Technically yesterday was day one in Philippines, but today was when I would officially begin my sightseeing. After a good hearty sleep, I woke up in time for breakfast at Kabayan (they start serving really early).
The receptionWhere they serve breakfast and lunch
The breakfast and lunch isn’t your usual buffet offering. You queue up and get served your choice of dishes. No seconds.
Still, they give you a mouthful
It was enough to kick-start my day.
Although, I went back to my room and ended up watching TV for some time. This Filipino Steve Irwin was showcasing the natural wonders of Palawan, a place I was going to. So I considered it ‘research’ (even though he spoke mostly Tagalog).
As per my trip itinerary, I was going to be leaving Manila tonight for Banaue, but thanks to Aimee who already bought the bus ticket for me, it freed me up today to go see the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial — which wasn’t far from where I was staying.
I had to check out by noon — and I duly did so by noon. I kept my luggage at the reception and told them I would collect it in the evening. Since it was already 12pm, I had lunch from Kabayan before leaving.
My first taste of Filipino cuisine. First impression: dry. Not a whole lot of varied flavour. Unlike Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, I guess curry isn’t common here. I only had chicken stock to flavour the hard sticky rice.
Done with lunch, I made my way to a very busy Pasay MRT station. Bought myself a one way ticket to Ayala station (as that’s where Aimee told me I needed to go first).
Ticket cost ₱10It was a short 5 minute ride to AyalaThis stop is is a popular shopping hub because of SM and the Glorietta malls here
I also saw a Convergys office here, not that I was surprised to know big Indian BPOs have offices here in the Philippines.
I took a taxi because the cemetery was to be a short drive from here
But the taxi driver in his broken English started hinting as though he had no idea about the cemetery, its existence or how to get there — which I knew was just an act. The cemetery is quite famous and located in the posh Fort Bonifacio area in Taguig. Plus, its freaking huge!
I was getting a little irritated by the taxi driver as we were slowly driving around business parks with the cemetery nowhere in sight
Fortunately, there was a traffic policeman up ahead and I forced him to stop so that I could ask the officer as to how to get to the cemetery. The officer gave the taxi driver instructions and I could see a smile on the driver’s face as if he was thinking “yeah, yeah, I know where it is. Fine, I’ll take him there!”
A few minutes later, I arrived at the cemetery. The fare: ₱135 ($3/€2.2). Way too much!
Anyway… phone camera in, time for the DSLR to begin its usage
There isn’t an entry fee for the memorial. The security guard only asked me to sign my name in and advised me not to step on the grass or walk through the first two lanes (don’t know why).
Didn’t look like there were many people inside
Stuck to the left sideWith over 17,000 graves, this is the largest war cemetery outside the United States
I shot a lot of panoramas because there was no other way I could capture the scale of the cemetery
The Memorial Plaza
I didn’t seem many workers hereI could see the cemetery from the sky just as I was about land yesterdayYou find the occasional Jew among the crossesThis cemetery is a symmetrical haven(Panorama comprised of 12 shots)I like how they decided not to cut some trees
Panorama comprised of 11 shots
Panorama comprised of 13 shots
Back of the Memorial Plaza chapel
I took a break from the circle and decided to check out the Memorial plaza
The chapel
I wrote a note in the visitor’s book they have inside the chapel and left.
The battles these soldiers fought are all showcased hereMostly World War II and the other Pacific battles America fought inThe names of the 17,000 plus soldiers buried here are engraved on these wallsI couldn’t help but notice there were a lot of Filipino names on the walls tooAh, that explains it. I was under the impression only American soldiers were buried here.
The have the respective state seal corresponding to the walls with the soldiers from the same state
Lone worker
I left the Memorial Plaza
Took the 70-200mm lens out for this shot
Even though it was scorching hot, I chose to come at this time for the lighting: I wanted shadowsPanorama comprised of 10 shotsYou can bring your vehicle inside if all you want is drive through
You can’t really see it but the water was evaporating as soon as it hot the hot tarmac
Larger the panoramas, the smaller the crops when making it fit on my websiteThis and the above photo was one composition that had to be cut into two. It was fun to pan through the original full size panorama though.
