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Two questions: 1. Any recommendations for 2-4 day treks in Khao Sok? I'll be alone at the time but I'd like to go with a group set up by the tour. 2. I'll be in Bali/Lombok for two weeks in early June, and after that we're planning on flying to Chiang Mai and doing Northern Thailand for 2 weeks before heading to Vietnam. I'm worried though that late June is a bad time to go to Northern Thailand - is the weather bad enough to warrant staying in Indonesia instead?
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May 2, 2017 15:53
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| # ? May 30, 2024 11:42 |
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Is this the thread for Philippine questions? Because I'm going to be in Manila the week after next, and I was looking for some day hikes that'd be scenic/accessible.
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May 3, 2017 07:01
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Mount Pinatubo is about 90km north of Manila and has some great hiking options.
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May 3, 2017 09:02
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How easy is transport there? Just take a cab?
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May 3, 2017 12:59
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TsarZiedonis posted:How easy is transport there? Just take a cab? Try looking here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Mount_Pinatubo Oh, and "Easy transport" and "Philippines" are two concepts that do not go together 
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May 3, 2017 13:58
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Maybe find a tour company or something that'll take you out there? Just remember that although 90km doesn't sound that far to a westerner, traffic in Manila is absolutely horrendous on a good day and it can take ages to get anywhere.
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May 3, 2017 14:25
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Hmm, I have a few days in the city when my girlfriend will be working and I'll be on my own to explore. I was hoping to walk around and see part of the city and some local nature, but I guess Manila isn't exactly HK. I'm sure it isn't mad max every day, but would I have to worry about walking around outside of the touristy areas?
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May 3, 2017 14:46
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Manila is a gigantic sprawl and there honestly isn't much in the way of nature/parks etc. A few recommendations: - the Intramuros historic district is probably the best part of town for tourism, and definitely well worth a look. Fort Santiago was good, as well as the Jose Rizal museum - Rizal Park is nearby which is nice (though it's just a large 18th-century style manicured park, it's not a forest or anything). Good sunsets from the waterfront near here - If you want to do shopping head to either SM Mall of Asia or for fancier stuff Bonifacio Global City. Bonifacio is a weird oasis of Western sanitised cities in the middle of Manila, and genuinely feels like Singapore or something - Makati is the business and party district, there are nice parts here and super awful parts (hookers, drug addicts etc) - the National Gallery/Museum was quite interesting, if you're an art or history person you'll enjoy it. The interesting thing for us was that it was basically all Filipino artists we'd never heard of! Personally I'm not a huge fan of Manila, though other parts of the Philippines are absolutely stunning. I'd definitely recommend getting a local SIM while you're there (super cheap), and using GrabTaxi or Uber instead of local taxis which are notorious scammers. Honestly just be wary and on your guard - it's pretty unlikely anything will happen, but after six months around most of SE Asia, Manila was easily the city where I felt least comfortable. To answer your specific question - I personally wouldn't walk around much outside the touristy areas.
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May 3, 2017 17:13
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I'll be in Manila for at least a little bit sometime in November--might be just for the day. Might use some of those recommendations, though.
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May 3, 2017 17:51
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I do tons of wandering around big cities and I spent months, off and on, running and walking all over Manila, from the shittiest riverside barangay slums to Intramuros, etc. It's just a shithole, there's no nice way to say it. Yes, certain specific areas are interesting, like Remedios and Intramuros, and the bay out by Roxas, while run down as gently caress, is interesting to a degree, especially if you read up on the history of Roxas and CCP and all the reclaimed land, but honestly it's a giant, sprawling shithole and I say this coming from Bangkok. The distinction is that in Manila none of it is interesting. Part of that's down to the city being destroyed in WWII, but that's hardly all of it. Most of Bangkok grew up considerably after WWII, but there are all kinds of warrens and nooks and crannies and neighborhood markets and so on - and while there's plenty of violence, it's not spilling out all over publicly the way it is in MM. Manila is just bleak. With that said, the bleakness itself is worth some urban wandering and you can plot out some interesting runs or walks taking you through all kinds of places, but it's not going to be "Oh that's really cool!" interesting, it's going to be like "Oh man, how many decades since those escalators worked?" interesting. I wouldn't discourage it, and you will find some gems, but it's probably the least rewarding or welcoming or interesting huge Asian city I've ever spent time in (haven't spent time in Jakarta yet). There is one suburb that's green and hilly, but I always forget the name. It's got something Spanish in it. Also there are the places recommended. Mainly I would say if you want to do any interesting ambulation, GTFO of Manila.
