Author: JP

Getting to the hotel was a breeze. Hopped on the MRT to City Hall and then caught the #51 bus for a 10 minute ride that dropped us right opposite our
destination. Bob’s your uncle as they say. We walked in at 7am which is obviously way too early to check-in. The front desk rep checked us in and had a room ready for us. He informed us in a passive-aggressive douche bag tone i.e. “I’m doing you a favour” that since we were being provided a room well before the normal check-in time, he would give 125 points as the bonus and put the other 125 to two drinks that we could claim at the hotel bar. With my eyes internally rolling, I took the room keys, gave him my resting b***h face look and had him deliver our bags to the room.

We freshened up and went out in search of breakfast. Google Maps indicated that the Tiong Bahru food centre was a 10 minute walk away – sweet!

Here we are.

First stop, a breakfast staple other than Kaya Toast ofcourse.

Steamed rice cakes with a preserved vegetable topping and sambal on the side. The sambal really hit the spot.

Mrs wanted more but I cautiously advised that we should try other things. After checking out other joints, we settled on some Lor Mee. The pig organ soup joint looked tempting but well … not our sort of thing.

There was a 4 person line up but when my turn came up, I copied the locals and held up 3 fingers to signal that I wanted the $3 bowl.

Presentation is key …

But it’s all the same in the belly.

The early morning heat eventually got to us and found an old favourite as a thirst quencher.

Went down to the first floor that housed the wet market and checked out the local goods.

Headed back to the hotel to figure out what we would do next but ended up crashing. We intended to wake up in a couple hours but sleep got the better of us and we woke up at 6pm. #fail

We decided to head over to Chinatown for some grub and change out to local currency. It was a 20 minute walk since we did not have the EZ link pass and had to buy them anyways at the Chinatown station. Didn’t see any of the Friends cast in there.

After changing money near the People’s Park food centre, we walked down into the Chinatown MRT station and bought the EZ links cards. With a tap of the credit card, we were back out in 5 minutes.

Walked over to the Chinatown Food Complex to see what was appetizing.

The claypot rice stall was closed and nothing else was appetizing to Mrs, so we decided to head back to the People’s Park centre. We walked in to the Michelin 1 star joint, Hawker Chan, but there were all out of the good stuff.

Since hawker centres are hotter inside compared to sitting outside, I decided to cool down in the best way I know.

And walked over to this roast meat stall for some deliciousness.

Roast pork.

Roast chicken with a big broth.

With our faces stuffed to the max, we headed over to Clarke Quay to check out the night life.

Trying to be artsy on the MRT but total fail …

Definitely a bumping vibe at CQ.

Mrs saw this place and demanded satisfaction. Didn’t take a pic of the goods but was damn freaking good. I’m a believer in Hokkaido natural ice cream.

We walked into the bowels of CQ to check out what was on offer.

Called it a night after a couple hours of just relaxing by the waterfront. Woke up early the next morning to head over to the Botanic Gardens. Hopped on the bus that would drop us directly opposite the Tanglin Gate entrance. A quick google check on food options revealed that the Adam Road food centre was on the opposite side of the gardens near the Bukit Timah gate. The leisure walk from one end to the other took us around 20-ish minutes.

The entrance to the Orchid Garden and locals performing morning exercise routines.

Finally, at the other end.

By the time we got to the food centre, we had a good sweat going but this was more from the heat at 8.30am versus the walk.

Not a lot of joints open in the morning but this one was and we ended up getting the Chicken Nasi lemak and Adam Special Nasi lemak. The only difference is that the Adam Special had mutton rendang in addition to the items from the Chicken set.

My oh my.

Mine and hers. A typical nasi lemak consists of coconut rice, fried egg, ikan bilis, anchovies, sambal, potato cake and cucumber.

Some thirst quenchers to wash down the food.

Ice bandung with grass jelly + ice milo.

Back to the gardens in the sweat inducing heat.

We came back to the Orchard Garden and paid the $5 per person entrance fee.

Mrs taking a moment to pose for an IG shot.

Tree of life.

After the Botanic Garden, we headed over to Orchard Road for a stroll.

Where we ran into the Infinity gauntlet that Thanos apparently lost and was under constant guard by the Singapore authorities. I sent a pic of this to my friends and family back home and the overwhelming response was to steal it. Like, don’t people know about corporal punishment in Singapore – no thanks. 🙂

I know what to have for dinner. 🙂

Shade.

After working up a really good sweat, we headed to Demsey Hill for lunch at Samy’s Curry.

Chill atmosphere.

