+++ DoeWelEnZieNietOm +++

Since it's Equinox in Thailand, it's hot hot hot .... and we'll be leaving tonight for Bahrain and then Athens!

I'm sitting in the hotellounge now, sipping my cappucino & Perrier ... and it's almost time to grab the hotel limo & drive to the airport, 30 minutes of relaxing left :-)

While I'm relaxing here, some things to be remembered:

* cars in BKK don't like hills. Our taxi needed multiple attempts to climb up the small bump on the entrance of the hotel. While we were driving on a flyover in BKK (they only have 2 lanes, one for each direction of the traffic), we spotted a huge standstill in the opposite direction, caused by ... a car that couldn't make it uphill on the flyover, it was just standing still there ... and no way for the cars behind to pass it. I wonder how this Gordian Knot got resolved! Did they push the standing-still-car over the edge to clear the path?

* paté in BKK is only so-so. Our yesterday dinner with Kevin was lovely, and I normally try out the paté when I visit a restaurant for the first time, and it was not bad, just so-so. Too much pepper to my taste (what did they have to hide?) and not enough other sensations. Paté is obviously not an Asian dish :-) HL confirmed that his dish (recommended by Kevin) was delicious!

* Alyssa gave us a tip for next-time-shopping: Platinum Mall, opposite of Amari Watergate. Original copies of the real stuff at local prices ... not to be missed by HL!

* young monks in BKK don't like to be photographed. They shy away. No idea why, they are cute!

* Thai people smile to much to hide the fact that they didn't understand you (said Kevin). Or they don't know the answer. Their best reply is a huge smile :-)

* The hotel here (Méridien) is cutting down on costs ... and the staff suffers. Before the crisis, the staff had a very nice choice of food in the cantine. Nowadays, it's only one dish, and sometimes the same dish day after day after day. An occupancy of 10 to 20% does seem to leave some marks ...

* The hotel in Hua Hin has no choice but to bring in more wedding parties. Without them, the financial goal cannot be reached. The staff will have a hard time in calming down the normal guests! And HL should explicitely ask - before booking - if there's a wedding planned ...

* BKK at the equinox is deadly. Be sure to have at least 1 liter of water per person with you, when you go out. Inbetween, buy new cold water and refresh yourself regurarely. The heat is sucking every drop of liquid out of your body. We saw many tourists and locals suffering, their faces all red and blown up. It's life-threatening.
Positive aspect: the pool is gorgeous! So nice to swim under the sun, in warm water, and noone else around :-)

huggies,

PB
.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

to vaio or not to vaio, that is the question!

To vaio? What does that mean? hehe! It means that my Sony Vaio (having problems from the early beginning) finally got a repair here in the Sony Repair Center in Bangkok! It wasn't easy though: we went there at 10 a.m., and we came back at 4 p.m. .... that's 6 hours of going there and coming back, and waiting inbetween, and testing the repair of that moment, and sending it back to further repair. But it was quite interesting. Not only we saw (and chatted with) so many people who had problems with their vaio computer (fortunately all solved on the spot, though not necessarily cheap! e.g. the guy who had the screen replaced for 29.000 bath ....) but we also had a stroll in the nearby area, visiting the very cheap neighbourhoods in wooden houses on the slopes of the river, built on standing still water, a perfect place to breed mosquitos and other unpleasant environmental aspects, with narrow streets and remarquably clean and not smelly at all!
The Sony Center is next to the ItaloBuilding on the New Petchbury Road, all the taxidrivers know that landmark.

In the Sony Center, a cute caucasian guy approached me, asking if I were a tourist or a resident there ... because he's tired of teaching English, and he's searching for someone who can hire him at a very cheap rate ... it's crisis indeed, when even the caucasians start to sell themselves cheap ...

On the Sony building, there is quite a huge pond with extremely huge fishes ... so everybody who's waiting for a repair and who wants to have a smoke, pops outside and sits there ... excellent stuff to make pictures :-)

But I'm still not convinced if Sony is such a good brand for computers, given the endless stream of problems and defaults, rolling in there ... then again, what brand is problemfree?

