Asia – Page 6 – TravelGal's Notes

June 17, 2019January 31, 2020

Part 1. Manila, the City that is Hard to Love.

Somehow, with all our travels through South-East Asia over the past years, both of us managed to skip the Philippines. Not intentionally – somehow, we just never made it there… Now came the time to amend this terrible wrong, and get to know the archipelagic country of 7, 641 islands. The fact that one of our friends recently moved there and opened a hostel on one of them definitely contributed to the idea of making the Philippines our next destination.

Our plans were quite rough and relatively modest – Manila, Boracay (THE ultimate beach island, that has only recently been re-opened for tourists after all the havoc the hordes of visitors wreaked there earlier), a remote island of Siquijor where our friend built his new digs and started his new life, and after that – whatever we would have time for. Tarsiers (of them later), chocolate hills, islands, beaches and waterfalls were all on the menu, and for the most part, all our wishes were eventually fulfilled.

Our first step was Manila. All guidebooks and travelers agreed it was a shithole, but we had two reasons to choose it as our destination:

the flight from Europe to Manila was considerably cheaper than to Cebu, the other international gateway into the Philippines
shithole or not, Manila was the country’s capital after all, and we wanted to form our own impressions.

The vacation started in the best possible way – with upgrades into business class on both (!) legs of our flight. The first one came as a complete surprise, and while 2.5 hours from Munich to Istanbul didn’t make such a big difference, it was nice to be pampered. When our names were called again in Istanbul, and our economy class boarding passes were exchanged to business ones for the 12-hour flight to Manila, our gratitude knew no limits. We were officially in love with Turkish Airlines!!!

Upgrades aside, I have to note, that the Turkish Airlines general level of service was much, much higher than with our regular travel partner, Lufthansa. The staff were smilier (and more sincerely so), the planes were cleaner, the leg room (even in economy, which we did experience on our return flights – alas, no quadruple upgrades were in our stars!), and the food much more palatable. From now on, whenever possible – Turkish Airlines every time!

We landed in Manila in the late afternoon, and having far-sightedly booked two night in a fancy hotel near the airport (thank you, the unknown Gods of business travel that allow the weary travelers to accumulate hotel bonus points, redeemable for free nights later!), we were intent on getting there as fast as possible. The fast immigration and baggage service raised our hopes high, we jumped into a taxi, and then things halted to a stop. We were about to experience the capital’s afternoon pre-holiday traffic in all its glory! Manila traffic was not just mad, chaotic, and defying every possible traffic law and rule, but also packed to the extent imaginable only in a mad dog’s dream. The sheer number of vehicles cluttering the few arteries connecting the airport with the rest of the world was unbelievable. Our taxi got quickly sucked into the midst of this vortex, and all we had left on our 3.5 km journey that lasted close to two hours (!) was to relax and find consolation in observing the chaos outside.

The first thing that definitely sprung to attention were Jeepneys. The most common and popular type of public transportation in the Philippines, they originated from the US military jeeps left over from World War II, jeepneys looked like a stretched army personnel carrier, that aspired to grow into a bus, but hadn’t quite made it. They compared with one another in the kitschiness of decorations, and the number of passengers crammed inside. They were hard not to notice thanks to said decorations – tons of bling-bling, fairy lights and what not, all over the vehicles, along with the “themed” approach to branding – on our ride from the airport we noticed jeepneys bearing proud fancy names of “Batman’s Army” and “Shakira’s”, as well as the inevitable “Mary Mother of God”, and “Holy Face of Jesus”.

We also spotted a huge loaded truck with two guys happily sitting on top of the truck’s load, involved in what looked like an all-absorbing card game, and a van with an Apple sticker on the rear window, accompanied by an equally large sticker advertising Glock pistols – go figure…

The streets were clogged to an amazing degree, though!… The traffic was not moving AT ALL. It strongly reminded me of the streets of St. Petersburg during the New Year holidays, when everybody and their mother went shopping for presents and food for the celebrations, and managed to happily block every single nook and cranny of the city. In Manila the situation was the same. We landed there on December 23^rd, right before Christmas, and considering Manila was officially THE most populated city in the world, that also happened to be situated in the country that took Catholicism to its highest level, this should not have been a major surprise… It still was.

The funny part was (as our taxi driver readily shared with us at some point in our journey), that for a handy price of 35 Pesos, equivalent to 60 Euro cents (which we readily coughed up), the cars could take the brand new skyway, which happened to be absolutely empty! The skyway took up 2 out of the 3.5 km of our route, and we made these 2 km in 2 min. We still had to drive off it at some point, and make the remaining 500 m to the hotel at snail pace in the almost stationary traffic.

