Hong Kong & Manila trip report
My recent trip could be summed up like this:
good
-business class all the way!
-finding a coat I wanted for so long that I forgot I had wanted it
-business class lounge in the Hong Kong airport and the airport itself
-staying at the Pan Pacific hotel
-fireworks at new year's
-learning a new version of mah-jong
-NHK channel in the hotels
bad
-L'hotel
-8 hour bus ride to nowhere
-xxxx food in Taishan
-Hong Kong as fail shopping mecca
-malaria pills
-being dragged everywhere and consequently bored or forced to socialize
-eating too much
-no volcano trip
-body's overreaction to mosquito bites
-kaasan somehow choosing the slowest line every time at airports, immigration, &tc
-sharing meals with flies, ants, and cockroaches
ugly
-China (and some Hong Kong) bathrooms *shudders*
-sick to the point of passing out
-going to the hospital
Wednesday, December 19
I didn't end up packing much (no time left after the lost-wallet-must-replace-all-id fiasco) since we had been expecting to buy stuff in HK. ....er, more on that later.
We were at the terminal 3 at a decent hour and hung around the lounge for a short while. It wasn't bad but was smaller than I expected. I guess I had terminal 2's (RIP) lounge in my memory still. We got to our gate supposedly on time but the flight was delayed an hour. Departure time was around 1 am.
Business class was nice! Nicer than I remember because it was never that good before. :P They also try to personalize it a bit. The stewardesses (after looking up your name on a list) would introduce themselves to you, etc. As kaasan put it, after they pamper you so well in business class, you can't go back to economy. So long as I can get to Japan, economy is okay! Although, when the stewardness first saw me, she asked me how old I was now. =_=
I tried sleeping since it was late, but they fed us a ridiculous amount of food. You were so full you could barely sleep. We arrived at HK at 5 am and got to our hotel around 6:30 am.
Friday, December 21
We were staying at L'hotel. No one could pronounce it properly. We had to mispronounce it (L-hotel) just so people knew what we were talking about. ~_~ We didn't end up checking in until 3 hours later (they were supposedly cleaning the room...for 3 hours?? I call bs~~). After that, we set out to Macau because kaasan wanted to see her godmother. The ferry was different from what I remembered from 12 years ago but I can see now why dad got seasick that time. It was her godmother's daughter who picked us up and she's a little older than kaasan. She took my hand every time we crossed the street. I wanted to say "I'm old enough to cross the street on my own" but my Chinese isn't that good. :P
Later on, we went to Macau Fisherman's Wharf. I love that place! It's a cosplayer's dream! For photoshoots, anyway. :P It's like they took different parts of the world and mashed them into one place. An old Chinese-esque place right next to a volcano, which is next to an Aladdin-like place, which is near the Colisseum, &tc, &tc. The actual places themselves could hold shops or restaurants, and there's a casino in one of the buildings. And they're still building more to it. We didn't get to see too much of it in the end as we were taken on a drive around Macau and its different islands. Macau really is the Vegas of Asia. They have their own Venetian hotel that looks exactly like the one in Las Vegas.
We were dropped off at the ferry docks at around 7. Note that I've barely slept since before my flight and was dead tired. That's when we found out that there were no ferries available until 12:15 am. I nearly cried. We had to get "first class" tickets for the earliest ferry and even that wasn't until 9:45. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was close to midnight. A really, loooooooong day.
Saturday, December 22
We visited Uncle Tik Ming and Auntie Debbie, old family friends who had moved to China because of his job. I used to be babysat by them a lot and played with their son Christopher when I was a little kid (his sister Jessica wasn't born yet). I forgot he was 6 years younger than me and he's now much taller than me to boot. :P They took us around places like Mong Kok but we never really bought anything.
I just have to say that I love the subway in Hong Kong!! *_____* It's cheap, clean, and efficient! The TTC is none of those. And they really planned transfers very well! They're not on separate floors or anything. Nope, just walk right across to the other side! (That's probably the reason why when a line intersects, there's two stations that are connected.) The whole subway experience was even better after we got the octopus card. :D
Soon after, we met up with kaasan's cousin and went to have dinner at their place. They have the smallest bathroom I've ever seen. bathroom = shower-room. Kaasan's cousin showed her this family tree/genealogy(sp?) thing paid for by this person in the US who wanted to know more about our ancestors. He wasn't very familiar/didn't really talk to anyone from our branch, though. One of my uncle's names is wrong and the sons of my other uncles weren't listed (yeah, it only lists boys; girls never show up). What was really neat, though, was the naming of the children. There's a poem and one of the words becomes the first character in their name. The next generation takes the following word and so forth. That helped to map out who was part of what generation. We got our own copy of this family tree thing when we went to Taishan.
Sunday, December 23
Ah, Taishan. Our 4 our trip to nowhere. And that's just one way, not including the subway rides. The family on kaasan's side originates from Taishan. So she has always wanted to see the village that her father lived in briefly. Because it's our origins. Or something. ¬_¬ Yeah, I was, uh, clearly excited in going. =_= We met up with kaasan's cousin again (he was the only one that knew the way there) and hopped on board a bus to Taishan. We ate at a restaurant outside the village with a few people from the same village and/or nearby it. I didn't eat much, to say the least. My appetite was already really low, long before the dog meat showed up. This was the place with lots of flies, although we were told they were less than before. No offense, that didn't make it sound any better and there were still a lot.
