Singapore, T minus 4 days

SIN-AMS-LIM-UIO-GYE-LIM-AMS-SIN

Gonna be out for 2 weeks, mostly for work in LIM but with a (very) short leisure trip to UIO and GYE. It's been a while since I had one of these long, multi-city trips and I have to say I'm pretty excited. But I'm gonna miss my Dear and the Boy too-- this will be the longest I'll be away from them, not counting the time I moved to Singapore and they were still in Manila. Even then I'd see them every 2 or 3 weeks.

Need to brush up on my Spanish.

Singapore, T minus 1.5 hours

SIN-FRA-MUC-BCN-FRA-SIN

Going on a holiday. It's the Boy's first long-haul trip, so let's see how this goes.

Gonna pig out on, um, pig when we're there. Jamon and chorizo, here I come (got my eyes on you too, Wurst).

Check

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1. Australia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Brunei Darussalam 
4. Cambodia
5. People's Republic of China
6. Hong Kong, China
7. Macau SAR, China
8. Chile
9. Cyprus
10. Czech Republic
11. Ecuador
12. France
13. Germany
14. Indonesia
15. Iran
16. Italy
17. Japan
18. Kazakhstan
19. Republic of Korea
20. Kyrgyz Republic
21. Lao PDR
22. Malaysia
23. Myanmar
24. The Netherlands
25. New Zealand 
26. Papua New Guinea
27. Peru
28. The Philippines
29. Portugal
30. Qatar
31. Russia
32. Singapore
33. Spain
34. Sri Lanka
35. Taiwan
36. Tajikistan
37. Thailand
38. Turkey
39. United Arab Emirates
40. United Kingdom
41. United States of America
42. Viet Nam

Manila, T minus 50 days

Tendered my resignation from the Bank today. The reality of the situation hasn't sunk in yet. It will sink in in the next few days as the employment termination paperwork come in. And when goodbyes will be said.

The whole thing is kinda bittersweet. I've always been bitching about leaving the Bank, and for the most part I am quite looking forward to a new start. I've become too comfortable and complacent there. And, well, a bunch of other issues better not breathed into the interwebs. But I'm also leaving behind friends and security, which have helped me reach where I am now. There are a lot of things I will miss about the Bank. And a lot of things I won't.

See you in 50 days, Singapore.

Pictures from Phnom Penh

Khmer river fish amok

Independence Monument

Royal Palace

Street scene

ADB resident mission

Didn't catch the name of this one

As stated

Russian market

Manila, T minus 2 hours

Back at the SQ lounge in NAIA Terminal 1, about 3 months after my last trip. This time I'm on my way to Phnom Penh. Quite looking forward to seeing a new country, although not sure how much of Cambodia I'll see since the purpose of the trip is a workshop and a few meetings. Oh well, will try to make the most of the trip.

Breakfast at SQ lounge is, again, plain rice, steamed hotdogs (the red kind), and fried egg. Dessert is a few pineapple slices. Nespresso coffee on the side. Food in the SQ lounge in Changi will be much better.

Layover at Changi will be about 3 hours. Enough time to scoot over to the Terminal 1 Cold Storage and get my Dear some of the Indian chips she likes so much (forgot what they're called). Maybe get some animal pasta for the Boy and a few dates for myself as well. Medjool or Deglet Nour?

Manila, T minus 2.5 hours

At the SQ airport lounge in NAIA Terminal 1. Going to Singapore onwards to Yangon and Myanmar's middle-of-nowhere capital Nay Pyi Taw. Meeting my Dear in Singapore on the way back to Manila one week from now.

Breakfast is hotdog, egg, and plain rice. Plus coffee and a fruit cup. Food in the SQ lounge in SIN is definitely much better. But pretty sure the Boy will be happy with my breakfast today.

Trip is a workshop, not my usual (and more fun) survey field work. Hopefully I'll get to see some of Myanmar outside the hotel. Will be sure to see a lot of rice paddies on the land trip to Nay Pyi Taw though.

