Siento haber tardado tanto en escribir el blog. La verdad con los rollos de busqueda de trabajo...etc no he estado muy relajado últimamente. Podría ser peor la verdad.
Hemos pasado 3 semanas en Filipinas, el tiempo que dan de visado cuando uno llega.
Como hay tantas islas era difícil decidir a donde ir. Gente nos dijo ir allí, otra gente, ir allá. Al final decidimos dividir las dos semanas entre las islas de Negros y Cebu. Una pareja alemana nos dio mogollón de información de donde ir, que ver y demás en ambas islas.
Así que llegamos de la ultramoderna Hong Kong a la relajada Filipinas. Del aeropuerto de Negros, que no es mas grande que el de Albacete, fuimos a pillar el bus en un triciclo. Es el taxi local, le ponen un sidecar rudimentario todo tuneao a una especie de vespino o moto rusa/china tipo rieju y ya tienes un taxi. La gente se monta a mitad de camino y cuando te das cuenta tienes la mitad del pueblo en esta especie de híbrido. Por supuesto cuando digo gente, incluyo bolsas de compra, maletas, pollos y hasta gorrinos atados donde se pueda.
Empezamos en Sipalay playa. Muy bonita. Aquí el mar es super azul claro con rocas, pequeños montículos todo verdes sobresaliendo del agua que hacen el paisaje incluso more escénico.
En Sipalay conocimos un pescador con su familia y le convencimos para que nos añadieran a las cenas familiares, por supuesto pagandoles, aceptaron alegremente y aprendimos mogollón de ellos, que majos que eran. La mayoría de los hoteles turísticos clavan por la comida el triple de lo que cuesta en un restaurante local y no esta tan bueno.
Un día en el pueblo le pregunte a un tricitaxista si había gente que alquilase habitaciones de su casa y sin mas el ofreció su casa. Fue una experiencia muy guapa. Nos dieron una habitación con un ventilador para ahuyentar los mosquitos, porque no tenían mosquitera, y pasamos las noches bebiendo ron y comiendo pescado a la parrilla que es la tapa que acompaña la bebida, al menos en su casa...mmmmm, estaba riquísimo, y no me refiero a ron solo!! ;-)
Fuimos aun par de sitios mas que no necesitan que me extienda mucho. Lo único relevante que ocurrió fue la desgraciada noticia del Tsunami de Japon con avisos de evacuación de sitios costeros en Filipinas.
Estábamos Hannah y yo comiendonos un pollo asado, que son muy comunes aquí, cuando nos llamó la madre de Hannah bastante exaltada contandonos lo que había pasado. Nos acojono con razón. Nos dejamos medio pollo y casi me atraganto con los huesecillos. Creo que conforme nos decía las noticias yo masticaba sin pensar que estaba comiendo.
Al final no paso nada. Nos aseguramos que no estábamos en peligro antes de volver a nuestra cabaña a 3 metros de la orilla de la playa. Esa noche nos bebimos 2 litros de San Miguel filipina sentados en la playa pensando que afortunados éramos imaginando lo mal que podriamos estar y lamentando la desgracia de Japon.
Para terminar fuimos a la isla de Cebu, el clima estaba revuelto después del terremoto y tsunami de Japon. Estuvimos snorkelling y turisteando, que a pesar de la intermitente lluvia estuvo genial. Filipinas es muy famosa por el buceo.
Para poner el broche de oro, terminamos en la islita de Malapascua. Una pasada, el color de la arena, del agua...te hipnotiza. Blanco y azul intenso. Hicimos mas snorkelling y pasamos unos días geniales conociendo gente local.
En Filipinas las peleas de gallos son el equivalente al fútbol. To dios va y apuesta o tiene gallos que cría para ese propósito. Hemos estado en varias. La ultima fue con el dueño del ultimo hostal donde nos quedamos que gano y nos invito a cenar el pollo perdedor que lo trae el perdedor para comerlo todos juntos como es costumbre. Claro, bañado con bastante ron como también es costumbre. ;-)
Otra cosa que se me olvidaba es que la lengua local es muy parecida al español. Al ser una excolonia descubierta por Magallanes la comida, la lengua, la religión, todo esta influenciado por los españoles. Ósea que cuando te dicen el precio despues de comerte un puchero, arroz caldoso o un cerdo en adobo suena algo así como, siento sinquenta y sinco peisos.
Vamos para Vietnam. He oído que la comida vietnamita es alucinante!!!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Philippines
Wow, here we are in The Philippines. I was freezing in Hong Kong (-well, it was about 15 degrees at night,) and even colder on the plane. It was a low-cost company, so no blankets I'm afraid madam.. I was wrapped in a big beach sarong and still cold, but when we stepped off the plane....hot hot hot! Mmmmmm!!!- I love that.. when the heat warms you to the bone instantly! Delicious!
It's not just the weather which is warm; the people are also very warm-hearted and friendly here. It's like a curious mix between South America and South East Asia! In fact, as it used to be a Spanish colony, the Philipino language has alot of Spanish words and the food is also similar to Spanish dishes like Adobo and Puchero. When you ask anyone for directions, they tend you look at you as if they don't have a clue what you're talking about, and then suddenly launch into almost perfect English with a heavy American accent. (- It was also an American colony.)
The Philippines is an archepalaego (I love that word) of more than 7000 islands. It's almost all Catholic apart from a Muslim minority and some indigenous tribes.
