Month: January 2016

Day 10: Taal Volcano Island

Today’s big outing was climbing Taal, an active volcano in the middle of a lake that was formed from a huuge volcano exploding.

Woke up at 5am to have a big breakfast and make the most of the day.

Journey out: Started by getting my first ever uber across to coastal bus station and catching the bus to Tagatay town: coaches vary a lot, this one had a widescreen tv, surround sound and live to channels, so some terribly low budget action films were playing. Even though the leg room was by no stretch of the imagination suitable for anyone 6′ tall, I managed to sleep for probably about 3/4 of the journey, which was a shame, because what was flying past was very interesting. An interesting thing about coaches here is that people hop on and walk down the isles selling things at every stop, mainly peanuts around here, they also walk down the middle of the streets where the traffic is slow, which is almost everywhere. After getting off a town too late we got a jeepney back to Tagatay: a jeepney is an old WW2 long jeep made for quickly manovering soldiers, they are generally done up with shiny metal and slogans, mainly christian ones such as “God loves you”or “God is love” etc. They are only tall enough to be sat down in, but almost every journey is 10 pesos (15p).  Then we took a tricycle to the edge of the lake down a road with the most number of warning signs I have ever seen! Mainlywarnings about dangerous corners and landslides. Once at the bottom we grabbed a boat with 3 other people and hired a guide to take us to the top. The journey on the water was wet 😛 The waves were huger than the hull of the small boat, luckily we had large stabilisers and nothing that was too sensitive to a bit of water, but it was a lot of fun 🙂

Once on the island we walked through the small village there, up a well used path amongst others climbing up and down on horses, stopping for some of the group to catch their breath and for us to take in some of the breathtaking views.

Once we got to the top and could look into the volcano we could see the water boiling, lots of pilmbs of sulphur and there was even an island in the lake in the volcano island in the lake in a volcano crater on an island. We waddled off to a slightly less well trodden area to take in some views without so many people around, it was really amazing… Appart from the smell, which was quite pungent.

Then the journey back was pretty much exactly the same in reverse, but this time the coach didn’t have a tv, but was playing classic rock all the way.

Got back to the hostel, had to do my washing and managed to get my washing stuck in the machine, the staff said I should let them sort it all out, I just hope it’s dry by the time I leave for my flight tomorrow. Another 5am start. Now of to bed for me 🙂 A day well spent.

Day 8 and 9: Relax and organise

It’s quite hard to get stuff organised here as it’s mind meltingly hot, all you want to do is sleep, Internet is intermittent and most stuff in the Philippines isn’t advertised online, it’s mainly all, be in the know, book by email or phone (email in my case as my phone line doesn’t seem to want to work and the error message that I get when I try and make a call isn’t in English and the numbers that it mentions to call are also blocked… Smooth.

I have managed to book flights to El Nido on the island of Palawan, and a trip to the volcano island of Taal (which is a volcano island that has exploded inside the lake that is a crater of a much larger volcano that exploded ages ago).

I also in the two days, I made good use of the pool and had lots of fun with the other residence. Also took the took took-esk things that are prevalent around here simply called tricycles, a 5 min journey on one of those is about 15p, although they’re definitely made for people of max height 5.5′. 

Dubai Summary:

Observations:
Everything is a themed mall and hotel that held some world record when it was built.

One local lady described Dubai as having two seasons “Summer and Hell”, very apt, in the middle of winter it is average of mid 20s, not exactly bracing.

The metro has seperate carriages for women and children and they all have first class carriages.

There are quite a lot of pictures of the leadership around and the same family have been heads of Dubia since the 1800s…

All the work on the city, ask the mega projects and the like, are to be completed for the 2020 expo, so for a city under less construction, go after then, although there is likely to be lots of people without jobs when all the mega projects are complete. They are basically trying to put enough money into tourism that it’ll keep them afloat when the oil runs out.

The government are trying to make sure that you are never more than 500m from a mosque, which shouldn’t be too hard as you’re currently never more than 50m from a shop.

I’ve never stayed in a muslim country before, so be aware, if you’re a light sleeper, you’ll be awoken by the pre-dawn call to prayer every morning… Luckily I’m not a light sleeper and after you first hear it, you almost forget it every other time you hear it. That and the national dress is the only culture the city really had, so enjoy.

A souk is supposed to be a market, 9 time out of 10 it’s just a mall.

Likes:

It’s very clean, even the cheap, dirty parts have no rubbish.

It seemed very safe.

People were very friendly.

The metro: incredibly cheap, regular enough, very very clean and shiny.