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May 3, 2017 18:24
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Agreed, I can't think of a less walkable, less picturesque city I've been to than Manila. Let's be honest, Phili has very little culture to offer, and Manila is just an example of a city where it's just grown and grown, and everything is just there out of practicality and necessity - and BAD practicality, that is. Virtually no pretty buildings, trees, wide avenues, sculptured facades or anything. But OK, one so-so walk you could is around the place called Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati. It's a nice little park, and there's a nice mall nearby named Greenbelt Park, with a park-like courtyard with cafes. There's also the Ayala Museum just at the corner of the mall building. You can spend a few hours walking around the area and gaze at the tall buildings and fancy hotel facades. There is also a huge cemetary just north of it, called Manila South Cemetary. And of course the red light street, P Burgos, just nearby, but don't tell your girlfriend.
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May 3, 2017 18:40
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Wow, thanks for the detailed write ups, guys! You're painting a fairy bleak picture of the place! I'll try to do some walking around and exploring in the areas listed above. But for one or two days, how practical would it be to visit, say, Pasanjan falls? I also looked at some of the spots in this article, but there seems to be a lot of mention of hiring like, a guide or driver: http://www.karlaroundtheworld.com/top-10-mountains-for-a-manila-day-hike/
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May 3, 2017 19:41
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TsarZiedonis posted:Wow, thanks for the detailed write ups, guys! You're painting a fairy bleak picture of the place! I'll try to do some walking around and exploring in the areas listed above. But for one or two days, how practical would it be to visit, say, Pasanjan falls? It depends on where you are, sometimes at a busy airport or bus terminal you find car/van drivers hanging out "preying" on tourists (but they don't cheat you, just hope you agree to a high price), or maybe find some online that you can call and book. It's a country where everything is still very basic, day-to-day, word-of-mouth, one-man-business, so you can't just look up private cars in a big directory online and book at a competitive price; it'll just be one guy with a car and the price is up to him and you to negotiate. A bit daunting for a first-timer, but possible. If you're going north-ish, you have the benefit of being able to take a cheap bus along the only expressway in Phili, the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). There is a bus leaving from the "EDSA Pasay" bus terminal, amongst others. It goes up to, for example, Angeles City, which is a popular tourist spot (of the red light kind), and from there I'm certain you can find a private car to take you to and from a nearby mountain or hike spot. Bus info: https://www.silent-gardens.com/manila-bus.php
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May 4, 2017 13:13
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I think that sounds like a reasonable option. I was thinking of buying a cheap local SIM somewhere to use for the week and trying my luck with Uber, but then I realized if I take an uber fairly far out, I may need to pay the guy to stick around if I want an uber back! I'm also not like 100% sure of travel times involved. I'm guessing that google map summaries of travel times from my hotel to some of these hiking spots will be wildly inaccurate in the face of manila's vaunted traffic!
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May 4, 2017 14:14
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TsarZiedonis posted:I think that sounds like a reasonable option. I was thinking of buying a cheap local SIM somewhere to use for the week and trying my luck with Uber, but then I realized if I take an uber fairly far out, I may need to pay the guy to stick around if I want an uber back! I'm also not like 100% sure of travel times involved. I'm guessing that google map summaries of travel times from my hotel to some of these hiking spots will be wildly inaccurate in the face of manila's vaunted traffic! Your goal as a first-timer to go to a remote hiking area alone, without a local, is pretty drat daunting, but respect to you if you have the guts to do it.  You will be confused and the journey will take a long-rear end time, but even a bad journey can be interesting the first time around. Phili is, for better and for worse, one of those countries where you can buy people to do anything if you pay enough, so if you're down with just asking locals your way forward, you can hire people to take you anywhere and back. Just don't wear jewelery or flash your iPhone 7 you know, common sense as with anywhere.It's invaluable to have basic Google Maps online to navigate/walk around when abroad. Tip: Before heading out from a City, go to the area you want to visit in Google Maps, tap the menu button, tap Offline areas, tap +, and download the area. Then you will have the map even without data subscription and can navigate around. * But at least it's all in English in Phili, unlike other countries:  
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May 5, 2017 10:10
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Uber works fine in Manila, though I would rely on it elsewhere. With the translation thing, if you have the google translate app you can download language dictionaries for offline translation which can be a huge help. Even the OCR translator will work offline, mostly
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May 5, 2017 12:17
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I don't know about Manila but a general rule in south east Asia is to alternate between uber and grab (a Malaysian app that has gone international ) . I was recently in HCM and the grab experience was vastly superior to uber. You can even use the grab in app messaging / voice service to talk to your driver if you only got a data package.