While sitting in the lounge here, enjoying our evening snacks & drinks, A.P. popped in at yahoo. We agreed upon a parcel of land to be bought in the Phils, but suddenly all the preparations go about something totally different, where it is clear that the seller is trying to mislead him (and me) and tries to sell the less valuable land at the given price. That is so unfair, I hate those kinds of so called misunderstandings. We agree upon a given solution, and at the end something totally different pops up, clearly in our financial disadvantage. Why do some people keep on thinking that we're tourists, and thus stupid? My confidence is this seller is completely gone, and I was quite disappointed in A.P. ... how can he defend his rights when even beforehand he admits to be the looser?

Anyway, in a couple of days we're out of Asia, and back in the harsh jungle of good old Europe, where liars and thieves are daily meals :-)

And now, let's jump into the single malt :-)

blub blub blub :-)
.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Dear Bangkok? A Deer in Bangkok!

Never ever in our whole life we would have expected to see a living deer on the streets of Bangkok! Well, today was the day! We went to the Sony Center (my Vaio has sound problems) to check if they could be of help (they will, we'll go back there tomorrow) and after stepping out of the taxi, and proceeding to the entrance door, The Bangkok Deer looked us in the eye! Woohoo, for a moment we thought we were beamed up to the German Forests! What an "Aha Erlebnis" !!!

And it was hot today, my dear, so hot, that even the locals were suffering and fanning themselves and sweating like never before. In this heat, it's impossible to start a revolution :-)

After our Sonyvisit (I was quite impressed by their professionalism, Japan clearly has a good influence on Thailand), we strolled to the nearby Wat Mai Chong Lom. The word "Mai" can have 4 meanings in Thai language, so I'm not guessing which one it is in the name of this temple! Very nice, but urgent renovation required, and it looks they are going to do it.

Then back to the hotel, by taxi ... if we find one! The first empty taxi stops, but the driver doesn't like to bring us where we want to be, he mumbles something about "traffic jam" and drives away. The second one is more kind, at least he admits not knowing where our hotel is. No problem, I'll show him the way! A swift ride :-)

A short rest, and hop hop hop shopping time! To ZEN now, once again by the SkyWalk. Buying underwear (what they have here, we don't find in Belgium) and a gift for Alyssa (a very cute black purse from HL's favorite designer ... guess who she is? Does VW sounds a bell other then VolksWagen?).

The evening will be filled with our usual routine: swimming, enjoying the lounge, watching a movie/DVD. I hope you enjoy the evening as much as we do !!!

huggies,

PB
.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Songkran War (The Five Dangerous Days of Songkran)

As hoped for, the Sri Lanka flight was excellent, good food, splendid champagne, but a female trainee as hostess, too bad the cute male steward (no doubt a PLU) was serving the economy class :-)

Upon arrival in the Méridien, we got our suite 2101, and the lounge gave us a special Sonkran reception: although the snacks hour was long passed, we were sprayed with huge single malts and dry martinis - fortunately in a glass!

Reading the Bangkok Post of today, there are some articles that are worth summarizing, about the last problems in Bangkok:

Alan Dawson remarked: 4 people died and 123 were hurt in five days of political violence and army crackdown nationwide. But in the "five dangerous days of Songkran" (plus two holidays), 373 people died in traffic accidents and 4.332 were injured.

Another reporter informs:
* hundreds of thuggish men, armed with axes, machetes and other weapons, attempting to take over Bangkok;
* an angry mob trying to kidnap Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and breaking the ribs of his secretary general Niphon Phromphan;
* gas trucks planted in different areas in Bangkok (their explosions could wipe out entire city blocks);
* and the final question and answer of the reporter Voranai Vaijaka: People's revolution? Nope, mob rule.

The last remark is interesting. What is the difference between a people's revolution and the mob rule? As far as I can remember, the mob is always used in people's revolutions to be served as cannon meat?

Meanwhile, enjoy with us the single malt and dry martini of Le Méridien! And the swimming pool, of course!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

flight through the rainclouds

and here we are again, sitting in the airport, waiting for the flight to BKK!

Finally we managed to phone first to Lee, since we didn't hear from him for quite a while already. So we have spent our last phonecredits on him, to know if he was doing alright ... and he explained that he has spent a month in hospital! But he's doing fine now, oooofff !!!