Update: Singapore, T minus 1 hour

Yes, the food is much, much better at the SQ lounge in Changi.

Sweet port wine on the way here. I miss having a swig of port after a nice meal.

Vientiane, Day 1

Currency: Lao PDR Kip (LAK)
USD 1 = LAK 8,450; LAK 1 = PHP 0.0055

Didn't really have much chance to do any exploring as the whole day was just too crazy and hectic. The main places I've visited so far are the Lao Plaza Hotel, the Bank's Resident Mission, and the Ministry of Health compound. A few off-the-cuff observations:

1. Vientiane is a small city that feels like one of the smaller provincial capitals in the Philippines. The tallest building is the Lao Plaza Hotel where I'm staying, standing at a sky-scraping seven storeys. It's very clean and has a quaint smell of incense in the background, probably due to all the Buddhist temples dotting the city. It's also quite common to see saffron-clad monks walking around the sidewalks. Speaking of which, the city is very walkable-- everything is walking distance, the streets are relatively safe, and the city is well lit during evenings. I also don't see any beggars or street children loitering the streets, although I did see one (only one) taong grasa walking around.

2. There are many, many Western tourists in Vientiane, so many that it takes hours to get through the visa-on-arrival section at the airport. Most of the foreigners are undoubtedly on vacation as I am one of the very few non-Laos who is wearing a suit and tie in this swelteringly humid weather. The tourists are probably here because Laos can still be considered "exotic"; i.e., not so Westernised like, say, Bangkok or Manila.

3. Laotian people are very friendly. They are always smiling and accommodating. On the down side, they are so, um, relaxed when it comes to time. Filipino time is very punctual in comparison. Everyone operates in a very laid-back mode-- great when you're on vacation, not so great when you're organising a technical workshop.

4. I've had two non-hotel restaurants in Vientiane, both of them in the more posh restaurants:

4.a. Rashim's Indian Fusion, right in front of the hotel, serves the shrimpiest shrimp curry and the greenest palak paneer I've ever had-- no ingredient was scrimped. I paid LAK 70,000 for the meal-- not bad, considering the amount and quality of the dishes I was served.

4.b. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but it's a French restaurant that serves Thai and Laotian cuisine as well. I tried some local food: some chicken larb (cooked version) with sticky rice. The larb is basically minced meat sauteed with pepper, basil, and I think fish sauce served with lettuce and sliced cucumbers. The sticky rice is, well, sticky rice steamed (not boiled) and served in a bamboo basket. Although the rice is very glutinous (really a misnomer since rice does not contain gluten), it does not tend to stick to your fingers or the bamboo basket. I paid LAK 58,000 for the meal.

5. The French influence is strong in the architecture and cuisine. Buildings are a fusion of French and Laotian and street names, when written in Latin script, begin with rue. I also see a lot of street stalls that sell what look like Laotian fare served with baguettes. Hopefully I'll get to try one of these less posh Laotian food places before I leave (which is tomorrow evening).

Bangkok, T minus 30 minutes

This'll be a short post.

Two words set apart the TG lounge in BKK: free massage. They offer free Thai-style foot or neck/shoulder massages to their business class passengers. I got the neck/shoulder massage since I just got a foot massage last week.

On to Vientiane.

Manila, T minus 14 hours

Going to Laos tomorrow (well, later today since it's already midnight), returning home on Wednesday. I'm taking the MNL-BKK-VTE-BKK-MNL route flying on TG.

Usually I'd be pretty excited to go on travel by this time, especially considering I'm going somewhere not on the usual tourist path. But I'm not. Not really looking forward to being away from my Dear and Lucas. And I'm not particularly happy that this business trip will eat into our weekend, which is always too short as it is.

I'm also travelling with the boss, which should be enough to explain my lack of enthusiasm for this particular trip.

Well, at least the food promises to be good.

