The Philippines (16th - 20th July 2007)

Hey there peeps~! I came back from my trip to the Philippines on Friday...

1st Day

Left the house at 4.52am to catch our 7am flight at LCC-T. We travelled by AirAsia. There was me, my parents and 3 of my mum's colleagues.

Reaching there we found that there was the new Airport regulations implemented due to safety reasons. No outside liquids allowed and even if you do buy the mineral water from the airport, it had to be sealed like the above.

We took off at about 7.20am. I could see the morning sunrise in plane.

The flight was 3 hours and 55 minutes officially but it's easier to say that it's 4 hours. I was so tired I more or less slept the entire flight.

We touched down at 11.40am. The exchange rate there was 100 pesos = RM 8. The name of the airport we landed on was Clarke Fields.

Anyway, we had to take a shuttle bus from the airport to a bus terminal nearer to our Hotel. The streets here are flip side. The drivers' side being the left side of the car. So here we look left first then right. Here in M'sia, it's "Look right then left" when crossing the street.

We stayed at the Citadel Hotel, Makati Avenue at Bel Air 1 area.

After checking into our rooms and a quick shower, we went out to look for lunch. We ate at Jollibee, the local fast food chain. The food they have there it's like a combination of McD's and food court. Definately catered for asians.

We chose to walk around to some of the tourist sites nearby. We could have easily flag down a Jeepney (the local bus here) or metered taxi since 70% of vehicles on the road are these.
Interestingly enough, the streets here are rather handicap-friendly. At every pedesterian pavement, there this slope for the handicapped Pedestrians. Our government should imply this.
The first place that we visited was the Ayala Triangle park where Greenbelt, a high-class shopping arcade is located. Security in this country is very high and not to be taken lightly since it's all done for all our safety in mind. Bombing here happen so safety is their upmost priority. So every bag goes checked and we have to pass through some metal detectors some times.
That aside. Greenbelt is what I feel a Park + shopping complex must be like.
As we were looking around in the park, there was a gathering of Christians in this Park Church.

The inside does not fall short from its garden-like exterior. Here's a shot of its interior. There were 4 parts to Greenbelt... A big shopping mall. Each section is about as big as one of Midvalley's wings (be it north of south).
After so much walking (from the hotel to this mall and window-shopping), we had our dinner at Cafe via Mare, where they serve their local food.
We ordered their porridge, Stuffed fish with minced pork, eggplant salad, deep fried pork, stewed squid in squid ink and this popiah looking thing. The food here are a little on the sourish side, their best meats are pork and beef and more towards the healthy side.

Their local dessert. Looks like mango sticky rice and bubur chacha but it's not exactly like that. Similar but not really.

Shops here close as early as 9am to 10pm. Pubs close later. After this hearty meal, we returned to our hotel and turned in for the night.

Day 2 - This is the view of the city from my room. Philippines has so many islands... I'm on the main island where Manila city is on.

Funny thing about this trip was the weather forecast told us to expect rain but on the contrary, it was sunny sunshine that greeted us majority of the week.

Today we were to head to Intramuros. Walking there is not an option... so we took the metered taxi there. Although it is called metered taxi, we tourist have to pay more. It's rather normal...

Intramuros was a city ruined by war so when they rebuilt it, they turned it into tourist attraction area where they carefully reconstructed some of its former buildings like Fort Santiago where it houses the Jose Rizal Memorial.

Jose Rizal was a local hero. He wrote just words in books when he was abroad about his people's plight during its Spanish rule. Obviously, the Spanish officers weren't pleased by his doings and fabricated a crime to imprison Jose Rizal and later execute him.

Before his execution, he wrote his final farewell which was found hidden in an alcohol lamp by his family. This famous farewell was translated to a few languages which shown his undying love for his country.

This fort now serves as a memorial for war victims. This cross for instance was done to honour innocent civilians whose lives were lost to the war.

After touring the fort, we made our way to Manila Cathedral. Was built in 1581, this church was reconstructed 5 times, as it was destroyed by war and suffered natural disasters such as earthquakes.
I enjoy being inside churches, not to pray but to marvel at the intricate details.
I like Stained Glass windows too. I've seen some while in England too. The stained glass windows there are cool. Some there got damaged / broken due to war and when it was built again with the same pieces, the smaller the piece the nicer it looked.
A Stained glass window up close. ^__^ I believe the concept of suncatchers came from stain glass windows.
More stained glass windows. (Sorry about the bars)
Blessed Angel. While I was standing in the shade, I saw this angel statue. What was curious was when a man walked to the angel, put his hand into the "bowl of the cloth" and bestowed the 'blessing' upon himself. ^___^ Similar to the muslims when they hold their hands in prayer and end it when bestowing the blessings upon themselves.

Walking in the light often makes you want to seek its opposite. This was another church but since it require admission fees, we moved on.
Memorial for innocent war victims.
We also went to explore Plaza san Luis complex. There was an example of an old Spanish Filipino hacienda turned colonial museum. The ground floor was made of adobe / volcanic tuff (stone) and the upper floor was made of wood. Wood is lighter than stone, making the house safer when earthquakes occured.

I wonder if the Adobe company chose its name with such a meaning in mind since adobe made good foundations. (shrugs)

From Intramuros, we walked to Quiapo. Halfway, we went to eat at a place where they served Japanese food and local food. Along the way we crossed the Tasiq river. To get to Chinatown, we took a shortcut through a wet market. This fishmonger had a revolving fly swatter. Fascinating.

