Week 81 - Boracay, Manila, Singapore, Danau Toba (Philippines, Indonesia)

We left Boracay early to give ourselves plenty of time to make it to the airport in Kalibo. We ended up buying a combination boat/shuttle van ticket at Boracay port to save ourselves the time and hassle of getting local buses. The journey went smoothly and after a long queue to get into the terminal building we checked in with over an hour until our flight. Then we found out we had a 4 hour delay. We couldn’t bare the thought of queuing up outside in the heat again and settled in for a morning in the departure lounge, one room with a few little kiosks and not much else. 

Finally we arrived back into Manila, grabbed our bags from the carousel and walked around the corner to pick up a cheap white metered cab. We checked in to the Shogun Hotel in Pasay. We’d been there twice before with my mum and decided to stay there again since it’s only 15 minutes from the airport and has a swimming pool and a pool table. While I stayed in the room to squeeze all our purchases into Rhodri’s bag so he could take them home for us, the boys popped to the shopping mall next door for some final purchases. We took a quick dip in the pool and spent a really pleasant last evening in the roof top bar/restaurant.

Rhodri’s alarm was set for 2:30am and we had a taxi booked for him at 3am. He was surprisingly awake as we saw him off. It was sad to see him go after spending three weeks with him, Rhodri is very easy going and was quite happy to just go with the flow. I hope we gave him a taste for traveling.

We didn’t really get back to sleep and our own alarm was set for 6:30am for our taxi to the airport and our flight to Singapore. Our flight, for once, was on time. As soon as we stepped off the plane we knew we’d left the Philippines far behind, it was calm, ordered and serene, a weird way to describe an airport but if you’ve been to Changi you’d understand. We were through customs and on the MRT within 30 minutes and 4 changes and an hour later, were checking into our hostel in Little India. As soon as we walked in the door we saw Rhys’s auntie sitting in the common area, Fay was spending the night with us on route to Australia. We dropped off our bags and retired to the kitchen for a cup of tea and a catch up. As it was already getting late we decided to head out and explore Little India and find somewhere for dinner. A few steps from the hostel and we stumbled upon a hindu temple, Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Temple, it was very beautiful in the fading afternoon light. 

Just a little further along the road and we came across another hindu temple, Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple. We wandered inside just as an evening ceremony began, it was quite magical with the drumming and shankha trumpet playing along with the candles and incense revealed behind a curtain. Further along the road, after delving into a souvenir/antique shop, we stumbled upon the Little India Arcade, an arts and crafts market. By then we had worked up an appetite and walked around until we found a little canteen that we liked the look of for dinner. It was super cheap and delicious for huge portions of curry with all the sides. 

The next stop on our evening itinerary was the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel. We crunched our way over the peanut shell covered floor to a table at the back of the room and ordered 3 Classic Sinapore Slings. Raffles is a bit of a Singapore institution, it was built in 1887 by two Armenian brothers in the colonial style and named after Stamford Raffles, and is the birthplace of the Singapore Sling cocktail. We dragged our cocktails out for as long as we could while shelling peanuts to add to the floor covering and taking photos of the fantastic fan contraptions. Back at the hostel we headed to our room, jam packed with 3 bunk beds and no room for anything else. We’d all had long days and were asleep in no time.

Singapore Slings in Raffles, Singapore.

Fay’s flight on to Australia didn’t leave until the evening so we had the full day free to explore the city. After dragging Fay out of bed, we ate a quick breakfast and planned a bit of a route. I’d read about a Buddhist temple near our hostel with a 15m Buddha statue and we decided that was where we’d start. Although maybe not the most mind blowing of temples, Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple was enjoyable, we had laminate guides to explain a bit about the artifacts in the room before we paid 25p each for a spin of the wheel of fortune. Rhys’s was spookily accurate, about keeping his cool and not seeing relatives for a long time. 

After a short MRT ride, our next stop was St Andrews Cathedral, quite a modern building and not really much to look at in comparison to churches we have at home. We wandered around the Padang cricket pitch, surrounded by the National Art Gallery building and the Victoria Theatre and continued to the Parliament Houses and the Supreme Court, the latter being a bit of a disappointment, a Norman Foster building that was more monstrosity than anything. We crossed the river into the commercial and financial zone of the city and strolled through Boat Quay, a strip of bars and restaurants lining the water. We stopped at a place with a cheap dim sum set menu and were astounded again at the sheer quantity of food that was brought to our table. We were all pretty stuffed and were keen to walk some more to wear off the meal. Our path took us towards the Marina where we stopped to check out the confusing Merlion statue and to marvel at the Marina Sands Hotel building, a weird construction with three towers joined at the top by a boat shaped level, longer than the height of the Eifel Tower, and overhanging at both ends. We continued walking around the Marina until we reached an air conditioned shopping mall where we ducked in for an ice cream. 

The Merlion statue with the Singapore skyline, Singapore.

Rhys and Fay resting under a solar fan, Marina Bay, Singapore.

We emerged from the other side of the shopping mall and headed for the giant ‘trees’ of the Garden By The Bay a brand new, botanical garden. From first sight we were impressed, the bright green foliage looks fantastic alongside the pink and purple structures that tower above you. We decided to try the Skywalk. A lift took us up to the viewing bridge that curved between the towers high above the gardens, Fay managed the walk without her fear of heights getting the better of her and we took hundreds of photos of the gardens and the city. Back on solid ground we spent an hour or so exploring the gardens, me and Rhys pledging to come back to explore some more when we return to Singapore in a couple of weeks.

View of the Skywalk,  Gardens By the Bay, Singapore.