This morning, we searched for a shop SPY by Henry Lau .... quite an adventure in HongKong, to find hidden shops hahaha! The only info that we got was, that the shop was located on the 4th floor in a certain street, but only a small sidestreet, not the main street! After much going back and forth, we finally managed to locate the shop ... and it was closed :-) on Saturdays, only open at 15 pm hehe! That was exactly the time that the hotel limousine would bring us to the airport, so we'll still have to discover this shop!

Our friend in the hotel, Jay (his picture is not published in my picasaweb but he's cute!) told us that this was a very interesting shop! And there is another SPY in Soho (where we strolled yesterday night, but we didn't see that shop) plus some more shops in the Soho area, anyway, we exchanged email addresses and he'll give us a full update of our "to-do-list" !

The lounge here in the airport is very spacious, with a limited but nice choice of food and drinks. Ample space, and isn't space the new luxury?

Ah, before I forget! In case you don't find the HongKong pictures anymore in Picasaweb, I'm very sorry! For one reason or another Picasa burped and made a new folder ... so go for:
http://picasaweb.google.com/paulbavo2009/HongKongMacauApril200902#
instead of the former:
http://picasaweb.google.com/paulbavo2009/HongKongMacauApril2009#

Weird huh? I don't know what happened ... let's just hope that the airplane won't have such weird behaviour! A bit anxioux though, since the sky here in HK is dark and it's raining quite heavy. Gliding to BKK instead of flying? Come and see tomorrow for a detailed report!

.

Friday, April 17, 2009

The End Is Near ...

yep, that's what it is: the end of our travel is coming near. Today is our last day in Hong Kong, tomorrow we're off to Bangkok, then Athens, and then back home. It was great so far!

What did we do for the last days? Walking and walking, sidestreets and small alleys, sniffing life in this extraordinary city. HL bought himself a stamp with his name in chinese (you know, those red stamps that chinese still use to sign contracts), I got my new toy (a camera) and today I even managed to get a spare battery (which is necessary because this toy is hungry for energy!). We strolled mostly in the Mong Kok area of Kowloon, very authentic chinese.

Overall, I'm impressed by the efficiency of the Hongkies, they know how to get things done (e.g. find this spare battery, justt new on the market). No wonder that their living standerd is comparable to Western Europe. And for HL's tiny bladder, it's a blessing that there are public toilets everywhere: try to find that in Europe!

Today we took the train to Mong Kok East (don't think we are getting lazy: we WALKED all the way back to the hotel), all brand new, shiny and clean, lovely. We bought the spare battery in the Grand Century shopping mall there, and then we walked partly back by the sidestreets of Nathan Road (sidestreets, since the main road is really horrible with all that traffic and persistant Indian boys dragging you to an Indian tailor) and at the park we went left to Chatham Road South ... where HL found an outlet store packed with designers brands at bottom prices ... for less then 100 euro he managed to get not less then 5 pieces hehe ! I'm sure now he loves Hong Kong!

I searched on internet where the gay area here might be, and Utopia directed me to Lan Kwai Fong, on the central island, nearby Central MTR station. We went there this evening, not for sexual reasons hehe, but because the gay districts everywhere are normally quite interesting and fashionable. We were not disappointed: a huge rolling path brought us up the mountain, and from there we did our descent by walking. No gay venues found though, but lots of interesting stuff, art, fashion, restaurants ... we had a bite in the Tsui Wah restaurant, packed with people: the groundfloor and 1st floor were already full, we had to climb to the 2nd floor to find a table! The service was swift and accurate, and for a total sum of 7 euro we had a delicious meal.

There is still so much that we haven't seen in Hong Kong: the temples on the New Territories, the islands of Landu and Lamma, ... if we ever come back, our program will be packed :-)

Although I don't know if we'll stay in the Sheraton ... the complimentary breakfast here is very basic (e.g. no eggs) although the suite is small but cosy and quiet at night (thanks to the double door) and the pool is lovely (28°C) and the jacuzzi's are splendid (but not as glamourous as in the Intercontinental!).

And now it's almost midnight ... HL is already sleeping, and I'll hop to bed too !

nitey nitey :-)

.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3

Today I finished the courtpapers yippeeeeee!!!!! wow, I felt so tired afterwards, do you have that too, this sudden wave of "fatigue" once a long job is done? After finishing the papers I slept for 2 hours in daylight hehe!

