Good evening Singapore and welcome to episode 18 of Sleepless in Singapore. Today is Sunday the 19th and this episode is going to be about another part of my world trip with Philip. Last time we had Bhutan. I really hope you enjoyed Bhutan. I enjoyed it tremendously. But now it is back to... I don't even know the how many part of the world trip. This part will bring us to the Philippines and then maybe even further, I don't know about that yet, we will see. So please make yourself comfortable, sit down, lie down and let my voice be your guide to a restful night.

The Philippines were again special, because the Philippines would be the first destination after many weeks of traveling with Philip where I would be alone. I already mentioned it last episode or a couple episodes back. Philip back then had some extended family to visit in the Philippines and I did not want to be part of that so we decided to part ways and that's what we did and that was a strange feeling because we had spent so much time together and we had so many talks and just so much closeness between us for the last many weeks. I think it's 10 weeks or I don't know. You do the math. This was around end of June. Yeah, so that should be around 10-11 weeks in.

Anyway, I still remember we took the plane from Hong Kong to Manila. And we left the same plane obviously and I think Philip was changing terminals to take another plane somewhere else and I was getting an Uber and somewhere there in between we said bye bye, we gave each other a big hug. We knew it wasn't going to be for a long time because we already knew we were going to meet just two or three weeks later in the Philippines somewhere else but still it was a big emotional moment back then. We said goodbye and then I got into my Uber and then I still remember the Uber driver leaving the airport, immediately had to pay a fine because he was parking or halting at a part of the airport where he wasn't supposed to. And he was discussing with the policeman quite a while and then he seemed to give the policeman a fine or a bribe or who knows. He gave him cash and then he added the cash to my Uber bill.

And then we went on and I was staying at the Shangri-La in Manila. I was staying at the Shangri-La in Manila only for, I think, two nights before my next flight. And the guy, the Uber driver, was taking me to the hotel. And I still remember that vividly because I had to use a bathroom very urgently. And the hotel was next to us and the guy was going around the hotel. He's like oh I cannot stop here and I told him look there's the hotel reception area you know the drive up for the cars is like right there and you passed it and he's going around and then he's going somewhere else around and it was really urgent for me and he didn't stop and I don't know why it was all very weird until I realized he just wants to drive up the fees for a bit so eventually 20 minutes later than expected we finally found our way to the same driveway that was there before twice at least and I left the Uber and I kind of immediately on the app on the Uber app you can just say something's wrong. So I put something's wrong because my fare was at least four times of what was estimated in the beginning. So I said something's wrong and immediately, like minutes later, not even minutes, seconds later, I received the email that my full fare has been refunded and everything is fine. That's what happens if you push it too hard, dear Uber driver.

So I stayed at the Makati Shangri-La Metro Manila. And I stayed on the 21st floor at the President Suite or something like that. Because for the last 10 weeks or so, every single night, we were sleeping in usually very nice but very simple accommodations. We were sleeping in hostels, we were sleeping in cheap hotels, we were sleeping in Airbnbs and except for like maybe one or two exceptions they were all fine but they all were very basic and I thought maybe the sadness of being alone and the weirdness of being alone for the first time I wanted to do something nice for myself and so I thought okay let's book the very nicest hotel room I can afford and luckily at the at that time at the Shangri-La the president's suite was like I don't know less than 200 euros a night for this giant room with a separate living room and bedroom. It was super nice and I was glad I did that and I took a nice long shower. It was in the evening, maybe 10pm, I don't know, something like that.

And then I decided I didn't want to sleep yet, so I went out on the street because that's what I usually do. I just walk around a bit and get a feeling for the neighborhood. And that's what I did in the Philippines, in Manila as well. And so I was walking around at the hotel and it's just a business district, there wasn't much to see. But I immediately noticed that there was like a lady following me. And then finally when I stopped at the traffic light, she was like next to me and she was offering her services. Like right there in the middle of the street with other people around and not in a red light district or anything, just like there. And when she asked for a price or something, and when I said no, she thought that's not a no, but a negotiation tactic. So she went down in her price from, I don't know, I think she started at $100 or whatever. And I think in the end she was like at $10. And then I still said no. And then she got angry for me wasting her time or whatever. And she left. And I was pretty startled. That was the first time I experienced anything like that.

