Ian and myself have been working on a new website, DiscoverPH.com. The website has now been running for a few months and is doing very well.
The main focus of DiscoverPH.com is to review and reveal all of the little known places in the Philippines.
One of the areas we have been wanting to expand into is podcasting. I have just finished editing our first podcast which you can view below.
With the taste of Red Horse at the back of my throat, it reminds me of those long summer days we spent wasted out of our tiny little minds sat outside at the Keelman with our coats on, a pint in one hand and a joint in the other.
With my eyes closed, I can almost hear the sounds of the tyne and smell the smell of summer next to the river.
We would almost run outside to those rays of sunshine beaming through the clouds. Now, I am 28’000 KM away hiding from the rays of sunsine from the very same sun at a slightly different angle. Hiding in my room with air conditioning and seeing the suns heavy rays outside. Living like this can be strange at times. The other day I was in a cab, it started to rain and the window fogged up. I wiped the window with my hand, but the condensation did not move. It was outside, not inside.
Hopefully in ten years, we will be looking back at drinking and laughing, wishing we were there back in those days in the philippines. I would give everything I have now to live those summer days forever, but I would not want the unhappiness I had then or the lack of income or lonliness or sorts.
M Barreto is called “One of the Philippine’s best men’s fashion designers” and the other day, we went to see him to get fitted for some jeans. His store is very small and exclusive. His style is unique and I simply can’t wait to get my designer jeans. Here are some pics of me being fitted as well as some of M Barreto.
Ian told me that a tropical storm was heading our way. This was about a week ago. I checked the weather and it was reporting that it would hit land around 9pm that night with wind speeds of 78-95 mph. I was told this was a weak one.
At around 7pm, the rain hit manila and the sky covered with clouds. Over time the clouds changed diection as the storm dragged over manila.
At 9pm the electricity went off. It had already been off before for twenty minutes, but this time it did not come back on. With no air conditioning, I jammed the door open. I didn’t want to open the windows as they could have been ripped off or smahed.
I managed to fall asleep sweating. I woke up at around 1am to a very loud sound. I went out onto the balcony to see what the noise was. To my supprise, there was a tin roof blowing down the street.
The only recording I got was before the storm really hit. Once it had hit, I did not want to take my camea outside in case it was hit with some flying debris.
The next morning, the streets were filled with parts of trees. The entire outside of my house was splattered with pieces of leaves from the trees. I have never seen anything like it, but with around 22 storms hitting Manila every year, I expect to see much worse storms.
It was around 4am and we were scrambling to get ready to leave for the airport. Outside, a huge thunderstorm raged lashing down heavy rain and causing minor flooding in the streets. I would call it flooding, locals would likely just call it rain. There were a few cm of rain on my front street running down the hill.
We were travelling very light. We decided that as we were only staying for one night, we would only take carry on luggage. When we got off in Hong Kong, we could simply walk straight through without having to wait for our luggage.
The cab sped along the streets, I gripped to my seat as he took sharp corners at speed in heavy rain with standing water. Finally, we arrived at the airport and had a quick smoke before going into the airport.
Once inside, we checked in, headed for a coffee and then found a smoking area which was actually a small coffee shop / bar at the gate next to the one we were departing from. We sat down and had another drink while we smoked, waiting for our flight to start boarding.
Our flight started boarding and we got on board. By now, it was getting light and the rain was much lighter. Due to the heat here in the Philippines, the air conditioning on the plane causes white smoke like vapor puffs as the plane is cooled. I have never seen this anywhere else such as spain or the uk. At the time it was around 6am and 35C.
The flight was smooth, as smooth as you can get on an A319. These small airbus planes always feel like toys to me, not a real plane. I sat back, tried to relax and looked out the window. Flights are always boring between taking off and landing.
Before long we lined up for landing and made a smooth landing followed by a few minutes of sat on the taxiway as we waited for a gate to be assigned. Once parked in the gate, we were off the plane and heading towards the exit to get into Hong Kong.
We bought an Octopus card which allows us to travel on the trains and we headed for the closest exit to have a smoke. We found ourselves at the taxi rank and decided to get a taxi after we had a smoke instead of getting the train. I just wanted to get to the hotel, dump our stuff there and go out into Hong Kong.
