kota kinabalu: my dreams of manila

after our lengthy road trip trip at ranau, we had kota kinabalu as our last trip. surprisingly, there was traffic at 18:00. madam wong was apologetic at the sight of such "disgrace" and told us it only happened at this time of the day when everyone goes home from work. well, we told her, manila main roads are free parking spaces during rush hour that edsa deserves a place in the guinness book of records.

as soon as we landed in kota kinabalu, she had us land first at the "signal hill observatory tower" for us to have a view of the city at night. kota kinabalu is a young progressive city and did not have much high rise buildings just like filinvest in muntinlupa. however, compared to manila urbanity, kota kinabalu is clean, both literally and figuratively. i'll tell you more about it later.

from tomas' cam

from tomas' cam

if there's one thing i love doing whenever i go to places, it's eating. when my colleagues in the office told me about "blue wave," i was more ecstatic. to most people, "blue wave" is known as the night wet market where everyone gets to buy fresh seafood. the place is quite similar to our very own dampa but with a twist of malaysia -- cultural diversity. around the market, you can choose which type of country-cooking you'd like to have for dinner: malaysian, indian, thai, chinese, or philippine. at that time, those were the major countries which were represented by the restaurants there (or we have not been looking around thoroughly). since some members of our team had trauma with some food they've eaten, tomas chose to eat at a chinese restaurant. why not at a philippine restaurant? we're filipinos and we want to taste something else! chinese was the safest since most is not comfortable with malaysian or indian food and haven't and won't dare thai cooking. most of my team mates don't like spicy food. i am actually ok with any food as long as i am not eating any bell peppers (which i am allergic to) or liver (because looking at a blob of liver is gross).

of course, nothing's better than free meals! it was the november boys' birthday climb and tomas volunteered to treat us! all in all, he spent 400 myr for the food (as far as i can remember). not that expensive considering we had 6 viands in large servings! madam wong gave us chicken satay as an additional viand to the birthday boys' dinner. and, as you can see below, i am the worst food photographer. 

"almost before"

"absolute after"

after 2 hours of lovely gluttony, we walked around the city. madam wong told us that there'll be a festival next week so some streets have been closed to set up mini market stalls. despite the divisoria like scenery, the government did a stellar job maintaining the place clean. in 2009, according to her, their baywalk was a whore strip. when the authorities found out the anomalies happening there, they wiped the place clean in less than a month's time. since then, kota kinabalu was prostitution free, at least at face value. i am imagining a lot of ways of how the government would punish the perpetrators according to the sharia law. i must say, the same thing should be exercised in our country less the unfair treatment on women. in most implemented moslem laws, women are victims of unfair treatment instead of being protected as stated in the q'uran... but that's already a different story. 

from tomas' cam

we were astounded by the city's cleanliness when we visited the place in the morning. i can't help but compare the place to our very own manila bay. instead of us seeing all kinds of cockroaches, garbage, and rats as huge as pregnant cats, there were cranes, crabs, and crystal blue waters at the kota kinabalu baywalk. yes, crabs (sorry we didn't take photos) and cranes. although the baywalk has too many crabs walking along the breakwater and fishes as seen through the crystal clean waters, only registered fishermen are allowed to capture them. you will never see a civilian or a foreigner attempting to capture a crab! 

ricky, madam wong, and myself doing our thang!
from tomas' cam

oh... a crane... hmmm...
from tomas' cam

with our non-stop comparisons of the city to manila, it gave me a love-hate stand on the sabah claim. love because by right and by law, the place is truly ours which some of our very own government officials did a perfect job of disowning it. the tausug has full rights to their land and should not have been pushed aside by the aliens "leasing the place". hate because, after all, malaysia has done a great job in maintaining the place. i could only imagine grotesque ways on how our corrupt government officials would take advantage of sabah's natural resources! mt kinabalu would definitely become a victim of illegal logging and mining. in fact, one of my travel buddies was told to raise a "sabah claim flag" at the summit of mt kinabalu during our climb. he didn't after seeing what sabah is. i pity my fellow citizens who have not been there but relentlessly fighting blindly for the claim through facebook and other social media sites *insert laugh here*

like a love story, it just breaks my heart to give up on something you love, which you know, someone else will love more. we left for manila that afternoon with a heart break.

