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.

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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.

The residential area I’m in is still being built up so I’m not in the heart of the action like before, but I still had a decent view. Things picked up when a guy in a minivan showed up and put two boxes of fireworks in the middle of the street. After lighting them all off, he went back in his van and just left! (Please excuse the annoyingly shaky cam)

Today (Saturday) is Chinese new year’s eve, and tomorrow (Valentine’s Day) marks the start of the new year. This year is the year of the tiger.

Chinese new year is the most important holiday in China, similar I guess to Christmas in the west, and everybody gets a week off. People spend time with their family, and children are given red envelopes (hong bao) with money. Small gifts of fruit or candy are exchanged between friends. A big family feast on new year’s eve ends with family members lighting off fireworks at night, and – more recently – counting down the clock to the new year.

An annual CCTV new year’s ‘gala’ variety show event is televised, and with an estimated 700 million to 1 billion viewers, it is one of – if not the – most widely-viewed televised event in the world (for comparison, the World Cup in 2006 had an estimated 715 million viewers worldwide).

Naturally, millions of people all over the country are heading home for the holidays so traveling at this time is extremely difficult. The train station near my house has stadium-like crowds of thousands of people heading back to their home town for the holidays, all carrying parcels, bags and gifts.

After the rush though, Shanghai is usually very quiet this time of year, because most people have left the city or are staying at home with their families. The streets are empty and it ends up feeling like a ghost town. That is, until the fireworks start, which go on late into the night on new years eve, and continue sporadically for a week or so after.

I always wondered how the holiday started, and apparently the story goes that a bad spirit named Nian (or 年, the character for ‘year’) would come around at new year and devour a village’s crops, livestock, and even people. People used loud noises and bright red colours to scare the demon away, and it never returned (hence the fireworks and red lanterns, scrolls, etc. that people hang on their windows and doors).

Other interesting CNY superstitions:

- People clean their homes (like a spring cleaning) before the new year starts in order to sweep away all the bad luck of the previous year. However, cleaning your home on new year’s day is considered bad luck as you may sweep out any good luck of the new year that has arrived.

- Getting a haircut on new year’s day is considered bad luck.

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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.

Shanghai has a number of elevated expressways, and at night these are illuminated with bright blue neon lights.

For years people have been complaining about Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway and how much of an eyesore the elevated road is. Rather than spending billions tearing it down and making a tunnel, why not just add some neon?

Anyway, the effect is pretty cool, and driving under these roads at night always reminds me of Mute City from F-Zero.

My previous post about Applying for the China Work Visa (Z-visa) seemed to generate some interest, so I thought I’d post a quick follow-up on transferring your visa/work permit over to another company when you change jobs.

If your company doesn’t handle it for you, you’ll most likely want to go through a visa agency. Apparently the process is a bit complicated, so you’ll probably want the guanxi that an agency has on your side to ensure that it goes smoothly.

You’ll need the following documents:

• Your passport (original and a copy)
• Five 2-inch passport sized color photos
• Work permit application form (stamped with your company’s seal/chop)
• A copy of your new labor contract
• A copy of your CV/resume (English and Chinese copy)
• List of your skills, qualifications, references, and any other relevant documents (English and Chinese copy)
• Copy of your academic qualifications
• Copy of your company’s Business License
• Copy of your company’s Enterprise Code License
• Copy of your company’s Approval Certificate (only for foreign investment companies)
• Temporary Registration form (that you receive from your local police station)
• Letter of Dismissal from your previous company (this is VERY important – your previous company must give you an official letter of release, stamped with their company seal/chop)

The process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months, so be prepared to be without your passport for a while. The government fee for this is about 600 RMB, and agencies will add a service fee of anywhere from 1000 – 1300 RMB on top of this. It seems like a lot, but it definitely beats paying 8000 RMB or more for an F business visa.

When all is said and done, you’ll have a new work permit good for another year, and a new residence permit in your passport (that takes up another page, so be sure you have at least 1 or 2 available).

Walking down Shanghai’s Huaihai Road this weekend, I passed by one of the many jewelery shops selling jade bracelets. When I looked at the prices of some of them though, I almost couldn’t believe it.

These bracelets were going for 680,000 RMB (or ~ $100,000 CAD); there was also a jade necklace on display for over 800,000 RMB!

Don’t get me wrong: I realize jade can be worth more than gold, and there is jade jewelery out there worth much more than this. It’s just the way these jade items were displayed so casually in very nondescript shop windows; the same way a 50 RMB bracelet would be displayed. It’s as if an impulse buyer walking by will see it and just say, “Hmm, why not?”

I wonder if you can bargain.