I never watch TV, but I’ve been hooked on this nightly miniseries on the Chinese Travel Network lately.

It’s about a Chinese modern-day Romeo who decided to hitchhike from Beijing to Berlin to be with his girlfriend. He and his chain smoking friend set off from Beijing with a video camera, backpacks, and head west.

Most of the time they are picked up by truck drivers, with the occasional good samaritan in a luxury sedan giving them a lift. They travel all through China, eventually crossing the border in Xinjiang to Kyrgyzstan.

Shortly after, the chain smoking guy needs to go back to Beijing for some reason and Romeo is on his own. The road eventually leads through all the ‘stans to the middle east, where he passes through war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq. The last episode he was in Bulgaria, where he inadvertently ends up staying at a trucker’s brothel.

Traveler or backpacker shows are a dime a dozen in the west, but what’s really interesting about this show is seeing it from a Chinese perspective, where budget travel is just starting to catch on.

Spotted this machine at a 7/11 in Manila. Maybe these are common outside of China, but I haven’t seen them so it was cool to me. For only five pesos (or around 10 cents) you can charge your mobile phone, iPod/iPhone, PSP, or other electronic device for 10 minutes. Luckily, the beer is also only 90 cents so you have something to do while you wait.

After a week that was too short in El Nido, many San Miguels, and too much sun, we headed back on the tiring road trip back to Puerto Princesa.

We arrived in the early afternoon, and after grabbing lunch at Mang Inasal, we bummed around town for a bit and then made our way to the airport.

The flight back to Manila was quick. One thing unique about Cebu Pacific is that they have what they call “fun and games” on their flights. The flight crew holds a little game with the passengers by asking trivia questions or asking you to quickly hold something into the air like your boarding pass, or “show 10 fingers!!” Whoever wins gets a little prize. The “fun and games” last about 2 minutes or so, but it does break up the monotony of the flight (especially when snacks aren’t free!). Harmless and lighthearted as they were, they made me think about how paranoid and full of fear the west has become – there is no way in HELL any ‘fun and games’ would be happening on a flight in North America.

We took a taxi into the city for the first time, and it was definitely a contrast to the paradise of El Nido. While much more developed and clean than most Indian cities I’ve been to, there was a lot of visible poverty. I noticed a lot of slums with street kids hanging out, many begging or harassing tourists for money.

The hotel we stayed at, Bianca’s Garden Hotel, was in an old Spanish-style home in the Makati district of the city. After entering the front gate, the chaotic street outside was another world away and we were in a modest, but beautiful little garden villa. The house living room area contained a bunch of old antiques, and pictures of its former owners. In the garden area behind the house, there was a swimming pool with a little ‘bar hut’, where we met John, who ran the bar and took care of the hotel. John was really cool, telling us a lot about Manila. He’s been working at the hotel for many years, but as of next month, the old Spanish house will be torn down. The property was purchased by (you guessed it!) Chinese developers who want to put up a skyscraper in its place, one of the many that have been going up all over the city.

Unfortunately, one day in Manila was all we had. It’s definitely not enough to see the immense city, so I hope to go back.

KTV/karaoke is huge in the Philippines, but it seems to have caught on more in the western style of having a single machine at a bar or restaurant instead of private rooms. This machine seemed to be some sort of a converted arcade cabinet outfitted with microphone and TV.

The minivan ride to El Nido was alright for the first 2 hours or so, but the last 4 hours was bumpy as it was all unpaved and/or construction. I found it interesting and a bit concerning that our driver and Filipino passengers all silently prayed before we left.

On that note, Christianity is pretty big in the Philippines (90% of the population are Christian), but it’s practiced and celebrated in a very kitschy and flamboyant way, with rosaries hanging from rear-view mirrors in vehicles, pictures of Jesus and Mary surrounded by flowers, lots of bright colours, etc. The serious, sombre, tone of the religion that you see in the west was nowhere to be found, nor was the sense of shame that surrounds out. I never did visit any churches though, and being there only a week, I’m sure it’s not all sunflowers and Buddy Jesus.

Upon arriving in El Nido, we walked around the beach and decided on a guest house which turned out to have an owner who was half-Chinese. She was the first to tell us that the Chinese presence in the Philippines is pretty significant; all of the airlines are owned by Chinese, many major companies are run by Chinese, they’re responsible for most of the skyscrapers going up in Manila, they own hi-end real-estate and land all over the country, etc.

Anyway, El Nido is nice, but you don’t go there for the town – it’s the many surrounding islands in the Bacuit Archipelago that are the real draw. The area is famous for its great snorkeling, diving, and almost unreal scenery.

To get around, you can hire a boat for the day and go island hopping. There are tours that you can sign up for that visit a few of the more popular islands during the day (about $10 USD), or you can hire a boat for yourself and go wherever you like, and get dropped off and picked up a few hours later (about $30 USD for one return trip). We hired a boat for a tour on the first day, and then on the second day decided to get dropped off at our favorite island.

As you can see from the photos, the scenery is pretty amazing. The water is turquoise, the surrounding limestone cliffs are unreal, and the best part is that the islands are basically deserted. The only island that we visited that had residents was ’7 Commandos’ island (named after a ship that wrecked not far from its shore), where a guy lived with his dogs, and sold $1 San Miguel beers, coconuts, and snacks out of his bamboo hut to whomever showed up.

Unfortunately, I don’t know how to swim (yes, ha ha) so I couldn’t appreciate the snorkeling or diving experiences, but I did give it a quick attempt: at Ellen and the boat driver’s coaxing and reassurance, I strapped on a life jacket and jumped into the sea. If you know how to swim, it might be hard to imagine what a completely terrifying and insane experience that was. But it was also extremely cool to look beneath the surface and see the corals and fish swimming beneath my feet. It wasn’t enough to make me stop holding on to the side of the boat with one arm for dear life though.