And here we are, Chinatown. Looks pretty much like Chinatown back at home. They even have pirated goods on sale. Hahaha~!





While I was walking in this crowd, my backpack was actually "attacked" by a boy about 10 years old, wearing a white t-shirt. Luckily I didn't keep anything important in it and nothing was taken since I turned around and caught the boy in the act, which he quickly scurried off into the crowd. Always beware of pickpockets.

Philippines is famous for its coconut souvenirs but I didn't buy a lot of souvenirs. Came evening and we took a taxi back to the hotel... Not before dropping my mum and her colleague friends to Glorietta to do more shopping. I decided to rest and got this splendid evening view of city.
There are also traffic congestion during rush hours here. At least people here are more patient than back at home. It had rained later this day. My dad and I had to walk in the rain with our umbrellas to meet up with the others for dinner. We ate at Kamayan, serving local food buffet style. After dinner, my dad headed to Hyatt to try his luck in the casino while the rest of us returned to the hotel to rest.

Day 3 - We visited the Coconut Palace. At least there was a guide here. The palace was built on a 3000 metre squared space.


The motive design of the palace was hexagonal shape and there was 7 bedrooms to represent the 7 provinces of Philippines. In the Coconut Palace Dining room stands a 30 feet long table, long enough for 24 people to dine on. The design of its decorative tabletop was made by 16 children, aged 8 to 16 and made from 2000 coconut shells. They were this young to make use of their nimble fingers.

Even this Fancy lighting was inspired by coconut leaves.

This is a Special Spanish Chair called Graninela (not sure the spelling but that's how it's pronounced). The spanish people back then engaged themselves in the play of cock fights and this chair was created so that while they wait for their turn, cock were kept in the bottom part.

"Please deposit your firearms and weapons". Like I said, security here are very tight.

After the Coconut Palace, we made a slow walk to the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in the hot sun. There, they had an interesting interaction exhibit, even an edible artwork called "Chocolate Myrna" - guess what it's made of. Haha. Of all the artworks there, the artist you look out for is Felix Resurrection Hidalgo. 1 of the paintings there was the Boat of Acheron.

Going to this art museum is like Art History class all over again, Neoclassical, Kinetic Art, cubism, Installation art, etc.

Walking about in a museum is fun. But after all that walking, you do get hungry. So we had lunch at Chowking, a chinese fast food. Pictures - for illustration purposes only...

The food ain't too bad. I believe that places like this and Europe would have this kind of chinese fast food. We can easily find chinese restaurants, both cheaper and better, back at home.

The local famous dessert is a little something called 'Halo Halo'. The concept and taste is similar to Air Batu Campur. You never know if ABC is actually an attempt to copy 'Halo Halo' or vice versa.

All full and ready for more walking, all of us (except my dad) went to SM the Mall of Asia. It is the biggest Shopping complex in Asia. Buildings here aren't very high because Philippines is after all in the 'Ring of Fire'. For those who don't know what this ring is about, it's a geography term for countries with active volcanoes thus the earthquake thingy...

I must say that this mall has two floors and would probably be the same (if not more) than KLCC. They sell a lot of good items, even imported goods from Europe. Philippines is nearer to Europe than Malaysia so prices aren't so high plus our currency exchange rate do make things cheaper here...

We shopped for quite a bit of things here. Shopping is exercise on its own... So it's not surprising that we worked up an appetite. We dined at a restaurant called the Aristocrat which serves Western and local cuisine. After stuffing ourselves, we ventured into SM Hypermarket and it's huge~! Bigger than Carefour / Giant / Tesco / etc... The range of food products are aplenty.

By the time we were done, we had a lot of things to carry into the taxi. There was a long line of people waiting for the taxi. We got ourselves a metered taxi big enough to fit all our stuff. Back in the hotel, we kicked off our shoes to prepare for tomorrow's half day trip.

Day 4 - We got up nice and early because we were out to visit one of the deadliest volcanoes. The taxi ride took us from the city to the mountain side, heading to the bayside. It was quite a bumpy ride. Above is a street vendor, selling food to waiting motorist in a jam.

We stopped at a little town to find a boating company. Our taxi kept overheating so we had to ride without air con. They were some boating people who initially wanted to charge us a whooping 3500 pesos but luckily my mum read in the guide book that a boat would only cost 1000 pesos.
So we all compromise with 1500 pesos. Once we agreed to a boating company, a local guide came with us named Charlie. The roads now are more rocky. We stopped from time to time and this is a view of some fishing ports.

We soon reached the place where the boats were parkedat an area called Silang. Then we took a motorboat trip to the volcano island, Taal
The boat ride took about 15 minutes to reach Talisay. It was yet again another hot weather.

To make matters worse, we had to ride on horses up to the top in the very hot sunlight.

My horse's name was Jeline, a beautiful and strong chestnut coloured and my rider's name was Jeremy. Above is my dad's rider, not mine. Haha~!
When we reached the top, we could see the top view of a volcano crater.

A beautiful view of a lake.

It's still active, just it's sleeping right now. The little lava that we could see. After the ride down, I got a few shades darker. We made a beeline to another shopping mall called the Landmark. My mum and her colleagues love to shop when they travel. My dad went to the casino to try his try again.

And got lucky he did. Our last night here, Japanese dinner was my dad's treat. With all that shopping, it's not surprising that we checked in on the airplane overweight.

I had fun there but it's nice to be back home too. Cheers~!