Thu 09/08/12 06:48
Will I find a beach???

I’m in Cebu, Philippines right now and I’ve been here for a couple of days. The rain was just too much for me in Manila and I had to get out. I’ve never been a “rain” person and even though it’s been a while since I tested my aversion to rain I can report without doubt that I still hate it. Hate is a strong word and maybe I should say that it makes me depressed just as it did when I lived in Portland so many years ago.

Cebu. I don’t know what to say about it. I can say that I had heard from several different sources that Cebu was the place to go after Manila… I’ve got to admit that I have no idea why, it is dirty and what is worse it is very poor, with the accent on “very.” I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place like this on my own. I’m in no way suggesting anything about the people here because in almost every case they have been super nice to me. Just like in Manila they seem to be curious about me, or to generally like Americans… if they can tell I’m an American. The poorness is real though, it’s so real you can feel it around you. Several times since I’ve been here I’ve found myself in what could best be described as an almost shantytown. Houses made out of scrap tin or wood, the stream next to the houses filled with trash, and everybody just sitting around watching me go by. I’ve felt so bad that I haven’t taken any photos of what I’ve seen. The sad thing is that everywhere you see a “shantytown” more than likely you’ll be a couple of blocks away from wealth, in two of the times the wealth was a mall complete with parking lots filled with nice cars and streams of shoppers carry packages.

Cebu, Philippines Kennethcurtis.com   Cebu, Philippines Kennethcurtis.com

Cebu, Philippines Kennethcurtis.com   Cebu, Philippines Kennethcurtis.com

As I mentioned I’ve been here for about a day and a half, but except for the weather being warm and sunny Cebu has been a bust. This portion of the trip has been so much of a bust that I made a reservation for a ferry cruise back to Manila. I’ll leave on Saturday morning and it will take me 23 hours for the journey.  That will leave me one day in Manila before I fly to Hong Kong. So far I haven’t done anything fun since I’ve arrived in the Philippines almost five days ago and I’m hoping that the last couple of days I’ll do something memorable.

Tue 07/08/12 22:13
Not too much that is different from day one

The rain hasn’t really stopped at all today. There have been a few times that it seemed to have mostly stopped but it has never really ended. Without a doubt this is the most rain I’ve seen in years, maybe more than I’ve ever seen. I even saw a manhole cover that looked like it was going to fly into the air. I took a video of how it kept lifting up, air and water escaping and then the cover going back down.

After doing some errands this morning I headed back to the hotel to have lunch and change into dry clothing. The rain does something to me, makes me want hibernate and it wasn’t long before I was asleep. I think that’s a big part of why I hate the rain so much, it’s just depressing enough to make sleep something to look forward to in the afternoon.

I headed down to the river to see what it looked like. I’ve been hearing a lot of news about the flooding going on around me. For the most part the rain is coming down hard, and sometimes surprisingly hard, but except for streams of water making its way down the street there’s not too much of an indication of the amount of flooding that I’ve been hearing and reading about. When I got to the bridge I was struck how the neighborhood changed from touristy to almost slum-like, it was as if the river was the dividing line.

Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com   Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com

Even though I’ve never seen the river before today, I could tell that it was close to flooding. They have concrete walls along the bank of the river, and most of the time these walls would be more like guardrails to keep people from falling in. Today though the water was right at the base of these walls. Not really eerie but any higher and the water would be higher than the sidewalk I was walking on. What really was surprising was the amount of people there. Some were taking photos, some were just watching the water, and still others were playing in the river. Mostly the kids were jumping off the concrete walls and jumping into the river, but some older people were having fun too.

Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com   Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com

I was the only Westerner that I saw as I walked along the river. Sometimes I felt like I stood out too much for my own good, but in every encounter I was greeted very nicely. Almost everyone that didn’t say anything to me, smiled and nodded as I passed, but there were many who could tell that I was American. I was getting saluted by some kids, other were yelling at their friends to make room for the American so I could pass. Many of the kids said, “What’s up?” like it was a phrase that they’ve wanted to use for a while. With the same energy, I heard, “How’s it going?”  and “Dude.” It was fun because as they would say something, I’d come up with something new, “Sup?” or “Hey.” Which they would immediately repeat as I walked past.

Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com   Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com

Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com   Manila, Philippines during flooding, Kennethcurtis.com

At one point I was walking along there were three girls dancing in the rain. Okay?? As I passed one started to tease me, asking me things like where I was going and stuff like that. I smiled, said something and kept walking. I got a ways away and realized that there wasn’t a bridge up ahead so I was going to have to turn around. That’s when the fun started. One group of kids saw me taking pictures and asked me to take one of them. So I did. They were making so much noise that others heard and they asked me to take photo of them as well. In the span of about a hundred meters I had taken about 6 photos of people asking me to. They were all wet and all very happy. By the time that I made it back to where the girls were dancing, they had gotten beer and were even bolder than before. They insisted that I take their photo so I did.  I don’t think I can include a photo of the dancing girls, it’s just a little too risqué for the blog. It’s not that bad, I’m just not sure if it’s appropriate.

Mon 06/08/12 07:11
Did I mention rain? Seriously it’s rainy here.

Wow is not the word to use, it’s more like, “Geezzz!” I’ve been in Manila for about five hours and it hasn’t stopped raining since I’ve been here. I haven’t seen rain like this, both in duration and shear amount in years. Streets are flooded, sewers are backing up, and umbrellas are virtually useless. Regardless, I’m only going to be here for a few days and I don’t have the luxury of not going out and exploring. Because of this, the first thing I did when I got to my hotel at about 3 was to start walking around. In no time I was drenched and hadn’t taken one photo. I ended up taking some photos just to show the rain coming down.

Manila, Philippines Ken Curtis' summer 2012 vacation   Manila, Philippines Ken Curtis' summer 2012 vacation

There a couple of things that I noticed here though, crime may be a big issue. Everywhere I turn there are armed guards standing in front of banks, malls and other places. Seeing security guards is nothing new, in Dubai they’re everywhere, but here they’re carrying shotguns and hand guns, some with semi-auto. At one point I stopped to take a photo of the rain and as I was fumbling with the camera an alarm goes off behind me. I turn around and I see two guards staring at me. I don’t know for sure, but it seemed to be their way of telling me to move on. At least when I moved away the alarm stopped. Another is that I think Philippine women are pretty. It’s no surprise to anyone that knows me that I like Philippine women, I always have. In fact I don’t think there has ever been a time that I didn’t think they were pretty.

So now I’m sitting in a Chinese restaurant having just finished my lemon chicken and debating if I should order another beer or just go back to the hotel. What to do? Isn’t that the age old question… What to do?

I really need to decide how to spend my time in Manila. I’ve done some research but haven’t really found anything that gets me excited. For the most part I’ve always just wanted to come here, I never really figured out what I’d do when I actually arrived.

I also got a couple of photographs from my hotel room of the sunrise in Singapore.

Manila, Philippines Ken Curtis' summer 2012 vacation

Sun 05/08/12 08:04
and the end of the tour this morning

I try to say something about each city or area that I go to and for the most part I think that I explained Singapore adequately in the last post. Except that I have a nagging feeling like I’m missing something here, some spot that everyone knows about and goes to, maybe somewhere that I’m just not aware of yet. I say that because I feel like it’s something like Barcelona in the way that there are so many people but they don’t seem to be doing anything except walking. Maybe they’re shopping, maybe they’re like me, thinking that they will stumble onto something fun… who knows? I do know that after about two hours of walking around tonight I was bored.

Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com   Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com

Most of my day was spent sightseeing, but the important part of my day was that I did my laundry. Let’s stop and think about this… this is the first time I’ve done all my washing since I left Dubai about seven weeks ago (I think). This is a momentous event of the summer and I wanted to share it with you.  I’m sure some of the people around me would also be very happy too.

Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com   Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com

This morning was the end of the tour so at breakfast I said my goodbyes to the others on the tour. The guy that lost his passport did end up finding it when he went back to the border. He said that the guy that gave him his passport back actually lectured him on losing it and not going back to get it when he realized it was gone. The fact that the guard yesterday wouldn’t let him retrace his steps didn’t seem to have any bearing on the lecture though. The tour is over and for the most part I’m glad. I never really enjoyed being around these people and it was difficult for me nearly the whole time the tour was going to think of them as friends. On the other side though is that I feel kind of lonely now that they aren’t around. I guess sometimes you just can’t win.

Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com   Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com

So after my laundry was done I headed out to do some sightseeing around Singapore. The plan was to follow the route that a tour takes through the city, to see the most important items here. The tour was one of those, Hop-on Hop-off bus tours that all the major tourist destinations have. This worked out well because I had a map marked with the routes, sometimes I’d see the buses up ahead so I could just follow them, and I also got to do quite a bit of walking. I just haven’t felt like I’ve been active enough during the last couple of weeks. So I liked my plan. The only problem was that there still wasn’t that much to see. At least from what I could tell I didn’t see much at all until I followed the route to the marina where I was last night.

Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com   Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com

Today I did the sightseeing around the marina that I wanted to do last night. I didn’t have the battery power last night so today I went all around the area taking photos. I finally burned out at about 4 and headed back to the hotel for a shower and a little break. I went out again at about 6 and lasted until I got bored at 8. Tomorrow I’m heading to Manila, Philippines at 1030.

Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com   Singapore. Ken curtis' Summer 2012 Vacation www.kennethcurtis.com

If I were to sum up Singapore it would be, shopping. It seems that there are more malls here than anywhere else I’ve been. Much of the life that I’ve seen here seems to take place in, or around the hundreds of malls that I’ve seen. Museums are attached to malls, hotels and metro stations are sometimes a part of them too. I think the statement I wrote yesterday about Singapore being a mature Dubai is accurate. I could see Dubai being like this city in about twenty more years.

Sat 04/08/12 09:51
Not really sure about it yet

I’ve been in Singapore now for about ten hours, and for the most part it’s been a pretty rough ten hours. One of the people on the tour lost their passport right after getting stamped for Singapore. There couldn’t have been more than 50 meters from passport control to customs, but he lost it somewhere in between the two. When he realized he tried to go back and find it, but the customs guy wouldn’t let him and he was forced to leave without it. Then when we got to the hotel it turned out that the group’s reservations were never confirmed. So there we were, six people, two of which were walking around all sad (I don’t blame them) and a tour leader upset because he was being embarrassed in front of the tour for not having the rooms All through it I’m kind of enjoying the whole thing, not the lost passport part, but the no rooms thing. I don’t know why but sometimes I like when life throws a wrench into the works. So I’m staying in a dorm room for the night, and as dorms go, this one isn’t bad.

As for Singapore… hmmm… it’s a mature Dubai. I’d heard stories that it was very developed, but I don’t think I was expecting what I ended up seeing today. Everything is at least Western equivalent if not higher, and I do mean everything too. The roads, the buildings, and everything else I can think of just appears new, or very well kept up, even the people seem super polite.

Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com   Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com

Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com   Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com

Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com   Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com

It was a coincidence but today is a holiday, I believe if I heard correctly it was National Day. Much of the day’s festivities were going to be happening at the marina, which so happens was where I was supposed to be meeting the rest of the group at 8. So when I left the hotel that was my first goal to get to the marina, because many of the streets were blocked off due to the celebration that was planned for later it took me quite a while to actually get to the marina and find the spot where we were going to meet. I also screwed up because the battery in my camera had only about a half charge… which means in battery lingo, it was nearly dead. It took me so long to get to the spot that I didn’t want to go back to the hotel for a new battery, and it also meant that didn’t want to go walking around taking pictures and kill the remaining bit of juice I had left. I ended up parking my butt in front of the railing at the marina at about 5 and waited until 8 for the fireworks to start.  I know, right? That’s a long time to just wait, but fortunately there were a lot of other things that happened before the fireworks, there were fly-bys by fighter aircraft, demonstration of light watercraft from the navy, helicopter flyovers, skydivers, and a few other things that made the time go fairly quickly.

Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com   Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com

Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com   Singapore, Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation kennethcurtis.com

Because I got there so early I had the best seats for the fireworks, and they were spectacular too. I think at least from where I was sitting they were the best I’ve ever seen, though there’s no way I could ever really compare to other shows I’ve seen.

I’ve got one more night here and then I’m off for Manila. I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll be able to see more of the city than I did today. BTW: the tour ends tomorrow morning so I’l be on my own from then on.

Fri 03/08/12 19:30
next stop Singapore

Nothing really to talk about but I do have some photos that I took last night. We went for a walking tour around the area and although I get it; the area has some charm, it really isn’t that “charming.” After dinner I walked around a little bit taking photos of things that I felt stood out, but admittedly there’s probably only a couple interesting ones. We leave for Singapore in about an hour.

Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com   Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com

Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com   Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com

Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com   Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com

Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com   Melaka, Malaysia Ken Curtis' Summer 2012 vacation Kennethcurtis.com