Fall of Winter

Location: Helsinki, Finland
NP: Nightwish - Walking in the Air
Mood: Relaxed

Arriving to Helsinki this morning felt way too sudden, but also relaxing.

Yet I felt I had not written enough of my experiences in the Philippines. Also Hong Kong has so far not received any attention, and unfortunately this is to remain mostly so, as my original route through the city got changed to Singapore and on the return flights there was not enough time to see anything but the airport. There's not much else to say about Hong Kong at this point than a platitude such as "the airport was nice".

Well, it was nice. Seemed like a great airport, almost comparable to Singapore's Changi, with many charging locations and spots to drink water from. The common tap water is, as usual, not safe to drink.

With so many more pictures to publish, I hope that I can return to writing from home.

Now snowy Finland is dashing by the window of the train to Oulu, with white trees and ground. It had gotten colder here while I was away.

But it's good to be back after the chaos of Asia. Here's where I know how things work, and for a change that is relaxing. So, "Hello Finland".

Or how the great Filipino guide maker Mikey Bustos would say: "Hello marshmallow."

Rush Hour Day, Intramuros Evening

Location: Manila, The Philippines
NP: Ottmar Liebert - Surrender 2 Love
Mood: Collected

Armed guards, crowded streets, gunshots and loud noises - this is the every day of Manila, crawling by the window of an old van at a snail's pace. I was feeling better, nearly cured of nausea.

Finding the hotel was again difficult, and even at a pricier four-star place they seemed not to have our reservation, and could only offer a twin room instead of a double I'd booked, but at least upgraded it to executive level.

Executive twin room in Ramada Manila Central, a little over 3000 pesos a night.

Arriving back again to San Mateo the evening before was pleasant and easy. Leaving from my fiance's family's home was hard, filled with awkward hugs, held back tears and unsaid goodbyes.

"Take care of my daughter", the man of the house said. In my head I replied "I will do my best, sir", but in reality could only nod earnestly.

Spanish magic was in the air, with talks of visiting Barcelona sometime in the future. How come that legendary city had never been a destination though I'd visited Spain thrice by now?

The magic turned into a visit to Intramuros, the old walled city of Spanish Manila. The Spaniards replaced the original wooden fort with walls of stone in 1590, but most of Intramuros was destroyed in WWII by the Americans and the Japanese.

San Agustin Church

Now most of Intramuros is no longer within the walls.

Tomorrow it will be time to return to Finland and say goodbye to sunlight for the long arctic winter.

Sick in the Philippines

Location: Baguio, The Philippines
NP: Omnium Gatherum - Who Could Say
Mood: Worried

Last night, when going to bed at Starwood Hotel in Baguio, I started feeling an increasing amount of nausea, accompanied with cold hands and feet. First I figured I'd wait until morning and then see if this needed more attention, but as the symptoms worsened and I found I could not sleep at all, I was finally convinced to take the short walk to the local hospital. When I got to the hospital, my hands were starting to tingle, and later my feet did the same. Walking to the hospital, even though it's very close, was difficult.

Last meal before nausea. Tiny "solo" pizzas at Greenwich in Baguio.

I chuckled at check-in as the computer didn't know the nationality "Finnish", so, after pausing to think, the clerk set my nationality as "French" instead.

The emergency room at the local hospital had plenty of staff and many patients. But so bountiful was the staff that they could attend to me almost instantly.

They gave me a bed and put me on extra oxygen saying I was hyperventilating, which was causing my symptoms. While I agree it could explain for my hands and feet tingling, it would not explain the nausea, as I had only started to hyperventilate while walking to the hospital. They checked my blood pressure and took some blood to test me for diabetes. Blood pressure was normal and the diabetes test came up with a value of 115, which is within normal limits (80-120 is normal, if I remember correctly). At this point I had to get up and go to the bathroom. Diarrhea was the newest symptom.

So they discharged me with a prescription for nausea medicine and a request for a stool sample in a tiny glass bottle, which I dutifully provided at 6 AM that very same night. The sample provided no new information. Instead they gave me a more powerful nausea medicine and something to make the stomach less acidic, to be taken twice a day 30 minutes before a meal.

While I had trouble accepting the diagnosis, the thing that impressed me about the public hospital in Baguio was that service was quick and everything was basically free, even for a foreigner such as myself. You only needed to replace the things that you'd used at the hospital by buying new items from the pharmacy just outside the hospital (I think the cost for me was less than 100 pesos).

But please ma'am, I am not French, merci beaucoup.

Baguio, the City of Pines

Location: Baguio, The Philippines
NP: Infected Mushroom - Avratz
Mood: Peaceful

"Went to see Pacquiao in Baguio, only to find out he was already in Gensan."

