November 4 - 10, 2002 - Hongkong |
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Hong Kong, City of Life, is a small place that lives large. It presents an ever-changing kaleidoscope of color and culture. Hong Kong, for me, was always a place I definitely wanted to visit - and now in November 2002 my dream came true. Oli and I spent 5 days in this dynamic and unforgettable city.
After a pleasant flight, we arrived in HK on Tuesday late afternoon. By the Cityflyer-Airbus "A21" we traveled from the Airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok to Kowloon, the area where we stayed in. We had already booked our hostel called Rent-A-Room in 7-8 Tak Hing Street over the internet - I can highly recommend this place... although they don't accept credit cards.
On our first full day in HK, we went up to Victoria Peak (552 m). From up there we enjoyed one of the world's most stunning views down to the business district, to Victoria Harbor and Kowloon. To get a better view, do not only stay at the wok-shaped Peak Tower but walk along the Hong Kong Trail for about one km - it's definitely worth it! Man, it was incredible!
Later in the day, we explored the business district on Hong Kong Island, where you can see a lot of interesting buildings like the Bank of China Tower (go up to the 43rd floor!), Legco Building, Hong Kong Bank... We also explored the Mid-Level Escalators - that's an area which is connected with escalators. There's no need to go down to the street level as you can use the escalators for miles. Cool thing ;-) After "escalating" for some time, we got down to the street level again and strolled along Central Market. You can buy lots of stuff there but don't forget to bargain!
In the evening of the same day (Nov 6) we met up with Hiten - a friend of mine from India, who's working in HK. Together we did some bar-hopping in and around D'Aguilar Street... the cocktails were great but damn strong ;-) Got back @ 2:30 am.
After a good-nights sleep we woke up at lunchtime the next day. Shortly after getting up, we found ourselves on the way to Stanley Market, located at the Southern tip of HK Island. We strolled along, shopped a bit and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere there. Stanley Market is really a cool place... I could've spent days there ;-)
We got home at around 8:30 pm. Although we spent half the day at Stanley Market, we weren't tired of markets. That's why we also paid Temple Street Night Market a visit. As I had heard so much about this market, I expected a lot of it. Probably that's the reason why I was so disappointed when we got there - tons of useless stuff & kitsch and loads and loads of tourists. Awful!!! We rushed through and then left the market. I really didn't like this market at all - such a crappy place.
As we were quite exhausted of the last days, we went to Po Lin Monastery & Giant Buddha on Lantau Island on Nov 8. The Giant Buddha is the world's largest seated, outdoor, bronze Buddha - it sits amid the spectacular mountain scenery of Lantau Island. As I haven't seen anything similar before, I was really impressed of this Buddha - it's so biiigg! Later we went into the Monastery, which wasn't too exciting but still worth seeing.
Later in the evening we again met up with Hiten to have some drinks, especially because of my 25th birthday, which was on the next day. We drank a lot of Margaritas - *yummy* :-) It was a nice and long evening.
My birthday, on Nov 9, I basically spent with shopping. I promised Hiten to help him with choosing a suit for his sister's wedding. Man, this was probably the most exhausting day of my whole time in HK.
After we said "Goodbye" to Hiten Oli & I went out for a nice birthday dinner at Harbor City. Actually I wanted to go up to the Peak again to enjoy the view at night, but it was a bit too foggy, not clear enough. So wee had to stay down in Kowloon - however, we still had a lovely evening together. The view to HK Island was simply breathtaking... man, all those lights!
This is for sure one thing, I'll always remember of HK: neon lights, neon lights, and again neon lights. It's really amazing! Another thing about HK, I really liked was the perfectly organized public transportation: there is the MTR (underground), double-decker busses, normal busses, cabs, etc... and everything is working well.
So what can I say about HK? It's a place that never sleeps, it's a place full of action, a place of people and a place, that's simply astounding... but be prepared, it's also damn expensive. Nevertheless it's for sure a must-see city ;-)
November 10 - 15, 2002 - Manila |
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Back "home" again :-) The whole last week in Manila was more or less a Nostalgia Tour for me - I met all my Filipino friends again, saw all the places again, where I spent hours and days 2.5 years ago. It felt really good!
We arrived in Manila on Sunday aftenoon at the International Airport, where Puj (a friend of mine) and Red picked us up. When I saw Puj again, I instantly felt comfortable in the Philippines - it's always nice to have friends around.
