The Fire Breathing Monster of Palawan

We pulled up to the bus terminal at 11:50 and were greeted by a fire-breathing monster who had assumed the form a of rambling 40-year old bus in its present incarnation, the latest of many, I can only assume. Inside was a lively swarm of people, packed well beyond the intended limits of the manufacturer, but quite at ease in spite of it, squeezing together a bit more to make a sliver of space for me on the bench in the front, inviting me be assimilated into the collective. I did.

The collective consisted of the driver, the conductor in charge of the passengers and cargo, some 50 locals varying in age from about six weeks to, well, elderly, and five of us tourists in the middle of it all - me, a German couple, and a couple from Chula Vista, CA - practically my parents' neighbors in nearby San Diego.

Some fifteen [uncomfortably hot and sticky] minutes later, the monster belched to life and rumbled off towards the jungle. Some 45 minutes earlier, I had just come back to my hostel, having learned that I would not be doing the dive trip I had come looking for (typhoon season!), which got me to trying to reach Sabang, which got me to the fire-breathing monster at the bus terminal. It's supposed to depart at noon, but tends to actually go when full - be it earlier or later, and since this was the last Sabanga bus for the day, I was feeling pretty good about being aboard as it pulled away.

Our driver cajoled the screeching beast along the twisty, surprisingly well paved roads for the next three hours until we reached the far side of Palawan island, and the tourist enclave of Sabang, home of Palawan's signature attraction - the underground river, UNESCO recognized. At one point, the asphalt had abruptly ended just as we passed a sister-beast, heading in the opposite direction, with a dozen people riding on the roof exchanging pleasantries with their comrades on our roof. The beasts merely snorted at each other...

There are no actual bus stops on Palawan, so to get off you just knock on the beast's metal roof, the bus stops and the conductor produces your luggage (or your pack of bamboo sticks... or your live chicken) from the smorgasbord of packages occupying the roof. Since there are no actual stops, everyone expects to be dropped off precisely at their front door, even if we had just stopped 30 meters earlier to drop off your neighbor - walking is so twentieth century! I kept a wary eye on the people and packages getting off, hoping to spot the guy who may decide to take off with my backpack - noone did... Noone took off with the ten packs of bamboo sticks we had loaded onto the roof along the way either - I calmly and pragmatically figured that anything which complicated the situation on the roof also served to reduce the odds of my backpack walking away, so I welcomed the addition of the bamboo.

About two hours into the trip, the beast, bright green in color, sputtered around a sharp corner, and a view of the bay greeted us - a yellow ring of sand hugging the coast where the stately bright green palm trees were coming down to dip their toes in the water, while somber green peaks were rising up meet the sky a bit further beyond the shore. Perfect. Picture-perfect, in fact!

So perfect, in fact, that I'd figured I'd come here to spend my birthday - if I can't be up in Seattle with my friends, I might as well be surrounded by beautiful pristine shoreline here on Palawan instead... A full day here on the beach, including a trip to the nearby caves, which host the underground river, on tap for tomorrow, before catching a boat up the coast for El Nido on Friday, to take in some scuba diving in these beautiful waters.

The locals have given the beast a name: jeepney.

The one on the left was my residence for the two nights in Sabang

The ubiquitous Filipino bangka boat. Low tide.

Hannah, Till, and I getting ready to head off for the Underground River

Have I mentioned the beautiful sandy beaches?

Monitor lizards, harmless, but a rather menacing 5 feet in length, patrol the entrance to the caves

While the monkeys stare at the lizards with mild bemusement

Going into the cave

The formations inside are pretty crazy... A little similar to Halong Bay, but unlike Vietnam, only natural lighting is allowed in, making for a much more peaceful and natural view

They name a lot of the individual formations - this is one is named Bacon... Because they are thinking of you, Lott!

All of us back at the Dab-Dab for dinner that evening

So, have I built up enough anticipation about the fire breathing monster of Palawan yet? A couple days from now, I'll be getting on the same bus/monster/jeepney here in El Nido and making the seven to nine hour journey back to Puerto Princessa to catch my flight back to Manila. I'm hoping to get to ride on the roof!

