Inhaler

I arrived in Manila with not too much background knowledge of this huge city of cities. It's made up of several cities, the one I'd be staying in; Quezon City. Much of the street namings here have a distinctly Spanish feel. The streets initially remind me of Bangkok; dense cabling twining the way along most streets, bright American shop fronts and some traditional transport modes. Then once on the EDSA (highway), it all seemed a lot more American, giant billboards and double decker roadways.

I finally got the cab driver to my hotel, yep, I had to find it, and was soon reunited with my old mate Jubsy. A few San Miguel's washed down a Big Mac and then we headed to a friend of his leaving party/birthday party on top of the roof of a high rise apartment complex, compete with pool. Around $120 buys you a lechon - or a complete roasted pig. That'll feed 20-30 people, and those 20-30 absolutely demolished this beast.

The evening rapidly descended into merry chaos, just about everyone there got thrown in the pool at some stage, and just about no one can remember what time things got wrapped up. I do stand by what I've always said though, the best way to get over jet lag rapidly, is simply to get drunk upon arrival, and try to sleep it off during the local night time. Job done.

11am we were on the roof of our swanky boutique hotel, having a dip, before meeting the rest of the expats for a well needed breakfast, coffee, and Gatorade. Onwards to Baguio via a 6hr bus journey we venture, it's been a fun intro to the Philippines so far... Incidentally, this has been the first time I've blogged and posted from a bus seat, wifi on the go, I <3 br="" technology.="">
Hotel: cocoon, Quezon City

Mr Writer

I once said I'd keep this blog going forever... And I meant it. Sure there's a few gaps over the last few years, but I'm gonna make sure that all my overseas travel continues to make it here. On that:

Heathrow airport; 19.08, made it. Time to flight: 2hrs 22mins.
One big bag, one little bag full of my favourite things... and that excitement I always have from a long-haul trip. I'm not a airplane hater. I'm quite happy in this day and age losing myself in some (iPad) movies, books, average cuisine and tablet induced sleep... it could be way worse, right?

I'm strangely excited to be staying a night in Bangkok, where I'll literally be around the corner from the airport and near absolutely nothing in terms of everything BKK has to offer. Life has been chugging along at a rate of knots these last few weeks and months, and the idea of one evening with gym, pool & wifi is extremely appealing; I've never seen a 5 day iPhone forecast painted as 5 consecutive lightning bolts though!

But for now, I'll carry on sitting here, bags in hand, wondering what I might see and do after two 6hr flights to Dubai and then Bangkok, and then another 2hr45 from Bangkok to Manila.


The answer, well, not much in Bangkok, I'm shacked up just round the corner from the airport to make tomorrow as easy as possible as I head back there. Pad Thai and Singa for dinner, watching Newcastle play in Europe on Telly; what could be more Thai!?

Beacon

Amsterdam, Easter Weekend

Going into 2013, I realised I'd visited as many countries as I'd had years on Earth, so have since decided that my life's pleasure goal, is to keep that figure growing with my years.  So for country no.34, I decided to check off something relatively close to home, from Southend Airport to Amsterdam, it's a tiny 40minute flight...

An evening spent eating Portugese steak, drinking a bit of Amstel and Heineken was a good way to start. The next morning, sunlight gave some bearings before smashing the pavements for more coffees treats and sightseeing. Canals, Red Light District (an eye-opener that everyone should see once in life) and then of course, another evening finding the elusive Grolsch to complete the trio of Dutch beers. This may have descended into an organised bar crawl... the last text message sent was at about 3.15am... definitely too old for this sh**.

A final day spent in a coffee shop, only a coca-cola of course, and some thick atmosphere, then beers in the central square people watching and telling tales of the night before.

A Final note on the brilliance of Amsterdam airport, we got there a bit early, but managed to kill time with a decent quality burger, some casino exploits... I lost my final 15Euros in some style, roomy, airy, comfy seating - even a museum, this is THE one to get delayed in.