Baguio, known as the Philippines' "summer capital", was founded as a hill station for the US military in the early 1900s. It is a rather crowded, woodsy and vibrant city that is, by Philippine standards, very cool.

Burnham Park

Staying at Starwood Hotel (this time we booked in advance) even I, who always feels hot in Asia, could live without air-con and have no problems, only occasionally needing to use the fan. The temperature now at 6 PM, for example, is only 19C, with air humidity of 98% and light rain showers.

Alas, 19C still feels hot to me here where the humidity levels are much higher than in my country, but it is tolerable and sometimes, when it's windy in the evening, even slightly cool. This was certainly a nice surprise.

Other than the temperature, the city is populated by many students and walking on Session Road you'll never be alone. For a Finn, even Baguio is far too crowded, but at least it's not as bad as Makati.

Talking about Finns, I ran into two of them today at SM Mall. They were selling saunas to Filipinos at a stand and claimed business was doing well. One of them lived in Cebu. Didn't ask about the other one.

Finns (on the left) selling saunas at SM Mall, Baguio.

Other than the center of the city and Burnham Park where we rowed a boat, we went to see Mine's View Park and Lourdes Grotto. They weren't terrible, but I wouldn't really recommend these places for a visit. Mine's View is pretty much a very touristy area (by vast majority Filipinos) that only offers one nice view (there were no Igorot people present), and Lourdes Grotto may only be worth a visit for religious reasons. It, as well, offers a decent view above Baguio from the top of the stairs to the shrine of Lady of Lourdes established by Spanish Jesuits in 1907.

Mine's View Park's view.

The peak of Lourdes Grotto.

It is easy to like Baguio and it's snaking roads going up the mountains and spiraling down again towards the busy center. The cool mountain air and pine trees make it feel like something closer to home, an escape from the sweltering heat so tightly gripped around the rest of the Philippines.

I will be sad to leave here tomorrow.

The Bus to Baguio

Location: On the road from Cubao to Baguio, The Philippines
NP: I Monster - Heaven
Mood: Dubious

After receiving good news from the embassy, we decided to pack our bags again and jump on the bus to Baguio. We took a taxi to the Victory Liner bus terminal and were informed that the next bus to Baguio would leave at 2 PM. It was then 12:05 PM. Two tickets to Baguio cost 900 pesos.

The next bus, however, would not leave at 2 PM. It would leave at 1 PM. Although we had tickets for the bus at 2 PM, we were allowed on the earlier bus after the passengers with a proper ticket. There were many people in line with 2 PM tickets.

The bus itself was quite comfortable. The seats had just enough space so that I only took about 1.2 seats by myself, not 1.5 like on Finnair's plane - a significant difference! There was air-con and wifi on the bus. And they played movies throughout the trip, apart for the very last 30 minutes or so, a rise up to the mountains.

Tarlac City

The trip took us 7-8 hours. The bus made perhaps three stops on the way. I only got out of the vehicle in Tarlac - a long city and a province, I am told, reaching far along the highway like a wriggling worm.

'This can't possibly still be Tarlac', I thought. But it was. Ramshackle shacks, partially collapsed buildings after typhoon Hayan, and some beautiful houses of painted concrete and glass adorned the way. And every now and then a large Christian church of painted concrete in pristine condition, bringing contrast to the shacks beside it.

The line between poverty and wealth was made solid by a concrete wall.

Hotel Hunting in Makati

Location: Makati, The Philippines
NP: Paradise Lost - Enchantment
Mood: Calm

We decided to head to Makati to wait for a word from the Norwegian embassy, which is located in the area.

It turned out finding a hotel without a reservation in Makati can be rather difficult. After three hotels (24h Apartment Hotel, El Rico Suites and some other place) that were fully booked and more than one hopeless taxi drivers who didn't know how to find any of the places we wanted and asked for more money than agreed upon after the trip was complete, my fiance was getting very frustrated and the ordeal even nearly sent a dash of despair through the deep calm of my tired mind.

Soon it was getting quite late. We finally decided to jump out of the taxi at a hotel we hadn't asked for, since our taxi driver couldn't find the one we wanted. Instead of Hotel Durban we marched inside the Traveller's Inn

For 2300 pesos per night we settled in Traveller's Inn's mightily spacious set of rooms on the top floor. There was a kitchen / dining room, a big bathroom and a large bedroom within our "room". Unfortunately there was also a funny smell and a roach trap visible by the fridge, hinting at unwelcome nightly guests. The cleanliness of the place was questionable - especially after they brought us a second set of highly dirty towels resembling rags with brown and yellow spots on them. Also the wifi hardly worked and the service was frosty, so we switched hotels the next day, after we found Hotel Durban just one block away.