We made our way to the village on foot. Passed by a lot of fat chickens and dogs (I couldn't help but think dogs were more than just back up food there =_=). One thing that's hard to miss is that there's an awful lot of garbage. And it'd be wrong to say it's the conditions they were living in. They were doing it themselves! At one point, after opening a plastic cookie package, they just threw it on the ground! =_____= Sure some of the garbage gets burned but not before the wind picks it up and carries it away. We finally reached our ancestor's house and it was really small (I was vaguely surprised because most of the other houses are much bigger). Ah, that's where the flying chicken thing came from. The next door neighbour who was sort of watching the house for us put her chickens in the long third room but one of them was loose. When they were setting up for...prayers (I don't know the English term for it), the chicken got frightened at the big group and was trying to get away so it kept flying back and forth over our heads before it hid in a corner. ^_^*
Some of the villagers were going through cupboards/chests/&tc in what would probably be the bedroom and found a lot of old photos and a really old note/bill. I'd have to check again, but it's probably from before China went Communist. Most of the photos were eaten up by bugs but we have some of them already. Kaasan took one of them back with her to show her siblings. In China, there's this rule that so long you have walls standing, you own that piece of land, no matter how decrepit. Once all the walls are down, it's government property. The house is still standing for the most part and would probably be "owned" by us for a good while yet, even if no one lives there anymore and no one (from our specific branch) is likely to ever live there.
After that, we trekked to the hill where some tombs were. Somehow, I wonder if it's more disrespectful than respectful to "pray" before graves of people you didn't even know existed up to that point or have no direct relation to you. Seems more superficial when done that way. :( We were probably there until 2:30-3 but we made our way back to the biggest town so we could leave. We had trouble getting tickets at first because they wouldn't take HK dollars (which is lower than Chinese yuan) but after a call to the person that drove us to the bus terminal, they changed money for us (kaasan was saying that was the good thing about villagers: more friendly, especially to those with some relations to). Villagers aside, any other place in mainland China, it was all "watch out! lots of bad people" reactions. ¬_¬ Our bus left a little after 4 but the driver was ridiculously fast! o_O Scary fast. At the China border side, 2 people never returned (you get off to pass immigrations then get back on) and the rest of the bus was getting restless and saying to just leave the behind. Hence my comment before about people's patience levels. After more fast driving, we made it back to HK around 9 and to the hotel around 11.
Monday, December 24 & Tuesday, December 25
We spent these two days shopping. Or, at least, trying to but totally failing. I was surprised when I ran into the same problems I have here, like sizing, style doesn't suit me, too expensive, &tc. We had our Christmas Eve din din with Uncle Tik Ming and his family again. Afterward, randomly, I found the kind of coat I wanted years ago but could never find. It's been so long I forgot about it and kaasan thought I already had one since I stopped mentioning it. We also found my replacement camera but they were out of stock. D: (My camera had been in my bag when it dropped on the MTR.) On the 25th, we got the camera from a different Fortress branch and it had lots of free extras, like memory, case, &tc. :D The salesperson could speak decent English and was super friendly, too (compared to all the other sales people we've come across so far). My photos from this trip are a mix of both old and new camera. 25th was also the day I had to start taking delicious malaria pills. :x
The temperature at this point was around 15-20 but there were so many people wearing winter coats and other stuff like scarves, gloves....and there I was running around in a t-shirt. :P The air con indoors was usually a little too nippy, though.
Wednesday, December 26
It wasn't hard to find the right bus to the airport but moving 3 luggage was a problem for us. Chinese people in general aren't very friendly, it seems (not basing this on one thing). When we were struggling to get our suitcases onto the bus, people were more exasperated than helpful when this old lady came out of nowhere and helped us load the luggage. I thought she was going to the airport, too, but then she just disappeared. ._. Uncle Tik Ming and Auntie Debbie had lunch with us at the airport and saw us off. Later on, when we saw how cool the business class lounge was, we almost wished we had lunch there instead. As it was, we had little time to enjoy the place because our gate was really far away.
Our plane was on time and we arrived early in Manila. My aunt called Manila airport the worst (of what she had been at during her recent Asia trip) and she wasn't that off. (Toronto was second worst, by the way.) They have built a new airport but aren't allowed to use it for lots of stupid political reasons. =3=
There's quite a few contradicting views of Filipinos here, I noticed. On one hand, they're very friendly and helpful. On the other hand, one has to be careful "because they have a tendency to steal things" (not my words). Practically every home has bars over their windows and barbed wire over tall cement fences isn't so unusual. The interesting(?) thing is, if a "big" house is built with tall fences and stuff but isn't behind a gated community/security guards, you can expect to see squatters' homes built right outside on their sidewalks. And because the owners don't own the sidewalks, they can't do anything nor will the government bother lifting a finger. Something else is that the drivers are crazy here! Or just really, really good at driving. :P Never before have I seen U-turns as part of directions. As well, why bother having seatbelts when no one uses them? (Only drivers and front seat passengers are required to wear them but police are so corrupt here that it still doesn't really matter). None of that "enough seatbelts per person" here. Packing 4-5 in the back is quite common.
