Puerto Princesa Subterranean River’s Twisting Course Starts with a Tree-Lined Lagoon

If the Philippines strike you as remote, here’s a reason to go there instead of Thailand or Laos: Puerto Princesa Subterranean River [www.puerto-undergroundriver.com]. A beguiling shade of aquamarine, the river is the main draw at the national park named after Palawan province’s capital, Puerto Princesa City, which lies 600 kilometres southwest of Manila.

Royal route

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River’s twisting course starts with a tree-lined lagoon that lures monkeys, monitor lizards, and squirrels. On its way into the South China Sea, the river covers eight kilometers.

That endurance feat makes it the world’s longest navigable underground river – one of several claims to fame that help it live up to its classy name. 

Crowned queen

Another is it made the finals of New7Wonders of Nature [www.new7wonders.com/archives/wonder/puerto-princesa-underground-river], amid stiff competition including Venezuela’s Angel Falls and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands. In addition, the river is UNESCO-listed. UNESCO describes Puerto Princesa Subterranean River as “spectacular”. 

Wonder-wings

UNESCO also describes the river’s “faunal diversity” is “moderate”. But the usual take on the river is that it teems with wildlife. Of the 252 bird species whizzing around Palawan, 165 have been seen at the river. 

Watch out for the white-breasted sea eagle, the Blue-naped Parrot, and the Palawan hornbill or Talusi, as locals call it, which boasts regal looks: predominantly black plumage, a white tail, shiny green “upper parts” and a splendid creamy beak crowned with a helmet-like “casque”. 

Furry fringe

Some curious mammals give the hornbill a run for its money in the presence stakes. Watch out for the long-tailed macaque, the bearded pig, the bearcat – a cute, nocturnal mammal whose name reflects its looks – the Palawan porcupine and a small skunk strikingly named the Palawan stink badger, which resembles a pig crossed with a badger. 

Noah’s ark

Then there is the common reticulated python and the green crested lizard. Frogs and bats also enter the picture, as do swiftlets, the whip spider, the sea cow (dugong) [http://aboutpuertoprincesa.com/palawan/dugong-seacow.html] and the hawksbill sea turtle. 

Magic. Puerto Princesa Subterranean River bolsters the Philippines’ tropical paradise image. 

Keep it clean

Some sources fret that Palawan is set to degenerate into a party island and that, as a result, the underground river could become a sewer. But that nightmare looks unlikely to unfold for a simple reason. 

Palawan is one of the Philippines’ cleanest islands – residents aim to keep it that way. Good news for tourists, bearcats and all the other residents of the cathedral-like limestone twilight zone. 

How to get there

Puerto Princesa is on Palawan Island, an hour from Manila. Cebu Pacific Air and Air Philippines also conduct flight from Davao and Cebu City.

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Double Happiness Courtyard Hotel are Excellent Staff, Location, and Lurnishings

It's amazing how difficult it is to find a hotel in China that has a room that will hold 4 people. By this I mean 2 adults and 2 children in a Family Happy Room. There was a huge bed for the adults and a double size bed (maybe just a bit bigger than a twin) that held my 12 year old son and my 7 year old daughter. Of course there was the normal sibling fussing involved but they slept fine once they calmed down! :)

My sister and her husband also went with us and our third child stayed with them in their Family Room. There are a few family rooms and ours, Room 228, was the largest. We brought a sleeping bag with us just in case the kids' bed wasn't big enough for both kids but we didn't need it. There was plenty of space on the floor in both rooms for the sleeping bag and suitcases though. Our room had a desk with a computer on it for our use! Very nice! Plus they had a hot pot for heating water with teas, mugs, sugar, coffee, etc. for our use!

The rooms were very clean and spacious. Also due to the hotel being in the hutong, they were also very quiet. The staff was very helpful and spoke excellent English.

Once we arrived at the hotel the staff helped set us up for tickets to see a Kung Fu Show (highly recommended by the way!). We requested tickets two days before the show and we had front row seats based on us requesting to sit close to the front for the kids! The staff also set up a driver to take us and bring us back (there were 7 of us in our group) which was included in the cost of the tickets. I don't know how much the tickets were without the driver, but let me tell you, it was not easy catching a taxi in that area so having him take us was the best!!!

