Hot and cold in Palau, Philippines, Mexico, Canada & Solomon Islands

[Seat0B]

So did you learn to ski @Mattg?

 

[AIRwin]

So did you learn to ski @Mattg?

He's an Olympic medalist in skiing

 

[Mattg]

So did you learn to ski @Mattg?

Sorry for the long delay - life has gotten in the way but I haven't forgotten about this trip report! I will finish writing it as soon as I have time.

 

[Seat0B]

He's an Olympic medalist in skiing

So I heard!

 

[LinaLee]

@Mattg - thanks for the memories of Manila and especially tagaytay and lake taal. I too spent several weekends there whenever my work required me to stay longer than the week between 2013-2014. One trip I even made the hike up to the volcano in a volcano. Otherwise most of my weekends was visiting the various shopping mall. Agree, expats live a life insulated from the normal population and more so the ultra rich locals it’s a whole different level. I’m also sad to find out the Sofitel Manila has now shut. That was an amazing place to view the sunset over Manila bay. Many Sundays was spent snoozing while waiting for sunset, after a long buffet lunch with unlimited champagne pours!

Looking forward to your next update now that I’ve caught up with another trip report.

 

[Melburnian1]

@Mattg, an excellent trip report: some years ago, prior to 2020, I walked up to Taal Volcano and back. It was hot, as after noon. Many butterflies.

There were individuals offering horse transport but I declined.

 

[Mattg]

So, back to this trip report...

From Seoul, my next leg was to Mexico City via Vancouver, in Air Canada Economy.

I checked in at Incheon Airport pretty much as soon as Air Canada opened its check-in counters, and there wasn't too much of a wait thanks to my Star Alliance Gold status.

After clearing immigration and security, I had just enough time to pop into the Singapore Airlines lounge at ICN before that lounge closed for the afternoon. I managed to get a delicious bowl of laksa and a Singapore Sling, and had about 10 minutes to finish these before the SQ flight was called for boarding and they shut the lounge.




After being kicked out of that lounge, I headed over to the Asiana Lounge which was the contract lounge for Air Canada. This was really quiet and had several massage chairs, which was nice. However, the Asiana Lounge has very little in the way of food.



My Air Canada Boeing 787 flight from Incheon to Vancouver was OK. I had an aisle seat in the middle block, and the middle seat next to me was empty, which meant I had a bit more space and exclusive aisle access - making the flight a bit more bearable.

The crew served dinner after take-off, and breakfast before landing, with snacks & drinks available in between.

This was dinner:



And breakfast:



This flight ran on time and was pretty smooth, overall. Most of the other passengers were Korean and they were very polite.

 

[Mattg]

We landed around lunchtime on a very foggy day in Vancouver.



Transiting at YVR was simple enough. Unlike the USA, Canada does have international transit facilities. I went to the transit counter, where I had to put some details into a kiosk and then wait for all the other connecting passengers from my flight to show up so they could take us through security together. There ended up being around 20 people from my ICN-YVR flight who were connecting onwards to MEX - who knew that this is a reasonably popular connection.

After clearing transit security, I had about a 5-hour wait before my next flight. I was very much needing a nap at this point, so went to the Maple Leaf Lounge (which I could access with Star Alliance Gold). This was absolutely heaving, had a lot of sunlight coming directly into the lounge, and didn't have any suitable spots for napping. So, I walked out and tried the SkyTeam Lounge again (which I could access with Priority Pass). This was much quieter and had a few private pod seats, but these weren't really good for napping either.

In the end I just got some noodles and had a shower in the SkyTeam lounge, then tried to find a quiet bank of seats in the terminal to lie across - but didn't really manage much actual sleep. I ended up returning to the Maple Leaf Lounge for some food before boarding.

My YVR-MEX flight on a Boeing 737-8 was completely full. It's a six-hour flight, but being an intra-North America route, the only free food served was a cookie. Food is available to buy on board, but I didn't order any food during the first service. By the time the crew did a second trolley run, the only fresh food still available was an overpriced pack of vege sticks with hummus.

Air Canada does at least have seatback IFE and Wi-Fi, but honestly, this was not an enjoyable flight. Especially as I was really overtired by this point.

We landed around midnight local time in Mexico City. As I was walking from the gate towards immigration, the lights all went out inside the airport terminal. They came back on a few minutes later, but this pretty much sums up the current state of MEX airport, unfortunately.

There was a very long wait for checked bags, and it was already 1am by the time I got into an Uber to my hotel for some much-needed sleep.

 

[Mattg]

I arrived in Mexico City on a Thursday night, and I had booked a two-week intensive Spanish language course beginning the following Monday morning. My plan was to stay in a hotel for the first few nights, where I would hopefully be able to sleep well and recover from the jetlag, before moving to a hostel on the Sunday where I planned to stay for the full two weeks of the language course.

So, I checked in on arrival at Holiday Inn Mexico Zona Centro. The hotel was fine, and I liked that the gym on the top floor was a proper, fully equipped gym. I also liked that breakfast was available until midday - so I could theoretically sleep in. What I didn't love was being pressured to leave a tip with my "free" Diamond breakfast each morning - or that basic things like water, orange juice and coffee were gate-kept so that you had to be served them by a waiter, rather than just pouring yourself a glass of water.

I had figured that 3 days would be enough time to recover from the jetlag after flying in from Asia. I was very wrong. This was among the worst jetlag I've ever had, and it took me 9 days to fully adapt to the new timezone. For the first week, I couldn't even stay awake until dinner and would then wake up around 2-3am, unable to sleep further. I don't think that the high altitude in Mexico City helped and in hindsight, I think I may have had some kind of altitude sickness as I wasn't feeling great in the days after I arrived.