By then, it was time for us to head back to the hostel for Fay to collect her bag and make the trip back to the airport. We had time for a cup of tea before a tropical storm blew in. We couldn’t wait any longer and, after Rhys said his goodbyes I walked Fay to the MRT station with our only umbrella. We were so glad Fay went to the trouble of breaking her flight to Australia with a stop in Singapore to see us, particularly as it was her first time out of Europe and flight times meant she had to make her own way to the hostel before we arrived. We had a great 24 hours and got a real feel for the city, ticking off most of our to do list for the centre of town.

Back at the hostel we had some time to finish chores before we headed back out into Little India for another curry dinner and to do some shopping for necessities rather than souvenirs.

Yet another early start the following day and we headed back to the airport. It was a shame we couldn’t spend longer in the terminal as it’s so blissfully serene and relaxed, but the MRT doesn’t start until 6:15am and that left us a bit rushed to make our flight. Our flight was on time again and we landed in Medan at 9:10am Indonesian time. Getting a visa on arrival was incredibly straight forward and before we knew it we were in the arrivals hall. I’d researched and read about the hassle of getting to Parapat from the newly opened airport on public transport (you’d have to travel the hour into Medan, change, and then take a 4-6 hour bus back the way you just came), and since it was supposed to be our chill time we negotiated a private car for £26. The drive took just under 4 hours and even with the blaring music, and the death wish of the driver (I think we spent 50% of the journey on the wrong side of the road playing chicken with oncoming traffic and swerving it at the last possible moment) was far better than dealing with public buses. 

We’d just missed a ferry from Parapat to Tuktuk on Samosir Island and had to wait an hour for the next ferry, not really a hardship considering the views we had from the waiting boat over Danau Toba. Danau Toba (Lake Toba) is the largest lake in South East Asia and the biggest volcanic lake in the world. 

View of Tuktuk from the ferry across Danau Toba.

The ferry dropped us off at the landing of our resort and in no time we’d checked in to our room. It was pretty basic but had a great balcony with spectacular views out across the lake. Excited to have 4 nights in one place we bought a beer and settled in to watch the approaching storm from the comfy chairs on the balcony. For dinner we ate at our resort, enjoying a couple of games of pool while we waited and were back in bed and asleep by 8:30pm. The last 10 weeks of having constant company and being ‘on holiday’ rather than traveling had worn us out and we were in need of some time to relax and recharge. 

View from our balcony across Danau Toba.

We woke and wandered back across to our resort restaurant for breakfast, as the night before, the food wasn’t great and we decided we wouldn’t be going there again. Before the sun got too hot we started out to explore Tuktuk. It’s immediately evident how empty the place is. Apparently it once rivaled Koh Pha Ngan for it’s full moon parties but none of that hedonistic vibe remains, other than the odd sign here and there offering free magic mushrooms. Tuktuk is a tourist village, every building pretty much, is either a hotel, a restaurant or a souvenir or tour shop, but there’s a real lack of actual tourists, it’s a bit eerie and you can’t help but feel sorry for the people trying to run businesses and earn a decent living. We walked a full lap of the island, stopping for a drink at Hotel Carolina, a posh hotel with amazing lake views where the Pacquiao boxing match was underway on TV. 

Nearing our resort, a group of school girls pulled up on bikes shouting to ask if they could talk to us for their homework, we answered their questions, had lots of photos taken, signed some exercise books and continued, only to be stopped another couple of times by different groups of kids within a 100 metre stretch of road. Not wanting to be rude we stopped and talked to them before deciding that we could be there all day and were in need of lunch. We had to dodge the last few groups to get to a cafe for homemade bread sandwiches (I think the entire school was on a school trip and we were the only tourists around for them to practice their English with). Back in the room we had a chilled afternoon before wandering to a nearby restaurant, Jenny’s for a BBQ lake fish dinner and watching the nightly storm roll in from our balcony.

Us answering questions with one of the many groups of students, Danau Toba.

We woke late and headed out to rent a motorbike to explore Samosir Island. Riding north, our first few stops were a bit random. We were trying to find the King Siallagan's Stone Chair but ended up firstly at a patch of hillside with a few moss covered statues situated in the forest, and then at a small chair circle where some lady showed us around in broken English. We nearly missed the actual chairs and saw the entrance at the last minute, feeling a little disheartened and ripped off by the two previous misleading stops (entry to the other two sites was 3 times the amount of the larger and more famous site). We had a quick explore before hoping back on the bike to our next stop, the Simanindo museum. I think we would have got a lot more out of the chairs if we’d had a guide to teach us about the Batak village and the way of life with their gruesome executions, slashing and rubbing chili, garlic and lime juice into the wounds of the accused before beheading them. The museum wasn’t really a museum as such but another cluster of Batak houses with daily dance shows (which we’d just missed).

Traditional Batak house at the Simanindo Museum, Danau Toba.

We continued riding around the island until we reached the main town of Pangururan with a cluster of hot springs on the outskirts. The hot springs didn’t look like anything special and were a bit dirty so we grabbed lunch and continued on our way. We crossed over to the main land to a great view point before deciding the road was getting a little rough and turned back for the long ride home to Tuktuk.

View of Lake Toba from a view point just past Pangururan.

Man washing his ox in the lake, Danau Toba.

Our last day in Tuktuk we had another well needed lay in and a morning swim in the lake. We ate a huge, delicious breakfast of fresh yoghurt, fruit, homemade toast and coffee before catching the boat back over to Parapat town. There had been a market on when we passed through on our way to Tuktuk but it wasn’t market day when we returned and the town just seemed a little tired and dirty. We spent an hour wandering around the empty souvenir stalls, grabbed an ice cream and hopped back on the boat over to Tuktuk. Rhys had fallen in love with a wooden Batak mask and we stopped by the workshop for him to haggle a bargain price. That night we ate more lake fish at Jenny’s before packing our bags ready for an early start the following day.