Meanwhile, what did we do the last 2 days, apart of office work? Swim, eat, drink & stroll around :-) For being such small 2 islands, Macau really has a lot to offer for its visitors. And that will even improve in the future: Mainland China decided to expand Macau, in order to diversify its economy, and a huge part of a nearby island (twice the sice of Macau, I've been told!) will be joined to Macau and be governed by Macau rules (one country, two systems). Alexander from the concierge desk confined me that he's eyeing on buying a house already there on those new lands, he says it's so cheap compared to the Macau prices and he expects the prices to go up very fast.

Anyway, I won't participate in this. Although lovely, Macau will not be one of our second homes. The choices have been set on Penang & KL, the Philippines, and (whenever stability returns) Thailand. Do I hear you cheer?

Oh, a quick word on the camera search! This is really a problem, since new camera's are rolling in at a speed that's too fast to follow. Nevertheless, I will forgo the bulky but lovely G1 and stick with the handy pocket cameras. My choice for the moment is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, at a price here in Macau of 3.809 (roughly 380 euro). It has all my heart desires except a SLR system, and I can live with that. I'll hunt for it tomorrow in Hong Kong! It's brand new, probably even not available in Europe yet :-)

:-)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sunday is haircut

Yesterday and today (after my officework) we strolled in Macau. I'm so surprised to see that the island actually is very small: provided you like to walk for a couple of hours (like we do), all is within walking distance!

Saturday we walked from the seaport, over the skywalk, along the reservoir, all the length of the Avenida de Horta e Costa, then passing the Kiang Wu hospital, mountain up to the landmark of Macau: the front of the Saint Pauls Cathedral. Impressive, how asian and western styles are mixed in that part of the church (the rest was destroyed by fire). Then shopping (still searching for a good camera, but I haven't found any yet!) in the new shopping mall ... nothing much, compared to shopping in HongKong, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur!

Sunday (happy Easter!) we walked the south of Macau, from the famous A-Am temple all the way up to Senado Square. Inbetween, HL had a haircut in the most extraordinary hairsaloon one can imagine: just a container in a lost corner, all very rudimental but the job was well done for 30 Patacas (3 euro). In the sidestreets of the Avenida Ribeirio (opposite of the busstop), the Hongkie Easter Tourists were lining up for some restaurants and candy shops, standing in line is obviously a national sport for tourists :-)

Back in the hotel, HL already booked the tickets from Stockholm to Kuala Lumpur, for the end of this year (special promotion from Malaysia Airlines, better book quickly before the promo is over !), and we enjoyed the Madagascar II movie in the garden of the hotel, free open-air cinema!

And now an early sleep, I want to be fresh tomorrow to work on some courtpapers that need to be ready upon return to the office!

.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Friday on your knees

Today is Good Friday: the Catholics remember today that Jesus was nailed on the cross and died. A lot of other religions wonder why the Catholics use that cross as the sign of their belief: why use the pain and death as your publicity board? Early Christians didn't do it, they choose other symbols. It would be interesting to see when the cross as a worldwide symbol was used by the church, and why. Anyway, today is the day of the Cross.

And we are in a former Portuguese colony, drenched in old-time-roman-catholicism, so I went searching for a spot where the Good Old Roman Catholic Traditions were still 'en vogue'. I was advised: go to the cathedral, there will be a procession at 3 p.m.

Hop we went to Macau centre with the 1.30 h. shuttle! A quick doublecheck at the touristic center, oops, it starts at 4 p.m. No harm done, we'll stroll in the old part of Macau, and indeed, a wonderful stroll it was.

3.45 p.m. we were at the cathedral, to find out that actually the holy mass started at 4 p.m., and no procession was in sight. So we decided to be good christians, and attend the mass, which was all in Portuguese language, pleasant to hear. The cathedral was fuller then full, people were standing on the street (us included), attending the mass.