We chose the biryani, masala chicken, mutton and cauliflower 65. Freebies thrown in were pumpkin, dhal and papadums. Extremely satisified with the quantity and quality – like mama’s home cookin’.

After heading back to the hotel for a rest, we came back to Orchard Road to pick up a special gift that I bought for myself.

Here is said gift. The last bottle in all on Singapore … or the shop I bought it from … I forget which one. Mrs is still questioning my justification for buying it.

Extremely happy with my purchase, it was time for dinner.

And finally on the bus back to the hotel.

Followed the transit signs to security and we were spit out on the departure level in no time. Walked over to The Wing lounge and we were allowed access to the First Class section as we were within the 24 hour period coming off the plane. We were informed that the lounge would close at 12:30am.

The Haven dining room.

Yes, the champagne bar will do nicely.

We sidetracked to the Cabana and had to wait for one to open up as they were all in use. We were given a buzzer and we then planted ourselves by the champagne bar since it was right there.

Looking down.

The buzzer went off around 11:30pm which gave us an hour to spend in the Cabana. Mrs couldn’t understand why we were waiting for the Cabana when a shower suite would be just as good. When she saw it, she agreed that it was worth the wait.

After freshening up, we decided to move on to the Deck and see what it had to offer.

Making our way out the same way we came in.

Found out that our SIN flight would be at Gate 1 but it was later changed to Gate 4.

We made our way over to Gate 15 where the Deck was located. This is a business class lounge only like the Bridge.

Walking into the lounge right after the entrance desk.

There was an outside patio style area overlooking the concourse.

The flight to Zurich was delayed and had just begun boarding. The plane being flown for this flight was the Spirit of Hong Kong.

The noodle bar was closed, so no wanton noodles for me. 😦

At least the buffet spread was still there.

We eventually headed off to Gate 4 where our flight would be leaving from. I like how CX does a pre-boarding sequence and gets people to line up before boarding starts – very efficient and boarding ended up being complete in 20 minutes.

Snaking economy line.

Once boarding was green lit, we made our way down the worlds longest jet bridge. Our plane tonight to Singapore would be an A-Three-Fiddy.

Comfy enough for a 3-ish hour hop.

Pushback was 5 minutes early and everything else was smooth thereafter.

Bye Hong Kong, see you in 2-ish weeks.

After 10 minutes, the seat belt sign went off and the cabin crew sprung into action for the red eye dinner service.

Blasting through the menu again.

Went with the beef brisket option and was tasty and everything served on a single tray. Everything was cleared away around 1.5 hours into the flight and I
took the opportunity to get some shut eye.

The captain came on the comm around 30 minutes to arrival and indicated that we were on time.

Pulled up to our gate to see 2 other CX planes. CX now uses Terminal 4 and I was highly eager to get a whiff of that fresh carpet smell … amongst other things.

Mmmmm, new carpet smell.

Immigration was dead and we were let through quickly. Waited for our bags at belt 2.

As it was 5am when we landed, we took our time getting to the hotel. Opened up our bags, changed into more comfortable clothes more suitable for hot weather
and then made our way to the shuttle bus that connects T4 to T2. From there, we would jump on the MRT down to the Four Points Sheraton.

God, I love the Singapore MRT.

Woke up to an automated text message at 4am that the CX flight was delayed from 15:30 to 16:25 – yay, back to sleep. Woke up later in the morning and headed

down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.

American portions are awesome. Eggs benny for me and a Western omelette for her.

We eventually left the hotel around 1.45pm and hopped on the shuttle back to the airport. The driver dropped us off first at Terminal 5.

Mrs wanted the honour of checking us in today and I reminded her that we are checking in all the way to Singapore. As we walked in the First Class check-in

line, a wandering CX agent approached us …

Agent: “Flying Business Class?”
Mrs: “No, First Class”
Agent *big smile*: “Where to?”
Mrs: “Hong Kong”
Agent *motioning us to the check-in desk*: “My colleague will help you.”
Me *whispering in Mrs.I’s ear*: “…… you had one job ….”
Mrs: “I know, sorry!”

Mrs informed the agent we were flying to Singapore and we were handed our boarding passes and lounge invites in no time. Asked if we would like an escort but turned it down. TSA passport/BP checks and security was quick except for the issue where my watch went missing even though it was in my bag. Went back to the security check point and found that the watch was sitting in a small accessories bowl. Was really pissed that someone removed it from my bag and didn’t say anything which led me to believe someone rifled through my belongings.

Since we had time to kill, we took a walk around the concourse towards M1 and then back to M15 to check out the plane.

As we go to M15, CX had just landed and was taxi-ing to the gate.