Had to try black & whiteAdded a bit of grain to this one
It was time to leaveA recipient of the Medal of HonorAll the new construction around Fort Bonifacio (Panorama comprised of 10 shots)
Took this on the Canon 450D, which I was also carryingPanorama comprised of 14 shotsCool huh?I walked back to the Memorial Plaza for one final look
From a little higher up
After 3 hours of sweating it out in the hot sun, I finally walked towards the gatesI felt satisfied with the photographs I took today. A good start to this trip.
The memorial is maintained by a US government agency
I went inside the visitor’s lounge and stayed for a few minutes. Not that they had anything to see inside, but the room had air-conditioning and a water cooler. The retired American army colonel who manages the place smiled at me as he walked into his office and said: “Enjoy it”.
Enjoy it I did 🙂
Feeling a bit cooler, I left the memorial. The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial is one among the few attractions in Manila worth seeing. You may not want to spend 3 hours here, that too in this heat, but I found it peaceful and a calm place for a bit of photography. Of course, do keep in mind this is still a cemetery honouring soldiers and not your usual family picnic park. So do show some respect for the dead once inside.
I took a taxi back to Ayala station
The taxi ride was through McKinley Road, and I quickly realized how posh this area was. The taxi driver told me very rich people live on McKinley Hill.
Passed a few highly fortified houses, which usually implies bureaucrats, individuals with questionable incomes sources and other high profile people live hereUnlike my rip-off taxi ride to the cemetery, the journey back was through the right path and it only cost ₱56Figuring I still had some time (and craving for some more air-conditioning), I checked out Glorietta MallThis was the only photo I took from inside before the security man came over and told me photography is prohibited. Oh well.I checked out a few floors and left soon after
I took the MRT back to Pasay, went back to Kabayan, freshened up, collected my bags and called Aimee. She asked me to come to Central station, where she would meet me there.
Once at Central, we took a taxi and went to Sampaloc, cost ₱70.
We got down here
From there, it was a short walk to the Autobus office. I collected my ticket, paid Aimee back (₱450 for a one-way ticket to Banaue) and we sat a convenient store to chat for some time.
This is Aimee, and the Autobus office is in the background
I saw Aimee off and boarded my bus, a small one. I’ll talk about how the ride was in my next post but all in all, today was a good start. I had high hopes for the next few days.
Planning a trip to the Philippines began with the most unlikeliest of inspirations — an e-mail forward from my father. Not even a good official one, but one of those e-mails that had numerous ‘fwd: FW: Fwd:’ before the actual subject line of ‘can you believe Philippines has such beauty?!’ followed by numerous exclamation marks.
I usually disregard the images I find in such e-mails as they’re usually not from the country they claim to be but upon checking up some of the names of the places they showcased, I was quite surprised about how little I knew of their existence!
It dawned to me I knew very little about Philippines, this despite having grown up in the Middle East where (just like Indians) millions of them come to work. As a kid, all I knew about Filipinos is that a lot of them work in fast food joints or play in a band — and they don’t have the letter ‘F’ in their vocabulary. So I would often hear “500 pils” instead of “500 fils” when asked for change.
I learnt of Banaue and its famous rice terraces, the beautiful beaches of Boracay and Palawan, but the place that made me wish I was there was the remote island of Batanes. It was then, early 2010, I decided to consider making a trip to Philippines.
It was quite challenge really, because trying to study the geography of Philippines wasn’t easy.
(Image source: Wikipedia)
Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands. Sure, many of those thousands are really tiny to even identify on a map but still, getting around the country isn’t easy. It requires some learning beforehand. Since it’s not a landlocked country like most of Thailand, you have to commute via road, ferry, and airlines just to get to certain places within the country.
I initially thought of clubbing Philippines & Thailand last year but it was proving to be quite expensive. So I decided to give Philippines it’s own time.
That time was early this year, when things weren’t looking too good at my workplace. We all knew what was coming our way with the fate of the office and so, instead of prepping up my resume and looking for another job, I researched more on Philippines instead 🙂 When things became official in March and we all knew we were going to be laid off, I booked my tickets!