5 p.m. passed by, the ceremony of the kissing of the wounds started: a rush to the several crosses spreaded all over the cathedral. Around 5.30, the preparations for the procession started. HL promised me that this was the last time he ever wanted to participate in a roman catholic celebration hehe! Poor HL, although my feet were hurting too :-)

The procession was in full glory. A statue of Jesus, laying dead and waiting to be put in his grave, was carried around the town. The Police Brass Band followed Jesus, first only sounding the drum, lateron playing funeral music (see my youtube page, as soon as the movies are uploaded!). Quite impressive. Even more impressive, the hundreds of people following the procession, walking behind the representation of Christ's dead body. A woman sinking on her knees. Grim faces everywhere: Our Lord Is Dead. This was no show, this was heartfelt pain.

When I was taking pictures, I tried to be as discreet as possible. Howevery, many eyes were spying at me. Taking pictures of persons in Macau is obviously not encouraged. I wonder if China's secret service has anything to do with that!

Back in the hotel at 7 p.m., we enjoyed a wine-tasting of Portuguese wines, and fooled around with the Easter Bunny, who was too early since Easter still has to come :-). Then to the room, video time!

Happy Good Friday!

P.
.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

not Taipei but Taipa!

Indeed, the "unwind" activity of the hotel was nothing much: sipping and comparing several teas, while tasting chinese delicacies, all nice and yummy but not really thrilling, but we met Eliza Wong, Executive Assistant of the hotel; we informed discretely if an upgrade to a better room would be within the possibilities, and wham, we got a full deluxe suite 825, and HL gladly packed all the luggage and we moved in to our new location, heavenly! No doubt a movie of this suite will follow !!!

In the evening we had a delicious meal in the Chinese restaurant of the hotel, quite to our surprise the restaurant was well booked: obviously a lot of hungry stomachs from outside the hotel find their way over here. It was excellent food, for an absolutely reasonable price (and as hotelguest we even got 25% discount).

After a lovely quiet night, I worked on my file – though I was obviously quite tired, or the file was very boring, because I fell asleep while reading hehe! Or I'm getting old, like Peter UK, who's falling asleep in the middle of a conversation – by the way, Peter just turned 80, happy birthday Peter!!!

In the afternoon we took the hotel shuttle, and we strolled in Taipa (the island south of Macau), lots of chinese tourists there (probably most from Hong Kong), buying the local delicacies like mad (they were really slepping bags and bags of food, bought in Taipa!), and if you'd come to the island, you must visit the Rua do Cunha in Taipa: there is a bakery where the products are made on the spot, you can taste everything for free and it's an endless discovery of the richness of the Asian palette! More details: see the pictures! Don't come here when you're on a diet !

.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

leaving the 9 dragons!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIPxZ0jmhB8

Today we'll jump on the ferry to sail to Macao!

Meanwhile, enjoy the small movie we made this morning about the 9 dragons of Kowloon!

huggies,

PB

-oOo-

and here we are now in the catamaran, dancing on the waves, with mainland China on our right, covered in misty clouds. The sea is quiet and calm, almost no contrarian waves, it's a very pleasant trip.
Buying a ticket and boarding was a special experience, since no real good indication of what we needed to do in order to get on board! So many ships are departing from Kowloon, it's a real been-nest of people running around and trying to get the customers to buy their tickets (and not those of the competition!). Fortunately, Paul wrote down which line we should buy tickets from (First Ferrys), and from then onwards all went more or less problemfree. However, used to the 5 star service of the hotel, diving back into the real world confronted us with the fact that ordinary Hkies are not always friendly or don't always speak understandble English, or have the tendency to just ignore you, e.g. I wanted to buy taxfree siggies & Glenfiddich, and the salesgirl was chatting her life away on the phone and obviously in no mood at all to serve the customer! That also is HongKong!

We left 2 pieces of luggage in the Intercontinental hotel, no need to slep it all the way to Macau and then back to HK, I'm sure that Intercontinental will take good care of it. We'll pick it up when we return, although we'll stay in another hotel (Sheraton!).

I expect the hoteltransfer in Macau to be problemfree: every half an hour there's a complimentary shuttle from the seaport to the hotel, and that's a lovely service!