Odds and Ends

a few random thoughts as I've made my way down from Japan to the Philippines over the last day and a half...

today's weather

Seattle: bad

Tokyo (left) and San Diego (right): better

Manila, Philippines: Just right!

flying in luxury and style
Admittedly, I am very much looking forward to my March 1st flight on Qatar airways, a self-proclaimed 'five-star' airline. Cebu Pacific, a Filipino discount airline which got me from Japan to Manila last night, is admittedly nowhere near five-star status. However, having an exit row seat means plenty of leg room, and not having anyone sitting in the middle seat, means plenty of elbow room as well, so luxury and style! There are admittedly a few limitations to exit row seating - the seats don't recline and your bags all have to be overhead. There's also some limitations to discount airlines - food for purchase and a 15kg luggage limitation, but all in all, it was better than I might have expected!

highway bus vs. the gaijin
Before climbing aboard my Cebu Pacific Airbus, I needed to get from Nagoya to Osaka. This was accomplished by virtue of a Willer Express highway bus - the cheapest, and reasonably convenient, way I've found to get around Japan. At boarding time, they have a full list of all the passengers seats assigned and all. All the names are in Japanese... except for one: Aleksandr Slepak at the top. So, in order to board the bus, I chose to simply smile and point to my name. This was sufficient - no id checks, nobody even wanted to look at my confirmation printout... When you are the only 'gaijin' on the bus, Japan doesn't really want to deal with you, they just hope you won't cause any trouble. I didn't.

what you never expected
I enjoy wine. And I would've been disappointed to have left Mendoza, Argentina, the Napa Valley, or the South island of New Zealand without tasting some (I wasn't disappointed). Somehow, I don't really think of wine when coming to Japan though. Sake? Sure. A bar featuring 300 hundred different types of tequila? I'll introduce you to the Iranian guy running it in Tokyo... Organic French wine? Apparently, you should expect that as well!

A wine tasting in Nagoya, featured organically-grown French wine. The proprietor, dressed more for snowboarding than wine-tasting (but who makes several trips to France to select his wines yearly) may have been the best part...

the industrial metropolis of Osaka
My flight was actually at 7:20 at night, but I arrived in Osaka around 10:30 in the morning, so even after taking a couple of hours to navigate my way around the enormous conglomerate that is the Osaka train station in search of such things as Baggage Storage, tourist information, and lunch, I still had a few hours to play tourist.

The most striking feature dominating the Osaka skyline is the Umeda Sky Building:
The 173 meter building is apparently only the 7th tallest in Osaka, but certainly the most recognizable, with its pair of 40-floor towers coming together to support the floating terrace at the top. It's an exhilarating ride in the glass elevator to the top, where it's capped by an outdoor walkway (which is surprisingly less blasted by the wind than I would've expected). A few views of the building, and of Osaka from the top of the skyscraper:

Up close on a sunny afternoon

View from the top

The Yodo river pulses through the center of Osaka, and is spanned by a variety of bridges

Massive escalators lead to the top

looking extremely symmetrical inside

Industrial achievement, abstract art, or both?

Umeda building posing with a more industrial side of Osaka in the foreground
controlled chaos
Just step outside your first airport in any city in SE Asia, and this is what you're confronted with: chaos, but somehow controlled. You are also hit in the face with warm vibrant air, the screams of touts trying to sell you everything under the sun, and more often than not, the scents of exotic cuisine. Manila is no exception, and the contrast is especially stark coming from Japan (Singapore may be renowned for its cleanliness, but Japan is certainly the cleanest country in the world).

My experience started when I landed around 10:30 at night and hailed a taxi to go to the nearest LRT (light rail) station. We arrived 15 minutes later, and chaos immediately ensued. The driver couldn't actually drop me off right in front of the station, as, with Christmas approaching, the market has taken over several adjacent streets, so I walked for 10 minutes through a sea of humanity buying, selling, screaming, arguing - living their chaos. Then I got to the station, discovered that it had actually closed two hours ago, and had to walk back... I do wonder what the cab driver thought of the foreigner who appeared out of the middle of nowhere, with a large backpack on, to hail his cab, but he got me to my hostel 30 minutes later for a price that's still less than an average subway ride in Tokyo.