Regarding transportation, there's a monorail (which I was told not to ride), plenty of jeepneys (which I was also told not to ride), and tricycles (wasn't told, but you get my drift). Jeepneys I remembered from my last trip. I was also given a model jeepney then. Tricycles...picture motorcycles with an attachment for passengers. But sometimes they aren't even motorcycles but bicycles, which makes it really difficult. ._. As well, there's a law that states, depending on the last number of your license plate, there's one day you're not allowed to drive your car. It was an attempt to limit the number of cars on the road but it totally failed. For one thing, it only applied from 7 to 7 so people just drove that much earlier or later. Second, those that could afford it just bought more cars. Speaking of cars, I also haven't seen that many Toyota Japanese cars in one place since Japan. There was only a handful of non-Japanese cars that I remember seeing.
Thursday, December 27 to Sunday, December 30
The temperature wasn't too bad, though I still found it too warm for my taste. Apparently it was a seasonal low (25-30). ._. Up until new year's, our stay in Manila felt the same. Or it did for me, anyway. It's been 12 years since the last time we were there so kaasan saw lots of people, from old close friends to even elementary school classmates (it was also interesting to find out how friends from one group might actually know friends from another group for whatever reason, like their kids going to same school, &tc). Her schedule was booked full. And, of course, I was obliged to tag along as photographer doll her daughter who couldn't speak any of their various Chinese dialects or Tagalog (I do much admire kaasan's language skills). These get togethers were almost always some lunch or dinner and we ate way too much. And I constantly got "you ate too little! eat more!" *food gets heaped onto my plate* ~_~
Her old, old friends were one thing, but I didn't mind meeting family. At least in this case, I've met them before, even if I don't really remember them. (Although I better match names to faces in my pics before I forget them again. :/) On the 30th, we had one big family get together at my cousin's house where we stayed. There's 12 of us cousins in the "same generation" but I guess I never felt particularly close to them because a) there's absolutely no proximity, and b) we're so far apart in age. Take away the oldest two (26 & 24 years my senior) and myself, and the other 9 were all born in the 70s. I've been the youngest for a long time but not anymore. My cousin has a 2-year-old boy. Are kids really that active these days? I got so dizzy watching him run around after dinner.
On one of those days, we went to "pray" at my grandparents' graves. Apparently this Chinese cemetary in Manila is the only kind in the world. No pictures were allowed so my camera never surfaced. But, geez, some people seem to really overdo it with the monuments, showing off by making them so big or detailed, etc. Some of the tombs were bigger than my home! =_= Only thing I discovered there was that I had other cousins that passed away soon after birth and no family there seemed to really remember the sixth son existed, the boy before kaasan. Maybe it was because he only lived for about a week or was never given a name, but he has no anything, nor is he listed on my grandparents' gravestones. Also, while I know they're family, I still have mixed feelings when I go to see graves like these. In the case of my grandparents, I never knew them. They only time they saw me was when I was 2 and both had passed away when I was 6 and 8. Dad's parents are much younger but due to the proximity thing again and the divorce, I don't know them either.
Monday, December 31
For new year's eve, we went to the new year's party at the Pan Pacific hotel. At this point, we had moved to stay with Uncle Henry and Auntie Miriam, another couple who had baby sat me and I had played with their 3-year younger daughter, Denise, way back when. Their son Jonathan wasn't born yet. Kaasan and I had expected at least a semi-formalish affair but a lot of guests just came in really casual clothes like jeans/t-shirt. So I was waaaay overdressed. :P The buffet dinner was okay (ditto with the buffet breakfast in the morning). When Auntie Miriam's mom asked me if I wanted to see the presidential suite, of course I said yes! So I went down with Jonathan to see it. It was...admittedly, really awkward at first because while I knew Auntie Miriam, I never knew her mother and vice versa. ^_^* But! Mah-jong is the perfect icebreaker! XD I learned a new version of the game that was actually quite fun. Now I just need someone to teach me how to calculate points in this version.
From the room you could already see fireworks. There were a lot~ We went up to the roof/helipad near the countdown to watch from up there. Unfortunately, newer buildings blocked some views of Manila Bay but we could still see most of the fireworks shot from there, amidst all the others. I don't really know how to describe it. They were just really beautiful. I've never seen a nice fireworks display, ever, outside of Symphony of Fire and that was just once. From where we were, you could see a really tall apartment building blocking the bay. In one of the units, they had sparklers. I was thinking that was kind of dangerous. And then they took out the fireworks. =_= I can't even imagine... And then, since they didn't manage to burn anything down, they did it again! Plus another 3 times! Ugh, whatever. XD Nothing bad happened, thankfully.