After almost 2 hours we finally made it the hotel. The Manila City of Dreams Hyatt was definitely NOT a regular item on our travel itinerary. Luckily (or not – depends on the time of your point of view), Nic slaved a couple of weeks on a business trip in India, and the hard-earned hotel points bought us 2 free nights in this over the top place.

Hotel security with metal detectors, K9 dogs and serious-looking guys in khakis with semi-automatic weapons seemed to be an excessive sign of hospitality, and while it definitely made an impression, it also made us wonder of the general safety situation in the Philippines. This Fort Knox welcome could be quite appropriate for a place on the verge of a war, or a revolution – could we have missed some important recent news?… Turned out, the security was not for the hotel, but for a full-scale casino on premises. Which still was not logical – I would strip-search and metal-detect people leaving the gambling zone (to prevent them from taking too much money out with them), and not those coming in (for the more money they bring in, the better off the house will be, as it always wins anyway!…)

The next day we set out on exploring the city. They say Manila was hard to love, and although we kept our minds and hearts open, and really tried to see the best sides of the place, we can second this. You can definitely tell that the city is overcrowded – Wikipedia gently refers to it as a “highly urbanized city”, and no wonder that in 2018 Manila made it to the top of “The Most Populated Cities in the World” list. The sheer numbers of people per square meter are unbelievable, and the mad traffic is only one side effect of this. The second, and also quite visible one is garbage and pollution. The never-ending flow of multi-lane traffic on the streets exhaust an unbelievable amount of shit into the atmosphere, making the air, buildings, and people look grey and dusty even in the pouring rain. The canals and rivers in the city are so full of garbage, that you can’t see the water. True, we have not seen the whole city, but we walked through a fair section of Manila’s Chinatown in Binondo district, and then the slightly nicer downtown district of Intramuros, and the garbage situation was approximately the same throughout.

One of the cleaner canals of Manila, where the water (no matter which color) can actually be seen…

Our free fancy digs did not include breakfast, and we were too tight to cough up the exorbitant price 5-star establishments usually ask for a nondescript morning spread. We were intent to find local fare, and enjoy it! Turned out – not that easy… Almost everything in both, Chinatown and Intramuros was closed. It was Christmas Eve, and the locals sure took the celebrations seriously (of that later). After a couple of hours of random search, we tucked out pride away, and agreed on fast food. We wanted to experience the local Jollybee – the Philippine fast-food chain praised by everybody, including the late Anthony Bourdain. Not so easy – a couple of joints we saw on the way remained steadily closed. KFC seemed like the least poisonous choice, so in the end we landed there. A monsoon-type rain suddenly started, so the decision had to be made fast, and we ran even faster unto the welcoming dry depth of the otherwise-despised fast-food joint.

I am not being snobbish in despising fast-food. It has a place and time in everybody’s life. Lucky, my childhood was lived without these “advances of Western civilization”, as a student I did not have money for fast-food (unbelievable as it sounds nowadays), but I enjoyed my share of Big Macs and cheeseburgers when I got my first job after graduation. Sad as it sounds (and as it undoubtedly was), on the salary of a junior professor at one of the most prestigious universities in my home-country, one could only afford to eat out in MacDonald’s. I did not give a shit, and probably did not even realize it was pathetic – my MacDonald’s years were thoroughly enjoyed! These days, however, it is easy to find quick, easy and affordable solutions outside of the fast-food world, and MacDonald’s is only visited in the early hours of the morning, in the state of deep intoxication, when the body needs something fast to soak up the excessive alcohol and make it home…

Being in a fast-food joint sober was definitely a new experience of the past 15 or so years… The wall of rain outside ensured we were not in a hurry, so we took our time getting used to the new sensation and familiarizing ourselves with the surroundings. Several things were hard not to notice, even to the relative fast-food sober novices like ourselves:

Fast food restaurants had security guards at the entrance. Not just the one we landed at, but every single one. The security was not as tough as at the hotel, but a uniformed individual with a sidearm was spotted at the entrance to every establishment.
Somehow Italian food made it as far as the Philippines and got so incorporated into the local culture, that one of the main dishes in KFC was spaghetti. Upon later acquaintance with the Philippines, spaghetti were spotted in other fast-food joints and not only. Go figure…
KFC proudly sprouted a gravy station, where all the locals were drowning both, their chicken and spaghetti in loads of gravy from a 50-liter jar with a pump. During our 1.5 hours stay in that particular establishment the jar was re-filled once… If you ever wondered who the fuck consumes 50 liters of gravy in an hour, you would definitely find your answer and the target audience in the Philippines.