Navigating around Manila is also a bit chaotic as there seems to always be traffic, and while there are street signs, there seems to be an alarming lack of numbers marked on any (well, most) of the buildings, so finding an address can take a while. While I wouldn't have expected my cabbie to have known anything about the Red Carabao hostel on Felix Huertas street, I was a little surprised when my driver ths morning also had to stop and ask for directions to get to the World Trade Center building, home of Manila's Chinese embassy. Fortunately, Manila seems to be overflowing with guards of various sorts, who, while seemingly not doing much else, are good for providing directions.

lingua franca
What do you get when you take a country, whose population is almost entirely indigenous, have Spain colonize it for a few centuries, then have the US come in and take over in the 20th century? Well, confusion, as far as I can tell. I suspect Manila is not actually representative of the rest of the country, but as that's all I've seen so far, here's what I've found:
- vast majority of signage on the streets (let's say 60%) is just in English. All advertising and street shops are posted in English. At the malls, you often hear English spoken as the first language behind the counters, even though the people on both side of the conversation are Filipino. Most people do speak I language I do not understand, so presumably Tagalog.
- some signs are in English and Tagalog. Safety warnings and instructions and such. I'll give these 35% maybe. That might be generous for the upscale shopping and business neighborhoods, like Makati.
- the remaining 5% is just Tagalog - you have to search for these. They are usually official government signs of some sort

No Spanish you'll note, however, Manila has a distinctly Latin American feel to it, and it's not just the near-tropical climate. The street names are all Spanish, and I can occasionally pick up a word or two in the Tagalog conversation that seems derived from the Spanish language. Catholicism is king, of course, and there's plenty of churches, while the jeepney, the preferred method of local transport, appears to be straight out of Central America central casting:


Santa Cruz vs. Santa Cruz
my hostel here in Manila is in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. When I arrived last night, it immediately struck me that it reminded me of something. This morning, it finally came to me - it reminds me of the hostel I stayed in in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, of course! Both used to be relatively upscale private houses that have been converted to a new life as hostels. The patently un-hostel-like fancy bathrooms are a dead give-away... Wonder what Santa Cruz in California's like?

Happy Holidays
I've heard loud-speakers at the malls here in Manila (in English, of course) reminding potential customers that Christmas is only 11 days away. Both Japan and the Philippines are fully decked out in Christmas decor - perfectly sensible in a deeply religious Catholic country like the Philippines, a bit strange in a largely secular, and Buddhist, if anything, country like Japan, but I'm only here to observe, not to judge...

The Umeda Building in Osaka wishing you a Merry Christmas

And a display on the street in Manila reminding you how the whole thing got started

This isn't holiday related, this is Gena and Cheburashka, from a Russian children's cartoon, I used to watch growing up. It wasn't even the best Russian children's cartoon, which makes it appearing today in Japan even odder...

the website

I've added a couple links on the main blog page already, but let's have an official announcement of sorts - I now have a travel website: http://www.safety3rdblog.com/. I had wanted a site that would link together a map of where I'm traveling, the blog, and photos from along the way in some sort of an intelligent fashion. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before I could add the photo functionality in, so, I suppose, I'll just have to post links to any future photo albums to the blog. However, if you want to work on your geography based on random places where Alex has been, it's all there for you - so try it, and let me know if it's broken (because on occasion it is...)!

As background, my inspiration was the map sites that the Mongol Rally and Rickshaw Run people had for those events. Our site from the 2008 Rickshaw Run is here: http://rickshawrun08w.theadventurists.com/index.php?mode=team&sub=display&pagemode=ontheroad&name=SafetyThird. I chose to use the Rickshaw Run as my prototype, and here's my version: http://www.safety3rdblog.com/india.php. It's in no way perfect, or even finished, but I like to think it's an improvement on what we ended up with from the adventurists...

Posts without pictures are boring, so a couple of shots from Tokyo:

Megumi, David, and baby Chloe

A skyscraper in Shinjuku, Tokyo

Temples in the sun this morning in Asakusa, Tokyo

Sometimes I get bored...

So, I was in San Diego last week. I had my camera with me (because Whistler had found it after I had lost it). I also had a new camera, which was to be the replacement for the lost one. So now, I needed to send the new one back. $8 shipping seemed like a reasonable fine to pay for losing my camera, but since I had a few days, I figured I'd try San Diego craiglist to see if I can get rid of it without having to pay for shipping. So I posted and lo and behold, early the following morning, I had a response from an Angelina Mandy:

hi
i am intrested in your sale kindly mail me back if still available..........

Angelina sounded just a bit fishy, but, why not, I informed 'her' that yes, the camera was still available. Follow-up response:

Thanks for your response.I am located at Waco,tx but presently on Business trip abroad,i gat my cell phone stolen,if not would av rung you,This Item is a replica of what i want for my Brother who is in abroad at the mo. sorting out his project …I will add shipping charges confirm from http://www.usps.com for international shipping making it a total of $250.00 …….I will make the total payment if you’ll kindly help me handle the shipping.You can send me the paypal info and i’ll make the payment right away.