sleep-commuting to station 1 boracay

note: the aklanons say, boracay not bora. respect.

almost taken away by the storm

to date, this was my very first unorganized trip. although i have secured the payments for the photography seminar, i have forgotten to arrange the two most important things of all in trip planning -- accommodation and air fare! in my previous trips, i had everything planned out at least a month  but because first quarter is quite hectic for both my regular and freelance jobs, i barely had the time to organize my trip. i was quite lucky with air fare because i got a good deal from air phil express. accommodation is quite tricky since february is the start of the peak season.

knowing that i am going to the beach, the easiest way to get myself an accommodation is through a diving operator. without a second thought, i googled "diving in boracay". since i'm already at the beach, i might as well dive, right? so i emailed 5 websites and the fastest one to reply was lynette of new wave divers. i thought she wouldn't accommodate me since i emailed at 3 in the morning when everyone is mostly asleep and with my email referring to rates posted in another website! at that time, i was panic-inquiring since i was just 3 days away from my flight so my inquiries are all messed up. nonetheless, lynette was kind enough to answer all my silly questions and sort out some things for me including my logistics. 

to justify my unpreparedness, i left at 10:00 from my night shift job when i was supposed to leave at 08:00 to finish my work list. i took a cab hoping to shorten the trip but the rain made it all worse. i arrived home at 11:30 leaving me only 30 minutes to change to trip clothing with only 10 minutes spent to pack my stuff. since this isn't mountaineering, i just stuffed my 30-liter backpack with whatever clothes i could grab yet leaving the largest space for my laptop, which was needed for the seminar. i left my diving gear since my photography equipment plus my backpack with a laptop is way too much to carry for a solo female traveler. in this trip, i only had my pair of flipsters as footwear.

despite living near the airport, i did not want to risk my travel time. i hailed a cab and was lucky enough to have an airport taxi pick me up. the cab driver assured me that i will make it on time since my flight will most likely be delayed or cancelled because of the storm (i'm not sure if i found that funny but i laughed anyway). i arrived at 13:00 just a few minutes before the check in time cut off. i dashed towards the terminal for kalibo only to find out that my flight is delayed. from 15:55, my new boarding time is 16:55. good thing for naia 3, there's national bookstore. i bought books to keep me pre-occupied.

after reading ramon bautista's book (yes, it caught my attention so i bought it!), there was an announcement. new boarding time is 17:55. at that time, i was quite anxious because i haven't a decent sleep, my flight was delayed, and flights before mine were being cancelled one by one because of the storm. cebu pacific even offered one free plane ride good for a year for those who are willing to offer their seat to others because a certain flight of theirs was overbooked from accommodating passengers who were bumped in the previous flights (tsk!). i prayed hard that the universe won't smite the kalibo flights or else i'll flip. i guess my prayers worked when at 17:55 we finally boarded. 

i was asleep the entire flight that my ears almost exploded upon arrival at the kalibo airport. i haven't had a decent sleep yet and was walking like a zombie merely following my co-passengers towards a place with more people. then i saw someone flashed a whiteboard with my name written on it. i approached and poked him (not joking) lifelessly. he sensed my half-conscious self so he stamped stickers on my bags and on my shirt and escorted me to an orange bus, where i boarded and continued my sleep. several hours later, we arrived at the port, at that time i regained a bit of energy. another person escorted me to the terminal and to the pump boat, which transported us to boracay. the terminal people told us that they weren't supposed to operate at that time but they had to extend because of the delayed flights. 

after 45 minutes, we finally arrived at boracay. as soon as the shuttle brought me to niu ohana i immediately dropped my items in my room and bought my provisions and extra clothes. from station 1, i rode a tricycle to d'mall which costed me 8.00 php along with some korean passengers. after buying the stuff i needed, i walked back to my hotel since it was not that far. 

back at my room, you could hear the subwoofers from the clubs nearby. my friends told me the "noise" is quite worse when you're in station 2. boracay is quite different from the beaches i have visited where all i heard at night were crickets, waves, and wind. indeed, it was not a place for people seeking solitude. but no noise would hinder a very tired person with a very big next day to look forward to!

