Travels in January: The Philippines

A lot of my travels for work seem like they are to quite a few vacation destinations. Admittedly, I do my fair share of tourism and exploration in these places where I am working, but a lot of it is some pretty intense work.

So when I say I am going on vacation for two weeks, it seems like it more of the same frome me, some pictures from some places and some experiences, but it is a bit different. I get to do some full time tourism and do some things for more that just a couple hours in the evening after work.

When I flew back from two weeks of work in Bangkok, girlfriend Kristina had just arrived from St. Louis and we managed to meet the the sprawling Hong Kong airport. We spent the next few days around HK, doing a few tourist things including the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastary, hit up an obscene amount of shopping malls and fun spots.

After this, we went to Macao and secured a suite at the Venetian for two nights. We briefly partook in what the casinos had to offer, but mostly checked out the sites around Macao and enjoyed some fine Portuguese/Asian cuisine.

From there is was back to Hong Kong and a flight to Manila, Philippines the next day. We arrived in Manila then commandeered a taxi to take us through the traffic to central Manila and a cheap hotel. We explored the surronding areas, including Manila Park and the Dr. Jose Rizal memorial and historic Intramuros. Before getting an amazing dinner at local favorite Aristocrat, we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset over Manila Bay.

The next day, it was off to the nearby island of Mindoro and where we stayed on Small Lalaguna beach off Sabang in Puerto Galera. The next four days, I did four scuba dives with Asia Divers which included my first wreck dives in the amazingly clear waters nearby. Kristina occupied her time with a couple dives herself along with some shopping and beach time. I also joined the Puerto Galera Hash House Harriers for a nice jaunt through the surrounding hills and a drink or two with the local pack. (Click on this to view all the photos. I've added more desciptions in the photos themselves.)

We also explored the surrounding beaches with a chartered boat, a chartered tricycle (motorcycle + sidecar) that took us to Tamaraw Falls, along with a couple Jeepney rides.

On the last day, we took the two hour longboat ride back to Batangas and then the two hour bus ride back into Manila for our evening flight back to HK.

We wrapped up vacation with more shopping, tourist stuff along with some visits to some of my favorite places around HK. Finally, Kristina was off and I was back to work (briefly) before the Chinese New Year holidays and an impending return to the US.

Expect a Hong Kong/Asia wrap up in the near future.