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Impressions And Opinions: The Philippines So Far
We’ve been in the Philippines three weeks now so it’s perhaps a good time to reflect on our early impressions. One thing’s for sure, it’s been a very varied three weeks, with a mammoth city, an active volcano, a town of Spanish heritage and a two-centre excursion into the mountains all forming part of the experience. Sunshine, humidity, cool mountain air, torrential rain. So here’s some impressions after those three weeks… People It will probably sound a little crass to put into print just how lovely everybody has been so far. Filipinos have shown themselves to be extremely kind, ultra friendly and considerate, but, in addition, honest. Not one tuk-tuk,…
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Unwrapping The Philippines, Where Spain Meets The Orient
Our first week in the Philippines has given us an introduction to the customs and culture of the country and, whilst we have been surprised by the huge volume of American food outlets here (never mind the ubiquitous McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC etc, there’s even Denny’s and Dairy Queen), there’s one clash of cultures which is really piquing our interest: the fusion of Spanish and Chinese – or should we say Oriental. Unlikely as it seems, these two wholly disparate cultures are melded together here in ways which are surprising and unmissable. Tagalog, the most widely spoken language of the Philippines, is laced with Spanish words, both written and spoken. “Parar”…
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A Medina For The 21st Century: Notes From Doha
A whole host of playful and inventive architectural minds must have been let loose in Doha and granted the freedom to create the spectacle which the city now is: an astonishing environment where its ultra modern districts sparkle with breathtaking space age buildings which thrill, deceive and impress all in one go. It’s a futuristic skyline which must surely be up there with the most stunning in the world – and there’s more than one such skyline in this city. Astonishing, gigantic, amusing, inspired: everything is here. The area known as West Bay boasts skyscrapers in cylinders, pyramids and twisted shapes of irregular lines. Asymmetric floor levels taunt the eye…
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Kalymnos: Diving For Sponge And The Joy Of Meze
Skevos is clearly pleased to see us or, more accurately, pleased to see someone, anyone, because being a museum curator out of season can be a lonely job. He has a face which carries a natural smile which is completely disarming in its sincerity. His full head of cascading white hair is long enough to sit neatly on the shoulders of his zipper jacket, nestling on the collar in the style of a rock band lead singer still strutting his stuff in the bars of Pothia. But he’s not here to sing, he’s here to tell us about sponge diving. Sponge diving museum He does so in articulate English and…
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Ancient Sites, Canyon Hikes & Deserted Cities: Last Days In Fethiye
Things just keep getting better. The more we explore this section of coastline and its scenery, the more we are in awe of its beauty, it really is a breathtakingly gorgeous area. And, after a slow start with food, we’ve fought our way past the tourist restaurants and found eateries which do complete justice to the Turkish cuisine which we already love. Even the weather is playing ball with clear skies, sun drenched days and seas still warm enough for a dip whenever we fancy it. Things just keep getting better. Our food breakthrough comes when we discover restaurants inside the fish market where not only is the fresh catch…
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Across The Border: From Zambia To Zimbabwe
All we ask Caroline at the lodge for is a taxi to the border. What we get is a driver named Steven who does that bit, but also chaperones us through the slightly confusing Zambian exit system and then drives us over the Victoria Falls Bridge as far as Zimbabwe immigration where he points out a smiling guy in a blue T-shirt. The smiling guy is Kenny, and before we know it we’ve skipped the line, got the obligatory stamps in our passports and been driven to the very door of our next stay. Expert courier service for the price of a taxi. It’s how it is here: service repeatedly…
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Lake Malawi Days
It went on for a bit longer. The very friendly guy who smiled as he told us he’d given our room to someone else, WhatsApps after a couple of days to say that the usurping guests have extended their stay for a night and we still can’t take our original booking. When we do eventually move to Tranquilo after three nights away, it’s immediately obvious that our temporary billet was far superior to the one we’re now at – and given that we had, of course, refused to pay the difference, we’d inadvertently got ourselves a real bargain. Tranquilo has clearly seen better days, and what’s more, the dusty outdoor…
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Last Call In Kenya: Mombasa, Its History And Its Surprises
We start our Monday without a clear idea of how we’ll get back to Mombasa from Diani but we’re pretty confident that it won’t be complicated. As it turns out, it couldn’t be easier: Uber, rumoured to be sketchy in terms of reliability, works fine and there’s a driver just four minutes away, the quoted rate is unbelievably cheap, traffic is light even at the ferry point and we are in our hotel reception in Mombasa at the ridiculously early time of 10:30am. And just when we think serendipity is done for the day, our room is ready, we’re able to check in straight away, and we’re out exploring our…
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Diani Time: Mishaps & Monkey Business
Sometimes you know you’ve just had a stroke of luck. Our apartment in Diani is small but has a lovely outdoor space, in fact the “outdoor lounge” is as big as the interior. Today is boat trip day, Amos the boat trip man (who by the way calls himself Amos The Great) is picking us up at 7:30 so we’re awake early and just getting our stuff together. I’m at one end of the apartment with my back to the door, Michaela is tidying up the bed when I turn around to talk to her and come face to face with, right behind me in the doorway and about to…
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Exploring Santiago: Northwards To Tarrafal
Language is interesting here: the tongue spoken by Cape Verdeans is known as Krioli, but due to the variations between the different versions spoken on each of the islands, there is not really an accepted definitive strain, either written or spoken. It certainly sounds more than a little unfamiliar to us, and even the Portuguese spoken here is uncharacteristically choppy to our ears. Fortunately, a degree of English is understood and, with the majority of the population being of Senegalese descent, French is pretty widespread. I think you could say we’re talking Babel most of the time. Makes a change from Drivel, I suppose. Monday morning we collect our nicely…