Tuesday, January 1
This was sort of a down day for me. I managed to get out of going anywhere and just lulled around the house and caught up on news (I subscribe to Toronto Star online) and did a bit of homework. After a while, I just had to go out so I watched Jonathan play basketball with his cousins for a while. I got a few mosquito bites then, probably because of where we were and my lack of bug-repellant lotion. After dinner, we also played another round of mah-jong with his cousins. I hung on to my supposed "beginner's luck" thankfully. :)
Wednesday, January 2
Since I got the monthly thing on this day, I wasn't made to go anywhere. I was doing my homework for a bit and was okay until late morning. I've never felt that sick since the last time I had the monthly thing + had consumed spoiled milk. It's really been a long time that I felt awful enough to practically pass out. I had taken midol, but it did absolutely nothing. When I came to, only the maids were around but I was feeling a ton better, enough to leave my room. Yet I thought I had gotten quite a few more mosquito bites during that time because my stomach was really itchy and seemed to be covered in bites. Kaasan returned when I was at the computer after 10 that night and, after looking at me, she asked me if I had a fever for some reason. I didn't. After I went back to my room, there was this burning sensation on my right cheek and when I checked, I wondered how I got more mosquito bites there. o_O Then the sensation continued and my entire right cheek was turning red. Kind of like hives? It was super itchy and I was freaking a little because I had no idea what had happened. Every time I felt that burning sensation, I knew where it had spread. I took a bunch of pics with my camera because I wanted to show a doctor or my doctor after I had returned. They took me to the hospital at once.
At the hospital, it was busy but it still wasn't very long before I was checked over I spent much of my time cursing the person that stole my wallet and, with it, my health card. It was determined that I had an allergic reaction but what was still unclear. Auntie Miriam commented, jokingly, that maybe I was allergic to the air in Philippines and I didn't want to tell her that that would make an awesome excuse for next time. All I could think at the time was that I wanted to get the heck out of that place and be at home. ;___; The doctor was going to have me stay at the hospital after they administered the shot but we managed to get them to allow me to go back to their home instead. I got to ride a real wheelchair! -because I was supposedly going to fall asleep right after getting said shot. (I didn't, but my body felt too heavy for me to move on my own.) Erm, I guess because even after my eye surgery a few years back, I didn't get to be wheeled out in a wheelchair but in one of the cheaper, smaller plastic things is why riding a real one was, uh, nice. :P I was in and out of the hospital in 10 minutes. Such a difference from Canada! I wouldn't have been deemed important enough to check on right away here. It just took a little longer for them to buy my perscribed medicine for the next few days.
Thursday, January 3
I was okayish in the morning. We were taken to the airport by one of their drivers and he was really nice. The business class lounge in this airport is a bit of a joke. I might've actually preferred not staying there. Our flight was delayed a bit. The business class seats on this plane differed from every other one we've been on. I really loved them because everything was within arm's reach and felt more private. Kaasan hated them because she felt rather claustrophobic and preferred the roomier feel of the other planes. The only downside I had with those seats was that because your seat was slanted, it felt super awkward during take-offs and landings.
After arriving in Hong Kong for our connection, we didn't think we'd be able to see the business class lounge again when we found out there was actually a second one and that was located right next to our gate. :D So of course we went! Kaasan and I got to talking for a bit and it was the most pleasant conversation we had the entire trip. :P Near departure time, we left and went to our gate. There were a lot of people lined up but no one boarding. Really, the last thing you want to hear is "airplane is broken" (in Chinese). ~_~ So we were told to sit tight for a bit as they were checking things. It was quite a while and then they told us to show our boarding passes to the nearby food places so we could get a free dinner. That's how you know it's going to be a longer delay, when you get free stuff. We went back to the lounge and ate dinner there (their croissants are soooo good). I think are plane was delayed about 2 hours before we finally took off.
Since we were going to ultimately arrive in Toronto at night, I went by the logic to stay awake for as long as I could so that I would fall asleep faster at home. With that in mind, I watched 4 movies on the plane. :) The first was a Japanese movie called The Bandage Club. I had no idea what to expect, but it was pretty good. The second was a Chinese movie directed by/starring Jay Chou. I watched it because the summary sounded kind of interesting. The story was not what I was expecting and not in a bad way. The ending was total cheese, though. The third movie was Stardust, another where I didn't know what to expect and rather liked it. I'd love to see the deleted scenes if it has more of the ghost peanut gallery. XD The last was the Chinese movie Invisible Target. I remembered hearing about it vaguely and was going to buy it eventually but figured I may as well watch it since I had time for another. It's another one of those cop movies and one I actually quite liked and while the ending wasn't unpredictable, there were a few unexpected things that happened.
We had a stop-over in Ancourage (we were on a non-direct flight going home) and we were supposed to be there for about an hour. Instead, some plane was making a not-so-emergency landing and that made all the planes grounded in the meantime. We finally did leave. Despite delays at every point, we managed to only be about an hour late arriving in Toronto. The final delay came with our luggage. Since we were in business class, we were off the plane before all others and passed customs fairly quickly. Yet we waited forever for our luggage to came out, despite priority baggage. Even the porters were confused as to why ours came so late. (We had to get porters because kaasan has zero Canadian dollars on her for carts. ...only Toronto makes you pay $2 for a cart when you arrive T_T; arrivals' carts are usually free). It was so nice to be home! The temperature felt so comfortable~
So after going to the doctor's on the Friday after I got back, she determined that the allergic reaction was to something I ate 2-3 days before the reaction occured (kaasan wondered if it might have been to the mosquito bite) and it was a kind of reaction that would resurface again though not as badly. Thus why I had to take the benodryl for a few days. And since we have no clue what it is I'm allergic to, I have to go in for an allergy test during reading week. That'll be so awesome, especially considering my skin's tendency to make even a simple bug bite much, much worse. DX
My pictures can be found here.
good
-business class all the way!