In the end we gave up on trying to wait the rain out, and dashed out of the dry and refrigerated environment of the KFC into the nearby train station. The thorough study of the map during out fast-food confinement revealed that we could take a train to the walking distance from the hotel, and not be stuck in a taxi in a horrible Manila traffic.

The train was easy, fast, and reliable. However, what looked like “walking distance” on the map, turned out a little more convoluted… The Baclaran station closest to the hotel on the LRT line was in the middle of a mad market, which thanks to the monsoon rain was absolutely drowning. We tried (unsuccessfully) to walk through or around it on dry land, but eventually gave up, and ploughed through together with the locals knee-deep in muddy waters filled with litter. It took us a good 45 minutes just to find the way through and out of the market, and another 1.5 hours to walk to the hotel. Hailing a cab would not have made any difference whatsoever, as the traffic tightly packed the streets without any movement.

We washed the market off our feet in the hotel, but weren’t ready to call it a night just yet. It was Christmas Eve and like two mad dogs knowing no rest, we were intent on enjoying it! We grabbed a cab (traffic or no traffic we were simply too tired of walking), and went to yet another part of the city, the Malate district, in search of the Oarhouse Pub, where Anthony Bourdain once celebrated his Manila Christmas to a mad karaoke supplemented by endless beers. Alas, the Irish luck was not with us – the pub was closed (probably for Christmas, but there was no telling due to lack of any signage on the doors or anywhere else for that matter). We ended up in the terrace bar of the Tambayan Capsule Hostel, which delighted us with chilled San Miguel beers (surprisingly good!) and Oktoberfest paraphernalia (home, sweet home!), but disgusted with their version of sisig, a traditional Philippine dish of fried pork with egg. The Tambayan version was greasy, gristly, and covered with mayo. I gave up after about a 2^nd bite… Well, Philippine cuisine will have to wait to be discovered and enjoyed.

The dish posing as sisig on the Tambayan menu 🙁

Not content with how the Christmas Eve was unfolding so far, we located an Irish pub on the map, grabbed another cab, and after another painful 45 minutes fighting through downtown traffic we were there. Mulligan’s Irish Pub in Makati offered outdoor seating, chilled Guinness and fantastic steak & kidneys pie – all our tired souls needed to finish the day and turn in for the night.

The next day we were off to Boracay!

November 19, 2017April 8, 2022

Part 6. Penang

Penang was a spur of the moment thing. Reading about Malaysia in our trustworthy Lonely Planet, we came across the name of the island, and found it on the map. Having read more about the place, we realized to our delight and curiosity, that George Town, capital city of Penang, was a UNESCO World Heritage Site and famous for its mad street art and fantastic street food. Besides, the island (by definition) was supposed to have beaches. Sold!

View of downtown George Town from Hotel Royal Penang

By that time in the journey, Malaysia could do no wrong in our eyes, so we did not spend too much time looking for a hotel in George Town, and booked the first one, the photos of which we liked. BIG mistake! Apart from the fact that the photos most probably dated back to about 50 years ago, when Hotel Royal Penang was first built, and the cleaning staff were not overly busy over these past years, it got forever remembered as the home of the biggest (luckily dead) cockroach I have ever seen in my life (and having traveled in the South of the US and through South-East Asia, I have seen some noteworthy specimen!). The only good point about the hotel was its location – within a short 10/15-min walk of the downtown, basically making NOT spending any time on premises the best part of choosing Hotel Royal. We threw our bags in, and could not get out of the building fast enough.

George Town is definitely one of a kind place. Simultaneously shabby and colonial-grand, sleepy and brimming with life, it was full of surprises, and there sure was more to it that one could think of at first cursory glance. It is the 2^nd largest city in Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur, with the population of over 700,000 people. Mind it, I read about this in the travel guide – if anybody asked my personal opinion after experiencing George Town first hand, I would have sworn there could not have been more than a couple thousand people in the city, so quiet and almost comatose it seemed. True, we happened to be there on a weekend (apparently the quietest time in George Town), but the weekend fell on New Year’s Eve, so we were hoping for at least some party activity on the streets. In our dreams, obviously…

An old colonial-style building with a misleading Guinness signs

One of many colorful pagodas of George Town

One of the first things that you notice in George Town, is how multi-cultural, mutli-ethnic, and multi-religious it is. Downtown is a mad mishmash of Buddhist temples, mosques, Protestant, Methodist, Catholic, Evangelist churches – name any religion, and I am sure the followers will have no problems finding a place of worship in George Town! With the 60% of its population being of Chinese ethnicity, the history of British colonialism and Japanese subjugation, the city has got stories to tell. Walking the streets of the old downtown, one could literally trace the history of George Town through the decrepit colonial mansions, elaborate pagodas, prim and proper churches, and an abundance of statues to various British military generals.

