The Philippines

Manila and El Nido Part 2...

An early start revealed a change in the weather and our tour would be blessed with this fine weather for the duration. We contemplated a change of tour in the morning but ended up on a small boat ourselves with the tour leader for the day. What followed was a great selection of lagoons, snorkeling trips, beaches and good times. I have not snorkeled a lot and never anywhere remotely tropical so it was quite fascinating seeing coral and brightly coloured fish including little nemo fish. Sunday would also see a dramatic improvement in Jack's diving ability - this following some instruction by our Irish fellow travelers and a question by a particular, slightly sleep deprived, American friend as to where we could possibly be from that we had never learned to dive properly.
It was a great tour in any case and definitive of many of the reasons that people come to El Nido. The scenery was amazing and really can only be demonstrated by some photos which I'll try and sort soon along with another post about the rest of the El Nido trip...

The Philippines

Manila and El Nido Part 1...

Friday night saw a rushed pack and a quick trip out to Hong Kong airport.
Manila was a bit of a shock to the system, especially at 1am on a wet Saturday morning.
The people on the street were more polite than elsewhere in Asia when told no, but constantly being asked whether you want to buy cigarettes, flowers or snacks when you are trying to have a quiet beer after a long flight is never pleasant.
After a few hours sleep Saturday morning would see a confused trip out to the airport for our flight to El Nido. A small, private, airline – with an equally small airplane - we sat with other passengers in this unusually colonial feeling departure lounge being fed ice tea and cheese pastries. The flight to El Nido was scenic but quite a bumpy ride as we came into land. We'd later be told that sometimes the small planes cannot land due to weather and have to return to Manila instead.




Our arrival in El Nido corresponded with the presence of yet another Typhoon. We also had somehow not realised that it was the rainy season in this part of the Philippines. We headed out Saturday night anyway to get something to eat and grab a drink, however soon the impending bad weather had other ideas and a succession of heavy rainstorms first forced us into crowding onto tables with other tourists before then being forced to retreat to the back of the bar. It was a good night to be out though as we decided on a tour to take the next day and also set ourselves up with the group that we would spend time with for the rest of the weekend.
The night ended with us having befriended all the tour operators we would spend time with as well as numerous singalongs to old Beatles songs accompanied by a musician from one of the local covers bands. Amusingly I would later find out our singing kept another friend awake at the hostel next door...

Hong Kong cont...

Lantau Island and Kowloon

Thursday I jumped on the MRT out to Lantau Island with the intention of seeing the world's tallest, outdoor, bronze seated Buddha. After a surprisingly dicey bus ride over the centre of island from Tung Chung, the Tian Tian Buddha loomed in the distance. It really is quite large. The climb up to the Buddha felt a little taxing after all the walking yesterday but the view was great. The Po Lin Monastery was also worth a look. This site is one of the tourist favourites in Hong Kong so it was nice that it wasn't too busy.






A short bus ride to Tai O followed. Next to the coast it looks to be a pretty little village but you can get a different feel if you venture far enough into the back streets with some locals sorting through piles of junk. It certainly feels a world away from the bustle of Hong Kong. The stilt houses lining the river are a highlight and it is worth a visit being so close to Ngong Ping and the Po Lin Monastery.




The afternoon would see a misguided foray into the New Territories before discovering that our guidebooks can have a very different definition of what constitutes an interesting site.
We then rounded out the day with some more tourist favourites - catching the Star Ferry across to Kowloon to see the light show before a meal at the Temple St night market.

Hong Kong cont...

Victoria Peak and Happy Valley Racecourse

With most of the effect of Typhoon Hagiput starting to leave the Island I ventured out again to take in some of the other tourist highlights. First on my list was Victoria Peak - part of the range that dominates the skyline behind Hong Kong city itself. Transportation up the mountain is provided by a very steep cable tram and it is quite an interesting journey.
Once up the mountain I walked around the peak before settling down to wait for night fall. The view from Victoria Peak is fantastic during the day and even better by night.





Wednesday night is racing night in Hong Kong so I jumped a tram to the Happy Valley Racecourse. It is the only form of legal gambling in the territory so it is always a big event as well as being a big earner for the industry. This was my first horse-racing experience and it was a thoroughly enjoyable one. Being able to stand trackside at the rail among all the locals clutching their betting papers certainly adds to the excitement. I won on the only bet I placed and was able to end my evening very slightly wealthier than I started out.

Hong Kong

I am now 3 days out of Auckland and while I have not quite settled into travelling again, home certainly seems a long way away. Hong Kong is proving itself to be the vibrant, fascinating, slightly dirty city that everyone had described to me. I have not yet hit any of the main tourist attractions but I intend to make up for that over the second half of this week.

Part of the reason for my slow start has been the weather. My delayed arrival into Hong Kong preceeded another big storm for the current season, Typhoon Hagiput, which at that point was only a severe tropical storm tracking towards the Philippines. It would upgraded to Typhoon that night. Hong Kong uses a series of typhoon signals to measure the severity of the impending storm - typhoon signal 1 simply appears when a typhoon is within 800km of Hong Kong itself and it goes up from there. Last night at 6pm we hit typhoon signal 8. When the signal gets that high Hong Kong starts to shut down and in most cases people do not have to go to work. We went out for dinner.

I have been getting a feel for Hong Kong itself and with it an understanding as to why some people either love or hate the place. A friend said that she feels a bit claustrophic in Hong Kong and just looking around you can really see where that comes from. Much of the residential part on the north of the island is dominated by tall apartment complexes tightly packed together and this, combined with the often narrow streets, certainly makes everything seem a lot more closed in than back home. A flipside to this is all those people packed closely together does mean that there is always something to do or see...

On Monday I visited Mong Kok and looked through some of the shopping districts that surround it including a visit to the bird market and flower street. The bird market was quite fascinating; a guide book described how the little birds were fawned over by some of the sellers and buyers and this was clearly evident. We found a small restaurant to enjoy Yum Cha for lunch and shared a table with some older Chinese who we entertained.

Some images from Mong Kok:








Tuesday was a much quieter day. After catching a cross-town tram I had a quick look through the Tin Hau Temple before the weather, including typhoon signal 8, caught up with me.

Cross-town Tram



Tin Hau Temple




A market viewed from the mid-levels escalator

Start

Hi everyone - I hope this to be a fairly regularly updated journal of where I am and what I have been up to on my travels...