On the way back to Puj's house I found myself stuck in Manila's traffic. I somehow must have completely forgotten the chaos on Manila's streets over the past years... it's really terrible. Noone seems to care about traffic rules, traffic lights or other annoyances like other cars, for instance. Everybody seems to be busy in finding its own way through the daily traffic jams... and it somehow works! That's really surprising! A big relief for the daily chaos is definitely the MRT and the LRT (like a subway).
In the evening of our first day in Manila Puj's roommates prepared this really yummy BBQ - man, those guys are really good cooks, especially Kiko and Red! Actually they cooked a lot for us during this week and every meal was a delight! Moreover we had some drinks and a nice chat - all in all, a very nice first evening in Manila!
The rest of our days in Manila, Oli and I did nothing special in particular. We strolled along various malls, explored Makati again, visited all those places, which reminded me of my last stay in Manila in 2000. And how they reminded me! This certain smell, the Philippine people, the traffic, etc... I also noticed that some things in Makati definitely underwent great progress - some places, like Greenbelt, turned into some really nice spots, small oases in the middle of the city.
We also visited my former workplace, the Austrian Trade Commission - of course! That was really nice :-) Seeing Anton and Tess again; Femio, Danny and Jun; Dr. Harwalik; and the new staff Susanne and Young-Mi! I felt like I have never been away from that place! Over the week, we spent quite a lot of time there - mainly, chatting the hours away. As you can imagine, we had a lot to talk about :-)
In the evenings, we normally sat together at Puj's veranda to have some drinks and "serious" conversations *gg*. Once we also went to this place called "Eastwood", which is like a small village in itself where you can find tons of bars, restaurants and discos. Like the "Bermuda Dreieck" in Vienna but a lot nicer. On another night, we went to a movie and afterwards to this pub where they played really good live music. On Friday, we were invited to Bernie's birthday party in the "Donaustube" in Malate, where we were served excellent Austrian food (Bernie is Austrian and the boyfriend of Tess). As the location of the party was too far off Puj's place, Anton arranged some accommodation for us in Malate - and guess where?! In this 5-star hotel called "Century Park Hotel"! Man, this place was nearly too much for me - so much luxury: 2 swimming pools, a huge lobby, big rooms with all things you wish for, etc. Anyway, the best part of the stay there was definitely the breakfast on the following morning - it's really a pity that my eating capacity is limited ;-) By the way, Oli and I stayed there for free... like a king and a queen!
Before ending my report on Manila, I wanna tell you the following story: It happened in the "National Bookstore" in Glorietta. I was looking for the Lonely Planet Guide for Cambodia, but I couldn't find it. Therefore I asked the staff there if they have it somewhere (like in the depot). Guess what answer I got! "Sorry we don't have...", (typical answer; I was actually expecting such an answer - but now the best part comes) "...the LP for Cambodia but you could take the one for Colombia!" What? Don't they know that Colombia has absolutely nothing to do with Cambodia besides the fact that both countries start with the letter "C". Anyway, I think this statement truly reflects a typical behavior of Filipinos, or Asians in general. Instead of saying "No, we don't have the Cambodian travel guide" straight out, they try to satisfy you even if it's not possible for them. They are so polite - sometimes too polite - they don't want to disappoint you, on the one hand and they don't want to lose their face by admitting that they can't help you. That's my explanation why they are coming up with such things. It's definitely a nice trait but it really can be annoying sometimes. As a European I'm used to either a clear "yes" or "no" but not such things in between. Anyway, this is part of my experience with this culture, right? And that's what makes travelling to foreign countries so exciting.
I guess that's it for this week - on Saturday we're off to Sabang. Catch you later!
Love,
PS: I wanna thank all those people who made my first week in Manila so meaningful - above all, Puj and his friends and the Austrian Trade Commission (Anton, Tess, Young-Mi and Susanne) ... your kindness meant a lot to us!
November 16 - 19, 2002 - Diving! |
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What a great time we had in Sabang Beach, Puerto Galera (Oriental Mindoro)! Till now this was probably the most exciting time I experienced so far on our trip! Why? We learned how to dive!
