The flight with Singapore airlines was relaxing and I arrived in the early evening. Here I wanted to try out my first real couchsurfing experience and with Kuni, a sweet Japanese guy, I had found a wonderful host. He's a rare species of cosmopolitan Japanese who hosts surfers almost every night and lives at a perfect location in Little India, close to the city centre. When I arrived I met his previous couchsurfers, Justyna from Poland and Edson from Brazil, who were about to leave for their flight back to Fukuoka. We all had a nice chat and they invited me to visit them when I am in Japan.
Explanation for Mum and all the other ones that are close to fainting, when I am writing about staying at houses of completely unknown people:
I have discovered www.couchsurfing.org for me. It's a social networking platform that connects travelers of any kind with 'Locals' in almost any place in the world. Purpose is to get in touch with each other, foster intercultural exchange and to make access to local knowledge about places and activities available. A place to stay for the night is just one option, also to meet up for a coffee or just to get the latest tips via Email from the local experts is possible. For the couchsurfing-members in each city it can serve as an opportunity to meet other people in your city and to plan activities together, which can be anything: evening events, museum visits or hiking tours, whatever one thinks might be fun for others to join in. In Sydney most of Freddy's friends were from the Couchsurfing community and a highly active bunch of international travelers.
24.11. Singapore: museum, shopping and dim-sum
Kuni had given me some great ideas of which Museums I should visit, pointed out the best shopping mall, which train-ticket to buy and where to eat. Through this accurate plan (very Japanese) I had a fully packed day in Singapore, walking around the heritage district with the wonderful Peranakan-Museum, the Singapore Art Musem and got lost in the shopping centre. Oh, and I had a coffee at famous Raffles Hotel and a huge dim-sum and baosi meal at DIN TAI FUN.
25.11. SIN – Brunei/Darussalam – Manila
Next Morning I took the flight to Manila via Darussalam on Borneo. Who of you would've known where that is?! Flying with Royal Brunei was okay, whereby I found the Muslim prayer before each takeoff rather strange. Arriving in Manila it was apparent that I'm entering a different world: the cab ride to the house of my hosts for the next two nights took 2 hours through thick and chaotic traffic. The distance from the airport was not even 15km – time to readjust dimensions. My cab driver was complaining about his hurting legs from the constant gear changing and tried a conversation with me. As his English was as fluent as the traffic our talk was managed via questions he received in English via SMS/Text from a friend. This is only possible when you have a lot of time. Not sure what he did with my answers, though.
My couchsurfing hosts in Manila were three really cool Philippine sisters: Liliane, Girlie and Candie (these are their real names!!!) They live in a huge flat with an extra dedicated Couchsurfing room for their guests. I had just arrived for 10 minutes when Liliane came into the flat with Tiana from Hawaii and Lauren from California, the two other couchsurfers for that night. We went to a super-cool, indie-style restaurant, not bigger than a living room, a crazy chef and divine food. We met up there with the two other sisters and their friend Zara. It was a great funny evening with lots of girls talk and travel plans. "Mel Gibson's darkest secret" was the devilish dessert that had an explosive effect in my mouth. Jetro- the chef has installed a notice board where everybody who had Mel Gibson should make this known public. To get rid of aggressions one could write on the "Angst Wall". At a later stage in the evening we tried out plastic balloon blowing. Never did this before. Cool game!!
26.11. Manila
Sightseeing with Tiana and Lauren. We took public transport. PMVs are called Jeepneys here - and they are so cool. It takes ages to master smallest distances. Manila is almost dying from traffic. But as a tourist it's fun to ride these crazy vehicles.
We walked through the city centre and ended up at "Intramuros", the old trading centre. We met a group of students who took us for a spontaneous tour through the area. We had some good talks about on studying in Manila and youth live.
The trip back home took over 2 hours and the American girls went to catch the night bus towards Philippine's north while I had dinner with Liliane and some of her friends.
27.11. Manila- Guam
Lunch with Zara in the business district. She had insisted on having a proper Philippine Meal with me. I tried various foods and finally had to try Balut, a local specialty. When I tell you that it is an egg you might shrug your shoulders. But with a half-breeded egg the thing is quite different. I had to get all my courage together for this!! It actually doesn't taste too bad. Will not put it on my favourite food list though…
After browsing through the giant shopping malls with their loud-hyperactive atmosphere for some hours I ended up without buying anything. Size "L" equals to a German Size 36. This somehow makes shopping a bit of an impossible exercise. But the farewell drink at the posh Shangri-La Hotel was great and when I was in the cab to the airport through thick traffic I was quite ready to get back to the Pacific area.
28.11. Guam – o-mikoshi and cock-fights
My flight arrived in Guam at 4:30AM in the morning. Mike (an American Map-Maker), my Couchsurfing host picked me up at the airport. Unbelievable at this hour of the day!!! After catching up on some sleep I had breakfast with him and his wife Kumi, a super-sweet Japanese girl. They took me for a drive round the island and showed me some of the sights. Guam is very American, which irritates me massively. Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Home Depot and Macy's all are present as well as the typical broad roads and the huge SUVs, but very few signs of the local Chamorro culture. Original is only the beautiful nature of a Pacific Island with Palm trees and bushland.
In the evening we went to the big annual Japanese Culture Festival and had some good food – and of course – some Sake!!! kanpai!!
Kumi and her friend then talked me into help carrying o-mikoshi with them and the other Japanese girls together. This is a shrine to bring luck to all the people present on the fairground. So we carried it on our shoulders around the big square to the beat of the Japanese drums. A German with a group of Japanese on an American Island in the Pacific; how crazy is this?!
To complete the cultural roundup for the day we went late at night to a cock-fight. A very big thing in Philippine and Indonesian Tradition. But also Chamorros seemed to like this. The location was the cock-fighting stadium at the outer parts of Tamuning village. It was the big Thanksgiving-Derby and the atmosphere was full of tension and emotion-laden. Not sure how legal that stuff is though. We are on US territory…
The fighting parties come into the ring with the cocks and let the opponent get aggressive against each other. Then the bet-acceptance process starts, which is like observing a magic gesture language ritual. It seems very chaotic, but somehow it gets clear who bets how much.
The covers are removed from the 15cm long, razor-sharp blades tied to the claws of the cocks and they get placed opposite to each other. The fight itself is rather short – maybe 30 seconds lasts the wild clash of the two opponents – then one of the two cocks lays dead and motionless on the floor, the blades soaked in blood. No reaction of triumph or loss comes from the spectators, they only start to re-arrange the dollar-bills in their hands.
The new parties enter and the bet begins anew...