macau, the sin city of asia

grand lisboa

there definitely is a warp zone or a waypoint in macau. what i usually see in video games is a fuzzy scintillating ball of white light or a platform with inscriptions of incantations in an arcane language only the ancients could understand, which when you step on or pass through it will transport you to a different time and place. from the portuguese ruins, plazas and fortresses, i then found myself in in the rich and luxurious vegas with more worlds and times to warped into.

my 8-hour tour: the second half at asia's las vegas

after my quick shopping and sightseeing trip at san malo, we visited welkin at casino where they both worked, the grand lisboa. johnny told me that the grand lisboa was the first casino ever built in macau and the owner of the said casino is currently the richest person in macau. grand lisboa, it is the highest building in macau and is one of the highest in the world towering at 261m. he further tells that it was casinos which made macau a rich and generous government. it was the millions of income from gambling which had its residents enjoy allowances especially for those who have families.

as i entered the casino, johnny told me to keep my camera as the officials will confiscate it. taking photos in the casino is strictly prohibited to protect their clients especially the high profile ones. we went there minutes earlier before welkin's first break. i owe him that visit since i was way too late but i have to interfere with his work. while waiting for his break time, johnny showed me around. i told him that it's my first time to enter the casino in my entire life. we had a walk around the different card games sections, the roulettes, and the slot machines -- all of them i have only seen in the movies because my mom was too strict enough not to expose us into gambling. there were also pin-up girl shows on different stages to entertain clients taking breaks from games. came welkin's break, since he wanted us to take pictures of us, we met at the men's comfort room. i was lucky enough to wear a loose shirt and pants. then johnny gave me his cap to match my androgynous for me to be qualified enough to enter. after some catching up and camwhoring, we left welkin to proceed with our hotel and casino hopping since i only have a few hours left before my ferry leaves for hong kong.

you won't spend a cent in hotel-casino hopping in macau because the hotels offer free rides from various stations... not unless you gamble of course. however, if you'd like to delve into the hotel buffets, you have to spend at least 200 patacas for it. first in our list was venetian hotel, where i was warped to sunset italy complete with boatmen and women singers who some were undoubtedly filipinos. since everything is on dim light and my cam would only grain on low light photos, i wasn't able to take shots of river part of venetian.

hand painted ceiling of the venetian hotel to mimic the sunset scene as seen in an episode in boys over flowers

 

next in our list was a series of sands hotels which all have oriental ambiance. what astonished my in the hotel was the musical lights display in every part of the place. the place was well lit enough for my camera to take photos.

this statue person who welcomed us is a filipino too!

the awesome-est statue i have ever seen. if i could only take it home with me

art exhibit which showcases artworks in graphite or ink. each art piece tells of china's history.

as i hopped from one hotel to another, i realized i get bored easily with the life of luxury that i hid my camera more than taking photos. i finally concluded that i am indeed an outdoor person. i cannot deny the beauty of man-made marvels as seen in taipa but i guess a laid back life at the beach or at the mountain tops would give me more contentment than sleeping on a bed stuffed with millions of money. there's more adventure in cooking corned beef, sardines, and some mountain vegetables together not knowing how it would taste like in the end or it's effects on your tummy the morning after than enjoying an expensive buffet of meals served by well-dressed waiters and chefs at a single clap of your hand with violinists serenading you as you eat. johnny said that macau, like vegas, has lives lost to people's insatiable desire for luxury because of gambling or simply just being too rich. it's what i call "existential boredom on a silver platter" when your life is too perfect that you've seen every atom of everything money can buy but happiness and contentment would only cost a note not printed in any form of currency. having seen all these makes me thankful for being a simple sight-seeing tourist working on a shoestring budget for a quick glimpse of a multi-billionaire gamblers', or at least the hoping gamblers', world. 

we then received a call from welkin who told us to visit his home as his wife wants to meet me for dinner. thank heavens for the break! we rode the free buses going to grand lisboa then walked our way back to san malo where welkin's apartment is. san malo is san malo is more beautiful at night so i walked again at the central park to take some photos.

