First trip out of Manila - Boracay Island

Our first sortie over a (slightly) prolonged weekend at the beginning of August was to the Island of Boracay. Boracay is one the most well known destinations for tourism in the Philippines. It is a small island off the northern tip of Panay island.

The main strip, as it were, is white beach which occupies two thirds of the south-western side of the island.

We were booked on a flight via Air Phil Express to Caticlan airport which is just across the Water on Panay island. We had specifically paid more to go this airport rather than to Kalibo which is a 2 hour car ride way from the the ferry to Boracay.

As it happened we were informed that due to weather conditions we  were transferred to a flight to the more distant Kalibo. On top of this the flight was delayed from boarding for about an hour, and when we boarded we waited for a long time before our flight was authorized to take off. This prompted us to rename the airline Air Phil Distress.

The flight itself was quite brief And upon landing in Kalibo we were loaded up Into a number of Minivans for the trek to Caticlan and the ferry over to Boracay.

Bangka

We arrived at the port of Caticlan as night was falling and rain , which had begun earlier, was really coming down now. We were huddled in large crow of people waiting to board the frequent Ferries - trimaran outrigger Banka motor boats each seating about 30 people - and being gently herded closer to edge of the roof protecting us in anticipation of what turned out to be a hundred meter dash in the rain in the semi-darkness to the pier itself. The sea was a bit choppy , so going up the steep gangplank with a hand rail only on one side was a bit precarious.

The ferry ride over, in the pitch black night, lasted about twenty minutes, and after a no less precarious dis-embarkation we were on the island. We were shuttled to the midd le of the island on the only main road, and there had to disembark and walk the rest of the way to our hotel as the White beach part of the "town" is all pedestrian. We were assisted in this by Island Express who had taken us in charge already before Bording the Ferry. They , by and large were allowed to keep the "Express" in their name as they were quite efficient.

All in all we arrived at our hotel aroun 8:30 pm, a good four to five hours later than imagined.

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Out hotel - the "Mango Ray" turned out be just what we wanted. It had only eight rooms and the staff were delightful. The management as it happened was Swiss (surprise). Th hotel was situated on White beach about 15 meters back from the sea as were most of the other hotels on the island. I fyou glance up at the map at the beginining of this post, you can see the white beach covering two thirds of the length of one side of the island. Imagine, if you can that every 10 or 20 metres along the whole length of the beach are back to back hotels or restaurants with the occasional alley into the island, and you will get a feel for the density of of the place.

A perfect place for being comfortable with an intimate atmosphere. You can forget that outside the the door herds of Chinese, Japanese and Korean (and a few Filipino and Western) tourists are walking around along the seaside as crowded as a central underground station at 7am going to work ... but from 9am to 2am ...

The yard, in part covered only, is at once a café, a restaurant, a bar and an art gallery, with nice tropical plants. At the bar, a nice woman ensures that you have the drinks you wish; snakes make sure boring people do not come to bother you; other men and animals enrich your breakfast or dinner. The yard is also the insurance that from your room behind it, you enjoy a peaceful time, without hearing all the various music and "people's fiestas" coming from the many bars and restaurants outside the hotel.
It is a real dream.
 

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White Beach

We were fairly fortunate, considering the season, to have relatively good weather, with only the occasional discreet shower. It should be said that the White Beach is facing south-west, straight into the Monsoon, and so the waves were incessantly batterong the beach. In the dry season the beach is apparently mirror smooth.

We were able to stand in the water and watch the waves coming in and occasionally unbalancing us. Sophie was particularly fond of standing in the water for hours and defying the waves. I was little more wary as we had been told to be careful and I could feel the powerful undertow as the water pulled back out after breaking on the beach. I would occasionally ask Sophie stay a bit closer to the shore to make me feel a bit more relaxed.

Defying the waves- oil on paper - 40 x 30 cm

We were there for three nights, and we divided our time between the waves, walking around the "town" and finding places for apéro and dinner. Not far from our hotel were a small labyrinth of streets (pedestrian) called The Mall. In Fact filled with restaurants and shops (a surprising number selling flip-flops). I was finally equipped with my own pair of rainproof flip flops. On the Sunday, The day before leaving we treated ourselves to a traditional Filipino Massage.

On the Monday morning, our day of departure, we were collected by the trusty Island Express people, and the return journey went perfectly. We flew from Caticlan, the closest air port, and were even given seats on an earlier flight than our reservation, and were back in our apartment in Makati for midday.

Some sketches of life in Manila

Leather sandals?

Filipina  women take great care of their look. The members of Soph's team are all very elegant. Their make-up is always perfect, colour matching their clothes: green one day, pink the next day and violet another. The same for their earrings. Not that different from some groups in other countries you will say.  But ... shoes .... elegant shoes are available everywhere here : nice sandals, with glitter, semi-precious stone decorations, a lot of high heels ... however, you seldom meet people on the street or at the office with these shoes: in 10 minutes the rain can transform them into unusable pieces of leather ....