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May 5, 2017 15:15
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Grab has taken off like crazy in hcmc. I just went there for 3 weeks and everyone seems to be using it. All the grab dudes wear distinctive green shirts and helmets which makes them easy to spot.
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May 5, 2017 18:13
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Hmm, the only issue with the amount of time these trips could take is that I have to be back by dinnertime to meat my gf. She'll be working during the week, but we'll be vacationing when she's off and on the weekends. I'll try and make a dayhike work, but perhaps it would be wiser of me to try and grab her and do a longer, less spontaneous trap on Saturday or something. The Google maps offline trick is great advice, I'll be sure to grab Manila and any other locale that I'm interested in. Uber's offline map cache saved me once when I was trying to direct a Bangkok Tuk Tuk driver to my hotel, so I know how valuable just having a map to point to when you need directions can be. I actually have a friend who was based in manila for around two years, but he's a trust fund millionaire type, so his travel advice has been fairly disconnected to my needs. He suggested a nice suite in the Peninsula and one of the more expensive escort agencies in the city as a reasonable way to start a productive trip, which isn't exactly what my gf and I are looking for, haha.
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May 6, 2017 00:10
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I LIKE COOKIE posted:Grab has taken off like crazy in hcmc. I just went there for 3 weeks and everyone seems to be using it. All the grab dudes wear distinctive green shirts and helmets which makes them easy to spot. I've heard there's been cases of xe om drivers beating up Grab drivers, hopefully it's not widespread.
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May 6, 2017 20:19
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Senso posted:I've heard there's been cases of xe om drivers beating up Grab drivers, hopefully it's not widespread.
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May 8, 2017 02:02
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ReindeerF posted:I was surprised to see Grab held on in Phuket given the local mafia penchant for beating-to-death competition, but then I used it and realized why: they simply pass along the hilariously predatory mafia pricing to the app and everyone wins! Someday we'll get some kind of Thai Sopranos and this can be a story arc.
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May 8, 2017 05:11
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the weird thing about grab is in malaysia, it's really good with the airports (MYR 65 vs Uber's MYR 80, but we don't know how long this promo lasts) but not much elsewhere. I've heard that the predatory taxi drivers have given up on taxis and jumped to grab causing a fuckton of customer relation problems
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May 8, 2017 05:54
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Here in Jogjakarta, the Sultan talked about and issued a law? Banning Grab, Go Car, all ride hailing taxi apps just over a month ago or something, but everybody is still operating as if nothing happened. That happened just after Grab car launched here, so I imagine if uber cars come here it'll be a huge drama (atm there's just uber motor)
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May 8, 2017 12:45
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Pirate Radar posted:Someday we'll get some kind of Thai Sopranos and this can be a story arc. True stories from The Supernoons: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Phuket-taxi-mob-beats-driver-broad-daylight/10927 http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phuket-nightmare-phuket-tourist-tells-savage-taxi-drivers-beating-14659/ http://www.thephuketnews.com/german-in-coma-after-phuket-tuk-tuk-beating-26587.php Couldn't find my favorite, but it's early internet for Phuket. When the government tried to establish a regular bus service on the island running between the different areas, taxi drivers or tuk tuk drivers, or both, blocked the bus, pulled the driver from it and beat him, I believe, to death. This is what I was alluding to above. There remains no regular bus service of this type on the island (there is the Pink Bus within Phuket Town only, which is the only functional part of the island, and there's the airport bus, which you can sort of use as a bus bus if you want to go where it goes, also there are some intra-town sawngtaews, but what the mafias want to prevent are tourists getting from tourist area to tourist area without them).