I tried Air Asia first but at around INR19k, it wasn’t as cheap as I thought it would be. Plus the timings were inconvenient. I land late at night and my connecting flight would have been at 7am the next morning. No way I was going to spend that long at KL LCCT! So I checked all the usual Indian travel websites and got the best deal from Travelocity for a Malaysia Airlines flight at Rs. 26,153 ($584/€411) return. Yes, it was more than Air Asia, but it was going to be convenient, so I didn’t mind paying a bit extra for that. Also, I would get proper meals, land at KLIA and not the present warehousebudget terminal. More importantly, the time I had to wait for my connecting flight was lesser.
Philippines Airlines had just launched their direct flight service to New Delhi (only), but it was quite expensive, so flying the Philippines national carrier was not a possibility.
Next came the visa. When I researched on the tourist visa, I was happy to find out Philippines offer a 21-day visa-on-arrival for a 147 nations! Great, I thought… until I scanned down the list and couldn’t find India one among those 147 countries -_-
So I ended up at the website of the Philippines embassy in New Delhi and found out I have to pay Rs. 2320 for a tourist visa (and for just 21 days). Since I couldn’t fly to Delhi just to get a visa, I had to get it done through an agent. Some agents wouldn’t even do it, and one moron even asked for Rs. 10,000 as service charges! But I walked into the nearby Thomas cook office in Koramangala (inside Raheja Arcade) and got my visa processed by paying their Rs. 1000 service charge. At Rs. 3320, this was the most I had spent on a South East Asian visa so far, and that too for a single entry visa. My multiple entry Singapore visa for 2 years cost just Rs. 1800 and my 1 year Malaysia visa cost just Rs. 1500. Thailand was free visa-on-arrival the two times I went.
My travel period was from 16th April to 4th May and I chose the dates keeping in mind the main focus of my trip was to photograph the Easter crucifixions in San Fernando. The rest of my itinerary would see me visit the largest American war cemetery outside of the United States, traverse throughout the Ifugao province for my fix of rice terrace farms, see coffins hung on hill sides, Cebu, see odd-shaped hills in Bohol and finally enjoy the natural beauty of Palawan island. I was looking for ‘interesting’ with this trip, so I ruled out Boracay — the nation’s most popular island destination, and the most touristy. Unfortunately, Batanes was out of this trip plan as well, simply because it was too expensive to even get there. No budget carrier (and Philippines has enough of them) flies to Batanes and even those that do only fly if they get enough passengers. Batanes is that remote an island.
As days passed by, I felt a bit nervous and kept having second thoughts about spending a lot of money during uncertain times. Sure, the Philippines currency value was the same as the Indian rupee, so that really helped! But still, here I was, going on vacation when all my colleagues were busy job hunting. Plus, I was going to be visiting a new country, one that like Thailand (to the eyes of the ignorant) has a sketchy reputation. I knew what I was going to see, and I was looking forward to see if they live up to the hype, but still…
One ray of hope that eased me up a bit came my way two weeks before my departure date when one of my readers left me a comment telling me how much she appreciated my website and that I “should visit the Philippines sometime!”
🙂
That blessing of a reader couldn’t have come at a better time and after we got in touch, she would be of great help to me, even helping me out with some bookings. I felt much better knowing I had a local contact, which always helps!
Now I was ready to fly!I had pre-booked a seafood meal for a change and while the tuna and veggies were good, I couldn’t help but envy my co-passengers with their ‘regular’ meals enjoying their creamy desserts and chocolates when all I got was cold fruits. It’s as though Malaysia gimped on the rest of the meal given how much fish costs. Sucks Selamat pagi* Malaysia! (*Good morning)I landed on time and took this around 7:45amThis was my first time in Kuala Lumpur International airport as last year I flew Air AsiaThere’s a mini-Harrods (Impressed with how sharp this photo came out)They have an exclusive Cadbury store here tooI loitered around the Duty Free for a while
Post loitering, I found my gate and sat in front of it. I tried to catch some sleep but ended up going online to kill time for the next 4 hours.