Dislike:

Be aware, you really have to look around to find things that are reasonably priced, but if you look hard enough you can even find some things that are quite cheap. It’s not really that bad, just be aware.

Dubai has very little to no unique culture. It’s all copied from somewhere else, all its world records are for being the biggest, very rarely the first.

Almost the entire city is just a display of wealth and very materialistic.

Highlights:

Big Bus Tours: they were all really friendly, I booked online and it cost my about $60 and that was all the tours and activities and most of the transport that I did all the way up until the last day. My highlights of those tours was the night tour.

Visiting the mosque was the most informative part.

The people I met, I met a lot of interesting people on the tours and in the hostel.

The desert trips were very fun with all the little things included.

The dancing fountains, yes they are taken from Las Vagas, but they are a lot of fun, I would recommend anyone that visits should go and see them.

Lowlights:

None.

Final Thoughts: 

I never found out what the hose in the toilets was for, maybe for washing dust off your feet… Oh Oh, maybe it’s for the ceremonial washing before prayer that muslims do! That would make sense!

Day 7: Flight to Philippines 

Today is a simple day, I woke up at 5:00 on the floor in the kitchen of the hostel (they had over booked 2 days running and I offered to sleep on my camping mat in the kitchen that no one uses (because it has no WiFi or cooking facilities) for the two days and I got a refund for those two days, I was happy, they were happy, everyone wins, especially my travel fund) to catch a plane at 10:10 to Manila and I land at local time of 22:10… Yep, the 8 hour flight takes up all the hours of the day, smooth.

I currently have absolutely no idea what to do in the Philippines or where anything is or anything booked, so this will be an interesting 4 weeks…

 I landed and got a sim for mobile internet (very cheap out here), then got a taxi to my hostel (that I booked on the plane, prepared), taxis are crazy here, it’s not like a London taxi, only 1 sort is metered, the others are pre-pay. The cost is entirely dependent on your bartering skills… Entirely. For my trip apparently someone paid 1300 pesos, you should pay about 200 pesos… I paid 750. I didn’t do very well there. So taxis should be cheap. The driver also didn’t know the way at all, was on the phone (actually on it, not Bluetooth or anything) for half the journey, I had to find the place on google maps and direct him from the back, luckily I had bought the mobile internet sim otherwise I would be completely lost somewhere, before he asked me to use Google maps he went the wrong way for 20 mins, making the 10 min drive take almost an hour. I was very tired when I arrived so went straight to bed.

The hostel I’m at here, for two nights, is really nice, it’s got a nice pool, everything is new and shiny, there are fans everywhere… Oh yeah it’s mid 20s at the coldest point of the night and early 30s at the hottest, and very humid. And as this is so close to the airport you have planes flying over very low about every 15 mins.

I’m planning to relax the next two days and organise some flights around the islands (domestic flights around the Philippine islands are very reasonable).

Day 6: Bigger Desert Tour

Early afternoon I got picked up by a minibus with a number of other people just off Burjerman station, the minivan that had seat belts, but they were all tied up with zip ties so you couldn’t use them… Sensible.

We then went about an hour or so into the desert to (I don’t quite know how long, I fell asleep). Where we got out into some 4x4s and were taken jumping and sliding and all sorts over some dunes (which was amazingly fun!!) to our base for the evening.

I then tried my hand at sandboarding, which was fun but exhausting climbing back up the dune after each run, and had a slightly longer trip on a camel. We had a big buffet dinner and watched an assortment of dancing: dancing with swords and jangly things, a chap dancing by spinning around constantly at some great pace for many minutes (how he didn’t throw up was beyond me, but he was really entertaining), then some fire eating, fire pomes, fire whips, fire staff, lots of fire things, then two chaps dressed as a horse. It was a lot of fun.

Day 5: Sharjah and desert sunset tour

I had a more relaxing morning this morning (and an early night last night) so I’m more refreshed 🙂

At 13:00 I started the tour of Sharjah(another emirate here in UAE): it’s mainly accommodation and has far more high-rise buildings then Dubai, but none of them are as tall or as impressive, it’s more conservative than Dubai and is a dry city. Its more open than Dubai but like Dubia it is covered in construction sites as they invest the money from oil into property. I foresee a huuuuuuuge real astate crash for them in not too long, they do have no income tax, vat, import tax or export tax, but it’s unlivable in summer and the rest is tourism and real estate it seems.

