Paradise in Pilipinas, Boracay

From Vietnam we took a flight to Manila, Philippines, where we changed into a smaller plane and travelled to a paradise island called Boracay. As all paradises, it takes a little bit of travelling to get there. You'll have to fly to a nearby island and take a boat from there to Boracay. Along the way you must buy few permits and passes to get to the island. It's all very basic travelling stuff, that'll boost your anticipation towards the paradise.

About the boats in Philippines. Most of them are catamaran-like, made out of bamboo and rope, and every ride in them seems like it's the last.

But hey, at least you have to wear lifejackets. Actually, I bet these boats have a bad track record, because usually you only have to have enough lifejackets on board, not on you.

Now that we've made it to the paradise, what should we do? Many would think, that the right answer is something like diving, but actually it's crazy partying. During the daytime, when most are diving, you can be in your accommodation sleeping and recharging for the nights pub crawl. When the sun sets you can hit the bars and clubs, and pretend you were diving at the daytime.

Here is a nice recharging picture from our apartment. At this particular place, we'd booked a nice multi-level apartment by the beach. It had beds in all levels and separate beds for all of us, but sometimes travelling together just makes you that much closer to each other.

At the beaches of Boracay you can do some pro water activities. Here's an example on how to do some gliding or something in the waterline.

 You can also take the camera swimming and take some promo pics for a chinese travel agency.

It's just bad luck, that you get a tropical disease and suffer from it during an awesome snorkeling trip.

Snokerling trip took us around the island in different spots. No sunken Philippine-boats or Whale Sharks this time, only some regular fish and payment collected by a random boat at the open sea.

In my opinion, in Boracay, Europeans and Asians don't mix that much. Where Europeans like to drink and act stupid, Asians like to giggle and eat noodles. In addition, Boracay has a lot of European tourists, so they usually mix together quite well themselves.

There is a sleepy amusement park  in Boracay, which holds a Go-Karting -track. It's a good way to let off some steam and step on it.

An astonishing picture of the Manila skyline taken while landing. Just missed the downtown skyscrapers though.

Good Morning Vietnam

Chau Doc is a borderline crappy town in the Vietnamese border. Boatride from Phnom Penh ended up in here. From Chau Doc we took a bus to the largest city in Vietnam, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

Saigon is like Bangkok with the difference, that Saigon is a bit reserved against the mass tourism. It's understandable considering, that majority of the tourists are drunken party-animals and/or sex tourists. 

Crossing the street in Saigon is one of the closest things to a suicide. In Saigon they have a special profession invented for escorting western tourists across the motorbike-infested streets. If you can't find any of these street escorters, just close your eyes, walk calmly across the street and forget what you were told as a child to look if there is cars coming before crossing the street. 

 From Saigon we took a half-day tour to the Cu Chi -tunnels, which had several military campaigns during the Vietnam war at the late 60s.

During the Vietnam war US forces used napalm, Agent Orange, small filipinos, snakes, dogs and other naughty stuff to flush Viet Cong militans out of their comfy tunnels and holes. But as you can see, there are still Viet Cong -militants lurking in their holes and making jokes about the Americans. Viet Cong wins.

If you get a chance, meet up with the locals. I bet it's going to be an interesting experience.

 

Finally a decent group foto, that can be posted. Usually it's only drunken rubber faces in every pic.

In Saigon they've numbered every neighbourhood, which I guess when you're asking for directions is a lot a more simple then trying to pronounce local names. We stayed in District 1, which is popular neighbourhood for backpackers.

War Remnants Museum is one of the top attractions in Saigon, and propably one of the best museums in this part of the world. For instance it has a horrific display of deformed children and people in general, that have been exposed to the Agent Orange defoliant. Also some statements about the Vietnam war from other world countries were displayed.

Once in a lifetime chance to get into the same picture with Ho Chi Minh himself. Sadly the cameraman doesn't master the art of focusing.

Holiday In Cambodia

 

From Bangkok we took a bus to the border of Cambodia. At the Cambodian side of the border a certain young man leeched on to us and tried to help us with changing currency, eating, transportation and everything. As you might imagine by now, we took advantage of the guys hospitality and left him hanging without any decent compensation. That's just the way poor backpackers roll.

Ride from the border to Siem Reap took some hours by taxi. This was one of the craziest rides so far, with easily over 50 % of the time spend on the opposite lane or side of the road.

