Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila

... 8217;s house because their parents are in Korea.

After the meeting we were invited to Cherry’s house. We squashed into the van. Cherry also had a cousin who was living with them.

Their house was hot. They had a pet duckling. We fed him dried cereal, rice and gave him a dip in a bucket of water.

Mum and Cherry’s mum were making rice with lettuce, carrot and raw fish and spice. You mix the ...

... needed them. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I think of my Filipino co-workers the same as everyone else - not as if they are down-trodden or needy in some way. So it felt weird to be singled out in that way.

Once the priest was done speaking someone brought out a bowl full of shiny, new 25 centavo coins. People took turns grabbing a hand full of coins and tossing them out toward the crowd for others to ...

... about 8 times, holding up the traffic behind me resulting in a chorus of loud beeps. After perspiring about a gallon of sweat and realising my mistake I was back on the road. The road initially was like a motorway and I was able to recover from the stalling incident, however after I passed the toll, after about 2 miles I saw a sign that read "Highway Ends". I was curious what would happen next, and soon I turned a corner and joined about a hundred other cars all ...

... predefined routes but can be picked up anywhere and cost pennies to ride. Once inside you pass you fare along the line up to the driver and rides usually involve playing a game of passing peso’s up and down the bus. The belch almost toxic fumes and are not the most combatable rides in the world but they certainly ...

... run and slam dunk it! We haven't decided where we are going yet. We're planning on staying in Manila for a couple more nights at most and then it'll either be the Island of Palawan which is apparently the last frontier in South East Asia where "Tourism has yet to penetrate" or north of Manila to Luzon where we will be "greeted by volcanic landscapes and tropical beaches". Decisions, decisions! Well good night to all from two happy travelers! p.s.No photos yet but there'll be some soon!

... much negotiation as it was having our lawyers review and agree to the wording of the contract and the type of power of attorney that the landlord's representative needed to have. Anytime lawyers get involved things turn out to be way more complicated that you could ever imagine. We were assured that it was all just a matter of time before we would be signing contracts and passing keys but until we had the keys in hand we were ...

... for. Everything outside the office is different too. Equipping Russ with a cell phone and learning how to use it has been a challenge. The cell phones look like ours but they're not. It's a whole different technology. We opted for a prepaid phone instead of a monthly plan because we weren't sure what Russ's usage would be. No sense overdoing it and being locked into a long contract. Most people seem to use the prepaid method since texting is the preferred ...

... i was quite happy. There wasn't much to do on the boat so i used the time to do some much needed sewing..haha..red roger (my backpack) needed some serious reinforcement. Then the on the last night i had a few beers in the dining area and was entertained by the karoke competition...everyone loves karoke here!! They wanted me to be a judge but that's a bit more attention than i like..just a spectator please. I arrived in Bohol early Friday morning in the ******* rain!

Another VBL guy (Chris Steele) is here in Manila with me and so we went to see the ocean as he had never seen it before. Thought we'd introduce him to the culture slowly rather than too much too fast leaving the city. Sunsets, good food and fireworks, end another nice day on the town.