One last thing, don't order pizza at the hotel's restaurant. Not appetizing at all!!!! Can't stress this enough! My recommendation is to order out for delivery from Annie's Italian Restaurant (look it up to get the number and when you call they will give you the closest location's phone number). We ate at Annie's one night and because we had to meet the taxi at 6:00 we ordered for delivery that night and the pizza was just as excellent! We ate it in the hotel's restaurant and they were find with that. Oh yes, there's an XBox 360 Connect and a Wii for the kids!!! Excellent for chill time for the parents to have a drink while the kids play! (Was not busy in spite of it being a holiday week either!).

On the flip side, the breakfasts were just fine for Westerners with fresh fruit, eggs, bacon, toast, cereal, and pastries. There was plenty of other things too. Coffee and tea were great, but if you want cold milk you have to ask for it. I guess many people there prefer hot milk with their cereal.

Can't say enough about the hotel! The price was great, the service was great, and the rooms were fun with the authentic Chinese decor. Not a cookie-cutter hotel and has lots of space in the Family Rooms!

Room Tip: If you have a family of 3 or 4 ask for a Happy Family Room. We stayed in the biggest one, #228

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Paris is a Wonderful Magical City

Paris.

Just that one simple word and the images come rushing, pell-mell, of a beautiful, timeless city – the Champs Elysées, the Left Bank, Montmartre, the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, which never disappoints, however often one has seen it.

Paris is a magical city to discover, for it has something to offer everyone: superb museums, wonderful shops – though some may just be for window-shopping – restaurants galore, walks along the River Seine, a cup of coffee in a pavement café... it's difficult to avoid the clichés when describing the City of Light.

For the lucky first-time visitor, there is so much to see and do, and for the even luckier return visitor, there are myriad lesser-known facets of the city waiting to be discovered.

So, if you have already visited the Louvre and Notre Dame, and don't want to climb the Eiffel Tower again, here are some suggestions of different places for you to explore.

If a visit to Paris seems incomplete without a walk around a museum, then head for the Musée d'Orsay, which houses a fabulous collection of 19th century art – pictures, sculptures, furniture – in the former Orsay Railway Station.  The building itself is stunning, and in the summer there are wonderful views of the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens from the roof terrace.  For equally stunning views, take an escalator ride to the roof of another museum, the Pompidou Centre.  From there, not only can you see the panorama of typical grey Parisian roof-tops and chimneys, but you can also look down on the square in front of the museum, packed with entertainers of all kinds, fire-eaters, jugglers, mime artists – a real feast of street theatre.

People-watching & food are two of Paris's favorite past-times, so let's combine the two, by eating in some of the city's ethnic districts.  We'll start the day in true Parisian fashion, however, with breakfast in a local café.  Order a crème, (frothy white coffee), and a croissant, and sit back and watch your French neighbours.  They will be reading the morning paper – Le Figaro for the serious, L'Equipe for the football results, or playing pinball, or talking, which the French do constantly and animatedly.

If you want good Chinese or Vietnamese food for lunch, head off to the 13th arrondissement, where Paris's Chinatown can be found centered around the Avenue d'Ivry. The streets are full of Chinese restaurants and shops, even supermarkets, selling all kinds of Chinese goods, from groceries, tea, and kitchen utensils to silk jackets, music cassettes and newspapers.   If you feel like afternoon tea, you can choose between a typically English spread in the tea-room attached to the English bookshop, W.H.Smith, or head off to the Paris Mosque, a North African oasis in the heart of the student district on the Left Bank.

Have mint tea and wickedly sweet "baklavas" in the cool tea-room or outside in the shady courtyard.  Still hungry?  Well, how about Greek fare for dinner, in one of the many restaurants around Boulevard St. Germain: in the summer, tables are set out on the pavements, Greek music and songs are played, and you could be forgiven for thinking that you had somehow mysteriously strayed from the Left Bank and into the Plaka.