In the pictures, you will have seen that we went yesterday to The Peak! A futuristic building almost on top of the mountains of Central Hong Kong, with lots of shops and many ways for the visitors to spend their money! Which we did, of course, since HL found out that the obligatory HardRockStore was present there! He bought a nice Tshirt + pin, and I found out that polo's my size (yes yes 2XL) were halfprice, 50% discount for an excellent quality, so I bought one, because it was a little bit fresh and I could immediately use it, but don't you ever think that I have become a HardRockFan hehe! It was a one-time-thing only :-)

-oOo-

Now we are in the hotel already! Pasportcontrol in Macao is swift and chopchop you're over the border! Each hotel has its own stand in the welcomehall, and the Westinguy piloted us immediately to the left, where numerous hoteltranfercars waited for the few customers to be transported to the hotel. Westin's shuttle runs ever 30 minutes, from 09:00 till 23:30, and the trip is only 20 minutes.

Macau is momentarily dead. No traffic on the roads, no more constructions going on (and the projects that already started are immobilized). It's probably the most quiet spot on earth, for the moment. China has forbidden access from it's mainland citizens to the casino's of Macau - the money needs to stay in the mainland. America is no longer sending it's sons and daughters, since they have problems over there too. It left Macau in a state of shock, the occupancy in this hotel will probably be only a handful of percentage (at least we only see a handful of hotel guests), quite an unhealthy financial situation!

We stay in room 820, top floor, corner room, quite a walk to the elevator but guaranteed quiet. From here we see the whole of the bay and the ocean, impressive.

The hotelmanager gave us a short tour, he's from Macau (proudly he said: I'm Portuguese!) though born in South-Africa. A young fellow, end of his 20s, I guess, and obviously not too expensive. It's the first hotel in Macau - and it shows: it really starts to age. Huge renovations are planned, but I doubt that this costly operation will be executed as foreseen. Time will tell!

We already have a good contact with Alexander, working downstairs. He promised us a free internet access daily, provided it would be short. I'm sure that some pocketmoney will stretch "short" into "not too long". These are hard times for us all!

And now we go the "unwind" activity of the hotel: an evening chat + drink + snack. Nothing fancy, I can imagine, but it will give us the opportunity to meet new people.

PB
.

Monday, April 6, 2009

सो;ऐ ह्क्र्द जोर्क तोद्क्य!

ha! I hear you think: what is this gibberish in the title?

Well, my dear friend, it's not gibberish, it's a foreign language (I guess: Hindi). It suddenly appeared when I typed the titel of today's blog, when I was in the lounge of the hotel (we have internet there too, and the hotel provides laptops). Probably the user before me was Indian :-)

so why keep this title in foreign language, when noone can understand it?

Because that was what my day today was all about: many contracts, many interpretations, and after all discussions, nobody agreed about anything, each one sticked to his own interpretation. In short, the story of Babel, where people couldn't understand each other anymore.

All this took me many hours: I left the hotel at 8.45 am and I returned at 12 noon, and then I worked on the file till 2 pm ... hour after hour trying to fix misinterpretations and prepare the way for a better understanding between parties. It's the work of a lawyer: prepare for the worst case scenario, and meanwhile make the best of out of it.

Once my work was done, we went for a refreshening stroll in the Golden Mile of HongKong: Nathan Road in Kowloon. An endless neckless of shops and billboards and sounds, with the traffic as the most dominant vibration! Interesting, but not to be repeated. Next time we'll take the underground to go to our destination, and stroll there :-)

And a quick word about yesterday: I worked on the file for this morning, and we prepared my underground trip to the lawyer's office today: we searched how to reach that office in the most convenient way (which is underground + the Octopus card, so that we don't have to buy tickets every time).

In the area of the lawyer's office, there was a protest going on, obviously by Filipino workers in Hong Kong. I remember that, when we were in the Phils, there was a commotion about a Hongkie writer, that called the Phils, with the typical Hongkie finesse, "a nation of servants" ... was this the result? The uprising of the servants? We didn't stop to find out :-)

Another quick word about our daily swim here. The pool is heated, but not too much, good enough though not to get goose bums. But what is really pleasant, and almost decadent, is the hotwaterpool with a magnificent view on Victoria Harbour ... soaking there in the real hot water (38°C), dreaming away over the harbour, makes your soul fly away with the eagle that circles over us ...

In the evening, we went to the walk of the stars, to admire the sound & light spectacle, impressive indeed, I posted 2 movies on youtube!