When we arrived, we took another flight to the capital of Negros Island, Dumaguete, then we found our way to the bus station, had some really good local food - Adobo and rice - like a Spanish stew with pork, garlic, onion and potato. ...And all pleased with ourselves at finding great value delicious food and not another foreigner in site, we plonked down on the first local bus we saw to Sipalay. It wasn't until after 20 minutes or so that we asked the ticket collector how long the journey would take and he said 5 hours! It was literally stopping every 5 minutes to pick up and drop off- and then, about 3 hours in when we stopped, the conductor told us we would be having a 1.40 minute break! We decided to go and use the Internet as I had to send an application. When we got back, the bus was jam packed! People were even standing all squashed in. We went back to our seat and there was a woman with her 6 or 7 year old son on our seat and a man next to him, sitting on top of our stuff. Angel politely ejected him from our seat and we squashed on, but the man started falling asleep standing - curling around the pole and Angel took pity on him and stood up. Angel was actually happy about standing because he felt like a giant compared with all the Philipinos! It was Ok until the same man then started falling asleep on me!A bit longer into the trip, which was already 5 hours and nowhere near over, the kid next to me started puking.. Great! Then the kid behind me also started puking! Even better! And then.. I realized that there were live chickens under my seat (of course there were - how could there not be on this bus journey?) and it seemed like they'd just woken up and wanted to get off.
We finally arrived in Sipalay and took a tricycle (- which is what they call a motorbike with kind of a metal frame sidecar attached) to Sugar Beach. We've only got 3 weeks on the visa and apparently there's far too much to see in only 3 weeks, so we'll probably just visit 3 or 4 places this time. A middle-aged German couple we met on Ko Chang (really sweet and funny when they were trying to remember places to tell us, they kept making high-pitched exclamations and then whispering excitedly to each other in English, like they were in a library and didn't want to disturb people! Ha ha.. )Anyway, they were the ones who recommended Sipalay in Negros to us, and Sulu Sunset Resort on Sugar Beach in particular.This place is run by one German bloke and about 12 Philipino girls... A bit dubious considering there is more prostitution here than in Thailand.. But the girls are very sweet and go everywhere smiling and singing (Everybody sings here constantly.) In the morning it's like being on the set of Annie, the musical, as they all do the cleaning, washing, brushing etc. while singing in American accents at the tops of their voices in that kind of nasal Annie-esque way. They don't seem to be trapped in some dark underworld - even when warbling along to 'Please release me...'.
Angel was playing volleyball with them and another bloke today and some of them wanted him to go on the opposite team, so they could get a better look at him! They even all screamed groupie-stylee when he took his t.shirt off! Ha ha.. I think he was feeling all smug - and tall coz they have the net positioned really low as they're all about 5 ft. He was jumping up and smashing the ball down over the net like Gulliver playing with the Lilliputians!;)
One bad thing about the resorts here is that the food is really overpriced. It's about 4 times as much as the same thing in the town and not even as good. We've taken to persuading the local fisherman's wife at the end of the beach to cook for us. She makes really nice food and charges us local prices -and even teaches us a bit of Philipino thrown in.
Considering I've never been much of an animal person, I've done my fair share of saving the little creatures on this trip - with dog day in Sikkim and Apu in Kerala.. and now... We were having dinner at the house of the fisherman on the beach and as well as 5 dogs, they've also got a piglet sniffing around. The poor thing doesn't stop rubbing its back up against trees and rocks. I convinced Angel to give it something, so the next day we went back with some medicine to kill the mites, stop the itching and reduce the inflammation. We put it into a bit of rice and fed it to him. Ten minutes later it was asleep.. Oops, hope we didn't give him an overdose! We didn't tell the woman what we'd done just in case!
After four nights of guiltily sneaking off to the other end of the beach for dinner and rum instead of spending money in our resort, we've decided to move to the town. I needed to use the internet anyway.- I spent literally three hours writing a cover letter the other day in town and just after I'd finally completed it, the computers all shut down. It wasn't until they started again that I realised that they have a desktop wiping programme and the finished letter was wiped. So p***ed off! So I'm going to go back today and tomorrow and try again.
We asked the tricycle riders if there were any homestays around, and one of them immediately said 'you can stay at my house!'. He's a young jolly guy called Noy and he lives with his very quiet (about 15 year old) wife and child and his schoolgirl sister in law.
We spent last night with our new family. They are really sweet. The wife is actually 24, and not 15 and waits on her husband hand and foot. So glad I'm not Philippino! All the women were really shocked this morning when Angel came outside with a big tub of our washing that he'd just finished handwashing and started hanging it on the line... They must think I've got him very well trained!
Noy took us to see his flighting cocks today. Negros is famous nation-wide for the cocks (or should I say roosters) they produce! He showed us a species of cockerill which looks like a hen. Apparently they win alot of fights because they confuse the more masculine-looking cocks into thinking they're going to mate instead of fight! Noy has a gay friend who has a pink house and a pink car and owns alot of these kind of fighters. They are all really into their cock fighting and gambling here, but it seems to be a men only sport - the same goes for drinking alcohol. We sat around watching Spartacus and drinking rum last night. The women just watched...
