned some more of our trip. I booked a restaurant for tomorrow night called Kalui, supposed to be the best in Palawan. They only take reservations, so lucky us got a table at 8:30pm.

We then took a trip out in Malate in search for the penguin cafe. According to lonely planet, it's their top pick in the area. To our disappointment the place was empty, but along the way we found some happening places. First was a lounge place with pumping music. As its low season, it was mainly Filipino. Pretty cool spot to have our first authentic San Miguel. We then went to a live music place called backyard with an awesome cover band. We caught glimpse of the last few songs, which included shout outs to Scotland, New York and Norway, before they took their "short" break. It made me a bit nervous to tell the whole bar where we were from. To our surprise, there were many locals out on a Tuesday night...although most looked a bit sketchy. There were old white men with 19-20 year old Filipinos drinking at 2am. Sketchy! We decided to enjoy some food and drinks while waiting for the band to return on stage. Filipinos have awesome voices. We wanted to hear more.

The short break was not so short. During the hour of waiting anders went to the bathroom twice, and went for not so short of a time. He apparently been talked into a massage, a crack in the back, listened to an old Filipino telling his sad story all in the course of taking a piss. On top of that it costed him 150 peso of generosity. Alan wasn't any better, but only gave 40 pesos. The band played songs like Bruno Mars, Adel (amazing), journey, heart and others. Even gave a tribute to Norway with an AHA song. At around 3pm and 1700 ($38) pesos later, we decided to go back to our hotel to sleep.