-finding a coat I wanted for so long that I forgot I had wanted it
-business class lounge in the Hong Kong airport and the airport itself
-staying at the Pan Pacific hotel
-fireworks at new year's
-learning a new version of mah-jong
-NHK channel in the hotels
bad
-L'hotel
-8 hour bus ride to nowhere
-xxxx food in Taishan
-Hong Kong as fail shopping mecca
-malaria pills
-being dragged everywhere and consequently bored or forced to socialize
-eating too much
-no volcano trip
-body's overreaction to mosquito bites
-kaasan somehow choosing the slowest line every time at airports, immigration, &tc
-sharing meals with flies, ants, and cockroaches
ugly
-China (and some Hong Kong) bathrooms *shudders*
-sick to the point of passing out
-going to the hospital
Wednesday, December 19
I didn't end up packing much (no time left after the lost-wallet-must-replace-all-id fiasco) since we had been expecting to buy stuff in HK. ....er, more on that later.
We were at the terminal 3 at a decent hour and hung around the lounge for a short while. It wasn't bad but was smaller than I expected. I guess I had terminal 2's (RIP) lounge in my memory still. We got to our gate supposedly on time but the flight was delayed an hour. Departure time was around 1 am.
Business class was nice! Nicer than I remember because it was never that good before. :P They also try to personalize it a bit. The stewardesses (after looking up your name on a list) would introduce themselves to you, etc. As kaasan put it, after they pamper you so well in business class, you can't go back to economy. So long as I can get to Japan, economy is okay! Although, when the stewardness first saw me, she asked me how old I was now. =_=
I tried sleeping since it was late, but they fed us a ridiculous amount of food. You were so full you could barely sleep. We arrived at HK at 5 am and got to our hotel around 6:30 am.
Friday, December 21
We were staying at L'hotel. No one could pronounce it properly. We had to mispronounce it (L-hotel) just so people knew what we were talking about. ~_~ We didn't end up checking in until 3 hours later (they were supposedly cleaning the room...for 3 hours?? I call bs~~). After that, we set out to Macau because kaasan wanted to see her godmother. The ferry was different from what I remembered from 12 years ago but I can see now why dad got seasick that time. It was her godmother's daughter who picked us up and she's a little older than kaasan. She took my hand every time we crossed the street. I wanted to say "I'm old enough to cross the street on my own" but my Chinese isn't that good. :P
Later on, we went to Macau Fisherman's Wharf. I love that place! It's a cosplayer's dream! For photoshoots, anyway. :P It's like they took different parts of the world and mashed them into one place. An old Chinese-esque place right next to a volcano, which is next to an Aladdin-like place, which is near the Colisseum, &tc, &tc. The actual places themselves could hold shops or restaurants, and there's a casino in one of the buildings. And they're still building more to it. We didn't get to see too much of it in the end as we were taken on a drive around Macau and its different islands. Macau really is the Vegas of Asia. They have their own Venetian hotel that looks exactly like the one in Las Vegas.
We were dropped off at the ferry docks at around 7. Note that I've barely slept since before my flight and was dead tired. That's when we found out that there were no ferries available until 12:15 am. I nearly cried. We had to get "first class" tickets for the earliest ferry and even that wasn't until 9:45. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was close to midnight. A really, loooooooong day.
Saturday, December 22
We visited Uncle Tik Ming and Auntie Debbie, old family friends who had moved to China because of his job. I used to be babysat by them a lot and played with their son Christopher when I was a little kid (his sister Jessica wasn't born yet). I forgot he was 6 years younger than me and he's now much taller than me to boot. :P They took us around places like Mong Kok but we never really bought anything.
I just have to say that I love the subway in Hong Kong!! *_____* It's cheap, clean, and efficient! The TTC is none of those. And they really planned transfers very well! They're not on separate floors or anything. Nope, just walk right across to the other side! (That's probably the reason why when a line intersects, there's two stations that are connected.) The whole subway experience was even better after we got the octopus card. :D
Soon after, we met up with kaasan's cousin and went to have dinner at their place. They have the smallest bathroom I've ever seen. bathroom = shower-room. Kaasan's cousin showed her this family tree/genealogy(sp?) thing paid for by this person in the US who wanted to know more about our ancestors. He wasn't very familiar/didn't really talk to anyone from our branch, though. One of my uncle's names is wrong and the sons of my other uncles weren't listed (yeah, it only lists boys; girls never show up). What was really neat, though, was the naming of the children. There's a poem and one of the words becomes the first character in their name. The next generation takes the following word and so forth. That helped to map out who was part of what generation. We got our own copy of this family tree thing when we went to Taishan.
Sunday, December 23
Ah, Taishan. Our 4 our trip to nowhere. And that's just one way, not including the subway rides. The family on kaasan's side originates from Taishan. So she has always wanted to see the village that her father lived in briefly. Because it's our origins. Or something. ¬_¬ Yeah, I was, uh, clearly excited in going. =_= We met up with kaasan's cousin again (he was the only one that knew the way there) and hopped on board a bus to Taishan. We ate at a restaurant outside the village with a few people from the same village and/or nearby it. I didn't eat much, to say the least. My appetite was already really low, long before the dog meat showed up. This was the place with lots of flies, although we were told they were less than before. No offense, that didn't make it sound any better and there were still a lot.