So I thought, okay, before that happens again, let's go back to the hotel. And I went to the hotel, and I went to the hotel bar, and I had a beer, and a pretty lady is sitting next to me, and she starts talking to me and we talk for a bit and I thought like oh well that's nice and I finished my beer and I went for a cigarette and she asked me if she could join me and of course we went to the little courtyard at the Shangri-La and I was having my cigarette and she's looking at me and she said so okay we go to your room hundred dollars and I was even more startled because I didn't really see it coming maybe I was being very naive back then but I didn't see it coming I just thought finally a nice girl sitting next to me talking to me but um yeah she also just wanted money so I also respectfully declined and again she got angry she's like why you waste my time why you talk to me I don't know I thought it was just a nice talk because yeah but now you don't give me money so it's a waste of time okay there's nothing much I can do so very very weird evening.

Stuff like that did not happen the whole last 10 weeks but the first night in Manila maybe it was the hotel or maybe it was the area or maybe it was me being alone not with Philip for the first time. Either way it was very weird, a little bit confusing but also it was almost midnight so I decided to just go sleep. And then in the next morning I went down for breakfast and that was the very best breakfast I had. Definitely in the last 10 weeks but probably also in a longer time. Because I didn't stay in a lot of very nice hotels before. So maybe that's just normal. Now I know that these nice hotels, they have these kinds of breakfast buffets. But back then, that was also new to me. So we had this giant breakfast buffet and they had a western corner and a Japanese corner and a local corner and a Chinese corner and everything. And I didn't have to do anything that day, only a flight in the evening again. So I thought, okay, this is my mission. I will have to try one of everything and boy was that a mistake because there was really a lot and it took me maybe one and a half hours to eat through everything and then I had to sleep some more in my nice room because I was in the biggest food coma ever. But it was absolutely delicious, it was amazing.

I can recommend the breakfast and the rooms at the Shangri-La in Metro Manila. I'm not sure what I did for the rest of the day, but judging from the pictures I'm just looking at the most important part of that day seemed to be the breakfast. Then in the evening, also for the first time on that trip, I went back to the airport alone and boarded a plane which was a tiny prop machine to El Nido. And after a very bumpy and well, interesting flight, I was landing at El Nido airport, which is the tiniest airport I have ever seen. And I grabbed my luggage. We were traveling with these like pack safe 45 liters backpacks. And I had that and I had a smaller like carry on backpack. So I grabbed my backpack and there was someone asking if I need a taxi. I need a taxi, but I didn't need a taxi because I thought I had agreed with these hotel people that they will pick me up. So all the taxis left. By taxis, by the way, I'm not talking about cars, I'm talking about rickshaws. And when I say roads, there were also no real roads. There was like a dirt road to the airport where the taxis were waiting. But anyway, I declined needing one, so they left. And I was there and I realized maybe they missed picking me up or maybe they have the wrong time or maybe I did something wrong. So it kind of took me about half an hour of being alone to already be lost. But also you couldn't really walk anywhere and I couldn't also go back into the airport because the airport, the building was locked because the only flight for that day had arrived and everyone left. so no point keeping the airport open. So I was standing there and thinking what to do, and luckily I managed to get my phone alive and online somehow for very horrendous roaming fees. And I could text the very nice lady from that Airbnb I was staying and she promised to come pick me up, which about half an hour later or so she did.

So in El Nido, unlike every other reasonable backpacker who stays in El Nido town where everyone else is staying and where all the parties are, I decided I wanted to have some peace and quiet and alone time. And I booked this Airbnb, they were like, I think six or eight huts, you know, these like, they look like tents, like, but they made from wood. And they were maybe with a scooter, maybe 20 minutes outside of El Nido town, just right in the middle of the jungle. So we went there and I didn't think much about it and there was like a little bit of a check-in procedure but very very like easy and I checked in and I went to my room and the lady explained oh yeah as you know there is no AC and also no hot water. It's a very basic place. And a very basic bed, everything extremely basic. And she asked me if I wanted to have a dinner. So I said yes. I unpacked my stuff a bit and rested for a bit. And then I went to the dinner and I was the only person at the dinner. And I asked her, is there anyone else staying? And she said, no. For the next two and a half weeks, I had booked, I don't know, I had booked 18 days or something like that. For the next two and a half weeks, you are our only guest. I guess that's how it was.