Desert Tour: I went on a brief desert tour and saw how desolate the land was before they struck oil. I also got to ride a camel and hold a falcon (called Ashley). Then we watched the sun set over the dunes before returning to the city. It was lovely 🙂

Day 4: Flamingos and palm island crescent

Flamingo Tour: Saw lots of flamingos just outside the city, Dubai has native flamingos, I didn’t know that. Flamingos are funny creatures. We also saw some huuuuuge palace, I forget its name, I’ll look it up when I edit this. But it was really rather huge, so much land, just outside the city, like a stately home but with more grand walling.

I then took the tour bus to the end of palm island and took a tour around the crescent, which has currently got 4 5* hotels and is making another 38!! Oh Dubia.

Then I went to see the dancing fountains again on the way back (for the third time), each time it gets better! This time the song was an Arabian version of the song “Hero” by Enrique Inglesias (blast from the past!). I love the fountains, the fact that it’s a different song each time really makes it!

Now I’m back at the hostel for an early night 🙂

Oh yeah facts: 

Where palm island is built the water was only 10m deep! Even less crazy!… Still rediculous though.

Some eels have 2 mouths! One inside their throat that ventures out, kinda like Alien! 

For lots of species of big fish, they all start of as female and then the biggest becomes male when the current male dies.

Dubia mall has an aquarium (even bigger than the one that I saw the other day, but less species of fish), an underwater zoo (I’m not entirely sure how an underwater zoo differs from an aquarium, but it has both!) and an Olympic ice skating ring! There is also a bar near the beaches called “The chill out room” or something to that effect, and everything in it is made of ice, even the chairs and classes and things… In the middle of the desert! Dubia.

There is even a call to prayer sounded around the Dubia mall and in the bird sanctuary that I was in. 

Day 3: Aquarium, Mariana, dancing fountains

Started up early…er, went around on a few bus tours (much videoing), went on an hour long boat ride through the marina, which was lovely, nice and relaxing. Then went off to the aquarium at the end of Palm island (a man made island in the shape of a palm tree… Dubia), turns out the gulf is actually only 100m deep at it’s deepest point, so making islands in it isn’t actually that crazy… It’s still crazy. Just not as crazy as I initially thought.

Anyway Atlantis Aquarium… I don’t recall every having been to an aquarium before, turns out I absolutely love them! I could have stared at each individual fish for hours! And they had 16000 different types apparently (not sure I ever saw 1000 different types, but that might just be my untrained eyes :P) But soooo many videos! I had too many favourite fish there to pick an individual favourite, but jellyfish would have come up in the list. That took about 3-4 hours of my day then as I’d missed the last bus tour back I got the Monorail (queue The Simpsons musical number), what other form of transport would be fitting of a man made island in the shape of a palm tree. Atlantic was obviously a hotel, restaurant and mall too, in true Dubia style.

Dubia: everywhere’s a mall! If it’s not, then it’s a Souk… Which is basically a mall.

Then I went to see the dancing fountains (just between the Berg Kalifa (largest building in the world) and Dubia Mall (The largest mall in the world (I think)), it was actually really fun. I videoed it and watched it a second time (the music is different each time). I liked it so much that I missed the last metro home by 4 mins. Luckily the taxis are amazingly cheap too! 🙂

It seems that accommodation is mind blowingly expensive, but everything else is as you’d expect in a major city or surprisingly cheap… Of course there are many 5* hotels if you want to go expensive.

I’ve noted that almost all the cars are new and shiny, cars here are cheap, as is petrol (40p/L!)

A few videos will come up when I have access to a computer and an SD card reader… Many videos will need some heavy editing! 😛 I have at least an hour of pure fish. Probably the same of pure skyscrapers. I’m a proper tourist now 😛

Day 2: My first injury

I forgot to set an alarm, so I woke up at 11… That would be fine, if I hadn’t booked a bus tour for the day.

I got my first injury! 😀 First of many I’m sure. I thought I would start with a glamorous one: I cut my palm on the sharp end of a toilet brush 😛

I then went on the bus tour (after getting lost for 2 hours): the tour was good, I’m glad I got the two day tour! After doing the city tour and having a river tour at sunset, I then took the night tour, which was my favourite, Dubai looks the nicest and most exciting at night, also the tour commentator was hilarious. Drove round the palm islands (A huge man made island in the shape of a palm tree (the national tree, does England have a national tree?… Apparently so: the Royal Oak according to Wikipedia, I guessed Oak, I didn’t know there was a royal variety). The island is mainly residential, apart from the aquarium, and of course s few malls… One thing you learn about Dubia is it’s mainly skyscrapers and malls. So much new stuff being built! There’s also a set of islands that you can’t get to by land called World Islands, which is a huge map of the world made of islands… Dubai is crazy.