We arrived at Puerto Princesa airport very early, and after getting our checked bag from the tiny but insanely crowded baggage claim area, we left to go and try and find a hotel.

This is usually the moment of arriving in any new place that I hate the most: being outside the airport, having only a vague idea (or absolutely none, which is more often the case) of where to go, and usually having to fend off the area’s best touts and scammers who are all trying to take you on a joyride with an inflated taxi fare, or take you to a roach-infested crummy hotel they get a commission on.

But this was Palawan and there was neither.

The airport had a few people from hotels/guesthouses that had info and pics of their rooms, but none of them were pushy; none even approached anyone. We left outside and it was the same. No swarm of cabbies or desperate rickshaw drivers frothing at the mouth with foreign dollar signs in their eyes yelling, “TAXI SIR?!” or “HELLO MY FRIEND”.

We decided on a place (the De Loro Inn and Guesthouse) which was overpriced, but alright. It had the typical backpacker/laid back/quasi-hippie/reggae decor that most upper-range budget guesthouses have. After sleeping for a few hours, we decided to explore the town and make plans to head to El Nido the next day.

The town itself is nothing to really write home about. It consists of a busy main strip – Rizal St. (which I later discovered every other town in the Philippines seemed to have, like every Indian city has an MG Road) – with a bunch of tricycles (rickshaws or tuk-tuks) and traffic.

We ate some decent fast food, had a few San Miguel beers, and then checked out NCCC, a very Asian-style department store, to pick up some sandals and necessities that would be obscenely priced in the tourist areas we were heading to.

After a dinner of seafood (which I normally don’t eat) including a squid served in its own ink, we had a few more San Miguel and called it an early night, having to get up before dawn the next day.

A while back, we booked some super cheap tickets to the Philippines – Shanghai to Manila for just over half the cost of bus fare from Toronto to Montreal.

So, the day of the flight, we did some quick packing and headed to Shanghai Railway station to catch the airport bus. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain. Even more unfortunate, the rain didn’t stop all the annoying touts outside the railway station trying to coax us into taking unlicensed taxis to the airport, first with promises of cheap fares, and then with stories of the bus not coming. Eventually it came, and we arrived at Shanghai’s Pudong International airport about 90 minutes later.

Cheap has its costs though, and the flight left Shanghai at 12:30 am and arrived in Manila at 4:00 am.

I’ve spent my fair share of time at Pudong’s airport, but this was the most deserted I’ve ever seen it.

And because I figured, we’ll just sleep on the plane (even though I can never sleep on planes) I decided to book a connecting flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa (a city in Palawan, the region we were visiting) at 8 am.

I knew nothing about the Philippines before arriving, other than a few preconceived notions – mainly that it was poor, cheap, and tropical. Basically, I was expecting a cross between India and Thailand.

The airport in Manila was surprisingly nice though. The staff were friendly, there were no touts or people desperately trying to separate you from your money by any means possible. It was also incredibly clean, quiet, and orderly.

The view outside was also not what I expected. Skyscrapers, cranes, paved roads and infrastructure. I barely saw any skyscrapers in the major Indian cities I visited, and it’s always touted as the next up and comer following China.

Exhausted, we sat around waiting for our flight in the upstairs waiting area, and ate Yellow Cab pizza, drank Mister Donuts coffee, and watched the sun come up over Manila. There was a giant crucifix on a hill in the distance.

Obama’s recent trip to Shanghai and Beijing made me decide to go through some pics of when I first came back to China in late 2006 and visited Beijing for the first time. Other than the city itself (which is awesome and deserves its own post), I checked out the Forbidden City (故宫, literally ‘Former Palace’) and of course, the Great Wall (长城, literally “long fortress”.)

The Forbidden City is massive – my friend and I got lost several times trying to work our way through it. When I went, some significant construction/restoration was going on, so it would be nice to go back and see how it was completed.

Another reason I’d like to go back is because the eyesore that was Starbucks located on the site was shut down because of public pressure. Call me fascist, but I was thrilled to hear this. It’d be like having a McDonalds in the courtyard of the Taj Mahal.

The Great Wall is one of the few landmarks I’ve visited that is more impressive in person than in pictures. I’m not good at describing things like this, but looking out into the valley and seeing the wall snake over mountains for miles is incredible.

The only issue I had was that even on a freezing day in early December, it was completely packed with tourists; so much so that half the time, walking on the wall was just being stuck in a tourist traffic jam. I couldn’t imagine visiting during a busy season. That said, still more than worth it. Next time I hope to check out some more remote (but less preserved) sections of the wall, other than Ba Da Ling.

The Chinese have a saying: “You aren’t a great man until you’ve been to the Great Wall.” I’m not sure I believe this though… Ellen has visited it more than once – wouldn’t that make her at least twice the man I am?

Sometimes in Asia you come across some insanely cheap deals on airline tickets. The airline may be crap, and you may have to book several weeks ahead of time, but there are deals to be found. Because of this, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on ticket prices, even if you’re not planning a vacation.

For example, some friends recently informed us of this crazy deal from Cebu Pacific, a budget airline in the Philippines: Shanghai, China <-> Manila, Philippines (in early February), return ticket including all taxes and fees: 540 RMB (or $85 CAD.) Insane!

I had no plans to visit the Philippines, but at this price, I seriously couldn’t afford not to. It’ll be worth it for the mangoes alone.