Hotel pictures

The Fullerton Hotel

    As I mentioned earlier, we were booked at a swank hotel. We were booked at the Fullerton Hotel, which is located where the river empties out into the bay. The Fullerton Hotel was previously the British Post Office when Singapore was still a British territory. It was just recently redone into a hotel. 

    The inside is just gorgeous. It looks very much like a 19th century British post office should on both the outside and inside, and on the inside there are some modern touches like small modern paintings and a glass fountain. Dad booked two rooms, because he said that this wasn't the beach and he did not want to share a room with me. However, the website that he booked rooms with for some reason didn't work completely, so the hotel only had his room booked. Apparently, the hotel was completely full, and only after 20 or 30 minutes of working it out did the clerk have both rooms ready for us. In the meantime, all three of us were hungry as it was around 5 o'clock. We headed on over first to the in-house chinese restaurant, which was closed. We then headed on over to the restaurant on the other side which during meal times becomes an incredible buffet. We ordered a plate of pretty tasty noodles for the three of us to share. Approximately when our meal ended, both of our rooms were ready, and we headed up to the third floor where they were located. My room was number 361 and their room was number 359. We went through the main elevator, nearest room number 301, so we had to walk in a circle until we arrived at our rooms where there was a nearby elevator that we didn't previously know about. 

      My room smelled like smoke. Not delicious hardwood smoke, but nasty cigarette smoke. It was pretty strong, but I quickly adjusted and didn't notice after a while. Dad had ordered adapters for the rooms, and when the guy arrived with them, I asked for someone to clean the room. He came back later with an ozonator, which helped a little. However much it helped, every time I walked in after leaving for a while, I could smell the smoke, and every time Dad entered the room, he commented on the stink. But hey, I had my own room, and a nice one at that. In the room was a bathroom equipped with both a shower and a bathtub, the toilet was in a little room connected to the main bathroom, and a sink with a mirror wall with a large circular mirror with a magnifying mirror attached. The bedroom had either a double or queen bed with only a comforter and 4 very puffy pillows. There were two bedside tables, the one on the left had a switch to open the curtains and to turn the lights off. There was also a TV and a DVD player. There was a valet, which is a stand to lay out clothes on. There was a desk with a notepad and a very nice pen, which they let me keep, in the drawer were some office supplies. Each morning, they would bring up a newspaper, varying by nationality. There was also a minibar with sodas and on top were snacks and teabags and things of that nature. There was also a closet with an umbrella, and bathrobes and some hangers. 

Airport pictures

Going to SINGAPORE!

   For our trip to Singapore, Dad booked us on a super cheap Australian airline called Jetstar. It was something like $70 per person. Because he booked cheap plane flights, we were able to get a pretty swank hotel, but more on that later. Now when I say cheap, I mean cheap. You have to pay for everything except a carry-on weighing no more than 10 kg (22 lbs). You have to pay for checked baggage, for a drink of water, for a little bag of peanuts, for everything. But it wasn't that bad. It was only a three hour flight, and we brought a bag of shrimp chips and some dried mangos. 

    When we got to the Manila International Airport, the Jetstar line was by far the longest. It was super long because there was no one at the counter. There were two separate lines. One was for regular check-in at the airport, and that line was incredibly long, and we stood in it for a while before we realized that there was a separate line for online check-in. Thankfully, there were only a few people in that line and we continued to the light security and on to our gate. Dad had already changed all of our cash to Singaporean dollars because of a rule stating that you couldn't have more than P10,000 or its equivalent on a flight. Because we were out of cash, we couldn't buy any food or coffee while we waited the two hours we sat at our gate. There was a large TV playing NBA TV at our gate. Filipinos are very much into basketball. I'd say that the majority of airport TV's play NBA TV. 

     We landed in Singapore and it was the nicest airport that I have been to. We take a stop in the bathroom, and it's spotless. There is an outlet for electric razors by the rightmost sink. There are paper towel dispensers underneath the mirrors at every sink. There is a touch screen monitor that lets you rate the cleanliness of the bathroom. All along the terminal there are 'travelators' which are the treadmill type things on the floor at airports. Dad and I noticed a free leg massage thing. You sit down on the bench, and in front of you there are these cloth sacs that you put your lower legs into. The advertisement for it said "Experience pain with pleasure" or something similar. We were too scared to try it out.

    We got onto a Skytrain, a train system that goes from terminal to terminal, to go to Terminal 1 to get onto the MRT, the local subway system. Before we could get onto the MRT, we had to deal with customs. Because of our trip to the bathroom, we were practically last in line for Customs. It was very orderly. There was a separate line for Singaporean citizens, and once that line was empty, anyone could go into that line. We got through customs in around half an hour.