It was grey skies even until noon in Sepang
I boarded my second Malaysia Airlines flight for this trip in the afternoon and I was now en route to Philippines.
Selamat tinggal Malaysia!
Leaving Malaysian shores…… and flew over the South China Sea for the first timeWhich was a welcome pleasant change of scene for me
I took a break from staring outside my window to eat some peanuts.
Well… duh 🙂Back to staring out into the blueBeautifulAwesomeOkay, break time. Lunch had arrived!Seafood meal again. Tuna steak and veggies again. ‘Regular’ meals came with Cadbury chocolates besides pudding for dessert. I got dried raisins. Seriously -_-Meal done, back to blue
Submerged?
Needless to say, I really enjoyed this flight
Hello moon…
It got cloudy after this, so I lowered the shades and caught up on some sleep.
Woke up an hour later to the announcement we were approaching ManilaHello Philippines
Manila cityManila portMetro Manila is the 8th most populous metro in Asia
It was nearing 5pm in PhilippinesThe flight was a bit early… which is never a bad thing (as long as the traffic control clears it)About to land
Ninoy Aquino International Airport
So after nearly a total of 8 hours of flying, I was finally in Philippines. Phew, long journey!
How’s the airport? Quite old and in much need for an upgrade. Well, at least Terminal I was in.
I got my passport stamped, got my bags rather quickly, converted some dollars and I was out in around 15 minutes. The first thing I wanted to do was get a local SIM and fortunately Globe was handing out free SIMs (though they were mostly for OFWs*).
I hired a pre-paid yellow taxi (which would later turn out to be a mistake) and asked him to take me to Kabayan Hotel in Pasay, which was close to the airport. I chose Kabayan as it was a popular recommendation online. Plus, I didn’t want to spend too much time in traffic just to get to touristy Makati.
But despite how close the hotel looked on the map from the airport, getting there still took nearly 45 minutes in evening traffic. It cost 250 pesos ($5/€4) which is far more than what I thought it would cost. Anyway, I went to the hotel reception, booked a single room for myself and checked in.
My A/C single room, PHP950 per night ($22/€15)
Kabayan is pretty cool. They have rooms ranging from dorms all the way up to deluxe rooms and from prices starting as low PHP610, they are very popular. And get this, you get complimentary breakfast and lunch! They also have free wi-fi among other great amenities.
The toilets and shower rooms are down the hall and in between (clean and well kept)
Oh by the way, they don’t use the word toilets much in Philippines, instead it’s ‘Comfort Rooms’ or ‘CR’ 🙂
I stepped out again because I needed to buy some credit for the Globe SIM so that I could inform my family of my safe arrival. Since I was out, I decided to grab dinner early. It soon struck me just how much fast food Filipinos eat. Mc Donalds and homegrown Jollibee was everywhere — and they both had multiple branches within meters of each other — and all of them were doing brisk buisness! As the fast food chains are too chicken to sell beef burgers here in India (due to religious politics), a good ol’ cheeseburger was what I was craving. I picked up a burger from Jollibee, a doughnut from 7-11 and some water.
The area I was in was quite a busy part of town as it was a major hub for transportation, so you get everything you need as far as convenience stores, supermarkets and eateries go. It’s also a very noisy area, mostly because of the jeepneys.
But Kabayan does a good job of cutting out the noise once you’re inside the hotel. I took a nice warm bath and then had my dinner. I called my aforementioned reader (whose name is Aimee) and we spoke for a while. She told me the pre-paid yellow taxi at the airport are priced way more than the usual taxis I could have gotten had I just walked a bit further out. Also, there were frequent airport buses that drop people to Pasay and back. Oh well, rookie mistake.
Unlike many hotels in this price range, Kabayan has a good selection of channels which even included Zee TV (the only Indian channel though)
Given that I hadn’t slept properly in nearly 24 hours, I called it an early night.
I couldn’t wait for tomorrow to begin!
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Please note: In this series of posts, I won’t be mentioning conversion rates for Indian rupees as both Philippines Peso (PHP/₱) and the Indian Rupee are more or less on a 1:1 value ratio. So Rs. 100 is like PHP98. Therefore only US dollar and Euro conversion rates will be mentioned.