Yet, the most fascinating part about George Town is its street art. From giant roosters on the side of buildings, to tiny figures elaborately worked into the bits of missing plaster, and full murals depicting the city’s everyday life, the street art is absolutely unique and mind-boggling. It is also not too easy to spot. True, it is hard not to notice a 2-meter tall ginger cat on the side of the building, but the finer bits (like a little mouse, teasing the cat from around the corner of the same building), or a little boy taming a monster between the broken pieces of plaster are a little harder to find. One walks through downtown George Town on an endless treasure-hunt with permanently wide open eyes, oblivious to anything in the outside world, that is not painted on a wall of a building, and is at risk of being run over by a car or a moped, while trying to make out the mural on the opposite side of the street.

Just a few of Georgetown’s famous murals

A lot of street art is also worked into the surrounding chaos of the streets – two kids painted on a wall of a building riding an old bike bolted to said wall, a boy sitting on an old moped forgotten by somebody by the side of a house, three tiny rogue penguins spraying on graffiti on a wall, or a young girl reaching out to place incense sticks onto a holder on the wall. Even tourist signs in the old town, made of elegant metal work and carefully attached to the sides of buildings, are worked into the intricate maze of street art. A Bangsy’s dream and artists’ playground, George Town is a feast for the observant eye, and a place where fantasy runs berserk.

One of the smaller and less obvious murals – gangsta penguins

In no hurry to return to our disappointing hotel, we spent the whole day of New Year’s Eve walking the streets of Penang. Our breakfast was 3-D coffees in “Coffee on the Table” – a tiny coffee shop with mismatched colorful chairs and tables, priding itself in one-of-a-kind cappuccinos. Who would have thought that simple milk foam can be shaped into such whimsical shapes!… Obviously, imagination and creativity were on the menu everywhere in George Town.

Our lunch was beer in the “Junk Café”. Drawn in by the name, thirst, and a mad assortment of artsy junk on the walls, we stayed for the conversation with a barman (owner?), talking about life, art, and beer – can you imagine a deeper, or more fulfilling conversation?…

Overwhelmed with the abundance and variety of street art, we sadly all but missed on the promised food paradise part of George Town. New Year’s Eve or not, the locals were observing the weekend rest religiously (probably enforced by the multitude of denominations), and most places, including street markets, were closed. I did, however, have a bite of chicken rice that I missed in Singapore from a street stall in George Town, and if that was any indication of the quality of local food – I was a convert! Can’t wait to return to Penang during the week, and eat my way through!

One peculiarity of George Town that we noticed, and could not explain, was the abundance of Guinness ads all over the city – bars, restaurants, food markets and random buildings proudly wore the “black magic” posters, while the beverage itself was nowhere to be seen… Did they run out?… Or how else would the ads make it here, if Guinness itself is not served or sold anywhere?… A mystery, that forever remained unsolved… By the end of the day, we landed in the “Olive Restaurant & Bar”. No website, as none is needed. Despite the name, hinting at something Greek/Mediterranean, the place offered some of the best Indian food we have ever tried, great music (you can’t possibly resist a DJ wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, can you?!…), and a unique anthropological people-watching opportunity.

When we arrived, the place was packed to the brim, and by sheer Irish luck we secured the last tiny table by wall. The New Year’s Eve special offer was “Buy two 1-liter bottles of Jack Daniels, and get one half-liter for free!” This must have been an irresistible combination for the locals, for ALL other patrons of the venue were enthusiastically partaking in the offer. Four adults with two kids sitting at a table next to us, ordered several rounds of the special offer, paired with a bucket of Tiger beers each, and when the buckets ran out, the “Tower of Tiger” – an over-sized pitcher with a tap – appeared on their table, to the sheer delight of the audience. How they were still vertical after that amount of Jack with beer, was the second mystery of the day. The kids did not help the parents (I watched), and were just running around the bar screaming, high on sugar and adrenaline, until well past midnight.

We crawled back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning, and even in our state of New Year’s celebratory intoxication (just wine, no Jack!), we found the reality of Hotel Royal Penang too depressive to cope. Having woken up, we quickly browsed the Internet, this time paying attention not just to the photos, but to the reviews and ratings, and flew the coop direction Batu Ferringhi, which promised the best beaches in the area, while still keeping the attractive prices of South-East Asia, that make all Europeans flock there en mass.