On the bus, we made a snap decision to go to Maya - the jumping off point for Malapascua Island. We arrived off the bus finally into a little town with one place to stay 'Abba Lodge' ...what can I say except it wasn't superdupa, no dancing queens etc etc. In fact, the guy wanted 500 pisos for a dingy twin room with no bathroom. We didn't even bother trying to negotiate, but his granddaughter persuaded him to accept us for 400. It was still far too much for the type of room so we went looking around with our rucksacks in the dark. It was at this point that we realised that literally everyone around the town was drunk - even the police on duty with their lethal weapons hanging off their waist bands. One old (drunk) guy told us we could sleep in a hall for free but that there were no beds. We went to have a look anyway, and though there were some sturdy-looking tables, without any kind if matress, we didn't think we didn't think we'd sleep much and anyway, he quickly changed his mind for some reason - we must look like unsavoury characters, though he was the one who stank like a brewery. We went round the village and came across a big party of people in the street drinking beer by the crate. They offered us some Balut which is boiled egg with a twist - the twist being that the chick is almost fully formed inside! They make a little hole in the top if the egg, suck the 'juices' out and then peel the egg and crunch the rest. Noi, who we stayed with in Sipalay said his little daughter loves them. Funny how in some cultures, kids think baby animals are cute and in others they eat them as snacks! We had to crawl back to the Abba Lodge in the end and take his room. After that we thought that if you can't beat them, join them, and bought a litre of beer. We arrived on Malapascua the next morning after a really rough boat ride. Since the tsunami in Japan, the weather's been pretty bad here. It rains every day and the sea's been alot rougher than usual and it's not even rainy season. In fairness though we've been really lucky with the weather on the trip as a whole - so we can't complain.We found a nice room in the village on the middle of the island but still only a couple of minutes wall from the beach. The owner, Rex (like almost everybody in the Philipinnes) breeds fighting cocks.We were invited to the weekly cock fighting extravaganza. We stayed to see Rex's birds win and then escaped. Later on, Rex invited us to dinner with a his nephew, a friend, and, as is traditional, the owner of the cock that lost, which we would be eating for dinner. The weather had been terrible since the tsunami hit Japan. It had uncharctacteristically been raining every day all around Asia. When it finally cleared up, Malapascua was like a completely different place. The sea was suddenly turquoise and clear and the beaches were bright and white. We were so glad to see the difference and it really made us want to come back here and bring friends and family who cone to visit us in Asia later. It's only a very quick cheap flight away from HK.
It's not just the weather which is warm; the people are also very warm-hearted and friendly here. It's like a curious mix between South America and South East Asia! In fact, as it used to be a Spanish colony, the Philipino language has alot of Spanish words and the food is also similar to Spanish dishes like Adobo and Puchero. When you ask anyone for directions, they tend you look at you as if they don't have a clue what you're talking about, and then suddenly launch into almost perfect English with a heavy American accent. (- It was also an American colony.)
The Philippines is an archepalaego (I love that word) of more than 7000 islands. It's almost all Catholic apart from a Muslim minority and some indigenous tribes.
When we arrived, we took another flight to the capital of Negros Island, Dumaguete, then we found our way to the bus station, had some really good local food - Adobo and rice - like a Spanish stew with pork, garlic, onion and potato. ...And all pleased with ourselves at finding great value delicious food and not another foreigner in site, we plonked down on the first local bus we saw to Sipalay. It wasn't until after 20 minutes or so that we asked the ticket collector how long the journey would take and he said 5 hours! It was literally stopping every 5 minutes to pick up and drop off- and then, about 3 hours in when we stopped, the conductor told us we would be having a 1.40 minute break! We decided to go and use the Internet as I had to send an application. When we got back, the bus was jam packed! People were even standing all squashed in. We went back to our seat and there was a woman with her 6 or 7 year old son on our seat and a man next to him, sitting on top of our stuff. Angel politely ejected him from our seat and we squashed on, but the man started falling asleep standing - curling around the pole and Angel took pity on him and stood up. Angel was actually happy about standing because he felt like a giant compared with all the Philipinos! It was Ok until the same man then started falling asleep on me!A bit longer into the trip, which was already 5 hours and nowhere near over, the kid next to me started puking.. Great! Then the kid behind me also started puking! Even better! And then.. I realized that there were live chickens under my seat (of course there were - how could there not be on this bus journey?) and it seemed like they'd just woken up and wanted to get off.
We finally arrived in Sipalay and took a tricycle (- which is what they call a motorbike with kind of a metal frame sidecar attached) to Sugar Beach. We've only got 3 weeks on the visa and apparently there's far too much to see in only 3 weeks, so we'll probably just visit 3 or 4 places this time. A middle-aged German couple we met on Ko Chang (really sweet and funny when they were trying to remember places to tell us, they kept making high-pitched exclamations and then whispering excitedly to each other in English, like they were in a library and didn't want to disturb people! Ha ha.. )Anyway, they were the ones who recommended Sipalay in Negros to us, and Sulu Sunset Resort on Sugar Beach in particular.This place is run by one German bloke and about 12 Philipino girls... A bit dubious considering there is more prostitution here than in Thailand.. But the girls are very sweet and go everywhere smiling and singing (Everybody sings here constantly.) In the morning it's like being on the set of Annie, the musical, as they all do the cleaning, washing, brushing etc. while singing in American accents at the tops of their voices in that kind of nasal Annie-esque way. They don't seem to be trapped in some dark underworld - even when warbling along to 'Please release me...'.
Angel was playing volleyball with them and another bloke today and some of them wanted him to go on the opposite team, so they could get a better look at him! They even all screamed groupie-stylee when he took his t.shirt off! Ha ha.. I think he was feeling all smug - and tall coz they have the net positioned really low as they're all about 5 ft. He was jumping up and smashing the ball down over the net like Gulliver playing with the Lilliputians!;)
One bad thing about the resorts here is that the food is really overpriced. It's about 4 times as much as the same thing in the town and not even as good. We've taken to persuading the local fisherman's wife at the end of the beach to cook for us. She makes really nice food and charges us local prices -and even teaches us a bit of Philipino thrown in.
