Crocs

CROCODILE BARBEQUE—It doesn't taste like chicken. It tastes like rubber.

Crocodile Farm - January 2011

Best way to explore a new city

"Go for a run, get lost and try to make your way back without any help." - Allan Hyde

Allan Hyde plays the role of Godric in True Blood. Follow him on twitter @Allanhyde.

Cambodian Delicacy

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Top Ten Things to do in China

Planning a trip to The Sleeping Dragon? Here are some suggestion that you might not find in travel guides.

10. Buy books by the kilo

Instead of buying key chains and refrigerator magnets as souvenirs, why not buy books in China? It’s not only music and movies that are being pirated nowadays apparently but also books. And there’s no better place to find them but in Chinese bookstores in the streets of Shanghai and Beijing.

Don’t go to bookstores inside malls but go for hole in the wall shops that sell books by the kilo. Buy the paperbacks because they (obviously) weigh lighter than hard covers. Momon and I bought eight books for only RMB100 (roughly P700). We estimate that the cost would balloon to P5,000 if you get them in Powerbooks.

9. Get a haircut

You wouldn’t normally include this in your itinerary but, trust me, it's worth it. Go to a local salon and ask for the latest trend in Asian 'dos. Get out looking like a member of F4 or a character from some random Koreanovela. Recommendation: Try the salon at FX Hotel in Shanghai near The Bund.

8. Numb your taste buds with spicy Ma La Tang

Ma La Tang is a hot and spicy dish from the Sichuan province. Try out the eateries along the side streets of Shanghai, which offer assorted vegetables and meat in sticks. Pick out your favorites and they will boil them in a very spicy soup then add some noodles and pork liver in your bowl. It’s so spicy it will numb your mouth for a while. My favorite mix is broccoli, pork teriyaki, squid balls and some tofu. I hope someday to discover the recipe of the soup and bring this dish to our shores. Recommendation: The best we’ve tried is a nameless eatery in Wujiang Road near the Metro West Nanjing Road Station in Shanghai. You can’t miss it because it’s just a short street full of budget food stalls.

7. Spiciest chicken wings

If Ma La Tang doesn’t challenge your spice threshold, then you have to try Beijing’s perverted chicken wings. Known as “BT” (biantai) or “perversion,” these chicken wings are the best-tasting spicy chicken wings in China. They are barbecued and loaded with insane amounts of spicy peppers. The flavors, which have the same mouth-numbing effect of Ma La Tang, include the distinct taste of Sichuan peppercorns and anise. The perfect match for the wings are potato salad and beer to cool you down. Recommendation: Tucked in a hutong (Chinese traditional courtyard) near the Houhai lake in Beijing is Han Chan, the best place to try these wings. The address is Xīchéngqū Xīn ān Lǐ Hútòng. Copy this and just show it to the cab driver and he’ll bring you there.

6. Sleep in a budget hotel

If you are on a budget, China has a lot of budget hotels you can choose from. We tried a different hotel in each day of our trip. The Forbidden City Hotel in Beijing and FX Hotel in Shanghai offered us the best value for our money. 

Forbidden City Hotel is situated in the middle of everything. It’s a 15-minute walk from Wangfujing shopping street and a bus ride away from Tiananmen Square, Qianmen and Forbidden City. They have very friendly staff who speak English well, a rarity in China. You can also meet a lot of travellers just hanging out in the lobby café sharing stories. FX Hotel in Shanghai is the same. It’s near Nanjing Road, which is the central street in Shanghai and also The Bund, which offers the famous view of the Shanghai skyline. It’s just a hop away from the nearest subway station that also connects you to the airport. Check www.booking.com for great deals on hotel bookings.

5. Watch a play in Penghao Theater

Forget Chinese opera! Go to Penghao Theater and watch a couple of plays. Penghao Theater is located in Nanluoguxiang, a center of arts and culture in Beijing. From the outside, the theater looks like a normal hutong (traditional Chinese courtyard) but inside is a black box theater with a sectioned-off café found nowhere else in the city. Also around the area are shops and bars that can keep you busy for a full day. Visit www.penghaoren.com to know more about the theater or E-mail penghao35@gmail.com for play schedules.

4. Made-in-China shopping

Shopping is a must in every itinerary and where better else to do it but in the cheap markets of China. People say don’t buy Chinese goods because they’re either imitations or just plain low quality. We say buy Chinese goods because they’re actually not that bad and pretty reasonable. You just get what you pay for.

Two of the major shopping areas are in Beijing Zoo Market in Beijing and Qi Pu Lu in Shanghai.