*OFW = Overseas Filipino Workers; similar to NRI (Non-Resident Indian)
Day two in Hyderabad started a bit late, on purpose. We were lazy to get out of bed and only decided to do so around lunch time. We took an aurorickshaw and headed towards Lakdi ka pul, as we were advised by our Hyderabadi friend that there are frequent buses from here to Golconda Fort.
We had lunch from one of the restaurants behind the main Lakdi ka pul bus stop, (edit: Ramesh tells me the name was New Paradise Hotel) and yes, we tried the biriyani from here as well. It was alright.
Post lunch, we took the bus that dropped us to Golconda Fort. The entry fee was Rs. 5 for Indians; foreigners have to pay Rs. 100 ($2.2/€1.6) I believe. No extra charge for cameras, but there is a Rs. 25 levy for video cameras/camcorders.
At the entrance we were approached by tour guides to whom we initially said no. But one young chap told us he’ll give us a brief introduction and overview of what all there is to see inside. Only after that need we take a decision whether to hire him as our guide or not.
A small 'guard's fort' outside the main enclosed fort
This is the main entranceTo the left and right as you walk in are artifacts like knives, armaments, and other relics
From the spot where the girl is standing, if you clap, not only does it echo loudly in here, but it can be heard all the way up at the highest point of the fort. It was designed to work for the guards as a warning mechanism in the olden days. Amazing.This was our guide, at the end we decided to hire him. He told us the rate was Rs. 600, to be paid at the end of the tour.All that we were going to be seeing inside
The guide would stop at designated places and begin explaining the various design aspects and history behind this impressive fortUnfortunately, I don't remember anything what the guide told me about this tunnelApparently this heavy metal weight was used to test the strength of soldiers during recruitmentWhatever it was for, none of us could barely even manage to lift it even a milimetre off the ground. It was that heavy!
Nagina Bagh
We headed up
We were going inside here nextRamdas worked as a revenue collector for the ruler at the time. He was jailed here for defiance and in the years he spent inside, he carved Hindu deities on the wall so he could pray.Hindus today visit to pay obeisance to RamdasRamdas got a pretty spacious jail... but not much ventilation
This is from on top of Ramdas jail
As we stared into the panoramic view from atop Ramdas Jail, we asked our guide if there was a better vantage point from where we could see Hyderabad city. He asked us to follow him off the beaten path through some shrubs and thorn bushes outside of the walls of the fort.
Amidst a few cannons, we got a 'high level' tour of Hyderabad(Panorama comprised of 10 shots)The bottom half of Golconda fort (Panorama comprised of 9 shots)The palace ruinsAsked our guide to take a photo of us
We continued up towards the citadel.
Sri Jagadamba Mahankali temple
Our guide demonstrated the amazing acoustic engineering of this fort. Not only could you hear the claps from all the way down there but he also demonstrated how the guards communicated from as high up as the citadel with the help of another guide down below.The citadelWith this sign I knew what to expect......so imagine how awkward it was seeing (some idiot(!) with) my name etched on the walls here. Argh!
Hi-Tec city in the distance (Panorama comprised of 6 shots)
The 'writings on the wall' are here inside as well. How sad. A fort that survived for centuries couldn't survive the 'modern' Indian populace.
The rocks resemble a bullock
We made our way down to the palace ruins
Pretty massive stone wallsTook this looking up against the wall
It's amazing to wonder what life would have been like back in those days
The fountain looks like a new addition to the courtyardBut something far more impressive was inside hereOur guide told us of these "whispering walls" inside this corridor. You could speak in one corner of the hall and one could hear it faintly from the adjacent corner. I didn't believe but we tried it and it actually worked!The kids surely loved itDefinitely one of the best highlights in Golconda Fort
The guide explaining the unique acoustics of this hall as well
We were nearing the end of our hour-plus long tour
We were finished with the tour, and our guide led us out of the fort.