Therefore, the national shoes are .... flip flops, plastic and rubber shoes for men and women. But elegant flip flops! You cannot imagine how wide the offer is, also with heels, glitter, semi-precious stones, etc.... and there are many specialized shops that sell only these shoes, on top of which department stores offer hundreds of different models! Soph too has already became an addict!

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Brands

In our countries, young people love brands, for jeans, smart phones, games, etc. Snobbery is often associated with adults exhibiting polo-shirts with a crocodile logo and other clothes with "discrete" symbols which are nevertheless recognized by all.

Here in the Philippines, everything is organized by brands! ... At the office, for any and every item, of whatever sort, simple or sophisticated, people talk about brands: this one is better; this one awful; that one  expensive and of bad quality or the one everybody has/must have ... be it a notebook, a pizza or a tee-shirt...

In all areas of Manila, in department stores and others shops, staff and displays are organized by brand and, nobody could confirm this to me, but I would not be surprised if at least part of the salary of each employee was not based on his/her turnover for a given brand. Therefore you do not go for soap, a saucepan or glasses, you need first to go for a brand, possibly look at several brands to make your choice, without ever being quite sure if you have seen every variety  of cutlery, plates, or orange juice, olive oil .... Question of habit you will say ... maybe, but believe me, you get the impression of always being kidnapped by one brand and it takes time... especially if you do not know the brand you need/want, or do not care, and just want for example 2 or 3 white panties ... they will send you to the most expensive brand (... expats = money ...), from there to the one with the next lowest prestige, etc. ... and each time you speak to another vendor in charge of the brand, explain what you are looking for, and the vendor wants to convince you that what he/she proposes is what you need, must have, the only existing one, which will match what you are looking for ... even if the material, the color, is not the one you asked for, the price totally exaggerated, even sometimes by Swiss standards, etc .... But one gets used to it!

The story so Far (3) - Moving in

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Jeepney "Gift of God"

 Over the next days, while still staying at the hotel, we did some exploration mostly local. The traffic can be impressive at first sight. Pedestrians do not have priority , de facto, even though this is theoretically the case, therefore crossing streets is done with some care. On the main roads jeepneys are everywhere, being the most common form of public transport, together with taxi's. Each jeepney, some shiny and new, some less so, is decorated and baptised, with names such as Gift of God, Makati Star... and so on.




We discovered some of the bars and restaurants in the neighbourhood (Salcedo Village). While at the hotel, Alexa's Deli and Wine Bar became our regular apéro spot. They have a Chilean house wine that is quite acceptable.

Alexa's Deli

We ate at the Indian restaurant , The New Bombay, across from the Hotel that Soph and Natalie had tried when they came for the recruitment of the team in January, and it is one of the better Indian restaurants I have eaten in. It seems authentic, at least to my European soul, with simple decor and excellent food. Soph's colleague of Indian origin say's that it is "quite acceptable".

We also discovered the "Mall Attitude" prevalent here. At least in Makati, about 95% of shops (including supermarkets) are concentrated in gigantic malls. One can walk for kilometres in the cool air conditioning without going outside. Our closest complex was the Greenbelt malls which are connected to the Landmark Department store the Glorietta Malls and the SM department store. All that spread over about a kilometre.

These malls, apart from the practical aspects, are a weekend outing destination for people and their families. They offer the occasion to chill out while (window) shopping  - by far not everybody has air con at home - taking a coffee and pastry and in the evenings going to eat and drink in the numerous restaurants also in these malls.

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Some days later about two weeks into our stay at the Hotel, Soph asked me to visit an apartment with Lourdes, the dynamic administrator of the Service Centre, as she was not available herself , she delegated her full confidence to me to decide if the condo was ok for us. It was further up Dela Costa street in a highrise Condominium on the 26th floor. I decided fairly fast that it would do us fine. Being high up it was fairly well exposed to the light, which can be a problem in Makati if you live on the lower floors, adjacent highrises block out the light of day. Sophie was not disappointed when she saw it (phew!)

The deal was sealed fairly quickly and we were able to move in the following week.

The condominium was furnished and on the day of the inventory prior to moving in we selected things that we did not need and that the owner would remove. Basically we kept the furniture and two bedside lamps and asked for the cutlery kitchenware lamps paintings flower arrangements etc. to be removed. We would replace them with our own choices.

It is a two bedroom flat with two bathrooms and a kitchen/dining/living area with a small terrace. The pictures and paintings/drawings show some aspects after we had put our mark on it.

We still had to get cable TV and internet with fixed line phone installed and these were installed in due course after a delay that is not unusal here.

We bought lamps, including two Japanese style paper stand lamps, we bought cutlery, we bought bed and bathroom linen. We bought orchids and plants for the terrace - We bought a whole bunch of stuff to try and feel at ease here. And surprisingly we quite soon felt at home.

The view from the terrace it quite impressive, and at night even takes on a kind of beauty.

