A Moving Christmas Experience in the Philippines

I haven't spent a Christmas in the Philippines since arriving here so this year was going to be my first.  Not that I'm particularly bothered about Christmas in general and besides, it just never really feels like Christmas here, despite all the decorations and Christmas songs that start playing as early as they do in the UK.  I was in Manila in September and got stuck in some appalling traffic (even more appalling than it normally is).  At the hardware store I asked how come there was so much traffic and they said it was due to everyone Christmas shopping.  In September?

I'm of the mind that so long as you don't expect too much from Christmas or New Year then you won't be disappointed.  In the event, I ended up spending a large part of the day moving house.  Lunch was at a friend's house, the guy that runs the dive company I use, and that was pleasant enough but straight after it was back to lugging furniture.

New Abode

New Year I headed off to Singapore to meet up with my sister. Again, I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be a good one.  The day New Year's Eve started with a walk to the Marina Bay Sands resort to have brunch on the skypark of the hotel.  As you may or may not know I worked on the construction project for 18 months which was a mega-development but without doubt a phenomenal and hugely impressive achievement.  Whilst what's above ground is spectacular, what's in the ground is equally impressive but will never be seen or appreciated by the public. A reflection of this is that there was more time spent building what's in the ground than what's above. It's just a shame that something of this grandeur can only be built off the back of a sordid casino and the obscenely huge profits made from exploitative gambling (is there any other type?).

Marina Bay Sands Resort

Buffet brunch was in the Ku De Ta restaurant with an awesome view north over the whole of Singapore, with the City of Johor Bahru in Malaysia clearly visible in the distance, and to the south across the sea to Indonesia.  But all this doesn't come cheap and it's an expensive lunch.

View to the South

View to the North

After lunch we headed to Clark Quay for a few more beers beside the river and left there early evening, battling through a hellish thronging crowd to the taxi rank to head back to the hotel.  Fortunately, taxis were aplenty as they were dropping off revellers (how they fit them all into Clark Quay I don't know), unlike one New Year's Eve I'd spent in Singapore where I had to wait nearly 2 hours for a taxi, which is no fun when you've a belly full of  beer and a very full bladder.  I really takes the edge off a good evening.

The evening and welcoming in the New Year was spent bopping in the hotel bar and quaffing more booze.