Considering I've never been much of an animal person, I've done my fair share of saving the little creatures on this trip - with dog day in Sikkim and Apu in Kerala.. and now... We were having dinner at the house of the fisherman on the beach and as well as 5 dogs, they've also got a piglet sniffing around. The poor thing doesn't stop rubbing its back up against trees and rocks. I convinced Angel to give it something, so the next day we went back with some medicine to kill the mites, stop the itching and reduce the inflammation. We put it into a bit of rice and fed it to him. Ten minutes later it was asleep.. Oops, hope we didn't give him an overdose! We didn't tell the woman what we'd done just in case!
After four nights of guiltily sneaking off to the other end of the beach for dinner and rum instead of spending money in our resort, we've decided to move to the town. I needed to use the internet anyway.- I spent literally three hours writing a cover letter the other day in town and just after I'd finally completed it, the computers all shut down. It wasn't until they started again that I realised that they have a desktop wiping programme and the finished letter was wiped. So p***ed off! So I'm going to go back today and tomorrow and try again.
We asked the tricycle riders if there were any homestays around, and one of them immediately said 'you can stay at my house!'. He's a young jolly guy called Noy and he lives with his very quiet (about 15 year old) wife and child and his schoolgirl sister in law.
We spent last night with our new family. They are really sweet. The wife is actually 24, and not 15 and waits on her husband hand and foot. So glad I'm not Philippino! All the women were really shocked this morning when Angel came outside with a big tub of our washing that he'd just finished handwashing and started hanging it on the line... They must think I've got him very well trained!
Noy took us to see his flighting cocks today. Negros is famous nation-wide for the cocks (or should I say roosters) they produce! He showed us a species of cockerill which looks like a hen. Apparently they win alot of fights because they confuse the more masculine-looking cocks into thinking they're going to mate instead of fight! Noy has a gay friend who has a pink house and a pink car and owns alot of these kind of fighters. They are all really into their cock fighting and gambling here, but it seems to be a men only sport - the same goes for drinking alcohol. We sat around watching Spartacus and drinking rum last night. The women just watched...
On the bus, we made a snap decision to go to Maya - the jumping off point for Malapascua Island. We arrived off the bus finally into a little town with one place to stay 'Abba Lodge' ...what can I say except it wasn't superdupa, no dancing queens etc etc. In fact, the guy wanted 500 pisos for a dingy twin room with no bathroom. We didn't even bother trying to negotiate, but his granddaughter persuaded him to accept us for 400. It was still far too much for the type of room so we went looking around with our rucksacks in the dark. It was at this point that we realised that literally everyone around the town was drunk - even the police on duty with their lethal weapons hanging off their waist bands. One old (drunk) guy told us we could sleep in a hall for free but that there were no beds. We went to have a look anyway, and though there were some sturdy-looking tables, without any kind if matress, we didn't think we didn't think we'd sleep much and anyway, he quickly changed his mind for some reason - we must look like unsavoury characters, though he was the one who stank like a brewery. We went round the village and came across a big party of people in the street drinking beer by the crate. They offered us some Balut which is boiled egg with a twist - the twist being that the chick is almost fully formed inside! They make a little hole in the top if the egg, suck the 'juices' out and then peel the egg and crunch the rest. Noi, who we stayed with in Sipalay said his little daughter loves them. Funny how in some cultures, kids think baby animals are cute and in others they eat them as snacks! We had to crawl back to the Abba Lodge in the end and take his room. After that we thought that if you can't beat them, join them, and bought a litre of beer. We arrived on Malapascua the next morning after a really rough boat ride. Since the tsunami in Japan, the weather's been pretty bad here. It rains every day and the sea's been alot rougher than usual and it's not even rainy season. In fairness though we've been really lucky with the weather on the trip as a whole - so we can't complain.We found a nice room in the village on the middle of the island but still only a couple of minutes wall from the beach. The owner, Rex (like almost everybody in the Philipinnes) breeds fighting cocks.We were invited to the weekly cock fighting extravaganza. We stayed to see Rex's birds win and then escaped. Later on, Rex invited us to dinner with a his nephew, a friend, and, as is traditional, the owner of the cock that lost, which we would be eating for dinner. The weather had been terrible since the tsunami hit Japan. It had uncharctacteristically been raining every day all around Asia. When it finally cleared up, Malapascua was like a completely different place. The sea was suddenly turquoise and clear and the beaches were bright and white. We were so glad to see the difference and it really made us want to come back here and bring friends and family who cone to visit us in Asia later. It's only a very quick cheap flight away from HK.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Hong Kong
We arrived in HK and were blown away by the high 'tech-ness' of the place. We'd both been here before but for me it was 9 or 10 years ago and the sheer height of the buildings and the number of skyscrapers never fails to surprise you.
There are moving screens everywhere - like Picadilly Circus X 100. The shopping areas are comparable to any city centre in the west but there are probably more than in any city I've ever been to. Every street seems to have a mall - if not 5 or 6!
I think they say that any street in Hong Kong at 3am on a normal day is as busy as London Oxford St on Christmas Eve.. well I wouldn't say any street but it certainly is busy at night and the shops open late every night. Life gets going after 6pm - like New York in Asia - and nothing like back home! Our neighbours in our little 18th Century street in Melbourne, Derbyshire - where we spent a year in a cottage told us that it couldn't be more different moving to HK and I think they were right.