macau's signature tourism photo of san malo as seen in the flyers and maps. i never expected i captured a similar scene until i took hold of a map.

as we walked towards welkin and pauline's apartment, i found a hole in the wall food store with food similar to those tuhog tuhog karitons street foods we have back in our country. the difference is you have to pick your choice of food on a sticks which they will put in a small container to be flooded with sauces of your choice. each stick costs 2 to 10 patacas depending on what kind of meat, dimsum, or vegetable it is you're going to pick. i had mine with curry and spicy sauces. 

meat and veggies on a stick selections.

we arrived at welkin's and pauline's home after a few minutes walk from the stall. pauline had us watch tv with her and had a simple snacks of soya bean chips which are being sold by their indonesian board mate, who we first met at the chinese drug store.

crispy bean chips :} best served with chili vinegar or butter

the only content here i know of was hotdog. the rest of what i put in there were part of my food adventure. food tastes good until you know its contents so to hell with what those things are! they are delicious.

we left their home at 21:45 so i could catch the my ferry to hk. however, the bus came in late so it running like hell for me to catch make it to the boarding gate and good thing i made it a minute before the gate closed... a minute before the gate closed. all the walking got me tired that i slept the entire boat trip. 

hello goodbye hong kong and back to manila

i went back to my hostel room and was greeted by my roomy bosnian buddies who offered me shots of hennessy as we chatted the night away. the good thing about hostels is that you get to know other people. just pray they are not perverts or psycho killers. we exchanged juicy stuff about philippines and bosnia as if we're in show and tell at school. hiking was our common ground and them guys wanted me to pursue free climbing which i told them is not part of my priorities although it would be fun to try. we got comfortable with each other as the conversation progressed. we talked from mountains to world history to music. the topics were endless that i only had 2 hours of sleep and a small time to prepare to pack my stuff in the morning before my flight. they told me i have to drop the bomb in the morning because they have to wake up at the same time i will have to. 

and so 2 hours later i dropped the bomb. they wanted me to join them at disneyland but i told them i'll be returning back home for work so we exchanged contact information instead. i left earlier than they did and since they'll be staying longer, i left them my keys instead of turning them over at the reception. i took my last chung king sleaze walk then to the mtr station at nathan road. at lai king station, i had second thoughts of visiting dr co for the last time. but due to the delay of the trains going to tung chung, i took the green lines to the airport instead so as not to miss my flight. 

i will go back to hong kong and macau this august but this time, i will stay mostly in macau for welkin and pauline's child's baptism then a daytrip at hong kong for the co family for another set of errands. i doubt that i will visit this place less because of the people i spent time with. perhaps i will bring some friends with me in the future.

san malo, a huge binondo

ruins of st paul's cathedral at san malo, macau

it's normal for me to wake up in the middle of the night and toss and turn a bit. hearing two men snore in my room meant that my room mates came back from their night trip and have been sleeping soundly. no sound from my alarm yet so i went back to sleep. moments later, my body clock woke me up. as i grabbed my phone, there i saw 09:39. i did set the alarm at 05:00 but failed to set it on sunday.

wrong.

my 8-hour macau tour: first half

i should have woke up at 05:00 as planned. on my phone, my sister has been messaging me asking for how i was. welkin, who i was supposed to meet at san malo in the morning, had been trying to call me as well. and so, i forced my lazy self to wake up and grabbed some breakfast (mostly last night's dinner's left-overs) at the fridge, and had a quick bath. i messaged welkin to tell him that i will be late... way too late, perhaps arriving at noon a few minutes before his shift starts. his plan was to give me a quick tour around the place with his wife before he goes to work at 14:00. since it's not possible for us to do everything a few minutes before his shift, he asked his colleague, johnny, a favor keep me company for the whole day. johnny was one of the lucky few who gets to have holidays on sundays. casinos are open daily so people who are employed have different day offs.