We made our way to the village on foot. Passed by a lot of fat chickens and dogs (I couldn't help but think dogs were more than just back up food there =_=). One thing that's hard to miss is that there's an awful lot of garbage. And it'd be wrong to say it's the conditions they were living in. They were doing it themselves! At one point, after opening a plastic cookie package, they just threw it on the ground! =_____= Sure some of the garbage gets burned but not before the wind picks it up and carries it away. We finally reached our ancestor's house and it was really small (I was vaguely surprised because most of the other houses are much bigger). Ah, that's where the flying chicken thing came from. The next door neighbour who was sort of watching the house for us put her chickens in the long third room but one of them was loose. When they were setting up for...prayers (I don't know the English term for it), the chicken got frightened at the big group and was trying to get away so it kept flying back and forth over our heads before it hid in a corner. ^_^*
Some of the villagers were going through cupboards/chests/&tc in what would probably be the bedroom and found a lot of old photos and a really old note/bill. I'd have to check again, but it's probably from before China went Communist. Most of the photos were eaten up by bugs but we have some of them already. Kaasan took one of them back with her to show her siblings. In China, there's this rule that so long you have walls standing, you own that piece of land, no matter how decrepit. Once all the walls are down, it's government property. The house is still standing for the most part and would probably be "owned" by us for a good while yet, even if no one lives there anymore and no one (from our specific branch) is likely to ever live there.
After that, we trekked to the hill where some tombs were. Somehow, I wonder if it's more disrespectful than respectful to "pray" before graves of people you didn't even know existed up to that point or have no direct relation to you. Seems more superficial when done that way. :( We were probably there until 2:30-3 but we made our way back to the biggest town so we could leave. We had trouble getting tickets at first because they wouldn't take HK dollars (which is lower than Chinese yuan) but after a call to the person that drove us to the bus terminal, they changed money for us (kaasan was saying that was the good thing about villagers: more friendly, especially to those with some relations to). Villagers aside, any other place in mainland China, it was all "watch out! lots of bad people" reactions. ¬_¬ Our bus left a little after 4 but the driver was ridiculously fast! o_O Scary fast. At the China border side, 2 people never returned (you get off to pass immigrations then get back on) and the rest of the bus was getting restless and saying to just leave the behind. Hence my comment before about people's patience levels. After more fast driving, we made it back to HK around 9 and to the hotel around 11.
Monday, December 24 & Tuesday, December 25
We spent these two days shopping. Or, at least, trying to but totally failing. I was surprised when I ran into the same problems I have here, like sizing, style doesn't suit me, too expensive, &tc. We had our Christmas Eve din din with Uncle Tik Ming and his family again. Afterward, randomly, I found the kind of coat I wanted years ago but could never find. It's been so long I forgot about it and kaasan thought I already had one since I stopped mentioning it. We also found my replacement camera but they were out of stock. D: (My camera had been in my bag when it dropped on the MTR.) On the 25th, we got the camera from a different Fortress branch and it had lots of free extras, like memory, case, &tc. :D The salesperson could speak decent English and was super friendly, too (compared to all the other sales people we've come across so far). My photos from this trip are a mix of both old and new camera. 25th was also the day I had to start taking delicious malaria pills. :x
The temperature at this point was around 15-20 but there were so many people wearing winter coats and other stuff like scarves, gloves....and there I was running around in a t-shirt. :P The air con indoors was usually a little too nippy, though.
Wednesday, December 26
It wasn't hard to find the right bus to the airport but moving 3 luggage was a problem for us. Chinese people in general aren't very friendly, it seems (not basing this on one thing). When we were struggling to get our suitcases onto the bus, people were more exasperated than helpful when this old lady came out of nowhere and helped us load the luggage. I thought she was going to the airport, too, but then she just disappeared. ._. Uncle Tik Ming and Auntie Debbie had lunch with us at the airport and saw us off. Later on, when we saw how cool the business class lounge was, we almost wished we had lunch there instead. As it was, we had little time to enjoy the place because our gate was really far away.
Our plane was on time and we arrived early in Manila. My aunt called Manila airport the worst (of what she had been at during her recent Asia trip) and she wasn't that off. (Toronto was second worst, by the way.) They have built a new airport but aren't allowed to use it for lots of stupid political reasons. =3=
There's quite a few contradicting views of Filipinos here, I noticed. On one hand, they're very friendly and helpful. On the other hand, one has to be careful "because they have a tendency to steal things" (not my words). Practically every home has bars over their windows and barbed wire over tall cement fences isn't so unusual. The interesting(?) thing is, if a "big" house is built with tall fences and stuff but isn't behind a gated community/security guards, you can expect to see squatters' homes built right outside on their sidewalks. And because the owners don't own the sidewalks, they can't do anything nor will the government bother lifting a finger. Something else is that the drivers are crazy here! Or just really, really good at driving. :P Never before have I seen U-turns as part of directions. As well, why bother having seatbelts when no one uses them? (Only drivers and front seat passengers are required to wear them but police are so corrupt here that it still doesn't really matter). None of that "enough seatbelts per person" here. Packing 4-5 in the back is quite common.