So I thought this is a great time to unwind, a great time to be alone with myself, a great time to read books and relax and don't do anything. And that's kind of what I did for a day. And then I got terribly bored because there was really nothing to do except for reading my book. There was no cell phone reception. Whenever I wanted to check my messages, I had to walk up for maybe 10 minutes. I had to walk up this little hill, because only on top you could get a very sketchy signal. And also only if there was power. If the power went out, which happened all the time, there was not even a signal up there. And like I said, for a day or maybe for one and a half days, I was fine with that situation, but then I got pretty bored there and there was one lady or a girl I don't even know she looked very young a local girl who was taking care of me who was like answering my questions or making my dinner the other night. And she asked me if I wanted to go to the town or do something because she noticed I'm just hanging there all day long. And I asked her about the free shuttle service going to town and she was a little bit confused, but she said, yeah, okay, I can bring you to town and she was a little bit confused but she said yeah okay i can bring you to town so little girl went on her scooter on this like mud roads and big me was in the back of her trying to hold on to the scooter and to her somehow reasonably and she took me the 20 minutes to El Nido town, and then she asked me when to pick me up again, and I said, I don't know, maybe in two hours or so, and I walked around El Nido town a bit, and there's also not that much to do, so I went to buy some very basic food like crackers and stuff like that. And then eventually it started to rain and the lady came again and took me back again. And then for two days I was living off my snacks and crackers I bought. And in the evening she was making another dinner. And then I felt like I should do something and I maybe should go to the beach or anything. So I tried to find the lady and asked for another shuttle service to the beach. And again she looked a bit weird and she said like you can just use the scooter if you want and I'm like ah that's okay I'll prefer if you you know bring me and she looked a bit weird but she didn't say anything she got me to the beach and I stayed at the beach for a couple of hours again doing nothing much not knowing anyone being alone for the first time in my life and then after a couple of hours she picked me up and back to the place and the next day I stayed at the place and then I looked at the calendar on my phone and it was only like four days in and I had another 14 or so to come. And I thought I gotta change something about the situation. So I asked her to teach me how to ride a scooter and she looked at me like I was an alien because apparently in the Philippines every child and by that I literally mean every child knows how to ride a scooter like you see eight-year-olds on a scooter going around and she did not really believe that I don't know how to ride a scooter but I never learned it and I guess that was the moment where I had to learn it because otherwise I would have died of boredom with myself in that sanctuary place.

So she showed me, look this is how you turn it on, this is how you, you know, do the gas and otherwise it's just like riding a bike, just go for it. And luckily she somehow transported her scooter over the very muddy patch on the house and put it on the little road there was. And then I was just sitting on the scooter and I was going up and down the street for a bit and it seemed to work quite fine. So I went to the beach myself that day and I was good. And the next day I decided now that I know how to ride a scooter I'll take that scooter for a longer scooter ride and I was looking to find these famous three-level waterfalls, maybe two hours or so from El Nido. So I was going on this little road and I still remember I felt so good. I was proud that I know how to ride a scooter. Also, it's a lot of fun to ride a scooter, right? You have the wind in your hair and it just feels good. It's like driving in an open car. It's just a good feeling. And then the nature was so beautiful. You had like these little hills and mountains and there was a bit of fog and everything was extremely green because, you know, it's El Nido, it's jungle, it's rice paddies here and there. And that was just magical. That was just like a really, really, really good trip on my nice new little scooter.

And then the waterfalls, they were pretty nice too. I remember it was quite the hike to get up there. and also from the second to the third waterfall you had to hire a guide. Because apparently it's too dangerous if you go alone. I couldn't see why. But anyway, I hired that guide and he took me up there, took a bunch of nice pictures. And then eventually I started my way down and got to my scooter and drove back. And then I came into the worst tropical rain I've ever been in. And it was so heavy that actually everyone, not only me had to stop the scooters and find some shelter and then I was just sitting there and slowly drying being a bit cold even though it was relatively warm but when you wet then it's windy yeah but anyway I made it back and I had my very basic Filipino dinner and I slept very well and it was a great day.

