Sleepless in Singapore

Day: 34

Location: Donsol, Luzon, Philippines

Steph and I left Melaka early on the 11th, bound for Singapore. We met Eugene at his place and went for lunch with Michelle and Tasha at one o the few places open - due to New Year holidays.
For the rest of the day we did a bit more sightseeing, once again under the capable direction of Michelle. First to Dempsey Hill - a shopping village with expensive restaurants where a lot of expats hang out and then a short trip to Sentosa Island which was teeming with people. We didn't bother with Universal Studios or any of the other attractions.
Eugene invited some past school friends around for dinner so we had a delicious barbecue and cocktails that I devised out of apple juice, lemon juice, lemon barley cordial, Grey Goose Le Citron and soda.
After Melaka I was tired, there was a party atmosphere because of the New Year and great people to hang it with as I mentioned which lead to about 4 or 5 hours sleep of the last two nights. I was planning to go to bed at 12 in preparation for the early flight to Manila the next day however Eugene and Co used an array of tactics including 'you're only in Singapore once' and 'you can sleep when you're dead' to corale me into going with them to join in on some more traditional New Year festivities.
At Tasha's cousin's house we played blackjack for hours. I was up until the banker changed, upped the buy in and began to produce 21s every second round. The betting was done with everyone's Hong Bao - small red envelopes filled with money that are given by married couples to visitors over New Year. It seems like a good way to test if the prosperity you had been wished over the past few days had come true. So bed at twelve turned into gambling and pratha at 4am ( because food doesn't stop at any hour in Singapore) and then 1 hour or sleep.
As a result the next day was sleepy and mostly spent getting to our accommodation in Manila. First impressions were that it is a rough looking place, it appears busier than Tokyo, for example even though the population is smaller. It took hours to get from the airport in Clark to the accommodation in Makati City but as usual it was great arriving at the hotel.
The local area was seedy, on a short stroll to 7/11 I was offered a variety of weapons and saw a handful of strip clubs with large white men as their patronage of course.
Even better than arriving in Manila was getting to Donsol the following afternoon. The town is very small but the strip of beach front resorts and construction suggest that we will look back and say "we put Donsol on the map".

The main attraction here are Whale Sharks at this time of year. We only had this morning to take the boat trip and hope to see the shark and with overcast weather we were unfortunate as I think many people have been lately.
On the flip side we did catch a Valentine's Day parade this afternoon in the town as well as crab and prawns that will be cooked for us tonight all for under $10.

Tomorrow we go back to Legazpi City for a ride to the Lava front of Mount Mayon and a flight to Boracay the next day.

Ben x

Aus