Regarding transportation, there's a monorail (which I was told not to ride), plenty of jeepneys (which I was also told not to ride), and tricycles (wasn't told, but you get my drift). Jeepneys I remembered from my last trip. I was also given a model jeepney then. Tricycles...picture motorcycles with an attachment for passengers. But sometimes they aren't even motorcycles but bicycles, which makes it really difficult. ._. As well, there's a law that states, depending on the last number of your license plate, there's one day you're not allowed to drive your car. It was an attempt to limit the number of cars on the road but it totally failed. For one thing, it only applied from 7 to 7 so people just drove that much earlier or later. Second, those that could afford it just bought more cars. Speaking of cars, I also haven't seen that many Toyota Japanese cars in one place since Japan. There was only a handful of non-Japanese cars that I remember seeing.
Thursday, December 27 to Sunday, December 30
The temperature wasn't too bad, though I still found it too warm for my taste. Apparently it was a seasonal low (25-30). ._. Up until new year's, our stay in Manila felt the same. Or it did for me, anyway. It's been 12 years since the last time we were there so kaasan saw lots of people, from old close friends to even elementary school classmates (it was also interesting to find out how friends from one group might actually know friends from another group for whatever reason, like their kids going to same school, &tc). Her schedule was booked full. And, of course, I was obliged to tag along as photographer doll her daughter who couldn't speak any of their various Chinese dialects or Tagalog (I do much admire kaasan's language skills). These get togethers were almost always some lunch or dinner and we ate way too much. And I constantly got "you ate too little! eat more!" *food gets heaped onto my plate* ~_~
Her old, old friends were one thing, but I didn't mind meeting family. At least in this case, I've met them before, even if I don't really remember them. (Although I better match names to faces in my pics before I forget them again. :/) On the 30th, we had one big family get together at my cousin's house where we stayed. There's 12 of us cousins in the "same generation" but I guess I never felt particularly close to them because a) there's absolutely no proximity, and b) we're so far apart in age. Take away the oldest two (26 & 24 years my senior) and myself, and the other 9 were all born in the 70s. I've been the youngest for a long time but not anymore. My cousin has a 2-year-old boy. Are kids really that active these days? I got so dizzy watching him run around after dinner.
On one of those days, we went to "pray" at my grandparents' graves. Apparently this Chinese cemetary in Manila is the only kind in the world. No pictures were allowed so my camera never surfaced. But, geez, some people seem to really overdo it with the monuments, showing off by making them so big or detailed, etc. Some of the tombs were bigger than my home! =_= Only thing I discovered there was that I had other cousins that passed away soon after birth and no family there seemed to really remember the sixth son existed, the boy before kaasan. Maybe it was because he only lived for about a week or was never given a name, but he has no anything, nor is he listed on my grandparents' gravestones. Also, while I know they're family, I still have mixed feelings when I go to see graves like these. In the case of my grandparents, I never knew them. They only time they saw me was when I was 2 and both had passed away when I was 6 and 8. Dad's parents are much younger but due to the proximity thing again and the divorce, I don't know them either.
Monday, December 31
For new year's eve, we went to the new year's party at the Pan Pacific hotel. At this point, we had moved to stay with Uncle Henry and Auntie Miriam, another couple who had baby sat me and I had played with their 3-year younger daughter, Denise, way back when. Their son Jonathan wasn't born yet. Kaasan and I had expected at least a semi-formalish affair but a lot of guests just came in really casual clothes like jeans/t-shirt. So I was waaaay overdressed. :P The buffet dinner was okay (ditto with the buffet breakfast in the morning). When Auntie Miriam's mom asked me if I wanted to see the presidential suite, of course I said yes! So I went down with Jonathan to see it. It was...admittedly, really awkward at first because while I knew Auntie Miriam, I never knew her mother and vice versa. ^_^* But! Mah-jong is the perfect icebreaker! XD I learned a new version of the game that was actually quite fun. Now I just need someone to teach me how to calculate points in this version.
From the room you could already see fireworks. There were a lot~ We went up to the roof/helipad near the countdown to watch from up there. Unfortunately, newer buildings blocked some views of Manila Bay but we could still see most of the fireworks shot from there, amidst all the others. I don't really know how to describe it. They were just really beautiful. I've never seen a nice fireworks display, ever, outside of Symphony of Fire and that was just once. From where we were, you could see a really tall apartment building blocking the bay. In one of the units, they had sparklers. I was thinking that was kind of dangerous. And then they took out the fireworks. =_= I can't even imagine... And then, since they didn't manage to burn anything down, they did it again! Plus another 3 times! Ugh, whatever. XD Nothing bad happened, thankfully.