The next day, or maybe one of the next days, the evening where I tried to find a decent restaurant and there was this little, I think like a Mexican place, or at least like a place with like Mexican influenced food, and I had a fajita or something like that I don't remember just sitting there alone having my beer I had a Red Horse which is a local Filipino beer very strong with you know one of these beers where they add the alcohol to, so it was very strong and also tasted very alcoholy. And there was this guy who introduced himself as Joe, and he was being super nice. We talked a bit. He's a local. Grew up in the Philippines, I believe, but then started living different places. I was happy to have someone to talk to. We talked for a bit. The next day, we met again. He and his family, his husband Eric and Eric's daughters. And we had a nice day at the beach. I'm looking at pictures here where somebody had a little scorpion without the tail. That was like crawling on our hands and we had a nice little lunch by the beach and then I was just sitting there and reading my book again and it was starting to be really beautiful and Palawan started to grow on me, El Nido started to grow on me.

And while my days there are pretty much a blur, because there was not a lot to do and I didn't do a lot, it was mostly just like going around with a scooter and being at the beach and trying to find some food in the evening. I cannot tell you when everything happened exactly but i remember two or three events at least. One was I did a tour and I remember there are these boat tours and there is the tour A and then there came another guy. They had a tour B and then there was another guy who had a tour C. So there was like the A, B, Z. And usually that was just half a day or a day taking a boat to Helicopter Island or just going around these nice places, doing some kayaking. I'm not sure which tour i took back then but i do remember for some reason that in the end after that tour even there was another guy who came up and he was selling the tour set that was not connected to the other tours and that was very special and blah blah blah he did a lot he did very very good marketing and that's why it seemed like all the young people went for this like new special tour but then in the end it just turned out to be some kind of party boat, so I'm glad I did not take that, but the more nature-oriented.

Yeah, so that was all good. And then there was another event that was somebody's birthday, but I'm not 100% sure whose. It might be one of Eric's daughter's birthdays, where again at the beach we had a little bit of a party. And also that night I met Sebastian again. Remember Sebastian from Germany, but who I met in Hong Kong and Taiwan. And that time he brought his girlfriend, back then girlfriend, today wife, Iman. So I got to know her. And I think we spent a nice dinner and in general had a relatively good time and going through their pictures apparently on that day I was texting with Han, the Chinese guy I met in Moscow, and I'm just realizing how funny it was that he could not pronounce or spell or write Philip's name. So in the messages here, I see he's writing plilp and then plip and then plilip. But I remember that being quite funny because he also couldn't really say it right. So to him, Philip is plipip and then finally came the day where I met Plip again because he and his back then girlfriend they also came to El Nido and I remember we were I took the scooter over to their Airbnb, which was quite adventurous because there was not a real road and it was all like in the jungle and a bit of walking involved when I couldn't take the scooter anymore. And then we spent the evening, but unfortunately, Philip had fallen sick. He apparently had been, no need for details, but he was sick for quite some days, or more than some days, and he couldn't really get rid of it. So he was quite fed up with traveling and I think that night was the first night when he broke to me that he's actually not going to continue his travels but to find a flight back home which was sad but understandable.

And so that night also was the night where it was time to say goodbye for a longer time. Because I didn't really know how long I was going to travel. I technically had given myself until the end of the year, which was, if you paid attention, it's about mid-July now in my story. So end of the year would have been like half a year more. Or, in other words, twice more than I already had clocked in. So there was a lot to come and potentially I wouldn't see Philip for another half a year so that was the big goodbye and him being sick and not feeling well I remember there were quite sad moments and then when I walked back from their Airbnb through the jungle to find my scooter that was a really sad moment for me I was like really wow now I am alone and while I usually enjoy being alone a lot I also was really sad that the part of the trip, like this long planned world trip and the many, many, many experiences and almost all of them so great with Philip had come to an end. And it was a quiet evening or quiet night for me. I went back to my place and tried to think not too much about what the future will bring.

I think this might be a good point to end the story for today, because after that I only spent another day or two in El Nido Palawan before I flew back to Manila. And then in Manila I stayed at the same hotel, at the same room for another two days. I did a little bit of sightseeing in Manila. I saw these like Plaza de Roma, these like very European castles. I was meeting up with someone from couchsurfing and we went on the local market and for the first time I had balut, which is this like half-bred chicken egg. So when you eat it, it tastes like this very weird combination of meat and egg at the same time. And then from Manila, after having again the most excellent breakfast at the Shangri-La, of course, I took a plane to Kuala Lumpur and probably Singapore and all the things that happened there we will do next week.