We arrived at the hotel and checked into our room. The view was fantastic and I had to take a few snaps of it before we headed out into Hong Kong.
We headed into the mall behind the hotel to get something to eat. I have never eaten genuine Chinese food, only English style Chinese food. We found a nice resterant and sat down to eat. I ordered chicken which came in a bowl full of chilli peppers.
After this lovely meal, we headed into Hong Kong and saw some of the sights.
Walking around Hong Kong, I noticed that all the shops have their front doors open. In the Philippines, almost all the shops close their doors so that the airconditioning can run lower, but here in Hong Kong, they had the air conditioning on full and the front doors wide open. We would walk past shop fronts in the high heat and humidity and suddently get a blast of freezing cold air from the shop. The temerature difference from inside shops and malls to outside temperature, when we walked outside, our sunglasses and cameras had condensation on them!
After walking around Hong Kong, we headed back to the hotel, had a few drinks and went to bed.
The next morning, we got up bright and early, took all our bags and jumped on the light rail to the main train station and then into Hong Kong on the underground.
After walking around for what seemed like forever, we finally found the mall we were looking for. We headed inside looking for a toy shop so that we could get the toys that the kids wanted. We finally found the toy shop and got everything we needed. We sat down at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat.
When we left the mall, we were just in time to see a traditional chinese ship sailing past.
Walking around, we got a number of lovely photos of the surrounding area.
We stoped at another mall and grabbed a drink in a japanese restaurant. It was surreal. It was a Japanese restaurant playing french music in a mall in Hong Kong!
Back out into Hong Kongs back streets, we went shopping for some final presents.
After getting the last of the presents, we were ready to head to the airport for our return flight. I really did not want to get the train to the airport. It was a long way to go and the trains were usually full. We had been on our feet all day, so I suggested that we get a cab. I was getting really fucking sick of the people on this street. Every shop we walked past, there was someone lurking on the pavement saying things like “We have high quality suits at lowest prices” or “you want to buy fake rolex?”. After going up and down the street about 3 times, I was ready to punch the next fucker that blocked my path trying to sell me shit I don’t need. As I was waiting for Ian to come out of a shop, I had told one of the watch sellers who came up to me “look, we’ve been up and down this street a few times today, I have been asked hundreds of times if I want to buy a bloody watch and I still don’t want to buy a bloody watch”.
We flagged down a cab and jumped in. Cabs in Hong Kong have automatic doors. When they pull up, the door opens for you and when you get out at the other end, it does the same.
We arrived at Hong Kong airport, spent the last of our Train card credit in the 7 eleven, took our cards back to get the deposit back and headed straight to the checkin desk.
We got to the front of the checkin queue and handed over our details, but there was a problem. They would not let me board the flight unless I had a flight out of the philippines. They explained that immigration in the Philippines would not grant me a visa unless I had a pre booked flight out of the Philippines within my visa period which would be 21 days.
My heart dropped to the floor. I thought I was fucked. We hurried back to the other terminal where we looked for the airline counter, but it was closed. The only one we could find that was open was too expensive. The airport had wifi, so we got out the laptop and found a cheap flight to Malasia. Ian called the airline, booked the flight and asked if we could show the checkin staff the e-mail on the laptop as confirmation as it was impossible to print out the confirmation. “You should be able to” was their reply. After speaking to a supervisor, they confirmed that we would be able to show it to them and they would accept it. We took their name and rushed to the checkin desk. When we were first at the checkin desk, it was just opening. Now, almost 3 hours later, it was about to close. We made it through the checkin desk with just 5 minutes to spare.
We were processed through security and as I waited for my bag to come out the scanner, I saw the operator stop the conveyor belt and rescan my bag. He scanned it three times and then waved over one of his work mates, who proceeded to examine the item he was pointing at on the screen. “Oh fuck what now” I thought. What the hell did I pack in there? My mind ran through everything as a member of staff aproached me. “Did you pack this bag yourself” he asked. “Yes I did, is there a problem?” I asked. “Do you have any liquids in your bag” he asked. On thank fuck thats all it was. “yes, theyre all bagged up, let me get them out for you” I replied. I pulled out the two cosmetic bags we had and he checked them and thanked me. We proceeded straight for the smoking area close to our gate.