Lovely Lufthy heading out.

With our wonderful bird pulling into her gate.

Headed back to the BA First Class lounge for a pick me up. We were welcomed in, provided the wifi password and informed that a boarding announcement would be made when it was time. Nothing has changed in the lounge except for the placement on the food station which was now in the middle versus the corner.

So many scribbles.

A CX agent came around T-45 minutes to departure and announced to individual CX passengers that boarding had started. We made our way back to the gate and found this line for F, J and other elites. I walked up front and asked an agent if this was the F line. She checked our boarding passes and cut us to the front. Woot.

Boarded through 2L where we were escorted to our seats.

On this flight, we would be taken care of by Yollie, Grace and Hiromi and I believe Yollie was the Chief Purser. We were welcomed on board and asked what we
would like to drink – roll out the champers please. I sat with Mrs during boarding and the drinks were poured at 1A.

Let’s blast through the menu, shall we?

With the ever unchanging drinks list.

Whoever wrote this description really kills me. Must have a serious nose and palate to smell/taste all that.

I was requested to move back to my seat for the safety demo and obliged.

Trusty GoPro filming the taxi and takeoff sequence.

Buh bye Chi-town.

More champers and warm nuts was delivered after the seat belt sign went off.

Hiromi let us know that service was dine on demand and we could request anything anytime. We opted to start right away and she took our orders. To start, the caviar as always because its caviar and the hand written notes.

Mrs went next with the international selection and started with the Lobster salad. The lobster meat was tender and delicious while the rest was garbage.

Since I went with the Chinese option, Hiromi started me off with the cold plate. Excellent tangy flavour and a good hit of spice from the red chillies.

While we waited for the next course, I took a moment to stretch and take a pic.

The soup and main course were served together.

Chinese main course was delicious.

With Mrs choice of the sea bass being equally good.

My soup had a weird after taste and I avoided it after a few sips.

The truffle potato leek soup was excellent and I greedily decided to have half.

We both skipped the cheese course and chose the same dessert – Blueberry bread and butter pudding. So … damn … good.

After lunch, we requested to have our beds made while we changed into PJs.

In a historical first, I slept for 8 hours straight and woke up 2 hours out of Hong Kong.

Yollie and Hiromi saw me come out of the washroom after freshening up and asked if I would like something to eat.

Started off with a plate of fruit.

And finished with the stir fry beef which was juicy and tender.

Thirty minutes before landing, the captain came on and advised us that we were in a 20 minute holding pattern and would come on again to let us know when we got clearance. Twenty minutes later, we were given the go ahead and began preparations for landing.

It was only then that I noticed no flowers.

We would have a 4 hour transit, so no rush.

Safe touch down and 10 minutes of taxi brought up to gate 1.

The crew thanked us for flying and we were first off the plane.

The trip started off with amazing weather and the luck just kept rolling on. Made it to Pearson with zero traffic.

The check-in area had minimal activity going on with a painless self check-in and bag tag. On the other hand, the agent scanning the bags did have his hands full with all kinds of idiots not knowing how to tag their bags, not printing their tags or just standing in the wrong queue altogether and this delayed the entire line up of people just wanting to drop their bags off and go. Had to sympathize with him though as he was doing his best to help said idiots and when we got to the front, he joked with us that it was that kind of day. LOL.

The line up at security was virtually non-existent and we got through US immigration in record time. Once through, we made our way to the PP lounge for a quick bite.

A nice view this evening with EK242 being towed to the gate for the flight back to Dubai.

We eventually made the long walk to gate F32 to board our flight to ORD. As we lined up for boarding, I got a call from my mother-in-law (who was in a very good mood) and she got us upgraded to J. We got our new passes from the gate agent and headed into the tube.

Very comfy for the 1.5 hour flight tonight.

The FA working J noticed my BP on the centre console and welcomed me … “Mr.HOP, welcome aboard, we have been expecting you … Please let me know if you need anything. Also, you are most welcome to visit the flight deck.” LOL, well don’t mind if I do. The best part – she didn’t even bat an eyelash towards Mrs.HOP. We could not help giggling after the FA went back to the door. When there was a break in the line up, I took the opportunity to visit the flight deck and introduced myself to the captain and first officer. Pretty awesome to be sitting upfront.

While I was up at the flight deck with the first officer, the captain came out to chat with Mrs.HOP and welcome her on board. She was delighted to get some attention. 🙂

Look straight out.

Back at my seat looking out.

Boarding, pushback, taxi and take off were all on time and smooth.