Such a good choice! Hotel Durban had just one deluxe room left available, for 1700 pesos a night. Though it wasn't as big as the room at our previous hotel, it was very clean, service was friendly and the wifi worked reasonably well. All in all it was much better value and comfort.

Now all that we had to do was wait in comfort.

Home in the Mountains

Location: San Mateo, The Philippines
NP: Module vs Sidhe Interactive - The Amethyst Caverns
Mood: Drowsy

Rising above Metro-Manila just 16 km to the east in the province of Rizal, San Mateo was to be my first stop in the Philippines. It took about 1,5 hours of driving from the airport, despite the light traffic, to get to where I was going: visiting my fiance's parents and family.

The roads were in decent condition all apart from the very last bit of difficult road, but bravely the driver took us to the very end of the path. Carved out of the jungle at the mountains was a set of local houses made of concrete, wood and/or thin metal sheets.

The family and the food (except for Chicharons) was very nice. But I was jetlagged, tired and sweaty throughout the visit, sleeping a lot and doing little else. And it was raining hard when I was awake. The neighbouring kids seemed interested in the burly white guy they saw through the open door and kept waving and smiling at me. Also the rain provided them with some nice playtime, running around on the yard.

After a day of living with the locals, we moved on to Makati city within the Metro-Manila area. The beginning of the trip turned out to be somewhat frustrating...

First Impressions of the Philippines

Location: Manila, The Philippines
NP: Parov Stelar - The Princess
Mood: Bewildered

Helsinki on the day of departure.

After what must've been a long break in blogging, I've returned to Asia but three days ago. My original flight went from still snowless Helsinki to Hong Kong and onwards to Manila, but Finnair's flight to Hong Kong (where I've not been to yet) was delayed until the next morning. I was already at the airport in Helsinki when I noticed a text message informing me of this delay (due to a technical problem) so instead of waiting, I asked the ticketing counter to put me on the plane to Singapore and onwards to Manila from there.

There were no problems on the trip.

Flight time via Singapore was about two-three hours more than it would've been via Hong Kong, but at least I didn't have to wait at all at Changi airport in Singapore. Actually, it was a rather rushed experience through the well-oiled machine of Changi (which, it must be said, is a great airport) as, due to landing delays because of heavy traffic, I only had a little more than an hour to get to the next flight. Exiting the plane at terminal 1, taking the shuttle to terminal 2 and checking in at the transfer desk of Singapore Airlines near transfer lounge D was quick and easy. And on to Manila I went. Thankfully Singapore Airlines' plane had more space than Finnair's.

Singapore Airlines flight SQ918.

Waiting for the shuttle at Changi I met a Belgian guy who owned a house in Davao in the Philippines who was on the same flights with me from Helsinki and on to Manila, having also originally been on the flight to Hong Kong. He advised me to be careful with money and to always ask the taxis in the Philippines to turn on their taxi meter...

Changi Airport in Singapore, terminal 2, near Gate E12.

So why go to the Philippines? 1) I've never been here before, 2) It is in Asia - and all of Asia deserves to be explored and, most importantly, 3) I'm visiting my fiance's parents.

The Nino Aquino International Airport in Manila was loud, hectic and highly unorganized, perhaps giving insight into the nature of the country I'd come to. The queues in the packed immigration hall were crowds of people, with apparently only one line serving those with foreign passports and then turning into several lines serving everyone. I stuck to following a big, sweaty western guy who seemed to know where he was going and that plan worked as well as can be expected. Only about a dozen people sneaked past me in the queue.

I had again become unfamiliar with the distinction between queuing in most of Asia and Finland: In Asia you should not leave any space between yourself and the one before you in queue, and expect it to not be promptly filled by another person.

Immigration at Nino Aquino International Airport.

The loud crowd continued outside the airport where people were greeting their friends and relatives and whatnot behind a busy road and several lettered entrances to a strange structure leading to the parking lots. I walked under letter R and asked a uniformed Filipino to help me reach the people who were picking me up. He was very helpful, and promptly requested a tip for his help later on.

The night had fallen over Manila as we passed through it in an old van that seemed likely to break at any time. Christmas lights could be seen sprinkled around the city here and there. Traffic was light, they said, as we were not stuck in a jam on the way. And Manila, Marikina and San Mateo were dressed in shadows. Passing by dark high-rises, tight roads between decaying buildings and dimly-lit vendor stalls, I felt like I'd come to a strange land crowded with strange people and bizarre customs.

It was good to be travelling in this part of the world again.