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May 9, 2017 23:59
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Yeah, getting around on Phuket if you don't have your own transport is horrible (and even if you do the traffic is so bad that it's still horrible) I can't believe the government allow it to go on, because it really negatively impacts the experience of tourists. Taxi drivers there are also really goddamn rude and a nightmare to deal with. Often they'll agree to take you somewhere, but will drop you off a ways away because they don't want to get beaten up by whichever gang controls the area.
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May 10, 2017 03:54
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Yes, it's the worst. The problem is that the tourists just keep coming and coming and coming and coming and the money never stops flowing, so of course no one is going to change anything. A few years ago the national government announced a major crackdown after a bunch of ambassadors got together and went to bitch at the local governor. As per usual, someone told the mafia to keep a lid on things temporarily and cut down on the heinous abuses. Cut to a few months later and it's back to normal. I do feel like the absolutely outrageous constant beatings of tourists, like the tuk tuk or taxi guys who beat the poo poo out of some elderly French couple for loitering in their spot or something, those don't seem as common, but generally speaking nothing much has changed. Phuket: No Longer Egregiously Beating Senior Citizens
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May 10, 2017 07:12
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So this is going to sound like a really stupid question but is Singapore not the crowded Asian megacity I thought it was? I was expecting a cleaner and tidier version of HK but the CBD appears to be a ghost town by comparison.
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May 10, 2017 14:12
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I've never been to Singapore, but I think if you're gonna compare anywhere to HK it's going to seem empty in comparison. Doesn't it have the highest population density in the world? E: Huh, turns out I'm wrong. Apparently Singapore is more dense than HK.
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May 10, 2017 15:23
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Bardeh posted:I've never been to Singapore, but I think if you're gonna compare anywhere to HK it's going to seem empty in comparison. Doesn't it have the highest population density in the world? Yeah but I bet that figure counts the empty expanses of inaccessible jungle in the New Territories. Certainly if you (used to, not sure about now) take the Mong Kok district, it was the highest population density. Hell, get broader, do HK Island and Kowloon together, but when you count a politically deliberate buffer zone of mountains and trees, things will start to skew less dense.
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May 10, 2017 15:30
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Singapore is EPCOT Hong Kong, yes. Mechanical birds, dyed water, speakers hidden in rocks, etc. You are correct.
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May 10, 2017 16:49
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Actually met someone in HK tonight who was visiting from SG. He had horror stories, grave tales of things like not being able to have a beer in the streets there. What kind of hosed up Opposite Asia is that?!
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May 10, 2017 18:05
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simplefish posted:Actually met someone in HK tonight who was visiting from SG. He had horror stories, grave tales of things like not being able to have a beer in the streets there. What kind of hosed up Opposite Asia is that?! I think I got lucky with this when I was in Singapore? On NYE my friends and I just bought some beers from 7/11, and wandered around drinking them. We ended up sitting in a sort of bus shelter, drinking beer, watching the fireworks from one of the viewing points. We also had another night where we were able to find a quiet spot on the floor in front of some shops in Little India so we just sat and had a beer there. Being in Singapore kind of felt like being in Sydney and I have absolutely no idea why.
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May 10, 2017 18:29
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ReindeerF posted:Singapore is EPCOT Hong Kong, yes. Mechanical birds, dyed water, speakers hidden in rocks, etc. You are correct. Lol
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May 10, 2017 19:55
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CBD Hong Kong can clear up pretty fast during the weekends and after office hours as well.
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May 11, 2017 00:19
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May be moving to Singapore within the year; on a scale of awful to terrible how great of a thing is this.
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May 17, 2017 20:35
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Move there because I have family there and it will save me a flight to visit you at the same time
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May 17, 2017 21:31
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LimburgLimbo posted:May be moving to Singapore within the year; on a scale of awful to terrible how great of a thing is this. Is this for real?
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May 18, 2017 01:13
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caberham posted:Is this for real? Yep. Probably a good move career wise but there's also benefits to staying in Japan maybe.
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May 18, 2017 01:25
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Oh my god the suspense. But you always like to look around and never move so I'm just going to assume you won't be until you actually relocate there. But I like Singapore, it might be tooo hot for you
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May 18, 2017 01:32
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