Choice of drink tonight was a nameless sauvignon blanc and chocolate/protein bars for a snack. No menu. 🙂

Landing at ORD was a standard affair. Collected our bags, made our way to the shuttle bus pick up point where we headed to the Four Points Sheraton.

Our flight was at 2.30pm and the bus came to pick us up from the hotel at 11.30am. We got a call in our room from the front desk to let us know that the bus was waiting downstairs for us. After a quick shower and change, we were on the bus and on our way back to the airport.

Some day time shots on the way.

Even though the main roads were clear, the driver decided to take a ‘short cut’ to get the highway …

Ok, back on track.

And back in the departures level.

Damn, that’s a tall ceiling.

We already have our boarding passes for the CAN-YYZ leg but I wanted to see what the F/J check in counters looked like. This was one of the check-in areas.

On the other side of the departure hall, I found the VIP check-in for CZ for F/J customers.

Finding our gate.

Heading through the immigration and security checkpoints.

Sneaky pic once we were through security.

Back at the CZ lounge but this time, we turned left. 🙂

Don’t you dare tell me to go right …

The dining area right behind the front desk. To the left of this picture are stairs that would take you up to the lounge area.

I seem to have a bad habit to taking pictures backward i.e. from the destination going back to where I started from. This pictures are starting from within the lounge making my way back to the entrance.

A small self area in the back but it was a snack area plus regular soft drinks and water. The hot food was downstairs.

Looking out from the top of the stairs.

Wanted to get some food inside me before the flight and went down the check the buffet.

And back to the lounge area to kill time before boarding.

Never knew that Myanmar had an airline but it was cool snapping a pic of this little guy.

With bigger, badder Saudia pulling in shortly thereafter.

Got bored sitting around doing nothing, so decided to walk around and check out the buzz.

Our gate happened to be at the end of the concourse and the line up was in full effect with the business class line already boarding.

Quick check of the passport and scan of the boarding pass and I was through.

Passed through First class and quickly snapped up a couple pics.

And into the mini business class cabin which I could not get a seat in.

Back in 18A for the next 15 hours.

A quick look at the food options on this flight. The drinks menu was the same.

The FA came around my side of the aisle and introduced herself to everyone. She also took the choices for lunch and breakfast or dinner or whatever it was.

Pictures during pushback + taxi.

5th in line for take off and after 20 minutes-ish, we were off to the races. The pilot eased the bird into full throttle whereas the pilot on the YYZ-CAN leg really cranked the throttle.

The lunch service began 30 minutes into the flight.

Beef ball clear soup.

I barely touched this. Taste was awful.

Went with the stir fry prawn option and it was tasty.

The dessert cart was brought out and the only options left was the mousse or the stewed egg. Magic 8 Ball says to go with …

This shot never gets old.

As with the outbound flight, the 2nd meal was served 5 hours before landing. I kept things light and went with the mushroom soup and free range chicken main.

Between eating, watching movies and napping, the flight was uneventful and went by quickly. Soon, we were back on Canadian soil.

Home sweet home YYZ.

Thanks for reading this far. Hope you enjoyed it and looking forward to sharing more TR’s. 🙂

The work week was pretty uneventful – work, eat, no sleep, zombie mode, work, eat, no sleep, work, karaoke, no sleep, work, bar hop, no sleep, walking dead zombie … for 5 days. I did have a few opportunities to walk around the BGC area where the Shangri La was located.

I don’t know how I got pulled into here.

Ok, safe zone.

Filipinos love their karaoke.

On my last day, I need to do last minute shopping for items requested by family. Before doing that, I needed food.

Warm beer was served and therefore needed ice to assist.

Garlic rice with chicken fat drizzled over, Sisig, Chicken Inasal and pork skewers.

With the belly satisfied, it was off for walking and shopping.

The mall where the office is located. Yes, Timmies is open in Manila and let’s just say that the coffee is crap back home in Canada and is double craptastic in Manila.

After shopping was done, I walked back to the hotel along the trendy outdoor strip known as Bonfacio High Street.

Street art.

Fast forward to our noon flight out of Manila. The company van picked us up from the hotel and dropped us off at NAIA within 30 minutes.

For those who know NAIA, it’s a zoo inside and outside the building. The building itself is WAY past its prime and heaven only knows when a new terminal will replace it.

Going through the first level of security to get inside the building. No tanam bala for me. 🙂

The CZ check in counters were in the left corner of the hall. One family was being helped at the business class counter though they were in economy. When one of the economy counters opened up, we were helped next. Bags were checked all the way to YYZ and we were given boarding passes for both legs plus a lounge invitation. Due to some odd flight scheduling reason, we would misconnect our YYZ flight and were put up in a hotel for the night. Any layover greater than 8 hours qualified the passenger for a free hotel room regardless of whether you were economy, business or first class.