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The Story So Far (2) - The first days

So we left you, in the last post, as we retired to our hotel for our first night in the Philippines.

We had been informed that ,contrary to what we expected, the apartment that was proposed for us was not in good condition. When we left, we expected to be in our own place 2 days later, but now we were booked for a week in the hotel, with apartment (called condominiums here) visits in the next few days.

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Hotel room with a view

We settled in to the hotel which is a serviced apartment hotel with two rooms, a tiny kitchen alcove and the very bare necessities of kitchenware. Our room was on the 22nd floor and the hotel was in walking distance to Soph's Office.

As the days went by we got used to the ever present cheerful "Morning Maam/Sir!"s of the hotel personnel or even just "Maam/Sir!"

We slept well despite the jet lag, and on the Monday morning rose early and I accompanied Soph to her office on the 32nd floor of one of the tallest highrises in Makati just around the corner from our hotel.

The task of the day was setting up the office space for the team which would arrive for work a few days later.

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What had to be done was set up the computer profiles for each computer, distribute office essentials - pens paper and such - each place would receive copies of previous editions of the publications (sent by Soph) to which they were going to contribute. A small IHL and Red Cross reference library was also compiled.

With litle surprise the computer environment was not extremely functional and necessitated many operations and dialogues with the IT contact in Geneva. Of course the contacts could only occur in the afternoons because of the time difference. Pete's role was limited to moral support and distributing equipment and publications to each desk, the rest was managed by Soph with assistance from the Centre staff.

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In the next few days we visited some apartments and eventually approved one of them. For many days we thought it was a done thing, but differences between the owner and ICRC concerning the contract were not able to be resolved despite more than a week of  back and forth negotiation.

At one point we were so sure that we would be moving in, that we subscribed for a year to the gym club of the nearby Mandarin Hotel. This included access to the hotel swimming pool and discounts in the hotel restaurants and spa. Cycling in Manila is a perilous activity and the gym was to compensate for the exercise we were accustomed to in Geneva where we essentially moved around by bicycle.

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When Soph's team arrived on the Friday of the first week, a delightful welcome ceremony followed by drinks and snacks had been organized by the Shared Service Centre - With welcome banner and ribbon cutting and speeches! An example of Filipino hospitality and team spirit.

 The next week we were invited by some of Soph's team to a what was termed a "secret" Chinese restaurant. It was a place with no outer markings or indication that a restaurant inside, a place that you had to know about to find. They insisted on offering us the meal - again, Filipino hospitality.
The place was very simply furnished, but the food was excellent. Many of us washed it down with Qing Dao Chinese beer.




Stay tuned...
 

The Story so Far (1) - Getting there

So we left Carouge on the 26th of May. We had a last drink of wine at the Carouge Market, where some of you were able to join us, on the morning of our flight out.

As we were finishing our wine, Joelle offered to take us to the airport and drink a glass of champagne with us after checking our bags. We accepted with great pleasure and so it was done.

We took off at 19:30 and had 18 hours of travel on the way out - two changes in Frankfurt and Bangkok. We had no time to spend our money during the changes as things were fairly close considering the distances needed to walk, the inevitable security checks each time and in one case the late arrival of a flight.

We arrived at 19: something, local time, at Manila airport - 24 subjective hours after we left. With the almost physical blow of tropical air that most of you will be familiar with.

Pete decided not to buy some favorite single malts at the duty free in Geneva, arguing that with two stopovers it was foolish to carry them all the way. Something he was to regret later.

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 We were, to our delight, kindly met in the baggage collection area by Nick, head of the Manila Shared Service Centre, where Soph was going to be setting up her team. He guided us smoothly through the arrival process and got us loaded up in the appropriate type of taxi to house our copious luggage. We agreed to meet a a short time later in the lobby of our hotel. And so we set out along the Skyway to our destination in the city night that had just fallen.

Going for a drink with Nick after meeting in the Lobby we selected a bar close by and on entering we were greeted by loud Sunday evening Karaoke which incited us to go to the first floor to able to talk, where, however, the music was scarcely quieter. We ordered two whiskies (with ice)  and a bottle of wine which turned up at room temperature ( about 26°c degrees) and asked if they had anything cooler. The response was to bring an ice bucket in which the wine was placed with little effect.

We also ordered a few snacks ( the theme of the bar was New Orleans ) and sat around chatting, drinking and eating for an hour or so and then bid good night to Nick and repaired to our hotel... but that is the beginning of the next post.

Internet Arrives with the Monsoons

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Finally, Internet (and fixed phone) has arrived in our new home in Makati. We now no longer have an excuse not to start our blog.


For the cruciverbistes among you there is a little anagram in the title of the blog. No prizes for getting this one.

We created this Blog to keep our friends and family up to date on our year in the Phillipines.


There will be a few posts to catch up on what has happened since we left Carouge on the 26th of May and then we will try to post regularly as things occur. 

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