Live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me

So I'm on the road again. Dubai was nice (yeah I'm gonna be back there quite soon), especially last days when I did indoor sky diving, met my Dubai friends and was getting ready to go to Philippines.

Sky diving outfit

Cedric was doing quite well on his own. But he did that before.

Skydiving tube. BTW look at the hair pulled out of the helmet by the wind.

I required some help from the staff, but after the first run I was doing not bad too. I even flew 8m high.

On Thursday, after busy day in the office I got to the airport with a colleague cause I was trying to send my bag with him to Warsaw, but it was not possible (Austrian charges 30e/kg). So I wanted to try cargo (forget it) but in the end I gave up. I decided to take my big luggage with me to Manila and store it somewhere.
I dropped my luggage and went to Warehouse in Le Royal Meridien to meet some friends to say goodbye. My flight was at 3.45 a.m. so I had some time to kill as it was 11.30 p.m..
After I went back to the airport I got really surprised how busy it was at 2 in the morning. Whole terminal was full of people. Although there were no queues and surprisingly I managed to smuggle whole bottle of shampoo in my hand luggage. I don't know if it was only my lick, as the guys at the security were rather relaxed and had fun there or what.
When I was going via passport control there was Emirati guy checking my passport and asking me where do I go. I told him Manila. He asked if I'm going alone.
- Yes I do.
- Oh, but it's boring alone (he was laughing already).
- No, It's not. It's even more fun (meaningful laugh).
That was good start.
Later it got only better. I took my sleeping pills before boarding and when I was getting on the plane they've already took effect so I had to hold the wall to be able to walk. Even funnier was when I woke up for the second meal, I've started to eat it and I asked guy sitting next to me if he remembers if I had my first meal cause I cannot recall it. Insane? Well, I tend to be insane sometimes ;D. I remember seeing some food, like a roll and fruits but I don't recall any taste.
I got to Manila at 4 p.m. Left my luggage at the airport n a storage room and took a cab to the Friendly's Guest House. As soon as I've arrived there I knew that, that's the place to be. In an instant I I got that SE Asia feeling. Freedom, joy, world belongs to me feeling. I went upstairs to the balcony, get myself a bottle of beer, took a sip, asked a group of guys sitting at the table if I can join them and the party started.
Unfortunately it was holly Friday so not much was going on in the city itself but we had fun at the balcony. They've showed me some photos from St. Fernando - crucifixion. I wish I arrived one day earlier to see that...

It's easy to join this kind of group, a sin fact everyone is a single traveler

View from the GH

On Saturday on the other hand with one of the guys (actually Polish guy) we went to do sightseeing. And that was load of sightseeing. Not a single minute was wasted.
First we went to the Chinese Cemetery

Kids at the entrance playing with water. Indeed it was shot day.

Chinese cemetery. All tombs are in small houses, where (depending on the richness of the family) there are bedrooms, tv, toilet and so on. In front of them there are small chimneys to burn faked money. This is to send money to the dead people as they might need it there where they are now.

Dead ppl also want to receive letters ;-)

They call it Alcatraz here

And Beverly Hills (90210?) . In Beverly Hills houses have two levels

You will even find white house

Kids' graves

Silent highway

Chapel with figures of Buddha, Jesus, Maria, Magdalena, Confucius

Ash house

From the cemetery we took a tricycle to go to see a cock fight

Tricycle ride

Cocks are first made angry. Small cock bites them to rise aggressiveness level.

In the same time ppl are betting. I dunno how they do that, there is such a noise that it's insane. They give some signs to the guy who takes bets and apparently it works,.

It was a break in the fight

After a cock fight we walked the streets and took jeepney to Chinese district and Intramuros. Actually with jeepneys we were rather lucky. Lonely Planet claims that you never manage to take the correct one for the first time and in fact we never got lost. We went through some slums where I got robbed (my necklace was pulled), through a park and got back to the guest house.

Looks good? Tastes even better. We've managed to try a little bit of meat and crispy skin. We wanted to buy tiny bit but they offered us small piece to taste.

