Philippines/Thailand Part 1

Sunday Dec 10/Monday Dec 11th

- Take off from Toronto around 9am - flight time was 16 h 44m!
- Arrive HK and because of an Air Canada change in flight plan, we miss the connecting flight to Manila, so do 100 others apparently. End up torturing a very nice airport hostess, Moon, for 6 hrs in HK airport because we think we've misplaces the flight tickets for rest of trip, boy were we wrong! Stay at Novotel Hong Kong overnight --- awesome hotel!
- After endless texts and phonecalls from HK to Toronto, we find out that we may need to go to HK downtown to Air Canada office to get tickets reissued since they are AC tickets. Sleepless at 3am, i stumble to our luggage for the 30th time to look for the tickets and guess what i find...so instead, we go to HK airport at 6am and miraculously find 2 seats on a 2:45pm flight to Manila - about 100 other filipinos have 'missed the boat' so to say and are PISSED. Actually see my friend Joselito who is one of the stranded travellers - all flights to Manila are fully booked until Weds at least!
- Have to cancel trip To Thailand for now since the flight to Manila will come in too late and we will miss the flight to Bangkok -shitty. We might be able to go to Bangkok only on Weds, flight permitting and energy permitting since we have been up for about 30 hrs by Sunday and only got about 2-3 hrs sleep before heading back to HK airport.....we're running on pure adrenaline right now but have since relaxed a bit since al our flights are now good to go and especailly good to go on the way home.

Jokes
- not knowing how to use the plane washroom tap, so therefore not using it at all...
- Michelle wondering if id get noticed in the Phils because 'you know, by Filipnio standards you're good looking'

- currently in HK airport waiting for our flight in about 4 hrs. HK airpport is massive and awesome!! Best airport by far for sure...oh and flight attendants for asian airlines are 10x better than NA flight attendants...

Monday, Dec 11th (in Manila)
- Get to Manila airport finally on Mon afternoon and MIchelle's family picks us up from the airport; WOW IS IT HOT AND HUMID HERE!
- After eating at Barrio Fiesta, Michelle's uncle, who is an attorney here, "hooks" us up at the Manila Pavillion hotel - very very nice hotel located right in Manila
- driving in the Phillippines is crazy man; the road paint and lines are simply decorative and everyone fights for any possible inch to make their way through the high traffic; even people crossing the street make their way through moving traffic; one of the reasons why cars and people can be super aggressive here is the pace of the flow is pretty slow and i guess everyone is used to it; try this in Canada and ill either get a ticket, damaged bumper and serious road rage..

Tuesday, Dec 12th
- Meet with my family from Pasay and have dinner at another Filipino restaurant in Makati
- Makati malls (Greenbelt, etc..) are enormous, row upon row of stores and lahat lahat ang tao naman
- Michelle's understanding of tagalog and kampangan are awesome; my personal translator
- starting to understand more tagalog and kiling my attempts at trying to speak it..still going to try...

Wednesday, Dec 13th
- morning we take a stroll to Jollibee for breakfast; this fast food is much better than i expected; sarap ang corn beef and chicken tocino
- head to Rizal park after breakfast and check out Orchidarium and statue of Rizal
- MIchelle's cousin Kuya Henry meets us in the afternoon and we head to Robinson's, another huge mall just down the street from our hotel - so much to buy and prices are very good here but we're told prices are even better at other places so we hold off on shopping for now...
- night time we head to Baywalk which is a new bayside area by Manila Bay which has lots and lots of outdoor bars with each bar having their own stage and performers doing cover songs and requests. One of the bars we have drinks (San Miguel Lite of course) at is Manny Pacquiao's bar, MP Knockout. He's a huge national hero here and all attempts at getting a Pacquiao t-shirt are tight since their all sold out, well the authentic ones anyway...
- drive through Malate area which is known as a red light district here; tons of people just sitting on patios drinking and others well, doing their thing...
- phrase of the trip so far - when looking at buying something - "Good evening MAAMSIR..' -- yeah, guess you have to be here..hahah

Thursday, Dec 14th
- head to Mall of Asia today - malake naman!
- it has an outdoor mall and an indoor mall, the main mall. Has a beautiful view of Manila Bay and we even got to watch the sunset over Manila Bay
- Tons of shopping to do here but it seems like the north american brands arent very bargain-priced but the Filipino brands are so guess which stores we shopped at...
- my tita comes through for us in the last hour and manages to confirm and book a flight for us to Bangkok tomorrow! Our Thailand trip has been shortened but nonetheless we are going and are so excited!.

Friday, Dec 15th
- leave for Bangkok today and see the first few 'epis' in the morning before we leave.....malake naman!!
- staying with my friend Sor at his condo in downtown Bangkok; amazing location , right beside the BTS and Siam Paragon, huge mall here
- Sor and his girlfriend, Tai, are studying for their MBA here and are two of the nicest people you wil ever meet; their insistence of showing us around Bangkok, even with a mid-term to study for on Monday, is very very much appreciated
- Patpong - checked out this place after dinner, known as a lively market and also a notorious go-go district (red light).
- menus here have unreal offerings...'......pingpong, fire-breathing, etc..'
- rode a Tuk-Tuk to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar - another famous night bazaar with rows upon rows of vendors selling tons of stuff; souveneir items are dirt cheap
- traffic in Bangkok is just as bad as in Manila and the scooters weaving in and out of traffic at a stoplight to get to the front is hilarious

Saturday, Dec 16th
- street vendor food and thai coffee are off the hook; full lunch with rice and two items is like $1.50
- went on a 4 hour tour of Wat Phra Keo and the Royal Palace
- Wat (temple) here are so beautiful and grandiose; biggest Wat in Bangkok is Wat Po
- had dinner at an amazing restaurant with Sor and Tai overlooking the Chao Priya river and playing live Thai pop music
- authentic Thai food is cooked spicy, no need to add chilis or peppers to add spicyness; tom yam goong soup has more flavour, more herbs

Sunday, Dec 17th
- went to Chatuchak weekend market for 6 hours, -- think outdoor Pacific mall but 10x bigger and 10x better..
- Lunch was 40 baht for Pad Thai or Noodle Soup (about $1.33 CDN)
- King is very well-loved here and this year is his 60th anniversary as King - royal colour is yellow and lots of monuments and pictures of him around Bangkok
- Red Bull is a travellers best friend..
- Overall, Bangkok is an awesome place to go to and visit and any notions that it is purely a red-light district-type of city is dead wrong. Parts of it are as developed as Toronto and the place is kept very clean. We will definitely come back here and spend a few more days in Bangkok and then explore the beaches to the South (Phuket, Koh Samui, etc.) and explore the jungles of the North (Chiang Mai where we were also originally headed for a few days..)