    We headed downstairs to the MRT station and got three-day passes to travel throughout the city. The MRT is an incredibly simple subway system. At every station there is both a map of the whole system and of the line that you are about to get on. There are 4 or 5 different lines that go across the city, and most of the names of the stops are fairly self explanatory. When Dad was asking around work for advice for our trip to Singapore, someone told him, "It takes a few days to figure out the New York Subway, while it takes a few minutes to figure out the Singapore subway." One of the cool things about the MRT trains is that they are really long, and the cars are about 15 meters long, so you can see the curvature of the track by watching the cars bend at the junctions.

     It takes about an hour to get to the stop nearest the hotel. We get out onto the street and are utterly lost. Dad and Rebecca are arguing about which way to go because this map said this, but no one really remembers the map. This went on until a stranger asked if we needed help. She asked us where our hotel was, and pointed us the right way. 

Intramuros

     My Intramuros experience wasn't as super awesome as I thought it would be. Let me explain. Intramuros is the part of Manila that the Spanish initially lived in, and so all of the buildings are old and ornate. There are large, gaudy Catholic churches. We walked through a wealthy person's house with Chinese pottery, marble busts, very well-crafted wood furniture. 

     My poor experience started off with a meal at Pugon Roasters. My dissatisfaction was not with the food, but with the fact that we all overate. In fact, I tasted one of the best culinary ideas ever. It was Shepherd's Pie, but instead of mashed potatoes on top, it was mac and cheese. But it was really filling. And to top it off, Dad and Rebecca wanted to go have coffee and a piece of cake afterwards. The ride over there was pretty neat. Manila Bay was on one side, there was a cool transition from small buildings to high rises, there were big boats, and it was kind of relaxing. 

    The moment we get there, we are hawked at by kalesa (horse-drawn carriage) drivers for them to take us for a ride. The taxi driver dropped us off in front of the San Agustin Church, a World Heritage site. Mass had just ended so we walked around in the museum part of the church. Lots of crucifixes, lots of old biblical paintings, lots of Virgin Marys. I think walking around that church was our second mistake. It was a lot of the same stuff, it was hot, and we had just been to church, so we were getting hit over the head with churchy stuff. 

    

    We then walked in a circle around a block, and wandered into a museum. It was a museum on the houses of the wealthy Spaniards. It was three stories of 15th and 16th century furniture. All wooden, lots of mirrors and fabulous displays of wealth. We left and just walked a couple streets and for the most part were done. 

    Another thing I noticed was that in Intramuros, I saw the poorest people in Manila that I had yet seen. Lots of people lived off of the tourism. There were dozens of pedicabs (bicycle cabs), several with a driver sleeping in the seats. There were chickens everywhere. Most of the shops were tiny little things consisting of a counter with a rack of processed food behind it. I saw a concrete frame of a house with people living in it. No roof, just 2 or 3 concrete walls. 

     If asked again, I would probably come back, because I know that I could have had a better time if it was more structured or if we had some sort of guide. 

Fishing pictures

Fishing

    I signed up for a Fishing Expedition for 2:00. We got back from the cave tour around 11:30, we relaxed with the Australians and Rebecca until lunch at noonish. We were in the middle of lunch around 1:00 when I realized that I hadn't bought my hat or any souvenirs. I left for the village, which took around 15 minutes. The big hat stand that was there on Saturday wasn't there, so I wandered a little until I found a nice grey hat. It cost P150. Dad and Rebecca had taken all of my small bills so I was forced to pay her with a P500. She had to go to a neighboring stall to help her get change for my bill. I was about to leave when I remembered that pearls were really cheap here, so I found a bigger tent and looked for a long pearl necklace for my Russian grandmother in Boston. I found one with irregular pearls, i.e., they weren't perfectly spherical. It looks like they have spherical bases, but there are layers built up on one side of the pearl so they become ellipsoidal. That was P250. I asked how the vendor knew they were real, and to show me, she pulled out a lighter and put one of the pearls into the flame. She said that a fake one would have melted. She also rubbed two of the pearls together and showed me that there was powder created. For an additional P150, I also bought a clam shell covered in mother-of-pearl, with little pearl bits stuck to the shell. When I showed Rebecca, she said that it would make a good soapdish. 

     Gilbert was my fishing partner since I was the only one signed up. The boat had to go back to the village to get their knife since the day was Sunday, the day of rest. The Philippines are heavily Catholic. I was told to wait on the beach when it started to rain. First lightly, then crazy heavily. I thought to myself that getting the hat was a great idea since now my face was safe from the rain. I hid behind a large sign under a tree and avoided getting utterly drenched by the rain. Dad ran out with an umbrella, gave it to me, and ran back. Before he went, he suggested going back to the lobby to look for Gilbert. I followed his advice and in fact, found him there. With the fishing trip came free soft drinks or something, but I didn't bother. Gilbert was there with the cooler of a couple drinks. We dropped off the cooler near where we supposed to wait for the boat. The rain decided to pick up again and we hid under a hut filled with Filipinos celebrating a birthday party. 

