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Published: September 18th 2007
Our flight to Clark was only a quarter full but everyone had been allocated seats near the back of the plane, as though balance was an issue. There were so few passengers that, when we arrived, the baggage handlers didn't bother putting the luggage on the carousel and instead just dumped it on the floor inside the terminal.
It was several hours before we could check in to our flight out of the Philippines, so I successfully eliminated all my loose change via repeated visits to Pizza Hut and Jollibees.
The ludicrous UK security rules concerning liquids in your carry-on also apply to flights out of the Philippines, though the enforcement simply consists of being asked at security to drink your bottles of water before boarding the plane - after that, no-one checks.
Unfortunately weather conditions in the region were not good, and our flight departed nearly 4 hours late. Unlike the neighbouring town, Clark Airport doesn't have much entertainment for waiting passengers, but Air Asia did provide some fried chicken and rice from McDonald's after our wait had exceeded the 2 hour mark. No points to the airline though for not once providing a status update on
the flight's ETD over the PA system, nor even updating the one monitor at the gate which was still showing the status as "On time" 2.5 hours after the flight should have departed.
On the subject of chicken and rice, that does appear to be the staple meal in the Philippines. With some of the local dishes including balut (raw duck embryo), pinik pikan (chicken beaten slowly to death with a hammer), and the amusingly-named Adidas (chicken's feet), you might not be surprised to hear that vegetarians are not really catered for.
When our flight out of Clark finally departed in heavy rain, we had an initial period of alarming turbulence with a few jolting dips and rolls that produced screams from further back in the plane. However that was the last of the excitement for the day, and our arrival in Kota Kinabalu and subsequent hotel search were without incident.
I can't say I particularly enjoyed the Philippines. Compared with other countries I've seen this year, there wasn't much in the way of breathtaking sights, and the interactions we had with local people would never have prompted me to say the country was a particularly friendly
place (which is one of the comments you usually read about it), certainly compared with Thailand, China, or even Laos. Maybe 3 weeks sometimes doesn't allow you to even scratch the surface.
We spent several days in Kota Kinabalu not doing much. The city is not as modern and clean as, say, Singapore and doesn't have many tourist attractions but with English being widely-spoken, amenities comprehensive, and hassle generally non-existent (DVD sellers being a notable exception), it was pleasant and unstressful. A tourist-oriented waterfront boardwalk sporting various restaurants and bars was a good place to watch the evening sunset.
Buying in bulk in Southeast Asia can produce some deceptive pricing, and in many places I've found that buying several small chocolate bars rather than one large one has been better value for money. My first encounter of this in Malaysia was with Head and Shoulders, with 1 travel-sized bottle cheaper per millilitre than one 5 times the size.
There was a story in the local press about a guy who was detained for 6 months because he was unable to produce his identity card for the police. OK, he didn't help himself by refusing to give phone
numbers of family members who might have been able to help him (he didn't want to cause them trouble), but 6 months seemed excessive. He was surprisingly philosophical when he was released. It seemed as bizarre a penalty as the sign I seem to remember reading in a shop in the Philippines, where failure for a vendor to give a receipt could lead to 2 years in jail.
Kota Kinabalu contained moneychangers willing to offer a decent rate for Vietnamese dong, which enabled me to ditch a large wodge that I'd stupidly brought out of Vietnam without realising it was nigh on impossible to change elsewhere. On another financial note, prices in restaurants here are generally listed as, say, R25++, to indicate that a government tax (5%) and service charge (10%) will be added to the bill.
Not surprisingly for a Muslim country, there are many women wearing headscarves and flowing kaftans, even with a few veils here and there. However the ethnic make-up is an intriguing mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and indigenous peoples, leading to no "standard" Malaysian look.
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