And now, time for a chat with Allan & Elsie, about things that go on in Bohol :-)

Stay tuned!
.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

exodus (though not all to Hong Kong)

One thing is for sure: when Manila is on the move, you don't want to be in the airport! Today is THE national exodus in the Phils: Saturday, beginning of the Holy Week Holidays ... the airport is packed, huge queues everywhere, but nobody gets angry or impatient, everyone is quietly waiting for his turn, admirable. Even HL, who normally gets very excited in this kind of hectic movement, remained to his senses. Impressive.

Immediately after the shoe-control, we stumbled into the perfume section of the taxfree zone, very ironic hehe! From stinky socks into French Odeurs :-)

Taxfree is not too bad here: 22 us$ for Dunhill International, 50 us$ for Glenfiddich 12 y.o. (1 liter).

And for the rest is Manila international airport quite old, not very efficient, and the Cathay Pacific lounge here is quite crampy, so we're not impressed on our exodus from Manila ... while I write this, HL is roaming around in the tax free area, I noticed his eyes blink when we passed by the bags section hehe! He should limit himself now :)

-----------------

and now I'm sitting on my desk in room 834 in Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong :-)

First of all: HL found a nice leather cover for his new laptop, it's a local design and very special, a mix of leather from snake & fish & other animals! An excellent souvenir and perfect for daily use! All that for just 2.000,00 PHP, it's a bargain (he discussed the price of course, and got 10 % discount hehe).

Cathay Pacific flew us with a newly interior decorated Boeing 747: no more normal chairs, every passenger has his own 'cubicle' (not really spacious, but one really can lay flat and all is within reach), quite special! HL loved it, whereas I found it a bit too claustrophobic hehe!

The arrival in HK was smooth and problemfree: the driver was waiting for us in the airport, we got a swift transfer, in the hotel the check-in was already done and we were immediately escorted to our room - where the hotel guy explained us that for just an amount of 900 HK$ ++ (100 euro) we would get so many benefits (lounge access with free flow of champagne, breakfast, Internet in the room, butler service, ...) that it was really a bargain! HL never can resist bargains, and it sounded attractive to me too, so we went for it. We quickly changed rooms (the bargain included a room with full harbor view, and indeed it's spectacular! at 8 pm there is a sound & light show in the harbor, every day, so I'll try to make a movie of that too!).

Our local contact is Takashi Urata, a young boy who's in the business of hospitality towards older gentlemen. He looks really nice, but I cannot get hold of him, although HL seems to get along with him well. Me, I just don't understand what he wants: friendship? money? something else? and his reactions are mixed with pride and selfesteem, and I simply don't know enough of the honkies to deal with him. Time will tell what our relationship with him will be, but for the moment we'll discover HK on our own :-)

We strolled in the area, the 3 of us, also around the Cultural Center, where streetmusicians were performing one next of the other, clearly the HongKies are used to create their own environment regardless of the environment of the others :-)

So, from the multiple colours and lights and sounds of the harbor of HongKong, I bid you good night!
.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Manila: an endless soundfall of traffic + time for retrospection

Woke up early this morning (4 am), and worked for the office till 6 am, nice & quiet, as far as Manila can be suspected of being quiet hehe! in fact it's an endless waterfall of trafficnoise, even during the night I woke up several times because of cars obviously racing with howling engines through the street of this metropolis ... what a difference with the calm & quiet of Cebu (and Bohol, of course, but that's another story). It confirms that this city is not really my place to be ... although the attractions are multiple and very appreciated :-)

Since this is our last day in the Phils for this trip (we do hope to come back soon!), it's time to look back and analyse. What makes the Phils so attractive for us?

I won't give you a list of all the things that don't make specially the Phils attractive to us ... such as the weather, or the food, or the things to be seen and done ... all that we can find in other countries too, so the Phils are not exceptionally special on those items.