Singapore, T minus 1.5 hours: An SQ Birthday Party

Had a good chat with my friend dr.sbdink over lunch then back to the SQ lounge in Changi and took a much-needed shower since my last one was in Almaty. I correct my earlier post: shower rooms in the SQ lounge are also the room type that you can lock-- very important if you have valuables in your carry-on luggage-- although there is no toilet in the room. So on that small detail, and the Noodle Bar, the CX lounge in HKIA still trumps the SQ lounge. But just by a hair.

Just a few hours til I'm back home, Dear.

---

I spent much of my birthday on the plane, boarding in Almaty at 3am, spending five hours in Istanbul, one hour in Dubai, then by the time I landed in Singapore it's already 7am the next day. So I told this to one of the flight attendants in SQ when I boarded SQ491 in Istanbul, hoping maybe for some extra dessert. Well, they exceeded my expectations by a mile. First they gave me a small SQ teddy bear with my meal. It was a very nice gesture, which already made my day.

Around an hour after the meal service, the flight attendants (plus one passenger who got tagged along) went by my seat with champagne, a makeshift birthday card, and a well-drenched rhum cake and sang me happy birthday. They really put in some effort to make the card and decorate the plate for the cake, and were even apologetic about the outcome.

Of course I would have preferred to spend my birthday at home-- it would have been my first birthday after our marriage-- and was quite bummed by the whole situation of being away. I guess the crew at SQ419 picked up on this and tried to make my birthday that much more special and memorable. And they were very successful indeed.

To the Crew of SQ491 on 11 August 2009: thank you very much. It was truly sweet and thoughtful of you. You're the BEST!

Istanbul, T minus 2.5 hours

Well, I made it here. There was no hassle whatsoever in Almaty; in fact, they were pretty nice and professional. The airport wasn't so bad too, although there was no lounge for us travelling on TK. From what I saw, I don't get why ALA has such a reputation. But then again it did happen to a colleague at the Bank. Oh well.

On my way to SIN then home to MNL. Will probably have lunch with dr.sbdink in SIN then back to the airport for the flight home.

I can't wait to be back home with my Dear again.

Almaty, T minus 9 hours

I'm leaving Almaty in the wee hours of tomorrow morning, which happens to be my birthday. It's been an exhausting trip through remote areas of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, but it was a success and finally over. In a way I consider myself lucky-- I've visited places on the Silk Road that would otherwise have been out of my reach.

So far Almaty has been a nice experience-- nice mix of modern and Soviet architecture, relatively safe to walk around even at night, and a gourmet supermarket just a three-minute walk from where I'm staying. The weather has also been nice and warm, although every afternoon there are gale-force winds that are strong enough to unbalance me. Unfortunately, Almaty International Airport has a bad reputation of having officers who intimidate foreigners into giving bribes. I actually heard from the resident mission here that a staffer from Manila recently had to pay $100 in bribes at the airport. I really hope that doesn't happen to me.

Next update in Istanbul. Hopefully.

Almaty, Day 2

Currency: Kazakhstan Tengge (KZT)
USD 1 = KZT 150; KZT 1 = PHP 0.32

Arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan, last night after a long day on the road. Kazakhstan is flat as Kyrgyzstan is mountainous. Will post landscape pics (of both countries) soon. See the pictures of Almaty here.

I'm staying at the Alma-Ata Hotel-- Alma-Ata was how the Soviets called Almaty. Built in 1967, the hotel has a fascinatingly Soviet feel to it from the architecture down to the furniture. At KZT 20,000/night, it's one of the cheaper hotels in Almaty, but I like it. I can almost imagine Soviet spies cooking up conspiracies in one of the rooms.

Almaty is basically a much richer version of Bishkek. Immediately you see the same Soviet-style buildings and layout, but beside these are Western boutiques, five-star hotels, and high-end stores. There are also a lot more high-rise buildings and construction, a building spurt due to Kazakhstan's oil wealth.