We'd booked a cheap and cheerful guesthouse in Kowloon - one of the main parts of one of the islands. It was certainly cheerful and clean, but my god, you couldn't swing a cat anywhere. I was expecting it to be small but you almost had to stand on the bed to get changed- and the shower was actually positioned over the toilet! Not my cup of tea - I get very claustrophobic- especially on the 15th floor with bars on the windows.
We're planning to move to HK, and these few days were for interviews and to start thinking about where we'd live etc. I really started to panic that we'd have to live in a shoe box..However, we went to have dinner with the mum of a good friend of ours, who's been there for years and her place was great! I wouldn't say it was palatial, but she could certainly swing a few cats and her guest room even had an en-suite! She lived out on one of the islands; a tropical paradise called Lamma Island. You arrive into a fishing harbour and the houses are all 1-3 storeys. There're really nice beaches and no roads at all. You walk everywhere along small paths or walkways. There were even pubs and seafood restaurants everywhere full of both Chinese and expats. I loved it and really wanted to live there, but another night we went out with a girl called Shevaun, (another vet who Angel met a few years ago doing charity in Thailand,) who changed our minds!
She's Irish and after taking us for an Indian and a few beers (despite the fact that we hadn't been able to even look at Indian food after 5 months in India!), we went to the shop and bought some more beers and went out to the harbour seafront. It was really windy that night, and I had been making do with a tshirt and a thin scarf all week even though it was still winter in HK and the locals were wearing winter coats and boots. I told myself I was a tough Brit - but it was more to do with the fact that I'd left my goose down jacket and my hoodie in storage in Bangkok with a load of other stuff that I (wrongly) thought I wouldn't need for the rest of the trip! While getting very merry, shevaun told us all about life in HK and her amazing social life. She convinced us that if we lived out on Lamma, we'd have to get the last boat back at 11.30 every night, when our night out would just be getting started. She lives in New Territories, which is the vast jungly countryside area in the North. It's still on the metro line and it's only 20 mins in a taxi from HK Island for her. It's cheap, much bigger accommodation and quiet and peaceful, but you can still be in the centre of the city in 20 mins.
One thing that I wasn't entirely convinced about was the food. I've never been such a fan of Chinese food but the menus with things like pig's blood jelly, tongue, chicken's feet or trotter soup may have lost something in the translation. Everything seemed to have offal and even if it didn't, it comes in a gloopy gravy without any of the layers of fresh flavours that Thai food has. I do love dim sum (Chinese dumplings) though, which is usually a breakfast or lunch dish served with jasmine tea.. Mmmmmmm! I suppose we'll be able to cook alot and we'll find out where the best places to eat are after a while.
Angel ended up having 5 interviews in 4 days and I was able find the main shopping areas(!) and to explore a bit. We still don't know where we'll live or where we'll be working, but we have quite a few options. Angel has been offered 4 out of the 5 jobs so far (jammy git), so now he's trying to decide between them. It looks like he'll be starting in June, which won't give us long back home before we have to come back again. We're thinking about finishing the trip a bit earlier, so we can both go to Spain for a while as well as back home for Martha and Nat's wedding and to meet up with friends.
We're looking forward to getting a base in HK but being able to travel round Asia at weekends and during time off - who knows..maybe snowboarding in Korea, city-breaks to Tokyo, visiting mainland China and even direct flights to Samui and then a quick ferry to Ko Pa Ngan for full moon! The best thing is that the budget airlines have flights for £30-50! I've also never been to Australia or New Zealand, so definitely want to spend some longer hols there too.. and I'm sure my nieces'll be pleased to learn that there's even a Disneyland in Hong Kong! Supposedly the money is also really good here. The best thing is that even teaching English I could earn more than Angel! Woohoooo! Well, we'll see... now I have to concentrate on applying for jobs before I start counting my chickens!! Next stop The Philippines....
There are moving screens everywhere - like Picadilly Circus X 100. The shopping areas are comparable to any city centre in the west but there are probably more than in any city I've ever been to. Every street seems to have a mall - if not 5 or 6!
I think they say that any street in Hong Kong at 3am on a normal day is as busy as London Oxford St on Christmas Eve.. well I wouldn't say any street but it certainly is busy at night and the shops open late every night. Life gets going after 6pm - like New York in Asia - and nothing like back home! Our neighbours in our little 18th Century street in Melbourne, Derbyshire - where we spent a year in a cottage told us that it couldn't be more different moving to HK and I think they were right.
We'd booked a cheap and cheerful guesthouse in Kowloon - one of the main parts of one of the islands. It was certainly cheerful and clean, but my god, you couldn't swing a cat anywhere. I was expecting it to be small but you almost had to stand on the bed to get changed- and the shower was actually positioned over the toilet! Not my cup of tea - I get very claustrophobic- especially on the 15th floor with bars on the windows.
We're planning to move to HK, and these few days were for interviews and to start thinking about where we'd live etc. I really started to panic that we'd have to live in a shoe box..However, we went to have dinner with the mum of a good friend of ours, who's been there for years and her place was great! I wouldn't say it was palatial, but she could certainly swing a few cats and her guest room even had an en-suite! She lived out on one of the islands; a tropical paradise called Lamma Island. You arrive into a fishing harbour and the houses are all 1-3 storeys. There're really nice beaches and no roads at all. You walk everywhere along small paths or walkways. There were even pubs and seafood restaurants everywhere full of both Chinese and expats. I loved it and really wanted to live there, but another night we went out with a girl called Shevaun, (another vet who Angel met a few years ago doing charity in Thailand,) who changed our minds!