Beijing Zoo Market (Běi Jīng Dòng Wù Yuán Fú Zhuāng Shì Chǎng / 北京动物园服装市场) is the Chinese version of Divisoria—only better. Everything is organized; each floor is designated to a section. We suggest that you go to the basement first where fashionable and cheapest goods are kept. You should keep in mind that the higher the floor, the higher the quality of the products and, consequently, the higher the prices. Qi Pu Lu ( 七浦路)is the place to be in Shanghai if you are on a tight budget. Don't worry if you can't speak Chinese because most of the shops here have price tags and you don't even have to ask. Bargaining is only done when items don’t have price tags. They get insulted if you still bargain with already cheap priced goods. Buy bags for only RMB30 (around P200), jackets for only RMB70 (around P500), shoes for only RMB100 (around P700).

3. Ice swimming in Harbin, China

This one takes a lot of courage to do. You don’t only need nerves of steel but a thick layer of fat to insulate yourself from the sub-zero degree ice pool. If -22C air is not enough for you to get frostbite then try dipping your legs in the pool for a minute. Otherwise, just visit the ice parks during the annual ice festival in Harbin. It kicks off every 5^th of January and lasts for over a month. Harbin Ice Festival is one of the biggest ice festivals in the world. World-class ice sculptors from around the globe gather here annually to create magnificent ice architecture and sculptures. A must-see is the Harbin Ice and Snow World which I call the “Disneyland of ice parks.”

2. Road trip on the Silk Road

This is actually still in our bucket list. The Silk Road is an extensive trade route that connects China to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. It got its name from the Chinese silk trade, which started during the Han Dynasty. In China, the Silk Road covers the regions of Xinjiang and Gansu. Stunning landscapes await travelers in cities like Xian, Dunhuang and Kashgar. You will also be surprised to see that these cities look like they’re part of another country because of cultural influences that came from the Middle East and Europe. Since this road trip covers a large area, you probably need at least two months to explore the major cities and attractions and this leads us to our number 1 off the beaten path itinerary…

1. Trip to the PSB

A trip to China definitely needs a tourist Visa extension. For Filipinos, we can stay up to at most 30 days for a regular tourist Visa but this is just not enough to explore the country and experience what makes China tick. Good thing Chinese bureaucracy is very efficient and a trip to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) Entry & Exit Administration is just what you need to extend your stay.

They say it’s easy to get a Visa extension in the provinces but I’ve tried getting an extension in Beijing and I didn’t run into any difficulty. I just filled out the form, completed my requirements (photo, passport) and after a few days they gave me my Visa extension. This is in our number one spot not because it's lame, but because it leads to a lot more fun experiences in China. Have a safe trip!

Take a shot

With my friend Prudence at Camiguin 2008.

"It seems positively unnatural to travel without taking a camera along... The very activity of taking pictures is soothing and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel."

- Susan Sontag

Connect

I was looking for a travel quote to use as a post on Little Things, Happy Life when I chanced upon this travel site.

 

Matador Network caters to everyone that has the travel bug, a passion that extends to film, photography and writing. It has an archive filled with insightful, inspiring and useful articles. The group behind the site also offers different courses on how to actually make a career out of traveling.

Mineral Junkie

I'm not exactly a big fan of museums but when you're in Washington DC, there's really nothing much to do or see. When I visited the capital last October, my days were spent mostly by this. On the top of my list was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The promise of seeing real Tricerotop bones and stuffed African predators got me stoked.


I was thrilled to discover a hall that probably holds one of the world's largest collection of minerals, crystals, rocks and semi-precious stones. I'm a huge fan of rocks so I spent hours going through the entire collection and I went back the following day to see it again. (Admission is free in all DC museums)!


There are thousands on display ranging from the rare "Hope Diamond," Saphires and Emeralds to Pyrite crystals, Stalagmites and Asbestos. It was overwhelming. 

Now boarding:

• Click here for a Google map of the museum.
• To learn more about The Smithsonian, visit its site. 

Sagada, Finally!

My visit to Sagada took two years to happen.


The first time I have heard about this Mountain Province town was two years ago when Ian showed me this website. (He mentioned that his friend Benj is the moderator of the site.) We were so  impressed with the content that we immediately planned to go there.

Finally! I'm in Sagada!

Our original plan was to go there December of 2009, but because of budget and scheduling conflicts, we were unable to go. We decided to postpone it and do the trip the following summer, this time inviting more friends to come along. But none of us were able to go that summer either.


When Cebu Pacific had a piso sale last June, I grabbed the opportunity to book a flight to Manila and spend almost a week there so I could finally go to Sagada. I didn't care if I had a regular job. All I wanted was to go there!


But I succumbed to the corporate world eventually. I told my boss that I have these dates for next year booked already and they cannot be cancelled. (Job, be damned!) So even without any paid vacation leaves, I went ahead with my travel plans.


Last week, I spent my second vacation of the year in Sagada—one of the most exhilarating  experiences I've had in my life.


The trip had a rough start because of missed and delayed flights, angry friends, crazy manila traffic and crazy bus schedules. But, in retrospect, this rough start only added to the wonderful and amazing adventure I had. (More details in a later post.)