Almaty has a more varied collection of cuisines than Bishkek, mostly catering to European rather than Asian tastes despite the proximity to China. There is even a a high-end supermarket near my hotel-- the Stolichniy Supermarket-- which is most comparable to Mollie Stone's in the Bay Area (Rustan's Fresh would be the closest in Metro Manila).

It's definitely more expensive in Almaty that in Bishkek. I've so far had three restaurant meals in Almaty and the average price I've paid was KZT 1,500 per meal. Cheaper meals like some plov and meat can be had in Almaty for around KZT 500-- not really cheap but cheap enough.

I'm staying in Almaty until Monday, so I have yet to earnestly tour the city. But from what I've seen, I have to say... I LIKE! (Sorry, just had to put that in somewhere.)

Naryn Oblast, Days 1 and 2

Back in Bishkek now but we spent the last two days in Naryn Oblast, visiting everything from the centre to the southeast of Kyrgyzstan near the border with China. Among other places whose names I can barely remember, we visited Kochkor and At Bashy, slept in Naryn (below is the town centre monument), and made a detour to Tash Rabat, which was the the highlight of our trip.

It was a very exhausting trip, being on the road for almost 8 hours in a day. We stayed at a guesthouse that had no heating or hot water; the evening weather, by the way, was a crisp 9 degrees Celsius and constantly raining with intermittent hail. That said, and now that we're back in civilisation, it was a good experience, probably closest to Ian Wright-esque travel that I'll get.

The BBC put it mildly when it said that Kyrgyzstan is a country of "striking beauty and towering peaks". The better to describe the landscape are stunning and breathtaking. It's almost an entire country full of possible wallpaper shots. Speaking of which, here's my current wallpaper (taken at Tash Rabat):

I took a lot of pictures during this trip (using my Dear's camera, of course). Will post pics when I get the time. Have to sleep now, going to Almaty, Kazakhstan, tomorrow at 5am (that's six hours from now).

Bishkek: Sights and Landmarks

No captions. Yet. Soon. I hope. Here.

Istanbul, T minus 1.5 hours

Spent the last 7 hours in IST doing work in the airport. Stayed the whole time in the TK lounge n Ataturk. So here I am in one of he most awe-inspiring cities in the world, I have a valid Turkish visa that set me back P3,150, and I'm stuck in the airport.

Well, at least I'll be boarding in an hour. Here are a few pics.

Dubai, T minus 30 minutes

Just a quick post-- in DXB now for a brief stopover on the way to IST.

Lots of Filipino workers here in the airport-- one was even kind enough to let me ride the airport trolley.

Singapore, T minus 2.5 hours

At the SQ lounge (officially the Silver Kris Lounge) in Changi Airport. It's official-- the CX lounge in HKIA is the BEST. The SQ lounge is not bad, for sure, but the CX lounge trumps it in two important ways. One, the CX lounge has hotel-like private bath/shower rooms, while the SQ lounge is more like an upscale gym shower room. Two, freshly made food is available at the CX lounge (in the Noodle Bar), while food in SQ is the buffet type.

That said, the food in the SQ lounge is very good-- very nice selection of Singaporean dishes plus the all-important steamed rice (most lounge fare are just finger food, hardly satisfying).

I have about two hours before my flight to IST-- a 13-hour flight with a brief stopover in DXB.

A few pics:

Changi Airport Duty Free Area-- the gate for my flight to IST is E28

Silver Kris Lounge

supper in Singapore

Til the next post.

Manila, T minus 1.5 hours

At the SQ lounge in NAIA now, waiting for my MNL-SIN flight. Eating some fish fingers and siopao while sipping tea. Had a dizzying cab ride to the airport and my rhinitis is very much annoying me right now. Plus I have a paper which I have to submit within the weekend, so I'll be working on the plane and into IST-- I'll probably have to spend my 10-hour layover in the TK airport lounge to finish the paper.

And it's only the beginning of what promises to be a stressful trip.

---

I miss you so much, Dear. Take care over here. Can't wait to see and hug you (both) again.