She's Irish and after taking us for an Indian and a few beers (despite the fact that we hadn't been able to even look at Indian food after 5 months in India!), we went to the shop and bought some more beers and went out to the harbour seafront. It was really windy that night, and I had been making do with a tshirt and a thin scarf all week even though it was still winter in HK and the locals were wearing winter coats and boots. I told myself I was a tough Brit - but it was more to do with the fact that I'd left my goose down jacket and my hoodie in storage in Bangkok with a load of other stuff that I (wrongly) thought I wouldn't need for the rest of the trip! While getting very merry, shevaun told us all about life in HK and her amazing social life. She convinced us that if we lived out on Lamma, we'd have to get the last boat back at 11.30 every night, when our night out would just be getting started. She lives in New Territories, which is the vast jungly countryside area in the North. It's still on the metro line and it's only 20 mins in a taxi from HK Island for her. It's cheap, much bigger accommodation and quiet and peaceful, but you can still be in the centre of the city in 20 mins.
One thing that I wasn't entirely convinced about was the food. I've never been such a fan of Chinese food but the menus with things like pig's blood jelly, tongue, chicken's feet or trotter soup may have lost something in the translation. Everything seemed to have offal and even if it didn't, it comes in a gloopy gravy without any of the layers of fresh flavours that Thai food has. I do love dim sum (Chinese dumplings) though, which is usually a breakfast or lunch dish served with jasmine tea.. Mmmmmmm! I suppose we'll be able to cook alot and we'll find out where the best places to eat are after a while.
Angel ended up having 5 interviews in 4 days and I was able find the main shopping areas(!) and to explore a bit. We still don't know where we'll live or where we'll be working, but we have quite a few options. Angel has been offered 4 out of the 5 jobs so far (jammy git), so now he's trying to decide between them. It looks like he'll be starting in June, which won't give us long back home before we have to come back again. We're thinking about finishing the trip a bit earlier, so we can both go to Spain for a while as well as back home for Martha and Nat's wedding and to meet up with friends.
We're looking forward to getting a base in HK but being able to travel round Asia at weekends and during time off - who knows..maybe snowboarding in Korea, city-breaks to Tokyo, visiting mainland China and even direct flights to Samui and then a quick ferry to Ko Pa Ngan for full moon! The best thing is that the budget airlines have flights for £30-50! I've also never been to Australia or New Zealand, so definitely want to spend some longer hols there too.. and I'm sure my nieces'll be pleased to learn that there's even a Disneyland in Hong Kong! Supposedly the money is also really good here. The best thing is that even teaching English I could earn more than Angel! Woohoooo! Well, we'll see... now I have to concentrate on applying for jobs before I start counting my chickens!! Next stop The Philippines....
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Hong Kong
Viniendo de la India y Tailandia nos parecio caro, pero comparado con Inglaterra o Espana no lo es tanto. No se si lo veo asi o me quiero convencer porque es casi seguro que en Junio nos volveremos para trabajar y quedarnos a vivir aqui por un tiempo.
Vinimos de hecho a hacer entrevistas, yo tuve cinco y no fueron mal, Hannah se dedico a conseguir informacion para encontar un buen trabajo como profesora de ingles que en teoria hay bastante demanda y se paga bien.
La comida no nos encanto tanto, me gusta la comida china de vez en cuando, pero no todos los dias, hay muchos restaurantes donde lo que mas abunda son tripas, orejas, pezunhas,patas de pollo o pato...etc. Mmmmhhh, creo que no!!
Fuimos a visitar a Frances, la madre de Francesca y suegra de Rafa (Mordi), una senhora simpatiquisima escocesa que vive en HK desde hace muchos anhos. Es profesora de ingles y nos ayudo mogollon en tema de busqueda de vivienda y a Hannah para tramitar la busqueda de curro. Vive en una casita en la isla de Lamma. Una isla que no tiene carreteras, coches o motos, solo caminos peatonales. Es muy tranquila, llena de extranjeros(antiguamente donde los extranjeros hippies se asentaron a vivir) que viven en HK y por supuesto gente local, restaurantes occidentales y chinos. Muy buen ambiente y bonita. Las casas son bajas por ley y parecen mas grandes que lo que parecen en la isla de Hong Kong. Donde nos quedamos en Kowloon, la habitacion era diminuta, no cabiamos los dos a la vez. Eso no nos gusto, la idea de pensar que tendriamos que vivir asi...!! Pero Frances, nos abrio los ojos a nuevas posibilidades. Antes de marcharnos nos juntamos con Shevaun, una veterinaria irlandesa que lleva aqui 10 anhos y la conoci en Tailandia hace 8 o asi trabajando en una ONG que dirigia ella en su tiempo libre y vacaciones. Fuimos a cenar a un Indio, no que teniamos muchas ganas despues de 5 meses casi en la India, pero era mejor que patas de pollo o sopa con tripas de cerdo. Despues de cenar nos pillamos unas cerves y nos fuimos al paseo en frente de la bahia. Las vistas son impresionantes, un sitio magico. Shevaun tambien nos ayudo dandonos mogollon de consejos acerca del trabajo y de donde vivir. Ella vive en los Nuevos Territorios, una zona grande y mas verde hacia las afueras donde se puede conseguir algo mas asequible, tranquilo y bonito. La noche en Hong Kong es alucinante segun ella, mogollon de sitios para salir, por ejemplo esa noche se iba a una degustacion de whisky en un club muy chulo, despues se iba a seguir de fiesta si aguantaba los 10-15 whiskies que le esperaban.. Y en plan mas campestres los nuevos territorios donde ella vive estan llenos de rutas de trekking, osea que estamos bien servidos.