Saturday morning we boarded a bus of JAM Transit down to Batangas Pier. Although the ride was quite rough (you know, streets and traffic are generally bad here) but still we arrived safely. At Batangas Pier we took a boat to White Beach on the island of Mindoro. I’ve already been twice to White Beach - it’s really a nice beach; not too many tourists, not too many buildings. It’s more laid back and more beautiful than Sabang, which is kinda crowded (mainly divers) and lacks of beach (the beach is really small and kinda dirty). Anyway, our intention was to find a dive school on White Beach as we really like this place. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a dive school that met our expectations (mainly price expectations), so we hired a tricycle that brought us to Sabang (our second choice; while still in Manila I had checked out all dive schools in Sabang that’s why we knew which one to take). We went straight to the Sabang Inn, which offered this really good deal: PADI Open Water Dive Course (including equipment and course materials) plus 4-night-accommodation plus breakfast for a mere 299 Euro. The rooms are really spacious, the staff is friendly, the equipment is in good condition, and the dive instructors are really nice and helpful! I can highly recommend this place :-)
We started our dive course on Saturday late afternoon by watching the first three chapters of the PADI video. Later in the evening we prepared those chapters in the book...
On the next morning, we sat together with our dive instructor Cenon (man, thanks for everything!) to go through the theory (which wasn’t really difficult...). Later we put the theoretical stuff into practice, that means we had our first lesson in the pool. Although the feeling was a bit weird in the beginning (people can actually breathe underwater!), I instantly felt comfortable underwater (which was not too surprising for me as I love to be in the water). We did a lot of different exercises underwater like: clearing the mask if it’s full with water, establishing neutral buoyancy, using alternate air source, sharing a single air source, swimming without a mask, etc. We obviously learned as well how to put together the dive equipment, how to clean it, etc. On Sunday afternoon we already had our first open water dive into 12 m depth for 32 minutes - that was really amazing and the point where I was sure that I’m gonna finish this dive course (I wasn’t too sure in the beginning as I had some problems with equalizing as I had a cold). The feeling of weightlessness was simply overwhelming!
On the following days, we had more theoretical lessons, more pool lessons and even more open water dives. We practiced more skills and became more confident with each dive. We saw a lot of different fishes in the open water, corals, wrecks, huge turtles, etc. - we experienced this completely new underwater world. A world that was till then closed for us... but now that we are "certified" divers it has openend!
On Monday evening we had our written exam, whilst our last dive was on Tuesday morning... and this was at the same time the successful ending of our dive course. Now we are PADI Open Water divers and are allowed to go down to a maximum depth of 18 meters. Although all this happened just a few days ago, I’m already thinking of going diving again and probably doing the advanced course. We will see how things develop!
I hope you got an impression of what I experienced the past few days... but believe me, for me diving is simply amazing!
Cheerio,
November 20 - 22, 2002 - Manila, Part 2 |
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Our second visit to Manila already on this trip :-) and again we encountered a lot of hospitality... it's always great to have friends around!
This time we stayed at Young-Mi's (she works at the Austrian Trade Commission) and Axel's apartment in Fort Bonifacio (quite close to Makati). Man, those two have a really great apartment - we definitely enjoyed our time there a lot; not only because of the apartment but also because of them. Young-Mi and Axel are really nice, easy to get along with. We had a good time with them, either chatting, watching DVDs or having discussions. Moreover, Young-Mi prepared twice a yummy dinner for us - thanks a lot!
What else did we do? Not too much: we visited the Austrian Trade Commission one last time, strolled along Makati's streets, met up with Puj for lunch at his workplace PNOC and went out with Tess and Bernie friday evening in Malate.
That's more or less it. I get back to you when we come back from our trip through the northern part of Palawan.
Cheerio,
November 23 - 30, 2002 - Palawan: Puerto Princesa & Sabang |
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Palawan, considered as the Philippines' last frontier, with its 1,780 islands is situated on the Western border of the Philippines. Palawan will be "our island" for the next month or so.
We arrived in Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan, on Saturday around 11 a.m. by Air Philippines. Actually, we were supposed to get a pick-up from IRRREN but nobody was there - what a nice welcome :( So we had to take a tricycle to IRRREN Headquarters. Although Adelfa and the Japanese ladies welcomed us friendly, I was still a bit upset because of the airport thing. Anyway, Oli and I were supposed to stay in-house with IRRREN while doing our one-month-internship there, but when we saw our "room", we already regretted our decision to come here. The room was probably 4 m2 big - inside a bunk bed, one shelf and a fan... that's it! Not even a window! No, we decided not to live there for a month - man, you easily get a claustrophobic attack there!