But you haven't yet tried the delicious Jewish 'shawarmas' and pastries, in the Rue des Rosiers, in the heart of the Marais district.  Nor the Lebanese food.  Nor a Korean barbeque.  Nor the increasingly popular Japanese restaurants, many centered around the Rue Sainte Anne.  And what about Italian food?  Oh, and let’s not forget the rightly famed French cuisine...?

It's clear that there will be a great deal of walking to be done, to work off all that food, so put on comfortable shoes, and go explore Paris on foot.  Go right down to the banks of the Seine, and walk along the river, under the bridges, watching the slow barges laden with sand or cement, and the few remaining houseboats, and old men quietly fishing, and, in the summer, people sunbathing.

Follow the unexpectedly rural Canal St. Martin, where lock-keepers still operate the nine lock-gates.  Wander around Paris' largest cemetery, Père Lachaise, where ornate memorials commemorate such disparate souls as Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Sarah Bernhardt and Baron Haussmann, the man responsible for much of the nineteenth-century town planning that makes modern Paris such a beautiful place.

Paris's best-known churches are masterpieces, and deserve to be visited more than once – Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur, towering over Montmartre, and the magical stained glass of the Sainte Chapelle.  There are also charming, virtually unknown churches, where you will often be the only visitor: in Rue Daru, a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe, is the Russian Cathedral of Alexandre Newsky, dark inside with lovely old icons. Across the river from Notre Dame is the tiny twelfth century church of St. Julien le Pauvre, now a Greek Orthodox church, and totally neglected by the crowds visiting its more famous neighbor.

Bon voyage. And as you keep on exploring this fabulous city, and vow to return yet again, remember the charming French saying, “Bonne continuation!”

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Mandarin Oriental Hotel is Excellent Property and Great Location

Our stay here was arranged by our Travel Agents, Audley Travel, and did they do us a favour! On arrival we were told we had been upgraded to a Premier Suite! The room was HUGE well laid out with the largest bed we have ever slept in. The facilities were excellent, a massive bathroom well equipped with bath and seperate shower, a lounge area and even a study area.

The views from our window were fantastic, the Singapore Flyer was so close we could almost touch it! Food and drink in the hotel were reasonably priced (by Singapore standards) and the hotels location within the city wide underground world made it possible to navigate through Singapore withou the need to go above ground.


Excellent Property

This is an excellent hotel. The rooms are nicely decorated. The staffs are very friendly and professional.The breakfast is excellent but a little bit too crowded in the morning. The view from the room is amazing. MBS is just right across the river.

Great Location


Perfectly located in the heart of singapore. i've stayed in this hotel many many times and never fail to impress me.

I took one star out because after renovation they moved the lobby somewhere in the fourth of fifth floor. so you must have an extra effort to go to the room. They prefer the street level floor to be shopping mall and sacrifice the comfort of hotel guests by moving the lobby up.

Room is spacious enough and well renovated. breakfast has showed lot of improvement and new varieties. staff are very helpful.

Recommended if you like orchard area.

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The Insider Guide to Japan's Bullet Train

Anybody wondering exactly how far Japan is ahead of the West should ride the Shinkansen, the bullet train, remembering –soberingly – that it has been in operation for nearly 40 years.

Everything is, without saying, immaculate; the trains shiny white, silent and polished to a gleam. The ticketing operation is flawless, with not just easy and helpful reserved seating, but with conductors who bow, dressed in creamy beige uniforms with gold trim and matching beige shiny patent-leather shoes – the whole snazzy outfit in male and female versions. They know exactly which seats to approach after people have got on and off at the various stops along the line. No, “Tickets, please,” while lurching blindly from seat to seat as they do in the West. Nothing lurches in Japan, even at 200 miles per hour.

In Tokyo Station, the stately terminus and turn-around station (spotless, of course), the action is pared down to the second. At precisely 10.00am a Shinkansen glides in and people get off through gates that perfectly align with numbered doors, which also match your ticket number. A small corps de ballet of cleaning ladies, immaculately attired in very becoming baby-pink suits with little flower trim and white shoulder bags, board the train and the doors close as they whisk through like little pink bees, each with a specific assignment, hoovering and sweeping, (not that there is really anything to clean, this being civil, polite, refined and immaculate Japan). At 10.05am the doors open to let them leave and then close again. At 10.06, after a swift inspection, doors re-open and passengers get on. At 10.10 on the dot, you leave. It all took ten minutes, to the second.