     The rain eventually stopped and we got into the boat. On the boat was the captain, a former Daluyon employee. He quit because the pay wasn't good enough to support his family. He had two assistants, and a child. I think that the kid was his son. The kid had toenails painted a orange/pinkish color. I asked Gilbert why this was, he teased the kid a little, and replied that it was native art. We sail out for a good while since the rain made the water choppy and not fish friendly. We had to relocate 3 or 4 times because the water was to rough. 

    I thought that the fishing implements used were pretty neat. While we were sailing out, the captain was expertly tying fish hooks to fish line wrapped around a large wooden donut. The outer sides were cut out so the line could be easily wrapped around it. To act as the weight, at the end of the line, he put a 2-3 inch piece of rebar. Near the end were two hooks. We used squid as bait, and at one point fish filets, but more on that later. 

     Fishing with rebar is harder than it looks because you can't tell if the weight is a fish biting or just the rebar floating in the water. I got no bites. Gilbert got one bite and no catches. The three other boatmen caught plenty of fish. The only time I got close to catching a fish was when the captain felt two fish on the line and gave it to me to pull up. Back to the fish filets. The captain caught a dead fish. It was freshly dead. I think that it had just bitten the hook when a bigger fish bit off it's lower half. That happened twice. So, one of the helpers filleted up the fish and used it as bait. 

     I am actually kind of glad that we went after it rained, because the view from the boat was fan-diddly-tastic. The clouds had sunk below the tops of the mountains and were kind of floating among them. It was awesome. I didn't want to take to many pictures because I didn't want to seem too touristy to the boatmen, but I couldn't resist. 

    By the end of the day, I'd say we they caught about 15 fish. I thought that I would get 5 and the boatmen would split the rest among themselves, but they gave them all to me. I asked Gilbert what the fish would be worth in the market and he said around P200, which is quite a bit in that area. We took them to the restaurant to be cooked for dinner. We asked for them to be cooked traditionally. We got the big meaty fish grilled, and the rest fried with a sweet and sour sauce. It was easily the best meal that we had had at that restaurant. We felt bad that we only ate 6 or 7 fish, so we asked that the rest be taken back to the kitchen to be shared among the staff. The manager said that the staff had already eaten, but hopefully someone had at least one. 

Ugong Scenery

Ugong Cave Tour

     My dad and I are the only two in the Resort signed up for the Ugong Cave tour, so I thought that it would be like when the three of us (Dad, Rebecca, and I) were the only ones signed up for the Mangrove Tour. We were the only ones there. This was not true. 

    It was a half hour drive to the Ugong Rock Tour. We took the one road and turned onto some dirt road into a village. There was again a large wooden sign with Ugong Rock Tour. The place was filled with people. Families, couples, people by themselves, you name it. Nothing like what I expected. While the Daluyon employee, Che, deals with the paperwork and the woman in charge of the sign ups, we don our protective helmets. Of the two zip line options to get off of the mountain, we choose the Superman option. Think about it. Dad and I are lumped into a group of fifteen or so, and we cross the small bridge that leads to the entrance to the cave. We spend the first five minutes or so letting the tour guide take pictures of families and couples, and whoever else wants pictures. We continue on our way into a tunnel where the guide explains the name of the cave. The cave is called Ugong because some of the rocks are hollow, and when you bang on them they make a noise similar to when you blow into a bottle but quieter. Ugong is the Tagalog word for resonance. 

    When the trip should have taken 30 minutes, it was lengthened by the mass of people all slowly trying to go through this cave system and strapping up to climb a wall 15 feet tall. I believe that my group was slowed down by a particularly photogenic group in front of us. Every minute, they were taking pictures. Every minute.

    Anyway, after we got out of the cave, you could see for quite a distance. All of the land by the Ugong cave was rice paddies. We went to the little desk to verify that it in fact was us going on the zip line and that we did not mysteriously die in the cave. The harness for the Superman zip line (in case you haven't figured it out yet, it means you lie down) was a much thicker and complex harness than any I have seen. There are really thick shoulder straps and two waist harnesses, and you get a little parachute to slow you down during the ride. I decided to be a clown and "swim" during the ride, which my dad said earned some laughs. But this zipline lasted only around 30 seconds. I think that I prefered this one, not only because of the position, but also because the fields of cultivation, in my opinion, are prettier than ocean. 

Mangrove/Zipline Pictures 3