Siem Reap was a major backpacker hub, with lots of fellow westerners to throw high-fives at. One of the top things to do in Siem Reap is to take a fish massage. It's a win-win for you and the fish. Fish get to dine your soft hands and feet, and you get something your girlfriend wouldn't give you.

 There it is, behind the moronic tourists, Angkor Wat. One of the wonders of the world and a UNESCO Word Heritage Site. After fish massage, this temple is the second thing you should experience when travelling to Siem Reap and Cambodia.

There was a crazy mass of people trying to capture the magic of sunrise at the Angkor Wat -temple.

It was as if we were waiting some world-class celebrity to enter the stage. It took a long time for the sun to finally rise.

 

Angkor Wat had some steep steps, but not steep enough to thin the herd of tourists. At the back of the latter picture you can see how many ancient window colums tourists have taken as a souvenir. Our guide had some inside info, that the chinese tourists were behind this unique souvenier idea.

At the temple area we spotted a fellow mammal, an elephant. Some sources say, that there's somewhere between 250-600 wild elephants tooting in the tropical forests of Cambodia. This individual was made to wear silly gape and carry tourists as an au pair -worker.

Harry is showing which fingers he wants to have dismembered as a sacrifice to this ancient temple of gods.

 

A statement from mother nature received. 

 

Staring contest was lost against the ancient god. 

 I feel sorry for our guide, because the poor guy thought he could teach us something about the temple to our ignorant thick heads. What a pity. 

   

We found it, the Pub Street at Siem Reap. A place where all the drunk-a-likes gather in a crowded bar and mingle. This bar had a special deal, where you'd get a free T-shirt for every three buckets of liquor you drink. And everybody has to have a shirt, right?

All day and all night - riding with the Tuktuk. The people in Cambodia and basically in all of the surrounding countries spend most of their lives on top of a tuktuk or a scooter. For every tourist there is at least 10 or more tuktuk's available at all times.

 

After Siem Reap it was again time for some near-death experiences on Cambodian roads. This time we were heading to the capital city, Phnom Penh. I figured out the perfect way to skip Cambodian road madness entirely.

 

They don't have kebab in Cambodia, but they have the next best thing, grasshoppers.

 If you are not that experimental in your snack choices, you can always try the local Kentucky Fried Chicken.

 In the suburbs of Phnom Penh lies a thrilling place called "the Killing Fields". It's one of the places where people were killed and tortured during the Cambodian genocide. Killing Fields is a modest, but terrifying place, where you get a glimpse of the cruelty of human nature. Audio tour of the place helps you to understand better what exactly happened here. 

 One of the top three places to have a power nap is definately a tuktuk.

Boatride from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc, Vietnam, is good for sleeping. Although, the motor of the boat is producing somewhat 80 desibels of noise to your nightmares. The scenery along the river is agrarian and flat, but if you're lucky you might see some waterbuffalos pooping into the river.

 If you can't get sleep, get a beer.

To summarize some thoughts about Cambodia. It's obviously a poor third world country, which thrives from tourism. In practice this means, that there are certain places made for tourists to play with themselves. This means, that you probably don't get to experience the local way of life, because staying at the tourist trail is just way too fun.

X-mas at the Kimchiland

The winner of the X-mas destination lottery was South Korea. It was said to be an easy destination, developed country with no extra hassle and direct flights from Helsinki to Seoul. It's also in the northern hemisphere with cold weather at winter time, so the mental disorientation from Finnish weather wouldn't be too dramatic. The plan was to stay there 9 nights and visit Seoul, a mystery destination and a local ski resort. Mystery destination was later reveiled to be Jeonju, an average sized (600-700,000 citizens) city with a historical Hanok -village as the key attraction. 

Our first accommodation in Seoul was Itaewonland Spa-Hotel. First it seemed like a normal cheap hotel, but soon we discovered it was a home for some type of Korean cult. We noticed it, when we were given mandatory house-pyjamas to wear. They also had sophisticated surveillance system, where guests were enforced to lock their shoes in a locker everytime they entered the facility. Without shoes, there is no chance to escape.

Next to the hotel was a nice alley to do a nightly stroll. The place was called "Hooker Hill" and it had a lot of friendly women with not enough clothes for the winter weather. 