Invitation to the contract lounge used by CZ.

Boarding passes.

Onto immigration and second level of security.

Once we were through security, we were funnelled into the duty area.

We were boarding through gate 1 but the lounge was at gate 6, so it was a short walk.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/813/40972988961_16b102f5df_c.jpg%5B/url

Ladies and gents, welcome to the 1970’s. The lounge overall was fairly basic with loungers spread throughout and a small food/drinks area.

Views outside on the tarmac.

After an hour, we walked back to gate 1 and downstairs into the herding area. our boarding passes were cross checked against a paper list and our carry-on bags opened and searched.

We would be the only two in biz today. 🙂

Usual PDB of apple juice.

Bye Philippines. Until next time.

The FA working J offered us a choice of chicken or fish and went with the former. Decent meal to keep us going till dinner.

The 2 hour flight was uneventful and landed in a smoggy Guangzhou without issue. We taxi-ed to a remote stand where the fun began. The FA shut the curtains and held the masses back (HODOR!) till we got off the plane. We were escorted into a bus for J passengers and we were off in no time.

It’s not a Mercedez ala Lufthansa F but it will do.

It was a short 2-3 minute drive on the tarmac to the transit area.

When we walked inside, there was a CZ agent waiting for us with our names on a board. He escorted us to the transit area where we were handed off to another agent. We were requested to fill out the form for the 24 hour VOA and was asked to wait while he took our forms and passports over to immigration. Ten minutes later, an immigration official came outside, handed our passports and directed us to walk to the front of the line. Quick stamps by another official and we went through where another CZ agent was waiting for us.

He walked us past security and to the elevators where he gave us instructions on how to get to the Transit Accommodations desk. He even provided a nice guide card.

And after a good 10 minutes of walking, we arrived. We handed our boarding passes where the agent scanned it on the computer to bring up our information. We pre-booked the hotel we wanted to stay at before leaving Canada and everything was in order.

We were given a sticker (just so that we remember which hotel we stayed at) and was asked to have a seat until someone gave by to collect us.

Our chariot.

After 15 minutes, we arrived at our hotel. For whatever reason, the place was smelling of oranges. We made it through the check-in process despite the severe language barrier between us and the hotel rep. It came to the point where he whipped out his phone, motioned to speak into the app and it translated into the local dialect. Technology FTW.

My humble abode for the next 24-ish hours.

After a quick refresher upper, we headed out to catch the train to Canton Tower.

Bought tickets at the automated kiosk and we were off in no time.

After an hour, we finally arrived at our stop.

Walked out of the station and turned around to see this.

Can’t believe we actually walked this far from Canton Tower but we had time to kill before night time and it was lit up.

With our legs starting to hurt, we hopped back on the train to the hotel. Up next – flight back home.

Got up yet again at 3.30am to catch our 4am pickup to take us to the airport to catch our 9.30am flight back to Manila.

Stopped off for breakfast around 7am.

Which turned out to be a bad decision as we got right into the morning Cebu rush hour.

Made it to the airport by 8am where check-in and security was quick and easy.

Wow, electronic gates at a domestic airport. I don’t know why that amazed me but it just did.

Post securit-ah.

In the waiting area zoo.

The Filipino equivalent of Starbucks that uses local coffee beans.

Gloom in Cebu.

Boarding and push back on time and we were off pretty quickly into the sky.

Yum.

Back on terra firma.

The office sent a van to pick me up from the airport and it took 20 minutes with regular traffic (which is a good thing) to get to the hotel.

They mess around when it comes to security. Mirror + canine check.

Once I pulled into the front, the staff welcomed me to the Shangri-La, took my bags and I was escorted to the front desk. The bags were taken away to be scanned (again airport style) before being allowed in the building. Check-in was a breeze and I was assigned a corner room on the 35th floor.

Lounge area straight ahead with the High Street Café off to the left for breakfast every morning.

My co-workers and I usually had breakfast at 6am after working the 9pm-5am shift every day. We had a choice of going with the buffet or a la carte option. The first day was buffet and then I went with a la carte for the rest. The buffet spread was amazing and is typical of the Shangri-la standard (well, except for Sydney which was ok) but you can never really do full justice to a buffet unless you have the appetite of a 19 year old.

That’s one big sausage.

Checked out early and headed to catch out boat back to Maya port on the mainland. From there we hired a private car to take us back to the airport where we would catch up with more friends joining us for the next 3 days in Oslob and Moalboal.