Total, que nos ha gustado mucho, mis entrevistas han ido bien y lo mas seguro es que para Junio o Julio estemos viviendo aqui en Hong Kong. Empezar a mirar billetes y animaros, ya sabeis donde teneis cama, aunque sea en los 1.5 m2 de un salon diminuto.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Bangkok again...
Back in the capital. People say you either love or hate Bangkok, but personally I can't see what's to dislike. It's tropical, modern and clean with superclubs, bright lights, gadgets and skytrains that make London look old fashioned and yet you can still have amazing street food anywhere or shop till you drop without breaking the bank.. Love it!
Only 2 days here this time but we'll be back in May. Arrived from Surat Thani by night train and though it was delayed two hours, it was still super-luxurious compared to India AND you get a really comfy matress with clean White sheets and pillowcase and a sealed plastic bag with a huge comfy towel-cum-blanket in it. As you can tell, I was really excited about it - but if you've ever spent 5 months on Indian trains, you'll know what I'm talking about!
We found a sparkling clean white hotel for 7 quid a night- which is alot more than we usually have to fork out for accommodation, (but it WAS sparkling), and then we got to work on our shopping expedition. Angel needed a whole new outfit for interviews in Hong Kong and I really needed a new pair of jeans and a new hairdo!;) I'm now a brunette - till it washes out anyway- not brave enough to go permanent.. actually I'm already missing my blonde- is it true that blondes have more fun?
Martha (my sis) & Nat are getting married in May and it's kind of a steam punk- vintage carnivale theme so I'm also trying to find a design that maybe I can get copied here, but it's not going to be easy - not sure many Bangkok tailors specialise in Victorian bustle skirts! It's easy for blokes - just grow some creative facial hair and stick on a butterfly collar and Bob (Cratchett)'s your uncle!;)
I'm now stuck on a bus in a traffic jam, on my way to the famous Chatuchak weekend market to see if I can find some decorations for the wedding.
Only 2 days here this time but we'll be back in May. Arrived from Surat Thani by night train and though it was delayed two hours, it was still super-luxurious compared to India AND you get a really comfy matress with clean White sheets and pillowcase and a sealed plastic bag with a huge comfy towel-cum-blanket in it. As you can tell, I was really excited about it - but if you've ever spent 5 months on Indian trains, you'll know what I'm talking about!
We found a sparkling clean white hotel for 7 quid a night- which is alot more than we usually have to fork out for accommodation, (but it WAS sparkling), and then we got to work on our shopping expedition. Angel needed a whole new outfit for interviews in Hong Kong and I really needed a new pair of jeans and a new hairdo!;) I'm now a brunette - till it washes out anyway- not brave enough to go permanent.. actually I'm already missing my blonde- is it true that blondes have more fun?
Martha (my sis) & Nat are getting married in May and it's kind of a steam punk- vintage carnivale theme so I'm also trying to find a design that maybe I can get copied here, but it's not going to be easy - not sure many Bangkok tailors specialise in Victorian bustle skirts! It's easy for blokes - just grow some creative facial hair and stick on a butterfly collar and Bob (Cratchett)'s your uncle!;)
I'm now stuck on a bus in a traffic jam, on my way to the famous Chatuchak weekend market to see if I can find some decorations for the wedding.
Koh Pa Ngan
We'd stayed an extra night on Ko Tao just to make well and truly sure that the Full Moon revellers would be starting to leave some accommodation on Ko Pa Ngan for the rest of us. And getting off the boat we were greeted by literally hundreds if not thousands of groups of girlies and lads - some even still covered in fluorescent paint, all leaving in a mass exodus.
We made our way to Haad Khom beach which James, a friend of Angel's who lives on the island, suggested. He said it was quieter than other places and with a really nice beach - but still accessible by bike. Unfortunately though, we asked in every single place and they were all full. Next we tried Chaloklum, but same story so we came to Haad Salat and three hours later, we finally got a woman whose huts were full till the next day but she sorted us out with an old toothless guy whose one room was half way up a mountain -typical!
Angel spent the next couple of days working while I moved our stuff over to the new place and got comfy for some serious Angel-less peace and quiet in my hammock with my book. Actually having said that, we've spent 24 hours a day together for about the last 5 months and not killed each other yet- nor, more importantly wanted to, so it's not too bad! Ha ha.
We went round to see James when we arrived. Angel first met him when they worked together ten years ago here at the animal hospital. We met his five dogs, all of which he'd rescued from death. One was blind, one had three legs and there were a couple which Angel recognised from the animal hospital when he was here four years ago - just after he met me.
We went out the next night with James and his 'hot date', a British Chinese girl he'd met doing his scuba diving instruction. James, took us to his favourite karaoke restaurant, and then afterwards to an anniversary party at another restaurant owned by western women. The bonus was that the food was free and it was all stuff like baguettes and pate, which we hadn't had for aaaages. So we met some of the ex pats on the island. It wasn't a really late night though as the next morning Angel had to do an amputation and a spay on a golden retriever which was heavily pregnant with 7 puppies. Poor dog! All the dogs there seem to be missing something - even skin! Gross! And three of the girls who volunteer there have caught ring worm. Georgina, the admin girl even has it on her mouth from kissing the puppies! It could be worse though, apparently this morning a king cobra came out of the long grass to try and get a bite of the action!;)
The next night we went out with all the people from the hospital - PAC (Pangan Animal Clinic), which is a charity run mostly by volunteers. It ended up being Angel and one more bloke and then about ten hot chicks - which I'm sure the boys didn't mind too much about! Actually the girls really welcomed us - especially Por the Thai nurse and Stacey, an American vet, who both came to see us off at the pier when we left - very sweet!