Consequently, Adelfa, Oli and I started looking for a reasonable priced pension where we could stay for a month. However, it turned out to be a difficult mission - either the places were far too expensive or simply unbearable (dirty, small, lack of proper sanitary conditions, etc.). Very disappointed we returned to IRRREN - obviously, I didn't expect things to be like that!
Later Oli and I took all our belongings and left IRRREN. We needed to find a proper place to stay over the weekend and think things through. The situation right then was simply too overwhelming in a negative way.
We found this nice hotel in Puerto called "Backpackers". It's quite in the city center and it's clean. So we settled there and calmed down a bit... we needed to get a clear head to think over the situation and find an acceptable solution.
During the weekend we explored Puerto, which is actually a nice little city. Puerto Princesa is also called the "greenest and cleanest city" of the Philippines - I definitely agree with that. There are indeed trash cans on every corner (and they even are emptied on a regular basis), streets are clean and there are a lot of trees and green areas. The only thing that bothers me here is the air pollution caused by the numerous tricycles that are driving around. On really hot days, when there's no wind, it's - in my opinion - really hard to breathe, especially on the main roads where most of the traffic is.
During the weekend, Oli and I also talked a lot about the IRRREN thing. It definitely couldn't stay like that. We decided to talk about our problems and concerns with Dr. Jamelah, the head of IRRREN, on Monday.
Monday morning, we took a Jeepney to IRRREN - a decision had to be made. On this morning, we talked to Dr. Jamelah, stating our opinion and trying to find a suitable solution for all of us.
Frankly, I wasn't too sure how she would react when telling her our concerns, but the way she handled it was simply great. She understood the fact that we didn't want to pay so much for accommodation and then, above all, work for free. As we got along so well with her, we instantly found the perfect solution together - that is: while travelling around Palawan, we have to monitor on-going IRRREN projects (Eri-Silk-Program/Training; check out the environmental situation (waste disposal, separation, etc.) and the tourism potential (what has to be done, what should be improved, etc.) of certain regions in Palawan from a tourist's perspective. We were provided with contact details and off we went!
Our first trip led us to Sabang, situated on the Western coast of Palawan - a very rough 3.5 hours ride by bus from Puerto. Man, I've never seen such bad roads - and believe me, they are really bad up there. Worse than you can ever imagine - although we were quite lucky as roads were relatively clear. We got safely through all mud-holes, managed all steep climbs, crossed two times directly through (not over a bridge) a river and survived every hole in the "street". You actually can't call it street at all - it's more a path or better a trek through the jungle. Two times our bus tried to free a Jeepney that was stuck in the mud, but two times the rope ripped - no chance.
Thanks god, we safely reached Sabang around noontime on Nov. 27 - what a small town it is! It's actually not even a town but a conglomerate of houses and huts. Nevertheless, the beach is top and the surroundings as well - this is what I call a small paradise! However, one big disadvantage of Sabang is that there is nothing - nothing in sense of restaurants, food stalls or shops. It's really hard to find something to eat there, unless you love to have fish and rice and rice and fish the whole day long. On the last day of our stay, they didn't even have fish anymore. I talked to some people there and they were all complaining about the bad situation. Moreover, hardly any tourists were there although Sabang is famous for its Underground River, a deep cavern with rugged limestone and marble cliffs that flows under Mt. St. Paul. Another thing to visit in Sabang is this small waterfall at the Western end of the beach. But as I said, no tourists at all (which is quite a problem for Sabang) - firstly, because of the terrorists warning in the Philippines and secondly, (that's my opinion) because of the missing infrastructure. If the average tourist goes on vacation, he/she seeks for relaxation and not adventure.
Anyway, Oli and I really enjoyed our stay in Sabang - the fresh air, no traffic, the clean beach, white sand, crystal clear water, cool breeze from the sea, power for just 3 hours per day (advantage or disadvantage?)... however, when we got back to Puerto on Saturday, we weren't sad either. I guess everything has its positive and negative sides!
That's all for this week - Palawan, Part 2 follows next week!
Tomorrow we're heading up north - Taytay, El Nido, and probably some island hopping ;-)
Greetings from Asia's sunniest!
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