Nonetheless, on the Sunday I moved to Hostel Kuxan in Condesa, which would be my home for the next fortnight. I'd booked a dorm room to save money - and for the social atmosphere - and the hostel itself was pretty good. It was quite clean and had a lovely rooftop garden, a kitchen, coworking areas, and most of the other guests were nice. The location was convenient, too. However, my room backed onto a busy road. It was always very loud throughout the night with lots of trucks and sirens going past the window, so good earplugs were an absolute must.

 

[kookaburra75]

Oh to be young and adventurous, and able to sleep across airport benches again - like you. I too can't sleep sitting up, and when flying east it takes me about 5 days to fully shake the jet lag out of my system. Really interested in your time in Mexico.

 

[Mattg]

This was my second time in CDMX, as it's known, and I'd already seen many of the most important sights on my first visit. So this time, with more than two weeks and less emphasis on "ticking off" a sightseeing checklist, I got the chance to really immerse myself in the city.

CDMX has a lot to give, but if I'm honest, it also can take a lot out of you. It is a bustling, vibrant place that oozes culture. As home to 23 million people (in the wider metropolitan area), it also has terrible traffic, bad pollution, and it's hard to escape the constant noise.

I booked my Spanish course with a company called Walk Spanish. They have quite an interesting model. Rather than learning in a classroom, you meet at 9am every morning (from Monday to Friday) in a different location around the city, for a group class. Most of the locations were either walking distance or a short metro ride away from Condesa, where I was staying. A couple of the locations were very far away, and required hour-long commutes in packed buses.

Each of the group classes had around 8 people, and would run until 1pm. We typically spent the first half in a café, learning vocabulary and grammar.



For the second half of the class, we might visit a museum, or a market, or a park, or just go for a walk around the city. I found this model quite enjoyable, and helped to really get a proper feel for the city.



Each student had the option to also do private lessons in the afternoon for 1 or 2 hours. I opted for a 1-hour private class each day after the group class, and would meet my tutor from 1-2pm.

I was in a different group class for the second week as I'd asked to be moved up to a more difficult level (I did have some prior knowledge of Spanish beforehand). Between the two groups, I was studying with people from the US, Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands.

Overall, I really enjoyed the classes and my Spanish definitely improved. The teachers were all really good. However, I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend this company because the owner/management were disorganised and had very poor communication.

 

[henrus]

So, I checked in at Ninoy Aquino International Airport and headed up to the Cathay Pacific Lounge there for some breakfast. I know the lounges at MNL get a bad rap sometimes, but the Cathay lounge was lovely. The noodle bar was a highlight.

Sad this lounge is now closed for good!

Looking forward to the next updates.

 

[Mattg]

On one of the weekend days, I did a free (i.e. tip-based) walking tour around the historical centre.



As the tour was wrapping up, a large and very loud group of protestors marched by. They were protesting the closure of an animal shelter, of all things.



A few other photos from around Mexico City:

 

[Mattg]

I did a lot of walking around Mexico City, but it's really not a pedestrian-friendly city. These pedestrian crossings sum up the level of thought that has gone into making the city easy for pedestrians...




Given the traffic situation, the metro was often the quickest way to get across the city. The metro is cheap and easy to use, and isn't too crowded outside of the peak hours, but the wayfinding is terrible. It's not that easy for foreigners to decipher the signage and work out which train to catch.

The platforms at each metro station have LED displays, but many don’t actually show when the next train is, or where it’s going. These displays do show the time, but even the time displayed was often wrong.

 

[AIRwin]

The metro is cheap and easy to use, and isn't too crowded outside of the peak hours, but the wayfinding is terrible.

The doors close very quickly and I was almost caught between once

 

[Mattg]

I tried a lot of different foods in Mexico City, including street food tacos. It's not the healthiest cuisine, but it sure is tasty!

Chilaquiles, for example, is a popular breakfast dish.



The hostel where I was staying organised a lot of activities for the guests. On one of the nights during my second week there - once I was over the jetlag - I joined a group from the hostel for an evening of lucha libre - basically Mexican wrestling - at Arena México. This was quite an experience!





Now, call me naïve - no really, go on, I won't be offended - but I genuinely didn't realise before this how staged and choreographed wrestling is. The whole show was basically fake. But entertaining, nonetheless.

I had quite a few tacos from different vendors that day, as well as a few drinks with my new hostel buddies before, during and after the lucha libre show.




Clearly, I was tempting fate a bit too hard. I went to bed around midnight that evening, then woke up at 2am feeling violently ill.

 

[Mattg]

I won't go too much into the detail, but I basically spent the rest of that night getting up at hourly intervals to empty my stomach at both ends. By the morning, I had barely slept, felt too weak to even walk across the road to the pharmac_, and I don't think there was anything left in my stomach.

At this particular hostel, there are various toilets scattered around the place. When I had to get up around 4am, it just so happened that almost every single toilet in the hostel was either occupied or closed for cleaning. I had to walk and walk and walk around the hostel, feeling extremely nauseous, looking for a vacant toilet - and almost didn't make it.

I spent most of the next day lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. Thankfully, some of the other hostel guests were super helpful and brought me food, electrolytes and medicine. I don't know exactly what happened, but this was more than just a hangover. It was probably classic food poisoning, because after 24 hours I was feeling OK again. Phew.

This would end up being the second-worst day I would have that week.