Tuesday, January 1
This was sort of a down day for me. I managed to get out of going anywhere and just lulled around the house and caught up on news (I subscribe to Toronto Star online) and did a bit of homework. After a while, I just had to go out so I watched Jonathan play basketball with his cousins for a while. I got a few mosquito bites then, probably because of where we were and my lack of bug-repellant lotion. After dinner, we also played another round of mah-jong with his cousins. I hung on to my supposed "beginner's luck" thankfully. :)
Wednesday, January 2
Since I got the monthly thing on this day, I wasn't made to go anywhere. I was doing my homework for a bit and was okay until late morning. I've never felt that sick since the last time I had the monthly thing + had consumed spoiled milk. It's really been a long time that I felt awful enough to practically pass out. I had taken midol, but it did absolutely nothing. When I came to, only the maids were around but I was feeling a ton better, enough to leave my room. Yet I thought I had gotten quite a few more mosquito bites during that time because my stomach was really itchy and seemed to be covered in bites. Kaasan returned when I was at the computer after 10 that night and, after looking at me, she asked me if I had a fever for some reason. I didn't. After I went back to my room, there was this burning sensation on my right cheek and when I checked, I wondered how I got more mosquito bites there. o_O Then the sensation continued and my entire right cheek was turning red. Kind of like hives? It was super itchy and I was freaking a little because I had no idea what had happened. Every time I felt that burning sensation, I knew where it had spread. I took a bunch of pics with my camera because I wanted to show a doctor or my doctor after I had returned. They took me to the hospital at once.
At the hospital, it was busy but it still wasn't very long before I was checked over I spent much of my time cursing the person that stole my wallet and, with it, my health card. It was determined that I had an allergic reaction but what was still unclear. Auntie Miriam commented, jokingly, that maybe I was allergic to the air in Philippines and I didn't want to tell her that that would make an awesome excuse for next time. All I could think at the time was that I wanted to get the heck out of that place and be at home. ;___; The doctor was going to have me stay at the hospital after they administered the shot but we managed to get them to allow me to go back to their home instead. I got to ride a real wheelchair! -because I was supposedly going to fall asleep right after getting said shot. (I didn't, but my body felt too heavy for me to move on my own.) Erm, I guess because even after my eye surgery a few years back, I didn't get to be wheeled out in a wheelchair but in one of the cheaper, smaller plastic things is why riding a real one was, uh, nice. :P I was in and out of the hospital in 10 minutes. Such a difference from Canada! I wouldn't have been deemed important enough to check on right away here. It just took a little longer for them to buy my perscribed medicine for the next few days.
Thursday, January 3
I was okayish in the morning. We were taken to the airport by one of their drivers and he was really nice. The business class lounge in this airport is a bit of a joke. I might've actually preferred not staying there. Our flight was delayed a bit. The business class seats on this plane differed from every other one we've been on. I really loved them because everything was within arm's reach and felt more private. Kaasan hated them because she felt rather claustrophobic and preferred the roomier feel of the other planes. The only downside I had with those seats was that because your seat was slanted, it felt super awkward during take-offs and landings.
After arriving in Hong Kong for our connection, we didn't think we'd be able to see the business class lounge again when we found out there was actually a second one and that was located right next to our gate. :D So of course we went! Kaasan and I got to talking for a bit and it was the most pleasant conversation we had the entire trip. :P Near departure time, we left and went to our gate. There were a lot of people lined up but no one boarding. Really, the last thing you want to hear is "airplane is broken" (in Chinese). ~_~ So we were told to sit tight for a bit as they were checking things. It was quite a while and then they told us to show our boarding passes to the nearby food places so we could get a free dinner. That's how you know it's going to be a longer delay, when you get free stuff. We went back to the lounge and ate dinner there (their croissants are soooo good). I think are plane was delayed about 2 hours before we finally took off.
Since we were going to ultimately arrive in Toronto at night, I went by the logic to stay awake for as long as I could so that I would fall asleep faster at home. With that in mind, I watched 4 movies on the plane. :) The first was a Japanese movie called The Bandage Club. I had no idea what to expect, but it was pretty good. The second was a Chinese movie directed by/starring Jay Chou. I watched it because the summary sounded kind of interesting. The story was not what I was expecting and not in a bad way. The ending was total cheese, though. The third movie was Stardust, another where I didn't know what to expect and rather liked it. I'd love to see the deleted scenes if it has more of the ghost peanut gallery. XD The last was the Chinese movie Invisible Target. I remembered hearing about it vaguely and was going to buy it eventually but figured I may as well watch it since I had time for another. It's another one of those cop movies and one I actually quite liked and while the ending wasn't unpredictable, there were a few unexpected things that happened.
We had a stop-over in Ancourage (we were on a non-direct flight going home) and we were supposed to be there for about an hour. Instead, some plane was making a not-so-emergency landing and that made all the planes grounded in the meantime. We finally did leave. Despite delays at every point, we managed to only be about an hour late arriving in Toronto. The final delay came with our luggage. Since we were in business class, we were off the plane before all others and passed customs fairly quickly. Yet we waited forever for our luggage to came out, despite priority baggage. Even the porters were confused as to why ours came so late. (We had to get porters because kaasan has zero Canadian dollars on her for carts. ...only Toronto makes you pay $2 for a cart when you arrive T_T; arrivals' carts are usually free). It was so nice to be home! The temperature felt so comfortable~
So after going to the doctor's on the Friday after I got back, she determined that the allergic reaction was to something I ate 2-3 days before the reaction occured (kaasan wondered if it might have been to the mosquito bite) and it was a kind of reaction that would resurface again though not as badly. Thus why I had to take the benodryl for a few days. And since we have no clue what it is I'm allergic to, I have to go in for an allergy test during reading week. That'll be so awesome, especially considering my skin's tendency to make even a simple bug bite much, much worse. DX
My pictures can be found here.