(no subject)
On Monday, after napping a little in the hotel and feeling a little rotten from not sleeping properly, we slipped out and went into the little restaurant next to the hotel. It was a little open-air shack, which mostly served local workers around the area simple, cheap food. We ended up going here twice and the second time a few cats skinny cats lazing on a table who enjoyed a pet. At one point the male cat sprayed a table with his scent :P Then Jamie arrived at our hotel from an hour away, and kindly showed us around as many places as she knew - although she wasn’t so familiar with our area. We saw her university, a church, a few old streets and buildings, a very noisy gym, and ate some delicious philipino food, which I think is tastier than Taiwanese :P
We went back to the hotel and popped into a massage parlour we’d seen earlier and had a Swedish massage, which was one of the best massages I’ve had. It had both hard pushy bits and oily slippery bits.
The next day, we pondered on what to do. A climb up a volcano seemed too much work for too little gain for Ava, and a trip to one of the islands we were already too late for. We settled on a trip to Asia Village, which we could get to on public transport. We actually walked there, using the Metro to take us part of the way. We headed for the ice-rink, where I spent 4 hours practicing and improving my old ice-skating techniques. I used to take lessons as a kid, and although the poor boots meant there were some things I couldn’t do so well, I think I managed to do most of the things I used to do. It helped there were a lot of “professionals” skating around practicing hard stuff to remind me of some of the cool things you can do. I even tried spinning, watching someone else do it and then had a go myself, although I kept falling over - not sure how you balance doing it.
After ice-skating we went to get some food at the food court. I picked some more pork as they seem to do pork really nice and crispy here. The food here is a little salty for Ava’s taste, but I’m glad of all the salt I can get in this hot sweaty country. After this we headed home… or so we thought, but I spotted a carrousel and then remembered it was near the sea, so we went to watch the sunset here and rode a massive pirate ship ride all to ourselves. We also tried a zipline. It was great fun.
Next day, for some reason, I felt less jolly… We went to visit a casino and “resort” which was basically a massive rich kids paradise, didn’t seem to have any soul, although I did get a free ice-cream. I began to look forward to the more rustic experience to await on Palawan, so we took the free shuttle bus back to the airport. At the airport I bumped into another English man who has been in China for 8 or 9 years. He told me the Chinese were he came from were very friendly, longed for democracy and freedom, especially as more was becoming available to them. I suggested he should visit Taiwan, and he said if I ever come to China I can look him up J
Finally the flight took off, and I saw just how islandy the Philippines was. Island after island, big and small, all mountainous and interspersed by blue sea, some of which you could see coral underneath. I saw that it was rather a paradise just wating to be explored by anyone brave enough to encounter the snakes, crocodiles and other interesting animals that may be guarding them.
Arriving, I chatted to someone who was a hasher - I spotted a bag some of my friends have. He had pink hair, lived in Australia and once he started, he wouldn’t stop talking. He ended by inviting me to join his business idea - didn’t entirely understand what it was about, but I think it involved an oil company that didn’t advertise… He wanted me to be at the top. He also liked to grab my arm and call me by my full name. We exited and I looked at my note-book - it told me I had to get to AA hotel first. I spotted someone holding the AA hotel sign up, and thinking he, like in manila, had a cart which was going in that direction, told him two people. Ava though, realised he was employed by the hotel and thought we were customers. When he returned I explained we want to go somewhere else though, he still seemed happy to take us, and we went inside to find out how extortionate the prices were, and then tried to book another tricycle to our couchsurfer. We had been told it should be 10p, so I asked each one for that price. They wouldn’t do it though, and after being approached by someone on the side, he asked another driver who took us for 15p. It seems there is a lot of back scratching going on with the philipinos - recommending their friends services etc. .
...tbc