Score of visitors were still trying out the 'clapping' effectThere is a light & sound show once the sun sets, but we didn't feel like staying for it -- so we watched it on YouTube instead 😛
We had to pay Rs. 600 (Rs. 200 per person) at the entrance gate where the guides stood. But as we walked out, I could overhear other guides quoting Rs. 300 to some and Rs. 500 to other groups, and the groups spoke in Hindi or Telugu (the native language). It’s only when we exited I noticed there wasn’t even sign proclaiming how much guide charges were.
So we came to the conclusion the charges for a guide are decided based on how one appears! If you dress like an city slicker/outsider and speak English, you pay more. If you look middle-class (which all three of us are honestly) and converse in front of the guides in a local language, you’ll probably be quoted lesser. If you’re white… I’m sorry.
A unique tour bus we saw while waiting for a ride back to Lakdi ka pul
I still recommend Golconda Fort as a ‘must see’. Easily one of the most impressive forts in India’s heritage. Unfortunately, one that badly needs some renovation and cleaning up. But I doubt preserving the city’s heritage ranks high as a priority for Andhra Pradesh’s politicians.
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There is actually a day 3 and 4, but unfortunately, it just occurred to me as I began to write this series that I didn’t copy over the next days photos from the camera 🙁
Sucks, I know. But here’s what I did the next day, erm, in words. I went back to Charminar, alone, to do some pearl shopping for my mother. After visiting a few stores, my last experience made me reconsider buying pearls from here. The salesman quoted around Rs. 1800 for a cultured pearl necklace, but as I resisted, he came down to Rs. 1200, then Rs. 600! Then Rs. 500! Then Rs. 300! I walked away wondering what the true value of these pearls really were.
Oh, the best biriyani I had on this trip was at Hotel Shadab on High Court Road just as you are about to enter Madina Market near Charminar. I entered having not heard about the place before but took the plunge just looking at the sheer number of people inside. They have a very old seating area downstairs and a much fancier, air-conditioned ‘family room’ upstairs where tourists were sitting their respective guides. I ordered the chicken biriyani and though it did take around 10 minutes to arrive, it was worth the wait! God, was it so good!
I’m not a fan of Hyderabadi biriyani because most of the them I have had were usually dry and rather tasteless. Shadab’s biriyani was essentially a meal for two. You really get your money’s worth of quantity. I don’t know how they do it (considering it was already late in the afternoon), but the chicken was piping hot and so tender (extremely well cooked, you could tell from pure white colour of the meat). On top of the chicken, they layered the rice in two halves. One half being masala-coated and the other being the regular basmati rice. The rice was very soft and once mixed with the spicy-masala (and curd) it was delicious! Highly recommended!
At my table sat a local IT engineer who struck up a conversation with me and I asked him if the famous Paradise Restaurant was better. He told me he preferred Shadab’s to Paradise these days, as Paradise “used to be good,” but he also told me there are other small eateries spread throughout the city that serve very good biriyani that live up to Hyderabad’s reputation as India’s ‘biriyani cpaital’.
After lunch, my tablemate was kind enough to even drop me at Karachi Bakery, another Hyderabad institution I had plans of visiting. This bakery chain is quite famous for their fruit biscuits. So famous that they sell out hundreds of boxes by the hour and you often have to queue up for it!
By the time I got to the counter, they had run out of the smaller boxes, so I got away with two big boxes instead
Day 4 was our friend’s wedding in the morning and post lunch, just to kill time, we took an auto to Banjara Hills, Hyderabad’s posh locality.
Just about every mall was netted up because of the Telangana unrestWe went mall-hopping but got bored rather quickly as the offerings were nothing impressiveTaj Krishna HotelIn the evening, we walked to Kacheguda station and boarded our train back to Bangalore
After my second visit to Hyderabad, my opinion hasn’t changed — I still wouldn’t live here. In fact, all three of us were itching to get back to Bangalore city because we were quite bored here. Maybe it’s the Telangana issue that has tarnished the city’s status, but we just didn’t find the place ‘exciting’ to say the least.
Sure, there were two other sights we missed, like the historical Chowmahalla Palace and Ramoji Film City… but we just shrugged our shoulders and rode the happy train back to Bangalore.