Our wonderful limo for the journey down south.

Quick pit stop for breakfast.

Fast forward to picking our friends up from the airport and us arriving at a mall to have lunch at Zubuchon. Gluttony got the best of us and we went on an ordering spree.

Sisig.

Lechon (bone in)

Mixed veggies because we were feeling guilty ordering so much meat.

Chorizo.

With that out of the way, we got our Starbucks, piled into the van and headed down to Moalboal.

And eventually pulled into the Club Serena resort after a nail biting journey through back roads (paved and unpaved) which elicited thoughts of whether we would arrive alive or not.

The boys were shown to their room while the girls had their own. My first thoughts upon entering the room … the 1980’s called and they wanted their décor back.

Our tree trop casita from the outside.

Check-in area.

The resort beach.

I pre-booked a dive for the Sardine Run. The area is famous for having schools of sardines at the doorstep. On the night we arrived, my friends booked a trike driver to pick me up and take me to Panagsama beach where the dive centres were located.

Quick breakfast before heading out.

With an amazing view.

Heading to Panagsama beach.

The driver dropped me off at the top of the street and I had to hoof it down to the dive centre.

Suiting up and briefing was quick and we were walking to the shore for the dive.

Sardine Run. I made this a timelapse video otherwise you would be will be watching a good 20 minutes. Extremely happy to have done this dive because you could see the sardines the moment you went off the side of the wall. As you got deeper, you could see the bigger schools of sardines which the snorkelers could not see. 😀

Hi.

A famous resident coming over to say hi.

Me celebrating after crossing off another bucket list item. 🙂

And what better way to reward myself.

Good view with a drink.

With lunch at the restaurant next door – shrimp + thai green curry chicken. I developed an appetite after such the dive – don’t judge. 🙂

Our ride back to the resort.

We ended the day with a relaxing drink and snacks on the resort beach.

It was another super early morning start as we were heading down to Oslob to swim with the whale sharks + canyoneering. We were picked up at 4am and after a 2 hour drive, we reached the muster point.

Since we hired a tour guide and driver, we did not have to do any of the formalities such as signing forms, paying at the front desk etc. The guide did everything for us while we waited for our group number to be called. After the formalities of listening to the local conservation team giving us the rules about the activity – “The first rule is to never touch the sharks!”, we went to get our life vests and wait for our group number to be called for getting into the boat.

The other groups waiting patiently.

Got into our boat and a quick 5 minute ride over to the staging area. The boat guys had the process down pat – the boat coming in would tie off to the last boat in the chain of boats. The next boat coming in would tie off to our boat and so on. The boats would slowly move down the line and after 30 minutes, we would cast off and come back to shore. We were free to jump in but had to stay close to the boat at all times.

Here are the whales in all their glory.

After the activity was done, we washed up and went in search of breakfast.

Lots of people inside is a good thing, right?

Delicious Chicken Inasal.

After that, we piled back into the van and went off to our next destination – the Badian Canyoneering adventure at Kawasan Falls.

After gearing up, we hopped on motorbikes for a 10 minute ride to the start of the adventure.

The adventure started with a 30 minute hike deep into the forest.

Thirsty or hungry after 10 minutes of hiking? No problem! A stall set up with goods to satisfy your needs.

Made a friend along the way.

Getting to the start of the good stuff.

Descending into the forest.

It got a little more difficult (but fun nonetheless).

Looking back where we came from.

Enjoying a nice shower against the heat of the canyon.

We reach the midpoint of the hike where there were stalls set up with hot bbq and drinks. Don’t ask me how they did it but they actually got all the stuff down in the middle of the canyon and set up shop. Talk about hustlin’. 🙂

Glorious meat on a stick. If only it could be served on Singapore Airline Suites …

Our order.

After our meal was done, we moved on and what better way than to jump right in.

Where we came to the second highest jump of the day. I chickened out.

But I did go on the kiddie ride. Wheeeeeeee!

After 3.5 hours since we started, we finally made it to the final jump of the day. I man-ed up and took the plunge – literally. FYI – that’s a 45 foot drop.

Looking back up where I jumped from.

We came to the end which is the real Kawasan falls. At one point, you could pay to get on a bamboo raft and go underneath the falls but that stopped because the rates were jacked so high and it scared everyone away. The people have spoken.

Walked 15 minutes back to the exit and met up with our driver who took us to a place for a quick lunch. Nothing like a carb heavy lunch to recover from an intense day.

Got into a jeepney arranged by the tour guide since we were all still wet and didn’t want to get the van dirty. The driver switched on the mood lighting as it got darker.