After a smoke, I went to the toilet and Ian headed towards the gate. When I got out of the toilet and made it to the gate Ian was nowhere to be found. I panicked wondering if she had got on the plane fogetting that she had my passport. That only lasted for a few seconds as she came running up behind me having stopped in a shop on the way to the gate. Phew!
As soon as the plane was in the air, I ordered two beers with two glasses of ice. I was in the air heading home. Its a horrible thought that you may not be able to get to the place you call home. I have a temporary residents immigration card which really only acts as an ID card, I still need to extend my visa and leave the country every 3 months. I was so pleased to be heading home. By now, it was dark. We sat back and waited for the plane to decend in the Philippines.
We landed smoothly, as smoothly as you can in a toy plane. The captain came over the tannoy and announced “The temperature is currently 39C”. I looked over at ian and said “thirty fucking nine?”. Damn, it was almost midnight and it was THIRTY NINE degrees celcius!
We made our way through customs and immigration before walking into the Philippine climate. It is like walking into a sauna when it is this hot at night. As soon as we got out of the airport, I took a pic of us both before getting into a cab.
Video:
When I came to the Philippines, my initial plan was to stay as long as I could setting up a home and then go back to the UK for a week, then returning to the Philippines. This would allow me to enter under a new visa and stay in the Philippines while I continued setting up my business and eventually got my business visa.
However, a flight to the UK will cost around £2000 for myself and my girlfriend, but a weekend in Hong Kong will cost just £500 for us both. Plus, when I return to the Philippines from Hong Kong, I will be able to enter using my British passport which will give me a new visa.
At the moment, I simply can not afford the extra £1500 it would cost to fly to the UK, not to mention the spending money we would need for a week.
I will be flying back to the uk at some point, but just not yet. I am sorry for any disappointment, but god damn it it would take a whole day to get to the UK and you know how much I hate travelling anywhere!
The past few days have had thunderstorms in the evenings, but tonight there has been no storm. The time is 00:02 and its 34C outside! I think it must be at least 38C inside.
Working in this heat is almost unbearable. If I wear a shirt, I drip like a fucked tap.
There have been times I have had to take my laptop upstairs into to bedroom where I have air conditioning and can lower the temperature to a comfortable 21C. And that is where I’m heading right now!
I was working in my house and took a break. I walked to the window to stretch my legs and take some time out before going back to work. As I looked out the window I saw an almost perfect mushroom cloud. While I highly doubt it is from an explosion, it had an almost perfect configuration that does not come out well in the photos I took.
The base of the cloud was an almost vertical wall with the bulbous cloud on top. Even the clouds close to it showed lines and streaks all leading away from the mushroom cloud.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the shit hit the fan in Korea, would I be able to see it from here. I doubt it, but I did wonder.
The night before last I went to bed in the early evening. At just after 8pm I woke up to the sound of very heavy rain falling on the tin roof of my house. As I woke up the whole room flashed blue. It was a thunder storm.
Normally, the evening storms are over the sea. While I can still see them from my hourse, I can not normally hear them. A few times a week.
Now, I love thunder and lightening. As soon as I hear thunder I will rush to a window to watch the lightening. But when I saw this storm, i felt fear. It was like something from a horror movie. The trikes on the street started to stall from the very heavy rain.
The following video was recorded using my Sony Ericsson W800i mobile phone (sorry for the low quality). I was inside my bedroom with all doors and windows closed, recording the video through the window.
The Philippines is right next to the edge of the pacific and Indian oceans. As such, I keep a close eye on earthquakes in the region. I was quite shocked to see an earthquake as strong as this. Normally they range between 4 and 6 magnitude.
USGS stats of the earthquake can be found here.
The following details about the earthquake are taken from the BBC News website
An earthquake of 7.5 magnitude has hit near India’s Nicobar Islands, in the Indian Ocean.
The US Geological Survey said it occurred about 150km (95 miles) west of the Nicobar Islands and 440km from Sumatra, Indonesia.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a warning for the entire Indian Ocean region.
The agency later downgraded the warning to India only, before cancelling the alert altogether.
“Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated,” the Hawaii-based centre said.
No damage was reported in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, although a total blackout sparked panic in the capital, Port Blair, witnesses said.
More than 350,000 people live on nearly 600 islands in the remote archipelago.
In 2004, a powerful earthquake off Sumatra’s coast triggered a tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the rim of the Indian Ocean.
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