Off to the Philippines!

At 5:30am on Friday, Leonardo did not show up at the meeting point so I went to his apartment and banged on the door until his roommate let me in, only to find Leo completely passed out on his bed. I yelled at him until he got his act together and we made it to the airport with enough time to catch a disgusting and expensive breakfast. The original group was composed of Leo and I, an Israeli and another Spanish guy. After a long wait at customs, I was impressed with the taxi service from the airport. There is a flat fee depending on which hotel you stay in. When we arrived at the “CityState Tower hotel”, I was surprised with the level of security. There was an explosive-sniffing dog and guards sporting shotguns in front of the door.

After dropping our bags and arranging our transfer to Mindoro, we walked around Manilla. We had lunch at Barbara’s in Intromuros, a walled city built by the Spanish Conquistadors. There is now an 18-hole golf course wrapping around the walls. Very cool. After a lunch buffet, we walked around some more, visiting the main Cathedral, the industrial port and a few “slums”. There is widespread poverty in the Philippines. We observed that Rojas boulevard, the “Ocean Avenue” of Manilla, was shut down, so we asked a policeman what was going on. A famous Pilipino boxer had won an important match recently, and they were hosting a huge street party to honour the National Hero. Present were the President of the Philippines, the mayor of Manilla, the Philippines candidate at Miss Universe, and thousands of people.

After a quick shower, someone proposed that we get a massage. I was lukewarm about the idea after my bizarre experience in Beijing, but agreed to go for it. It was absolutely amazing! It was a very clean and professional place. We started with a foot massage, which I imagine must be quite unpleasant for the masseuse. It was very relaxing, to a point that I fell asleep on the chair. The second step was a hard back massage, including socket-popping arm stretches.

Following the massage, we had one of the best dinners I’ve ever had anywhere in the world at Good Earth Oriental Cuisine, a brand and totally deserted restaurant in a hip neighbourhood of Manilla. The U$100 bill for four was outrageous by Pilipino standards, but was worth every penny. I kept the receipt to list the plates here:

Crab Claws in Tamarind Sauce
Crispy Chicken Pao
Crispy Crablets
Duckquitos
Fried Rice
Fried Tofu with Asparagus
Fried Wanton
San Xian Beancurd
Sautéed Chicken with Pine Nuts
Sautéed Duck Fillets and Prawns
Shanting Spicy Chicken
Steamed Siomai
Spicy Nanking Beef
9x San Miguel Pale Pilsner

A real feast! We way over-ordered but it was so good that we forced as much as possible in, and didn’t leave too much behind. After dinner, we had a drink at the Hobbit bar, a bar with exclusively little people (midget) staff and a live band. We then visited another few bars. On our way home, I realized that I had forgotten my umbrella at the Hobbit bar, and when we returned, we found a different group of INSEAD students and had another drink with them. On our second attempt to go home, we passed in front of the Pilipino Casino, and I convinced the others to take a quick look inside. I then put U$20 on the roulette table, and doubled my money on the first spin. I pocketed my original U$20 and decided to keep going. I asked Carlos which was his favourite number and he responded 33. I had already place a bet on 30-33, but he seemed confident and I placed a 33-36. Sure enough, 33 came out and I was showered with chips. I pocketed another U$20 and put everything else on numbers and a U$20 on black. My archenemy, the “0”, came out so I walked away having doubled my money. We finally called it a night.

After the worst least smiling waitress for breakfast, we boarded the bus, and transferred on the boat to Mindoro Island for some world-class diving. After a delicious sizzling seafood plate, we registered with our dive shop: Action Divers. After checking into our hotel, we geared up for our first dive. It was fairly cloudy so the dive was nice but nothing too special. We rested for an hour before getting ready for my first-ever night dive. The site had three ship wrecks covered by coral and inhabited by very colourful fish. However, because it was Chinese New Year, there were at least three groups of 10+ divers around the same wrecks, and it became extremely complicated to stay with my buddy and follow my group. Instead of enjoying the wreck, I spent at least half of my air trying to figure out who was who. The wrecks were very interesting nevertheless, and the bioluminescence is extremely beautiful. Fortunately, everyone resurfaced and after a cold shower, we went out for dinner to the “best restaurant on the island” as per our dive master. It was very ordinary, but I did meet the owners of a very chic restaurant on Ile de la Cite in Paris, and they invited to come by when I’m in Fontainebleau.

After dinner, we went to visit the local “discos”, and immediately figured out what was going on this island. The breakdown is about 90% young women to 10% (mostly elderly German) male tourists. As soon as you walk in, you are charged by “guest relations officers” who try to sell you their services for the night. Many of them appeared underage. After beating them off, we visited a few other bars before heading home. Prostitution is tolerated and appears even encouraged in this area of the world. We saw several guests at our hotel having breakfast with ladies one-third or even one-quarter of their age. Pretty disturbing.

The 9am dive on Sunday morning was my best dive ever! We visited the “shark cave” about 33 meters down, which is considered a “deep dive”. There were at least 5-6 white-tip sharks resting on the ground, with a pregnant female that was over 2 meters long. They were about 2-3 meters away, and it’s exhilarating to be so close to these legendary predators. We then saw thousands of colourful fish before slowly coming back to the surface. Wow!

We had breakfast and rested a bit before the noon dive in a coral reef, where we were literally surrounded by thousands upon thousands of tropical fish and extremely colourful corals. I was sad to come back up about 50 minutes after we first submerged. After a pizza lunch, we walked over to our friends’ hotel to shoot some pool, drink pina coladas and enjoy the sunset. We then all got together for a seafood dinner, and after a few drinks in a disco, we headed home for a good night’s sleep. We got up around 6:00am the next morning, for the boat and van rides to Manilla airport. After some dim sum and an aircraft delay, we headed back to reality.

Upon arriving home, I realized that a finance group assignment was due in the morning. The group and I worked on it until 1am, and then some on our own at home. Long day…

This week was quite uneventful, other than my opportunity to shoot some golf on my own Wednesday and with Fred, an investment banker from Montreal on Thursday. I scored a decent 44 and 46. On Thursday night, Leo, Fred and I went out to Sistina for some Italian food. I had some grilled calamari, with agnello as main course. After I mentioned “port” during the dinner, the manager offered us a round on the house, and we walked away satisfied and happy. On Friday night, after a hard 5-hour Finance session with my group, a few of us went to Holland Village for some overpriced Lebanese food.

This weekend, I’m staying in Singapore to play more golf (18 holes) on Saturday, and catch up on some reading and job search related stuff. À bientôt!