And you are going very fast before you even clear the platform. But smooth as silk. A woman’s gentle, reassuring voice in a sort of intimate stage-whisper that sounds as if she is sitting right next to you, says, in a voice of beguiling English seductiveness, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. This is the 10.10 Shinkansen Super Express to…". To Kyoto, in my case.

I had a window seat on the right, the 'Mount Fuji side'. I had specially requested a view of the mountain. No problem. All part of the service. On the return ticket, I noticed that my seat was on the left side, so that I could gaze at the icon in both directions. How thoughtful. I had not even asked for it.

At the super-modern Kyoto Station on the return trip, the routine is, if anything, even more impressive, because this is just a stop, not a terminus, so the action takes place in only three slick minutes instead of the leisurely ten. My ticket says 11.16. Ambitious, precision-wise, to say the least. But I have complete faith.

At 11.13 the shiny white snake slides in. They’re very long, by the way, these trains, 15 or so coaches. And they're almost always full, despite running every few minutes, every day, all year, and costing a lot.

People get off. There’s a short pause. A subtle electronic sound goes off and my co-riders and I are allowed to embark to our assigned seats. At the dot of 10.16 we’re gone after three minutes, to the second.

We pull up to an imperceptibly smooth stop in Tokyo at exactly the stated moment. And there waiting for us is the politely-smiling pink fairy brigade, cute little hand-held mini-vacuums at the ready.

And this bullet ballet has been going on smoothly, helpfully, politely, stress-free, unruffled, immaculate, non-stop and as casual as you please, every few minutes for nearly forty years.

As far as Japan's superiority in logistics, technology and civility is concerned, I rest my case. It's a Louis Vuitton case. And it’s a real one, not a fake, because this is Japan.

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The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore is Simply Superb!

We stayed at Ritz Carlton for 3 days and what an experience it was! There is absolutely no doubt that it is the best hotel I have stayed and by a fair distance too.

We were welcomed warmly and ushered in by one of the employees. After checking in we were escorted to our room by the same person who explained all the facilities available in the room and hotel. 

The room itself was recently renovated and looked really modern and up-to-date with every possible needs taken care off. We had a fantastic view of the city.

The thing that impressed me most was not the physical infrastructure but the people and customer service mindset of the employees. When I was away for work, the cleaner came in make up the room. She was chatting with my wife while cleaning. She noticed my wife was having a slight flu. After she left, another Customer Service came up to enquire if my wife is OK and if she needed help with her flu! That the hotel has inculcated customer service mindset even in the lowest employee is a testament that the hotel really means what they say - that they really go all the way to make guests feel at home!

Pros:

• Outstanding customer service
• Usage of employees who can communicate well in English, even cleaners. Most Singapore hotels employ cheap foreign employees who only speak Mandarin
• Superb location next to Marina Bay
• Modern and stylish rooms
• Extensive breakfast spread

Cons:

• Expensive
• Pricey food

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The Insider Guide to Trekking Tibet

“Tashi delek. Tashi delek,” the old lady sang out cheerfully, as she raced past me. Her wrinkled face gave me a happy, toothy grin and then she was gone, heading effortlessly for the 5,630-meter Dolma La, the highest point of our pilgrimage around Mount Kailash.

If I’d had the energy, I would have had distinctly uncharitable thoughts.  There we were, all togged out in hiking boots, thermal clothing and expensive down anoraks, plodding painfully along, gasping for breath, while yet more smiling Tibetans, most of them elderly, and most of them wearing nothing sturdier than gym shoes and thin jackets, rushed past us in a swirl of smiles, prayer wheels and tashi deleks.

We finally made it to the top of the Dolma La pass, and collapsing in an ungainly heap, sipped our reviving hot lemon juice. Then we joined enthusiastically in the ritual chanting of the Tibetan pass-crossing mantra, ki ki so so lha gyalo, as we tossed rice flour in the air as an offering.  I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of it all and the serenity of accomplishment that I did what I always do in such circumstances. I cried.