What makes the Phils irresistible for us, are the people. Not all of them. I roughly see 3 groups (knowing that this is just a first impression after 2 visits, and it's a generalisation, and there are good and bad everywhere):

* the metropolis people, such as here in Manila: they are ok, but often not very efficient and without a clear goal; they still carry the basic Phils gentleness but they seem to have lost the grip on their lives and actions. I'm not talking about the successful Manila businessman here (that one surely knows his direction: money!) but about the vast population of this huge city, as we have met them during our short stay (which also means that this can only be a general and provisional conclusion); it's as if they are cut off of their roots, and if they feel a bit lost; e.g. we walked around in the adjacent shopping mall this morning, and we saw hundreds and hundreds of shoppers, young and old, and not one of them was smiling and visibly enjoying themselves;

* the wealthy people, such as the businessmen here in Manila, and the daughter of the owners of Peacock Resort in Bohol: they only care about themselves and about their own goals, and others are only there to serve them in achieving what they aim for; not really pleasant company for us, they have become greedy mummies, and have lost most of their humanity;

* the vast majority of Filippinos: not poor, not rich, settled in an environment where they feel at ease: those are really pleasant people to be with, such as Allan, or Roderick, or Jimmy and Nils, or here in the hotel: Ryan, or in Cebu: Heddie, and the list is long and interesting, and heartwarming: they radiate a natural kindness and genuine friendliness, that is hard to find in this world, and that makes staying with them such a lovely experience. Does it mean they are perfect? Of course not, none of us is. But it means that they make life bearable for themselves and their friends and families, just by being a good human. Wish the world would see their examples and follow their actions, it would be a much better place to live in!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

the line in the air

here I am, sitting in the lounge of the airport, waiting for the line in the air to be drawn .... the line that will bring us to Manila!

I quickly checked my creditcard status, and guess what !!!! The PeeCock paid the promised amount!!! Unbelievable!!! This makes my day :-)

Checking in at the Cebu airport is a bit special: at least 2 RXcontrols, and in the second one you even have to off your shoes :-)

And don't forget to reserve some money for the Terminal Fee, over here it's 200 Pesos, but I think it will be more when we fly from Manila to HK, so I'll put 2x750 Pesos (yes yes, 1.500,00 PHP for the 2 of us!) aside for that purpose.

There are a couple of smokers sections in the airport, so smokers are not totally neglected :-) I know, we are - like the tarsiers - an extincting group, unfortunately without any protection :-)

The drive to the airport was lovely, for the sum of 550 Pesos, we got a private car + handsome good driver. Well worth the money!

Now I leave you, in a while we'll have to board!

------------------------------

And now we're in the hotel Crowne Plaza Galleria, room 1811, spacious and lovely. The transfer from the airport was short now: only 30 minutes! Seems like the traffic in our direction was benevolent (not in the inverse direction hehe: standing still as usual).

A cute boy guided us immediately to our room, we didn't have to check in, I love this service! And HL is already eager to go for a swim :-) and then we'll hop 2 the lounge, get some snacks & drinks :-)

In the lounge, Ryan is taking good care of us (after tipping him, even better care). He's such a lovely guy, so visibly happy to serve, we love him for that.

Need to say that we love the philippines?

.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

too busy doing nothing!

hello hello! here I am again :-) I know, Monday has passed, Tuesday went by, it's Wednesday and I still need to post on my blog! I'm too lazy now, the Phils have got me in their lazy grip :-)

What did we do? Strolling around, especially in the non-touristic areas. See how life here really goes. From a distance, of course, we don't enter the daily life here, we remain tourists.

We popped in in a broker shop, to check the prices ... more or less the same as in Bohol, although the m² are smaller in Cebu. We spoke to Alan S. Dy (chinese) alandyrealty@yahoo.com. Interesting guy, he knows his business.

We watched a guy eating the embryo of a duck, looked yummy, and it's a guarantee for huge spermloads and lots of orgasm ... see http://youtube.com/paulbavo !

We went to universities (although not too detailed, because Allan didn't have an ID with him hehe), visited the Capitol, admired the statues of Cebu Heritage ... roaming around in the heat of the day, sweaty and well, a never ending stroll.

And every time we could find a taxi to bring us back to our safe haven, the Marco Polo hotel, where a cool pool was waiting for us and the lounge snacks and refreshments reminded us: how lovely all those visits are, we still are outsiders that enjoy the luxury of a 5 star hotel, and this sipping of daily local life is actually not really part of our life.

And, frankly, this is how we like it. This is our last night in Cebu, already planning to come back, but tomorrow we'll be heading back to stinky, clogged Manila. And then hop to Hong Kong, a new world waiting for us. Partly work, partly shopping, partly plain enjoying.

Eagerly looking forward!

Muah :-)

.

a bit busy!