and so i sailed off to macau via turbo jet and arrived at macau port at 13:30. turbojet is the fastest ferry going to macau from hong kong. other ferries will take 2-3 hours of travel time. at the macau port, it was a mistake for me not to keep my passport because three filipinas took advantage of me being a young visitor at macau. i told them i don't need help because i am meeting someone at a casino but she insisted that i take them with me for 150 patacas so they could tour me and my friend around macau. i wanted to cut the petty disagreement short so i just went away and took the bus yet i was still hurled, "di na namin kasalanan kapag nawala ka" (it's not our fault if you get lost). my dad has always told me not to interact with fellow filipinos abroad, unless you were friends before, because they will take advantage of fellows and proving it a fact is quite disappointing. and since i was trying to escape the filipinas at the port, i forget to take a map! what's worse, my hk sim didn't work so i was not able to call or send messages to johnny and welkin. "i'm cursed" i said to myself but it's nice to get lost sometimes so i just waited for the bus to arrive at san malo and enjoyed the vast views outside my window in every bus stop.

when i dropped off at san malo, the phone booths saved me. i called johnny and told me that he will come in 15 minutes. while waiting, i took some photos of the scenes in san malo. the place gave me images of what was avenida sta cruz like as what my parents described it and which was what former manila mayor, atienza, was aiming for. macau was under portuguese rule just like hong kong under the british and the philippines under spain.

johnny arrived a bit late but i cannot complain since i was the one who messed up welkin and pauline's itinerary because of my tardiness in the first place. first in johnny's itinerary was the st paul ruins, which is macau's famous tourist attraction aside from the casinos. 

next to the st paul ruins is a walled fortress similar to what we have in fort santiago. 

my macau tour guide, johnny who doesn't want his face shown in any of my albums

under the ruins of the st paul church, there's a musuem which showcases relics during the portuguese occupation in macau.

there were also stuff from macau during the 1900's. these were the stuff the meteorologists used to tell the weather. johnny says that there was a time that they weren't able to predict the weather accurately causing people not to prepare for flood. flooding rarely happens in macau since the philippines always has the first hit during the typhoon season and such spectacles are uncanny for them.

chinese porcelain

going to the ruins was fun as there are a lot of bakeries offering free tastes of their products such as meet jerkies and pastries so lunch wasn't our problem. just don't let the promodisers recognize you when you go back for your second round.

eva, dr co's wife, told me about macau egg tarts which were way better than those being sold in tung chung. and they were indeed better! but you have to eat them immediately than letting it cool for a time; thus they are not good for take home gifts for friends back in manila.

after we went to the museum, i'm back to completing my errands. dr co, told me that he bought his medicines at shenzhen but i need to have a special visa issued by the chinese embassy in the philippines (had i thought of applying for a visa before, i should have crossed the mainland border). but instead of taking risks, he recommended me to buy at the stores in macau where herbs are cheaper and more fresh. i asked for welkin's help so i could visit the chinese apothecaries and was referred to a place just a few blocks away from san malo park. johnny showed me the way to the store, which isn't that hard to find and was greeted warmly by the owner.

at the traditional chinese medicine store

i was told to buy 4 herbs. the store owner didn't understand english nor mandarin so johnny tried his best in conversing in cantonese. the good news was, we were able to get all the herbs i need to buy. the bad news is, there's a communication gap in asking for the right amount as johnny isn't familiar with terms of units of measurement. i told him i wanted to buy just 100 grams. however, when he was putting all of them in the plastic bag, the herbs didn't weigh 100 kilos when i tried to weigh them by my hands. what he told to the store owner made him understood that i wanted to buy half-kilo of each! so for minutes, we have been doing all the sign languages we could think off to make him understand i just wanted to buy 100 grams. luckily, welkin's indonesian room mate who is fluent in cantonese, passed by and greeted johnny. we asked for her help in conversing with the owner so i was able to buy my stuff in their right amounts. johnny has been saying yat pong which meant 1 kilo and doing the hand gesture of cutting his hand in half meant we wanted half kilo. she said that the right term is yat kang. she then said that it was good that she saw us. welkin wanted us to drop by his home because she'll cook dinner for everyone. johnny told him we'll come in at 20:00 after we visit taipa.

after the transaction with the store owner was completed, we walked to grand lisboa. there we started our casino hopping adventure.