Batu Ferringhi beach – view from the Hard Rock Hotel, Penang

A 30 minute taxi ride away, and we were in a different world, putting the horrors of the Hotel Royal Penang behind us, never to be spoken of again. The Hard Rock Hotel Penang, was a dream come true for the end of the long journey – it had pools, clean premises, attractive drinks, and smiley people all around! Even if it took them 40 minutes to work out our credit cards, we did not really mind. Our faith in Malaysian quality and hospitality was fully restored! I took a shower (which I longed for since the previous day, but avoided in the Hotel Royal for hygienic reasons), we spent the rest of the day in the welcoming hotel pool, enjoying the drinks from the pool bar (my first!), and chatting with a bunch of friendly Australians occupying the rooms on the ground floor – a quick swim away from the pool bar. Turned out, Malaysia was a popular Christmas/New Year destination for Australians, although for reasons completely opposite to those that brought us there. The Europeans fly to Asia to escape the cold and misery of the winter, while the Australians are hiding there to wait off the winter heat. Well, to each its own, I guess…

One of many fantastic sunsets of Batu Ferringhi

Australians were living in the hotel for the past couple of weeks already, and knew the area quite well. Their local knowledge came it quite handy by dinner time. Not intending to eat in the hotel, but willing to explore the local food market scene, all we had to do was follow a couple of two big hungry blokes out of the hotel. They looked like they never missed a meal in their lives, and the business-like intent of their fast-paced walk gave us assurance that they knew where they were going. We weren’t disappointed – the Australians led us straight to the evening market, where food was in abundance.

Everything looked and smelled delicious, and we spent a delightful couple of hours, trying bits and pieces from a variety of stalls on the market. The system was simple – you walk past the stalls situated around the perimeter of a square filled with tables and chairs, order the food you wished, give the number of the table you were planning to sit at (or simply point in its direction), and in a couple of minutes your food was in front of you! Drinks were ordered from separate vendors, materializing in front of you the moment you sat down at a table, and the whole process was swift, easy, and accommodating. We had chicken satays, big flat rice noodles with meat, fresh fish and crab cakes – the food market was a true feast for the eyes and stomachs. The portions were conveniently small, so you could try a number of dishes without too big of a risk for your waist-line.

The shared tables with free sitting also allowing you to mingle with the locals and tourists alike, strike interesting conversations, and share useful information. A lovely couple from Adelaide, who were going home the next day, told us about their favorite beach bar, just minutes away from our hotel, and we thanked them many time over days after they were gone.

Frandy Beach Bar became our go-to place for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the remaining 2 days in the area. They cooked up amazing food at ¼ of the price you would pay at the hotel (which did not have the extortionist price tag to begin with), poured nice drinks, had the friendliest bar staff you can imagine, and to top all that, had absolutely amazing sunset views. Thank you, thank you, thank you, the unknown couple from Adelaide for sharing this gem with us!

True to our word to Selim, we also paid a visit to the Healy Mac’s in Batu Ferringhi, and it was as good as the one in the capital. Great food, great drinks (for a change to everywhere else on Penang, their Guinness ads were actually supported by the actual Guinness on tap!), and great live music in the evenings. I don’t always sing along with the bands I hear (for fear of clearing the place and scaring away the people around me), but I caught myself doing this more than once in Healy Mac’s. And alcohol had nothing to do with this – the bands were just too good not to join in!

The lighthouse in Straights Key Marina – view from Healy Mac’s

View of George Town from Straights Quay Marina

The three days we spent in Batu Ferringhi were the most relaxing of our vacation, and also seemed to fly by especially quickly. It’s always weird – the more you do in any given day on vacation, the more you pack into the day, the more things you see and the more people you meet, the faster each individual day goes, but the longer the stretch of such days lasts. Once you stop, sit back, fall into the routine of doing nothing – each individual day stretches for longer, but several together suddenly get more condensed, and looking back at them, you remember them as just one long day that finished quite fast. Is this a trick our memories play to us, or an actual time stretching/condensing phenomenon?… I guess I’ll never know…

Our way back took a total of 29 hours (Penang to Singapore, Singapore to Zurich, including a painful 7 hour (!!!!) layover in Zurich airport, and finally back to Munich), but since Bali was not involved in the itinerary, everything worked. The trip went smoothly, no flight was cancelled or delayed, and after a chain of airports, flights, and the teeth-pulling boredom of the Zurich airport, we were finally back home!