Saw this pass us by. Another delicious victim of cock fighting.

Stopped at the mall to get some quick items. Passed this by as I was wandering the supermarket and I think this is my all time favourite oddity.

We spent the evening having our final meal as we would be checking out the next day and fly back to Manila.

A not so early morning start to our first day trip excursion to Kalanggaman Island. We booked the tour through a local guide where he walked us to the boat that would take us and a bunch of folks – in all there were 20 people. Waded a bit in the water in order to walk the plank on to the boat. Once everyone boarded, we were off for the 1.5 hour journey.

Another beautiful day on the island.

After an uneventful boat ride, we made it to the island. It really is a beautiful as all the vidoes, blog and trip reports make it out to be. The boat dropped us off on the calm side of the island where the palm trees were located. Lunch would be provided in a few hours but we were free to do whatever we liked in the free time we had on the island. On the area covered by trees, there were covered huts where people could use to relax, a camp site where people could camp over night, small table setup selling food and drinks and finally, toilets. There was a big covered communal area where tables and chairs were set up for people to sit down and have lunch. Kalanggaman Island is also a dive site that is a wall dive going down pretty deep.

Me wading in. I held right at the point where the floor drops and it took me by surprise.

A shot of the sandbar portion of the island.

What it looks like on the other side. As you can see, one side of the beach is calm while the other side was choppy but still decent enoughh to wade in.

Can I apply to be the FT Instagram model?

Lunch was served around 12.30pm. The boat crew cooked everything on site and it was served buffet style. No line up, just crowd around and attack.

And then relaxing in the shade for a bit before heading out in the water again.

We hopped on the boat at 2.30pm and were back at Malapascua by 4pm. The next day, we headed out to Bantayan Island – we hired a private boat and it took around 2.5 hours to get there.

Some pictures along the way.

When we got to the island, we got off at Kota beach and made our way in land. Kota beach has this interesting sandbar that constantly changes due to shifting winds and wave patterns. We hired a tricycle to take us to Paradise Beach.

Not as many boats as Malapascua. 😀

Off we go!

Our starting point in the distance.

Passing through town.

Safety is a must …

Definitely not in Kansas anymore.

We got off and had to walk down a path to get to the beach. The path was not easy to walk if you have flip flops on (like me) as there were lots of rocks/stones along the way.

After 10 minutes of slow walking, we made it to the entrance of the beach where some random guy collected 50 pesos as an entrance fee. This fee was used for “maintenance and upkeep” of the beach.

OMG YASS.

Swimming down the back led me to this area.

With a romantic spot for any couple wanting to have a private moment.

Another FT Instagram moment.

After 2 hours at the beach, we headed back to Kota beach to catch our boat back to Malapascua. Before that, we stopped off at a spot that the local kids come to.

#wheninrome #livelikealocal

Got back to the drop off point and had a refreshing drink.

Another pic of the sandbar.

We got off to a late start getting back to Malapascua. When the locals say to leave early, there is a reason behind it and we definitely did not listen. The ride home ended up being very choppy and wet but we made it safe and sound. We all freshened up and headed out for our last dinner at Malapascua. Ended up at the Mabuhay restaurant which was a little bumping that night. This was the strip that all the beach resorts were located on.

I went with the sizzling ghampas (shrimp) and it was delicious.

This was our last night in Malapascua and we had a 7am start the next day to travel down south to Oslob and Moalboal. Stay tuned!

We were dropped off at the one end of the beach strip and had to schlepp it to the resort with our bags in tow … on the sand. I ended shoulder carrying my suitcase so as to not ruin the wheels. Most of the “high end” resort are located on the beach. When I say “high end”, they are 3 stars at most and you really must mentally prepare yourself to not expect high end luxury … or any sort of luxury. As a matter of fact, we had hot water for our showers, so that’s as luxurious as it gets. Behind the beach front are backpacker style hotels/homes for those who are on a shoestring budget.

Our resort was in the middle of the strip and I was happy to have made it in one piece after hoisting a heavy suitcase – yes, I need to exercise a little more. Time for the $2 tour.

The path leading into the resort.

The path leads up to the left side of the bar you see in the background.

If you were standing next to the bar as you walk in, you will see this area to your right.

Standing at the middle of the bar, looking at the dining area.

The dive shop behind the dining area with rooms off to right side on 2 storeys.

Our room was located in the top floor of the blue building you see on the right.

Leading up to our room.

Shangri-La level luxury.

And the view from the balcony outside our front door.