When you go clubbin' in cold countries, you'll see how differently cloakroom can be organized. In this case, it was time to squeeze clothes in a bag. Many times a small locker was also implemented. I prefer the bag, it's funnier and more practical. 

Synchronized pass outs by couples are quite rare in my experience, so we were lucky to witness it in the nightlife of Itaewon.

If I'd have to name one constant, that never changes no matter where you travel, it's a nice cold beer.

You pay approximately 17,500 wons per person to get to the N Seoul Tower’s observation deck and once you’re there you can’t actually take decent pictures without getting the reflection of the glass in every photo. A solution for this is to buy brutally photoshopped picture with totally fictive surroundings. At least there is the N Seoul Tower at the picture.

Korea has a lot of this temple and pagoda stuff all around the country. I guess visiting these buildings is more or less comparable to visiting churches while you're travelling in Finland. Very nice attractions.

One of the best attractions in Seoul was these stones in the middle of this river. Supposed to be romantic or something.  

 

A typical photo of taking a photo of taking a photo. This one in a street in Jeonju's historical Hanok-village.

 Amazing cauliflower plantation in the middle of the winter in Jeonju. Korea having obviously a highly developed society, it's refreshing to see there also some horticultural intelligence as a balancing factor.
 

Eating traditional Bibimpap in an authentic Korean restaurant in Jeonju. Bibimpap is a revolutionary Korean invention, that ravishes the laws of thermodynamics. Instead of the food the plate is warmed up to over +100 C.

 

One of the most time consuming tasks in travelling is map reading. Especially in a country like Korea, were navigating tends to be rather hard. Here is a pic as an example on how to do it properly.

 

In South Korea you’ll witness some top class infrastructural achievements. This magnificent concrete masterpiece was on the way from Jeonju to Muju in central part of the country.

We spent X-mas eve at Muju Ski Resort. There we witnessed one the most absurd X-mas eve celebrations ever. Apparently Korean X-mas traditions include a short K-Pop performance and a neverending rock-paper-scissor –contest.

Hotel Tirol was the luxorious jewel of Muju Ski Resort. It had the most expensive cars in the parking lot and the best service. Still the staff spoke english only few words. Actually, the most of Korean people can't speak, but only giggle and get confused in english. 

 

Muju Ski Resort is Korea's largest ski resort with over 10 slopes and one of them over 6 km long. The top of the resort lies in over 1,500 meters above see level. 

 

Sign says it all, and more. This jibber-jabber was spotted back in Seoul.

 

Few words about Korean cuisine. It’s not for the faint hearted. I don’t know if it was our luck or what, but Korean kitchen really left a mark. First of all, Kimchi, a rotten cabbage in a hot sauce, is basically the main ingredient in every meal. It’s designed for alienating people from vegetarianism. Second of all, pork with rice in a chili-inferno, is an innocent looking dish, but when you put it in your mouth it ignites and turns you into a drooling burn victim.

The only reason we visited Seoul's Gangnam neighbourhood was to get a picture in front of a Gangnam Style -sign. Check!

Sanitation is a serious issue in Korea. An example of this is a high-tech control panel next to the toilet seat. Common sight in Korea (and Japan as well) and surely a necessity for a lot of people.

There are basically two types of people travelling in Seoul's subway lines: hardcore mobile gamers and people with narcolepsy.

I present this urban photography excellence to remind my readers, that Seoul is a huge metropol with over 10 million people. This means, that everywhere you go, you'll face an army of Asian people marching in an orderly fashion. When navigating in Seoul forget about city maps, you'll never find big enough map for the whole city to fit in it. The most important map you need is the subway map and if you loose the sight of the nearest subway station while strolling in the city, you're in trouble. Almost none speak english, street signage is too difficult to comprehend and every little street looks the same. Good luck!  

The last attraction of the trip was respectively the Lotte World. It's said to be the largest indoor amusement park in the world. I don't know about that, but it certainly was one of the most deranged amusement parks in the world.

Accommodation was problematic due to few discomforting reasons. One of them was excessive floor heating, which in some cases was fixed in an unhumane temperature. Other reason was, that you’d have to sleep in the heated floor. Third reason was, that you’d have no blanket, because the blanket had to be placed under you as a mattress.

I took this picture to show to my readers, that our X-mas journey wasn't all just about fun and games. The picture is a symbolic reminder, how the rest of the world backs Korean people up to peacefully reunify the two Korean nations.