Now we know it's a scam, of course, and, these days, I get amused by scammers. I'm not actually sure exactly how this one works, but Paypal does generally operate on the 'protect the buyer, screw the seller' ethos, and craigslist specifically warns not to give out your PayPal info on its scams page, even though I'm not actually sure what our 'angelina' would be able to do with the email address that my PayPal account is registered under, however I didn't want to find that out, but, as I said, I was feeling a little bored, so late the following evening I replied:

That sounds wonderful, unfortunately, I do not have a PayPal account - but, instead, you can just send me your bank account number, and I will authorize my bank to transfer the $250 from your account.

Additionally, I've checked a little with my intelligence contacts, and you have been recommended to me as a very trustworthy person, so I hope you will be willing to help us, as I've been placed in charge of dispersing the funds of the deposed royal family of Myanmar. So, once you send me your bank account number, I have been authorized to deposit an additional sum of 1,000,000 US dollars in your account. The money is perfectly legal, and this is simply a way of preventing the military dictatorship, currently in charge of the country, from illegitimately stealing the royal family's funds. In exchange for your assistance in holding the money in your account for a period of 30 days, you will be rewarded with 10% of the total sum, or $100,000 US dollars.

Look forward to hearing from you,
Alex.

PS. I had a good laugh at your message, hopefully you have one too, before you fuck off.

I was feeling pretty good about my composition skills, and felt 'angie' could learn something for her future scams about not always having the inheritance money come from Africa. Sadly, however, my angelina was apparently too busy managing other scams out of the Lagos, Nigeria (I presume) central office, to play along, so the only response I got said:

its a serious buyer....ok

Ahh, 'angie', you are ruining all of my entertainment... Oh well, fortunately, I now have Japan's Pachinko parlor Enjoy Spaces to keep me entertained - I just added a few pictures to the last post about Tokyo, which will enlighten you on Enjoy Spaces, Tommy Lee Jones' adventures in Japan, and Buddhist temples, among other things...

Home Sweet, Tokyo!? Home

I'm back in Tokyo! The city of pachinko machines, unnecessarily complicated subways, and home of Sakura hostel, where I stayed before and am staying now. So Tokyo is still much too weird to actually feel like home, but it does feel fairly familiar, even a little comfortable perhaps.

The trip over here was started with damn near torrential downpours in LA and San Diego (an event that the American Airlines ground crews are entirely unprepared for judging by the fact that my checked bag arrived still wet, twelve hours later in Tokyo). And, of course, I got to re-confirm that 12 hour flights still suck, even if JAL makes it a bit less intolerable than the AA alternative.

Random things I've found/remembered in my first few hours in Tokyo:
- it's true, the Japanese are wholly paranoid about germs. I saw plenty of face masks last year, there's even more of them now, in the face of Avian/swine/etc. flus. Including the guy that was sitting next to me on the flight.
- on the subway, I was reminded of the fact that the people here are either sleep deprived, or just really like to nap in positions I would find wholly uncomfortable while on the subway. Young, old, men, women, everybody's taking naps on the train.
- the iPhones are coming! the iPhones are coming! This one is particularly painful as I left mine behind in San Diego, but it is nice to see some iPhones supplementing the wholly ubiquitous Japanese phones. Not sure if iPhone 3G was even out yet when I was here a year ago, but I certainly didn't see any.

I'll come up with a few more witty observations before I leave Japan, I'm sure, in the mean time, I'm only here for a few days - three nights in Tokyo, two more in Nagoya (meeting up with friends in both places), then making my way down to Osaka for a flight down to Manila, and the tropical warm archipelago that is the Philippines. Started reading the Philippines guide book on the flight over - I wish I had more than 10 days to see the place! Looks like it'll just take it's rightful place along all the other countries that I would like to come back to eventually.

A few pictures:

Sakura Hostel in the Asakusa neighborhood of Tokyo

Asakusa is more famous for the huge temple dominating the neighborhood

The Pachniko parlors seem to be the major attraction for the locals though

The Sunshine Pachinko parlor - your 'Enjoy Space!' I love the Japanese attempts at English translations... People do seem to be ready to enjoy the space though as there was a line of some 20 people waiting outside at 9:45. Presumably, this particular Enjoy Space opens its doors at 10AM

Lively or Apathetic? Well, I just don't know, it sounds more like one of those HSBC ads I see at airports the world over. Sidewalk art murals outside the hostel

Tommy Lee Jones looking very serious as he tries to sell you on Japanese soft drinks... Weird...