What I learned from this experience is to never give up. Get what you want and don't let delays deter you. If you keep persevering, you will ultimately get to your destination. And trust me, it'll be worth it!

Now boarding:

• We took the midnight Victory Liner Pasay bus trip to Baguio.
• We arrived in Baguio past 6 A.M., and caught the 6:30 A.M. bus trip to Sagada. The Victory Liner terminal in Baguio, where we got off, is not far from the Sagada bus terminal. The cab fare was around P35/under $1. 
• There were five to six stops along the way. We arrived in Sagada around 1:30 P.M.

Es Mejor Viajando Que Haber Llegado

"It is better to be traveling than to have arrived."

In Gregorio Brillantes' Looking for Jose Rizal in Madrid, the whole world (particularly South America) looks like whatever province you happen to grow up in. In the author's case, it's Camiling, Tarlac. The deserted highways towards Mexico seem like the ones in Pampanga. The people in Nicaragua are like the people you might bump into when walking around Quezon city. The little hostel you are staying in looks like the house of your favorite aunt, ready to bombard you with an assortment of multicolored rice cakes.

Brillantes regularly throws himself onto out-of-the-way, usually difficult paths in search of... well, I'm not exactly sure what. It's like he thinks of people he wants to interview when he wakes up and goes on to do it. ("I think I'll interview a Sandinista leader today. No, I think I'll impose myself upon the President of the country.") Along the way, because this is travel literature more than political prose, he paints a thorough picture of every locale, every person he meets - from obscure churches to gruffy South American diplomats, rebel hideaways to swiss teachers turned Nicaraguan party girls.

All the while, the author is armed only with some basic grasp of Spanish (filled, as he says, with "falthering phrases in present tense") and press privileges bestowed on him by an obscure publication in Kamuning. (He claims that it's so poorly circulated that he would be surprised if he hears that it's been read outside of the editorial office.)

The author is not without fault, of course. For one thing, he seems utterly incapable of ending a sentence, choosing instead to cram an impossible number of vaguely related fragments in it. To beleaguer the point - you'd think that one thought is over but then a comma pops up out of nowhere to set you straight. (My goodness, man, there is no mass shortage of periods. Use them!)

But then, despite being long-winded, his passion for travel and for discovering different cultures emanates clearly. He loves meeting people. He loves hearing stories. He loves setting himself on his self-imposed adventures. He just loves it. And not just the places themselves. He loves the anticipation before arrival, the financial, cultural, social challenges and complexities of reaching your destination.

It strongly reminds me of my two things. One, my friends, Stef and Ailene, who both love to wander. (I don't know, this book is just so... them.) Two, my own yearning for travel and how I so, so, so miss it. And the feeling of "what-the-heck-am-I-doing-with-my-life-I-should-be-out-there-trying-out-scary-roadside-food-in-Latin-American-countries-and-interviewing-jolly-rebel-priests. (Yaker. The drama.)

 Where was I? Oh, just read the darn thing then.




*Reposted from my old blog, spitefulspit.blogspot.com

Let's Go

Four-hour rickety boat rides to itty-bitty islands. Attempting to surf under the moonlight and failing miserably. Wild videoke nights despite work the next day. Too much information at a random coffee shop.

About four years ago, my friends and I all met while working for the same company in Mactan. We found out soon after that the only way we were going to deal with that mind-numbing reality was to surround ourselves with people we can stand for long periods of time (each other, basically) and to go out (at one two-week stretch, we went out every single night) and travel as much as we can.

Travel is all about the memories, good or bad, the ho-hum and the hilarious. And we’ve collected a lot of that in the rather short time we spent together—impromptu weekend getaways to nearby islands, late night photo shoots and surprise vacations. We built so many experiences, which, now that we’ve all moved on (and, for most of us, moved back to Manila), only get to rehash when we manage to see each other.

Playing cranium and other silly games till the break of dawn. Being wedged at the back of a small yellow car. Trying out Inihaw na Bangus in six hundred different restaurants. Drunk Frisbee games in the middle of the day.

And we realize: this, traveling has become a way for us to relate to each other, the way by which we catch up on each other's lives since we journey separately now. And we don’t want it to stop. We want to keep on going. We want to build more experiences, go on even wilder rides as much as we can.

Ergo: this blog.

Jumping off a small cliff during monsoon season. Balancing five bags and food containers in the rain. Walking around with a broken bathroom pipe for everyone to see. Breaking down in front of a cemetery on Halloween.

Here, you’ll find snippets of trips we’ve had together and individually, and all the other things we’ve come across in and out of the metro—whether it’s a restaurant we’ve enjoyed, a book or film we’ve come across in an out-of-the-way shop in some province or anything else that appeals to the traveler in us. We want to share it with each other, and with everybody else.

Arguing. Laughing. Discovering. Getting lost. Having the time of our lives.

So, come on. Let’s get the heck out of here.