After dinner, they took us to a bar called Bangers and Mash where we all proceeded to get a bit mashed!
The next day Angel wasn't working - and he was all happy about that even after not working for months(!) so we went for lunch - Somtam and Kaow meow - spicy papaya salad and sticky rice ..mmmm sooooo good!
That night James invited us go with him to a friend's leaving do in another bar with free food! James works freelance for different dive schools and I told him that he fits the stereotype of the buff muscley slightly older guy who charms all the young girls in his dive groups!;)
We met lots of ex pat divers, and as the Irish say, had a bit of craic. There was an slightly geeky looking American air force pilot I was talking to who really cracked me up - telling me about how he innocently sent a parcel of alcohol (with return address) to a mate in Afganistan..he didn't realise that it was illegal till he got arrested and chucked in 'jail'. He got to know his tough fellow inmates pretty well though (all of whom started calling him whitey as he was the only White guy). Hilarious.
Actually one of the ex pats we met was a Japanese woman with hair down to her knees called Mina. Later on, Angel was telling James how she seemed familiar and that he'd once met a Japanese girl in Sri Lanka called Mina about 10 years ago, who was travelling with her little baby. It took Angel 4 beers and about 2 hours for the penny to drop that it was the same girl! Small world!
We're now on the ferry heading to Surat Thani and then we'll get the night train to Bangkok, so we'll have two days before flying to Hong Kong. Definitely time for a bit of shopping and more delicious street food!
We made our way to Haad Khom beach which James, a friend of Angel's who lives on the island, suggested. He said it was quieter than other places and with a really nice beach - but still accessible by bike. Unfortunately though, we asked in every single place and they were all full. Next we tried Chaloklum, but same story so we came to Haad Salat and three hours later, we finally got a woman whose huts were full till the next day but she sorted us out with an old toothless guy whose one room was half way up a mountain -typical!
Angel spent the next couple of days working while I moved our stuff over to the new place and got comfy for some serious Angel-less peace and quiet in my hammock with my book. Actually having said that, we've spent 24 hours a day together for about the last 5 months and not killed each other yet- nor, more importantly wanted to, so it's not too bad! Ha ha.
We went round to see James when we arrived. Angel first met him when they worked together ten years ago here at the animal hospital. We met his five dogs, all of which he'd rescued from death. One was blind, one had three legs and there were a couple which Angel recognised from the animal hospital when he was here four years ago - just after he met me.
We went out the next night with James and his 'hot date', a British Chinese girl he'd met doing his scuba diving instruction. James, took us to his favourite karaoke restaurant, and then afterwards to an anniversary party at another restaurant owned by western women. The bonus was that the food was free and it was all stuff like baguettes and pate, which we hadn't had for aaaages. So we met some of the ex pats on the island. It wasn't a really late night though as the next morning Angel had to do an amputation and a spay on a golden retriever which was heavily pregnant with 7 puppies. Poor dog! All the dogs there seem to be missing something - even skin! Gross! And three of the girls who volunteer there have caught ring worm. Georgina, the admin girl even has it on her mouth from kissing the puppies! It could be worse though, apparently this morning a king cobra came out of the long grass to try and get a bite of the action!;)
The next night we went out with all the people from the hospital - PAC (Pangan Animal Clinic), which is a charity run mostly by volunteers. It ended up being Angel and one more bloke and then about ten hot chicks - which I'm sure the boys didn't mind too much about! Actually the girls really welcomed us - especially Por the Thai nurse and Stacey, an American vet, who both came to see us off at the pier when we left - very sweet!
After dinner, they took us to a bar called Bangers and Mash where we all proceeded to get a bit mashed!
The next day Angel wasn't working - and he was all happy about that even after not working for months(!) so we went for lunch - Somtam and Kaow meow - spicy papaya salad and sticky rice ..mmmm sooooo good!
That night James invited us go with him to a friend's leaving do in another bar with free food! James works freelance for different dive schools and I told him that he fits the stereotype of the buff muscley slightly older guy who charms all the young girls in his dive groups!;)
We met lots of ex pat divers, and as the Irish say, had a bit of craic. There was an slightly geeky looking American air force pilot I was talking to who really cracked me up - telling me about how he innocently sent a parcel of alcohol (with return address) to a mate in Afganistan..he didn't realise that it was illegal till he got arrested and chucked in 'jail'. He got to know his tough fellow inmates pretty well though (all of whom started calling him whitey as he was the only White guy). Hilarious.
Actually one of the ex pats we met was a Japanese woman with hair down to her knees called Mina. Later on, Angel was telling James how she seemed familiar and that he'd once met a Japanese girl in Sri Lanka called Mina about 10 years ago, who was travelling with her little baby. It took Angel 4 beers and about 2 hours for the penny to drop that it was the same girl! Small world!
We're now on the ferry heading to Surat Thani and then we'll get the night train to Bangkok, so we'll have two days before flying to Hong Kong. Definitely time for a bit of shopping and more delicious street food!
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