Still Here

I am finally outside of the concrete traffic jungle that is Metro Manila. I am now "in the province" as the locals say, i.e. in the countryside. Clean air, palm trees, pineapples, coconuts - and - some peace!!! It's great!

I have some pics from my travels so far at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derekindalian/sets/72157603743419339/

Enjoy!

Manila

Arrived in Manila, Phillipines in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Hot hot hot. 25 degrees at night. Haven't been to a tropical country since Malaysia in 2005. Sorta forgot what they are like!

So, first impressions of the Philippines besides the weather? Well, I have seen something that I haven't been used to seeing in Chengdu – the sun! The second thing is the traffic! Went to a huge mall the first day. Really nice mall beside Manila bay. Hadn't seen the sea in a long time either. The views with dark clouds were spectacular and the sunset was pretty cool.

The people here are very friendly. Communication is no problem as most people speak English. A lot different from China.

Bars seem cheaper than in Ireland. They also have a lot of Comedy Clubs. We wwent to a comedy club the other night. An interesting affair. \first act were 5 ladyboys who could hit both the low and high notes. Quite impressive singing Celine Dion and being able to hit the high notes. Second act were a bunch of gay guys. Both the first and the second act of course picked on us, the foreigners. But it was all in good fun. They did get us on stage and we had to take part in a dancing competition, which for some reason, I won. There was another foreigner in the bar. Guess where from? Ireland! Small world. After the club ended, the entertainers asked us to have a beer with them. Turns out the guy from the second act is a big TV star in the Philippines – he is on TV 6 days a week. There you go!

Gonna head out of the city to the provinces soon. See some nice scenery. The city here is just a concrete jungle. Not a lot of green space here. Looking forward to a slice of country life.

Half Time

There it goes! One semester of Chinese done. Sometimes it feels like I haven’t learned much, but when I look at the stuff we did at the start of the semester, it seems way easier to me now! So, I guess I have progressed. Probably should have studied more. It actually works. As Bart Simpson pointed out, “So when I took the test, the answers were stuck in my brain. It was like a whole different kind of cheating!” I must do more of it next semester!

I’m hitting the warmer shores of the Philippines in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Three weeks in the warmth of the Philippines should be very enjoyable! By the way, if you are flying from Asia to the Philippines, the cheapest option seems to be Cebu Pacific. However low prices usually mean shitty service. Their website wouldn’t work with my credit card. There was nothing wrong with my card, since I used it to buy Skype credit during that time. I had to call the Philippines, which ain’t cheap, even on Skype to be put on hold and have my calls dropped. Quite frustrating. In the end, I did manage to book my ticket over the phone. Lets hope the trip there is more smooth.