Dubai: home of big shiny stuff and many many world records. Everything is the most… or at least in the top 5 😛 If there is something that can be made that displays wealth, they’ve probably made it. It seems that they want lost of rich people with lots of money to come over, because that’s who most of it caters for. I found out that the most expensive cocktail ever was made here and cost a lot! The most expensive licence plate cost over 1 million pounds. Lots of other things are really quite expensive.

They do like grass and flowers, but because it rains 3 times a year and only 12cm a year all the flower/grassy areas have water pipped out to them, luckily they use recycled water, so it’s not too ridiculous.

They have a different type of pideon, as well as occasionally a good old fassioned wood pideon.

Day 0-1 The adventure begins

After getting my final items through the post (except for the tent which the contents of the packaging was lost in transit, so I’ll have to buy a tent on rouge), I sprayed all things that could be with odorless bug repellent spray (in preparation for Philippines) and left to dry for two hours, luckily the overwhelming smell of white spirit that you get when you spray it on, does swiftly fade away 🙂
Final hurrah with parents before leaving: 2004 Shiraz and some Hotel Chocolate chocolates, playing a game with the chocolates where you have to try and guess the flavour or description of the chocolate (they were winter deserts themed: nom nom).
Left early to miss rush hour, arrived 4 hours early… flight was delayed an extra 40 mins. But did get on:
Review of Emirates airline: very good, I enjoyed the food: my dinner had 14 different parts! (unfortunately I slept through breakfast (sad)) in-flight entertainment: excellent. I watched The Martian and Mad Max.
Slept in quite some comfort, awoken by very bright tops of butts.
I also enjoyed flying over Paris at night 1km up, at over 500mph, in -50°C… (flying is mind blowing when you think about it too much and I haven’t flown in almost a decade, so I was thinking muchly) I was also flying on a particular model of Airbus plane that I’ve written software for assisting the construction of, which was a fun thought 🙂
Landed in a slightly foggy Dubai. After collecting my bag spent maybe even an hour front to find the way to the metro station (hangs head in shame). Thought everything was very quiet, turns out that Friday is the weekend, I didn’t know that.
Temperatures around 22°C turns out to be a bit too much when the sun is directly on you, you’re walking about with about 15kg of backpack on you and your water is running low… But I arrived quite sweaty as the service ended at Redeemer Church Dubai, which is held in the huge meeting room at one of the Marriott hotels (I did initially go to the wrong Marriott), large bustling church, around 400 there today, unfortunately I can’t make comments on how the church culture differs because I just got the after service chatter. The people I did meet though were really lovely, helpful and gave me a lift to my hostel.
My hostel: Although it is the cheapest place to stay in all of Dubai, it’s actually more expensive than a 3* hotel in Manila (my next stop)! My hostel isn’t the cleanest place, it’s two converted flats and it has no cooking facilities, but the people are friendly and my bed is comfortable 🙂
I accidentally took a nap for a couple of hours, then booked myself onto a two day and night bus tour starting tomorrow. It must be said, transport here in Dubai is very cheap! My metro trip cost me less than 60p! And it’s good! Very clean, not too busy… Bit less frequent than The Tube, but all in all, I would highly recommend!
All of Dubai is very clean… apparent from the toilets, the toilets are frequently terrible and the cubicals all have shower hoses in them… I’m not sure why.
The exchange rate is 1:5 ish Sterling to Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) but some things are priced in USD, mainly tourist things. By the time I leave I’m going to be back to year 6 levels of speed division and multiplication of 5, currently I’m shockingly slow.
I went shopping to a local supermarket and had fun browsing the unusual produce: they have the smallest cucumbers, but the largest variety of dates one ever seen… I didn’t even know there were different sorts of dates. I bought a sample of the most interesting looking fruits and vegetables I could find and then finding out that there are no cooking facilities, played a game of ‘Which items are far too bitter to eat any of without cooking?’

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… turns out about half. Some have the peach effect (either unripe or off), some have no flavour at all but some are utterly delicious! I bought a handful of about 15 different things and it came to 18AED (about £3.50) turns out none branded foods here are generally very cheap, if you choose wisely. Anything branded is a huge amount more. Most things also say where they’re from which I liked 🙂
I also saw a sign that made me chuckle with it’s British level of passive aggression, it read “Thank you for not eating”, this was around the bag your own produce sections, not just rationing propaganda, but either way, it was totally ignored by around half of the people I noticed that just ate all sorts of bits and bobs often without even a vague interest in buying anything. I think passive aggression is ineffective upon a population that isn’t quite as awkwardly British as we are 😛
I’ve had lots of nice chats with people in the hostel too.
All in all, today has been eclectic and a nice start to my adventure 🙂