Off to a good start...

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KM 25
My Flight with Korean Air

It must be something about flying to Seoul… As I was not able to check-in on-line, I wasn't really sure where I was going to end up seating wise. I was assigned the aisle seat I requested in Vancouver. By the time boarding started to take place, I could tell that there weren't a lot of people on this flight. I didn't get too excited because I had been here before on my last flight to Seoul in 2008. I thought the same thing back then only to have 150 Korean school children show up at the gate at the last moment… Thankfully, an Air Canada agent felt sorry for me and upgraded me to first class and the rest was history… This time I was one of the first to board, so I wasn't sure what to expect. After about 15 minutes, it looked pretty good for at least having the seat next to me free, but to get a whole row to myself is heavenly. This has only happened to me once before on a trans-oceanic flight (last year from London).

Korean Air gave me all this stuff for the flight (e.g. shades, slippers, toothbrush, etc.), but no place to put it… The pouch on the back of the seat in front of me was already full. For example, the duty free magazine was the size of a Vogue magazine (no kidding). I also had a bottle of water on my seat, but again no place to put it. Then there was the in-flight entertainment. If it was designed by the Korean's, I can tell you Apple shouldn't be threatened by Samsung.

Allergic to peanuts… stay off this airline. That was the snack of choice, as we started our flight. The food got better with some Bibimbap (native Korean dish) for dinner.

Korean Food Court
While certainly not hungry after two meals and countless snacks on Korean Air, I did have three hours to burn at Seoul's Incheon Airport. Being the adventurous individual I am, I headed to a food court. Things worked a little differently than back home. First, one enters on the main floor to a receptionist and display full of faux Korean dishes. There were English translations, so I knew generally what I was ordering. I just wasn't sure where I was going to pick up my food… After paying for my dish, the female attendant in her broken English gave me a beeper with a code and sent me upstairs to something called "3". When I went up the escalator, there were countless food stalls, so it was just a matter of finding the right one. I had, at least at this time, figured out that I would be beeped when my order was ready. It took me a few minutes to figure out exactly what she meant be "3", but I found a stall that had a number 3 on it and the same Kimchi I had ordered on its menu, so I figured I had to be at the right place.

Cebu Aiport
I always brace myself when I exit an airport in the emerging markets. They are all relatively the same -- total chaos. There are more people there to help you than you know what to do with. They want to help you with your luggage, finding a taxi, finding a hotel -- you name it. Getting service is never a problem in this part of the world, but like everyone else I was tired and disorientated at this point. This is all accentuated if it is nighttime.

After a number of tries, I finally figured out that the one ATM machine was only going to give me 10,000P ($250 CAD) even though I should have a higher limit with HSBC.

I had a taxi prearranged (please take note Shauna), so once I got in and the remainder of the trip was fairly uneventful. Cebu City did look somewhat run down though.

Cebu City
I have always made it a practise to take the first day off with nothing planned. I find it a great way to decompress after a long flight. This trip was no different. After having a late breakfast, I then took on the challenge of putting my bike together. At the state of the bike box, it looked like Korean Air had taken good care of my bike. Everything went back together like it should have. The only thing that seemed out of whack was the rear shifting, but I knew I could get that fixed almost anywhere.

At this point, I was feeling pretty good (not much jet lag), so I thought I would head to the Ayala Mall (Cebu's newest and largest). At least I would be out of the heat of the day, but I also wanted to to pick up a SIM card and plan. This the first time I have brought over a unlocked phone. I was complicating things a bit by looking for a plan that had mobile internet. If it was just a case of getting a card for phone or text, I could have done that at nearly any corner store. The Mall was better than I expected with many nice shops and restaurants. The one thing that did stick out though were all the Western men (40+) with young Filipino women. I had heard that the Philippines was a popular destination for sex tourism, but I was able to quickly confirm it. The city seemed to be void of literally any another type of Western tourist… I did finally found a mobile store. Sun Cellular is the third largest carrier in the country, as I couldn't find the other two. For a SIM card, it cost me less than $1!. On top of that to get 100 talking minutes, 1,000 texts, and 7 hours of mobile internet, it was just $2.5/week… If that mobile internet comes with 3G, I'm laughing (I was to find out latter that outside of the bigger cities, only 2G exists, which makes it difficult using with the internet).

With any stop at a mall, I had to check out the food court. This Mall was no different. What was interesting though were how some of them were set up with a great variety of food and much of it made right on the spot. Everything was just nicely laid out in different pots sometimes even slowcookers.

Remembering experiences from Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia I thought I would try my first massage. Like everything else here it is cheap. A full body massage can be had for less than $5. A foot massage for $5. Both of these massages are an hour in length. At these rates, I will be trying all kinds of them during this trip.

Day two would be spent siteseeing in downtown, as they like to call it here. This is the older part of town and the home of most of the tourist attractions. I jumped onto a Jeepney for my trip down there. Jeepney's are a post-WWII creation by the Filipinos. As you will remember, the US played a big part if liberating the Philippines from the Japanese during WWII. The U.S. also had two large bases (Subic and Clark) here until the 1990's. Jeepney's look like extended jeeps (think of a limousine). The big difference is the cab was not fully enclosed. Cebu City didn't have any formal public transport, so this was it (outside of taxis, which seemed to be everywhere -- a dream back in Edmonton).

I started off at the city market, which was called the Carbon Market. It had a dry (fruit and vegetables) and wet (seafood and meat) side and was set in a very poor part of town. Even I was a little uncomfortable there. Not seeing any other tourists didn't help. Good thing Shauna wasn't with me… As I moved on, I came across the Magellan Cross, which symbolizes Magellan discovery of the Philippines. He actually died here and the famous trip was completed without him.

On my final day in Cebu, I took my bike out and climbed to the Tops, which was an observatory overlooking the city and at 700 M. It was not an easy climb with some ascents being as high as 20%! For those that don't cycle, I am not sure it is possible to make a road with anything higher than that. As I had come across in my research for the trip, there were no shoulders on the roads here. It didn't seem to be a big thing, as the traffic was fairly light outside of the Cebu.

One of the most bizarre events of the trip was at the Cebu Zoo, which had to be the most underfunded and poorly maintained zoo I have seen anywhere in the world. Before I could travel more than 100 meters, one of the of workers stopped and asked me if I wanted one of the birds to be put on my shoulder for a photo… I guess this is what you would call an "interactive" zoo (it gets even better). I thought that was a bit strange, but I travel to experience different things, so why stop now. After a few pictures, I then moved on. While most of the exhibits were of birds, there were a couple of pits for crocodiles. At one pit, another worker walked down into one and went over to the crocodile and touched its tail! I thought I should get a shot of that. He then asked me if I wanted to come down and do the same thing, so I could also have my picture taken. He said that as long as I didn't touch its head I would be fine! I quickly said to him NO! I could just imagine if something went wrong and how Shauna and my family would explain how I was killed. I am sure that would have garnered a lot of sympathy from friends and family. My next step was the star attraction a Bengal Tiger. First of all, it was situated far away from the rest of the exhibits in a ravine, but when I got there it was a very said scene. It was just that -- a cage -- no more. The Tiger looked emaciated. To make matters worse, it only had the use of three of its legs -- very sad.

One interesting thing to reflect on for my first day on the road was fact that while no one seems to speak English as their first language most people can speak it. As well, nearly all of the signage in the country is in English. I was told that everyone starts learning English in grade one. Given that we have one million Filipino workers around the world, it has become vitally important to their economy as well, as billions of dollars flows back home from remittances.

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Photos

The crocodile pit
Would you go down there for your picture to be taken?