After the safari of a lifetime visiting Borneo’s unique species’, we shipped off from Sandakan to Singapore via Malaysia Air, connecting first in Kuala Lumpur (the only connection while in Southeast Asia for us). We quickly spent the last of our Ringgits on a bottle of wine and some duty-free candy and in just over an hour in the air, we were in the fascinating island city-state of Singapore.
Changi Airport is the top-rated airport in the world. It’s expansive, has so many designer stores, gardens, aquariums and fountains (including Jewel Changi with a waterfall) and entertainment. Asian airports have shown how efficient travel can be, not to mention the amenities.
Knowing Singapore is one of the most expensive places in the world, we went budget on accommodations. We ended up at Hotel Fuji in Geylang, once a thriving red-light district (Singapore’s stance on sex workers, like its stance on most in the non-super-wealthy demographic, is SUPER exploitative to say the least). We got a cuisine recommendation from our Uber driver, who speaks excellent English like most in Singapore. It was a seafood market lit up like a mini Vegas and the menu featured all kinds of interesting novelties. Frog leg porridge was a suggested favorite here. Crab is a top specialty of the Singapore dining scene, which has many curated, immersive, multi-course elaborate experiences. I ended up trying the grilled frogs legs and crispy short-ribs (I enjoyed the latter more, but fried makes everything taste better). The area was walkable but every we went into a bar, many of which had karaoke vibes, as the underground gambling dens and beauty shop discreet sex workers were pretty strictly getting squashed out (and it felt like they were still . Lots of funny looks and not so welcoming vibes.
Singapore is one of the most meticulously clean, landscaped and managed places you’ll find in the world. It is also known for the strictest laws to keep the place clean in all the ways it perceives it can. We had a mad scramble to finish our gum before arriving and learned a lot about the hundreds of laws from the local drivers (many of which are doing it was a second job because it’s so expensive to live there, the locals have subsidized shoebox houses and shop in nearby Malaysia). Not only is chewing and spitting out gum a crime that can lead to caning, but so jaywalking, staying out drinking past 10pm with 3+ people, being naked in your house, and so many more things. Most laws are designed to keep the locals in line without wavering, catering to the rich finance moguls, visitors and expats. Cameras are everywhere, and you can get arrested typically 4-6 hours after a violation and sent to prison. It felt very dystopian (remember reading The Giver?).
We set out to experience Singapore’s top sites, including Chinatown, Gardens by the Sea and Singapore Botanic Gardens. We saw another ornate temple requiring shoes off and conservative dress to enter. Just outside on the market street in Chinatown, we tried the famous Singapore Sling cocktail (all the Brits will point you to Raffles Hotel for the very expensive original). We meandered, watched some chess with an audience and looked through the vendor goodies. The Botanic Gardens was this magnificently catered park curated with so many different species and garden zones with science labs cloning species in the middle of it all. We met a few pretty birds and nice big monitors and skink lizards while enjoying the beautiful curated surroundings.
The Gardens by the Bay was a paid attraction with electric towers lined with plants, and we paid to take in two top attractions: Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. Flower Dome was an indoor garden with plant species from all over the world organized in different zones made to feel like you were globe-trotting.
Cloud Forest was another indoor garden and jungle Jurassic Park animatronic immersive experience. These domed areas with clear glass provided views of the harbor and a lot of lessons about the various featured species. We especially enjoyed this experience, loving dinosaurs, the movies and nature like we do.
We capped it off in the largest skewered meat market imaginable and trying to catch a light show on the harbor (later realizing it was only at the ship in the sky-looking Marina Bay Sands Singapore hotel). They tried to charge $90 for 2 cocktails at this rooftop bar, luckily I talked them down a bit on that!
36 hours after arriving, we were happy to be taking off on Singapore Air (another amazing regional airline) for our last big leg. Just about four hours later we made it to Cebu in the Philippines. The Philippines are home to 7,641 islands, and only about 2,000 of which are inhabited. This reefy, volcanic splash of paradise hit me when flying in as I watched the islands stack up.
My grandfather fought in the 503rd/101st Airborne Infantry, the only regiment in the Pacific for World War II. My cousin’s husband (also on my dad’s side) Stephen Greene was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in the same regiment and recently shared his newsletters about the stories.