Crossing the Dolma La was the high point, literally, of a wonderful three-week trip west from Lhasa, driving and walking our way to the sacred sites of Lake Mansarovar and Mount Kailash.

Tibet is not an 'easy' destination and altitude sickness is a great leveler.  All of us were pole-axed by the altitude at some point or the other, but by planning wisely and having extra days in Lhasa at the start of our journey, everyone was in great physical shape by the time we reached our goal, Mount Kailash.  Every day, when we arrived in camp, we would go for a long walk, getting our bodies used to the increasing altitude and the decreasing oxygen.

After several very necessary acclimatization and sightseeing days in Lhasa, we drove west, long days driving in Land Cruisers, through breathtaking scenery. We visited Xigaste and the fabulous Tashilhunpo Monastery, and then on westwards through increasingly small and forgettable little towns: Saga, Periyang, Samsang and finally the scruffy, unprepossessing village of Darchen, the starting point for pilgrimages to Lake Mansarovar and for the Kailash kora – the circumambulation of the holy mountain.

Most nights we camped, usually because the local hotels were appallingly basic.  Our Nepalese cooks produced such amazing food that even on those nights when we could have stayed in hotels we all opted to camp instead.  Until you have tasted chili baked beans for breakfast at over 5,000 meters, you haven’t lived.  We had picnic lunches in the sun, sitting by icy rivers. We had freshly-cooked pizza.  And at Everest Base Camp we even had a freshly baked (and iced) chocolate cake.  Camping de luxe.

Tibet is beautiful in a starkly dramatic way. The colors are more vivid than anywhere else I have been.  Monasteries tower against deep blue skies, prayer flags flutter in the constant wind, and the countryside seems changeless.  The small towns, though, are not as appealing. Chinese banners, ugly construction and absolutely appalling litter everywhere, do not encourage you to stay longer in town.  We had a few hilarious forays into Chinese-run shops, trying out our few words of Chinese, with varied success, though I have to confess that no one had enough vocabulary to ask: “Do you sell thermal long-johns?”

The three days it took us to complete the kora were tough, but the scenery was so fabulous and the views so breathtaking (literally and metaphorically) that we all trudged on. The yaks carrying our camping gear overtook us. The cheerful Tibetan old-age pensioners overtook us, but we plodded on, walking slowly, and stopping for regular drinks to combat altitude sickness.

Walking along such a famous and holy pilgrimage route is a little unreal.  It is all as it should be. It is exactly as you have seen in books. There are prayer flags fluttering from every peak. There are mounds of stones making cairns. There are old Tibetans prostrating themselves on the ground as they walk. There are grey-faced Hindu pilgrims returning disconsolately on donkeys, telling you how ill and cold they feel. The thin air and the vivid colors add to the slight air of unreality.  And towering over everything is Mount Kailash, dazzling against the clear blue sky.

The mountain is every bit as spectacular as every photo you have ever seen, but even more so.  It is so beautiful that you want to pray and cry, as I did, frequently.  As you progress round and up the kora, walking onwards and upwards past sacred spots, your views of the mountain evolve. About an hour from the summit of the Dolma La there is a bittersweet moment.  The pass is in sight and within your reach, but to get there, you must turn away, with a last view of the famous north face of Mount Kailash.

Walking down from the summit, past the green, icy Gauri Kund is every bit as tiring as the climb up, since your knees take a lot of strain.  A group of us made things worse for ourselves by getting lost, but eventually a couple of yaks and a pony were sent out from our camp to find us, and we made a late but triumphant entry into camp, to the sarcastic cheers of the rest of the group.

From Mount Kailash, we drove onto Tingri, a busy little town at the foot of Mount Everest.  We visited what we could of Everest Base Camp, but the tourists stalls, the offers of mountain bike rides and the busy road construction were a little sad after all the raw, savage beauty we had seen earlier.

Finally, we camped at Rongbuk Monastery, the highest monastery in the world, with a view to die for.  To lie in your cozy, bright yellow little tent and gaze at Mount Everest is, simply, unforgettable.  Watching the sunrise over the highest point on earth, with a mug of hot chai, was the perfect end to an exhausting, uplifting, deeply spiritual journey.

Tashe delek.

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