Some more tasty pigs

Jeepney. Gift of God. Philippines are 90% catholics and actually you can see christian signs everywhere

Street vendor

Chinese district

It was impossible not to enter any church. To make things better I've been to four of them....

Kids on the street

First I've thought it's a dead body without a head. Only later I've seen that it is puppet stuffed with wood. They will burn it in the church on holy Sunday. I suppose it's Judas.

Kids in slums. They were asking us to take some photos of them.

They are not kids, but wanted to be on pics too.

Basketball is a big thing in Philippines.

Kids

Lady boys in slums

Again kids and laundry on a basket ball field

Rizal park

Country for Old Men

I've wanted to spend last days of my holidays doing nothing somewhere at the beach. So I've decided to go to Pattaya, which is close from Bangkok and getting there and back will not be to much of a hassle. Especially that I could stay there at home with my aunt and uncle, which is so much nicer than staying in a guest house or in a hostel.
So I've went there last Wednesday, and funny thing. My aunt recommended me to take bus from the airport as it stops almost directly at the place where they have their apartment, but from Khao San Rd it was easier to buy a ticket for mini van. But in the end I've been forced to take bus from the airport, as the bus which I was meant to take had an accident earlier and travel agent took me to the airport and bought me a ticket for a bus from there. Which was handy in the end as mini vans do not go as far as Jomtien, they only go to city center of Pattaya which is quite a distance from Jomtien.
Pattaya is well known for its sex tourism. For old usually fat guys coming here to meet Thai girls, Thai boys, lady boys, anything that you imagine. What I did not know is that its also popular holiday destination for Russians and Arabic people. If you go out here in the night and go to the Walking Street you meet mostly Russians and Arabic people. Very barely you are prone to meet other nationalities here, which was kind of disappointment for me. I was not hoping for anything big, just to meet someone to make party with. In the end I've been having fun on my own. Wandering from one club to another. I've had most of the fun in Mixx and Lucifer. I've also visited famous Insomnia, but I did not like the music at all.

At the beach here (which itself is not too nice at all - very narrow and sand is not fine and littered) mostly what you see are fat people, ladies sometimes top less (as if they would have something nice there to show), you also see gay couples lying on their fronts with they speedos (yes, speedos as 99% or mes wear them here) pulled down to tan their asses. Those are quite good looking, at least in terms of how they are built. But still not too much to catch your eye.
Also when you walk along the beach in Central Pattaya on the one side, closer to the beach you see all the Thai girls waiting for one of the men sitting in cafes on the other side of the street or walking along. If I were one of them I'd definitely be embarrassed of standing there like behind the window in a store and waiting who will buy me.
That made me spend most of my time at the swimming pool in the apartment where I'm staying. There of course also most of the people are rather old, but at least I can swim there and read and stay in a calm atmosphere, which is what I need now before I come back home and fly to Dubai for a new project, which makes me nervous already. I'm concerned how it'll be there especially that it's Italian project and Italians are known for their long working hours which I hate as I love to have some time to make my sports. I had some break from working out during my trip but now I want to come back and in fact I slowly do. I thought it'll be more difficult after over 4 months of break, but as I swim here I do about 1,5 km as I used to do back at home and it's not too challenging. So I'm happy that my stamina is not fully down at least if it comes to swimming. I'll see in about week time how it is in terms of running as my plan is to come back to running as soon as possible.

Central shopping mall in Pattaya. It's purely for tourists as regular Thai citizen would not be able to afford to buy in all those expensive stores that are there.

Something nice in Pattaya - view from the beach in Central Pattaya

This is how walking street looks like on Saturday - packed with Arabs and Russians

Show time 1:30 a.m.

Walking Street - Pattaya party area

Pattaya city by night

Having dinner with my family, this time we had European food - the best pizza in Pattaya is meant to be in Hopf Brewhouse

This is how beach looks like. Very narrow and packed with umbrellas and fat people underneath.



To proof my last sentence. Have a look at speedos.



Save the wales



Things like that would be impossible anywhere else in Asia, maybe Phuket.

Swimming pool where I do my laps

That is why I spend most of the time at the swimming pool, where at least I can do laps and I don;t have to pay to go to the toilet.