“Grandpa” shared very little to my dad or us about those days, although famously would not eat monkey again and hated rice. We were told he was shot in the butt and that he won a Purple Heart and Silver Star and later learned he had some notable machismo adventures while based in Australia (ie. nighttime non-sanctioned jumps, fights with the Marines). I read about the battles he fighted in Leyte, nextdoor to Cebu, Mindano and Corregidor. Corregidor sits in Manilla Bay (near the Japanese taken Manila base), is known as “the Rock” and hosted one of the most infamous battles in American war history based on being the most difficult technical landing of a parachute troop drop historically, the casualty rates and multi-day siege that took place.
Connecting with my grandfather’s story resonated as we dropped into Cebu City the main city in the Central Visayas (3.4 million inhabitants span the 167 islands included in this central Philippine zone known for the greatest biodiversity, hence our visit). We were warned about civil wars ongoing in Mindanao and heard that Manila is very dirty and overpopulated, so they were avoided.
We stayed in Lapu-Lapu City nearby at the Blue Maribago Beach Resort, 15 minutes from the airport where a local opportunistic man picked us up in place of a Grab, ended up paying him in cash (a bit more than the going rate to help with his family mentioned as he was very nice, opportunistic and accommodating).
It didn’t take long before the Philippine spirit shined through via most of the people we met. Our room was upgraded to beachside by the staff, all of which would smile, put hand on heart and say good morning, afternoon or evening when walking by. The villa overlooked the sandbar island and lagoon beach in front of us. The room was spectacular and spacious, we were a within a short walk from hammocks, this amazing exotic seafood buffet and restaurant, another with a bar on the water, and beach-themed lagoon pools. There was live music, a thrilling fire-dancing show and beach service to the canopies. Food specialties were noodles or rice as a base, steamed veggies, all types of seafood, served all kinds of different ways, fried chicken and crispy pork dishes, along with different tropical fruits and veggies.
Our 3am departure and full-day tour was both of our top highlight of the entire trip. A driver brought us hours away to the southwest coast of the island to Oslob. We geared up and got herded out to the water, where the locals were attracting whale sharks with treats, the largest species of shark (harmless spotted filter-feeders). Soon, we were in the water getting brushed by these massive gentle giants (the rules were no sunscreen as it negatively affects them and don’t touch). While many were juveniles, the sheer beauty and magnificence of these ~25 foot wonders was incredible first-hand underwater, and I was lucky to capture our moments together on my GoPro.
Calabawan Falls awaited us, a jungle paradise and hike into a series of waterfalls. Rain closed another epic set of falls for flooding, and made the hike slippery – luckily we had the most attentive, happy, strong, agile barefooted young 5 foot tall local guide and photographer. The cliff diving and abseiling down waterfalls was incredible, as was the sheer beauty of the dense jungle surroundings. We capped it off with a fresh, hot meal on the coast, seeing the ruins from the latest cyclone two years removed.
We had a self-care day to make the missus happy, featuring facials, mani-pedis and a new hair-styling – all at less than the cost of one premium service here. We got to wander around locally, amidst the locals and their markets out of their houses, little stores, rickshaws, basketball courts and motobikes and scooters (2nd world feel to the place). The locals talked of the government corruption, which left road construction projects constant, slow and under-resourced. Our last night brought a wicked tropical thunderstorm, which was quite an experience.
I grabbed a Philippino-pained long ukulele to think back to my days looking at the sky-blue water and green island foliage of the islands. Sadly, soon after we got back, Cebu got hit by a 6.9 earthquake and cyclones, killing over 70 with massive impact on the locals. This volcanic hotbed can’t rest from tectonic movements.
Overall, this was the most inexpensive place we visited (felt it to be ~20% what we’re used to paying financially). The people were also the most happy, genuine, friendly, service-oriented wonderful folks. We would highly encourage others to visit, support the people and see what it’s all about. We will be back and our minds stay relaxed picturing the Filipino landscapes and mindset when in a peaceful state.
After a Taipei night for stop-over, we were riding the jet stream winds on a 10 (down from 14) hour flight back stateside to Seattle, asked a few Customs questions about my guitar (not a gun) and were officially back stateside. Back to the wild ride of emotions, big box stores and Americana, and still thinking about prospects of living and traveling around these wonders of Southeast Asia.
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