Having not had anything since breakfast and after a long journey, I decided we deserved something as a reward.
This look as appropriate a reward as any.

With something to meaty goodness to add to the mix.

With our bellies satisfied, we went for a walk.

So this is where I give my two cents on the beach. After watching a whole of bunch of Youtube videos on Malapascua, I was expecting a powdery white sand similar to Boracay. In reality, ever since Typhoon Yolanda struck in 2013 across the Philippines, it damaged a lot of the islands and ecosystems. For Malapascua, the sand close to the hotels was soft to walk on but make more difficult to walk on the closer you walked to the water. This is because dead coral bits were swept up by the tide and no effort has been made for a cleanup. To be honest, one would not expect any sort of clean up as this was not a luxury paradise like Boracay or Palawan. On top of that, a lot of boats were spread all over the place so swimming in the area was not safe. Are these major problems? Maybe – depending on your point of view. Compared to Kalanggaman Island and Bantayan Island, there is a major difference and you will see this soon. I crashed early as I had to be at the dive shop at 4.30am for the thresher shark dive.
 
As it was pitch dark outside and not a good opportunity to take pictures, I will describe in detail the harrowing journey to get to the dive site – hope you have a vivid imagination. The main attraction for Malapascua Island is the thresher shark and is therefore a diver’s paradise – this means that there are at least a 100 divers per day. The thresher shark lives around the Monad Shoal which is a sunken island. The top of the island is 100 feet below the surface and is considered the cleaning station where the sharks come to every morning in order for the little feeder fish to (for lack of a better term) clean the crap off the shark scales. The sharks come up every morning between 6-8am and go back down into the deep afterwards. The window is very small due to the fact that the sharks are sensitive to light.

I was down at the requested time and met a fellow diver who would be joining me. We each had our own dive master and after the gear check, we headed off to the beach and got into a small boat. From there, we made our way to a bigger boat where we swapped into and all the equipment was loaded on. We waited a good 30 minutes for divers from the other resorts to join us. With everyone on board, the boat made its way to the Monad Shoal and it took a good 30 minutes to get there. As we approached, I saw 5 other boats already there with divers jumping off. Let’s do the math – 5 boats, 15-20 people per boat … that’s a lot of humans to see a damn shark. Fast forward past the bits where we dressed up, did our safety checks and demo and off we went into the wild blue deep. When we got to the bottom (or top depending on how you look at it), everyone knelt in a line and held onto a rope. We were instructed not to move beyond this point otherwise we risk scaring the shark off and losing the opportunity to see a once in a life time moment (I say “lifetime” because I know I am not coming back to Malapascua).

Behold.

If I had remembered to properly set up my gopro, it would have been on Video+Photo mode but instead I noobed it up big time and could not get any pictures. But fear not, the video below makes up for everything.

The best part of this entire dive – I only saw the shark for 30 seconds before it disappeared into the darkness. My DM and I moved to another section of the line but I could only see fleeting parts of the shark in the dark and was not as good as the video above. See example below.

At least, I got to see it and I was happy. 30 minutes into the dive, the DM instructed we had to move on as the tanks were running low. Took a tour of the reef as we made our way back up.
Here is an idea of the other dives jocking for position to see the shark.

I forgot to mention that this was a wall dive as well. So here is a video as we came up.

Lovely sea urchins.

Everyone started coming up shortly after that and we were headed back to Malapascua. It was around 8am and I was ready for breakfast.
The DM steadying himself as we pulled away from the bigger boat in the background.

A shot of the itty bitty boat that we used.

8am and the sun is beating down hard.

Met up with my friends and headed off to the local restaurant for breakfast. Took a back alley to get there as it was located behind the resort.

Hello friends.

LOL.

Traditional Filipino breakfast consisting of garlic rice, 2 eggs, tocino (fried cured pork) and 2 hot dogs. Add a coffee and the total came to $5 CAD – damn good deal.

Walked back to the resort to get ready for my second dive for 9.30am. Passed by a bar and saw this sign – guess something went down in order for the sign to go up.

Back at the boat with the same DM and we headed out to the dive site known as the Coral Garden. This was more of a macro dive since the corals were pretty much dead or dying. The dive was good as I captured some good videos of little sea life plus there was only one other group of divers.

All that diving made me famished yet again. So found my friends and we trudged along the beach to find a place to satisfy our cravings.

First order of business.

Followed by the second order of business.

With this little guy giving me the winky wink for some reason. Just couldn’t figure out what that reason was …

This brings us to the end of the first fun filled day at Malapascua. The next two days would be full day trips to Kalanggaman Island and Bantayan Island. To be continued!