Technopark Hotel Makati

... able to walk around a little. We had no way of exercising the entire week so we were all going a little stir crazy. So the mall was exciting. It was also overwhelming. At first almost everything in the Philippines is overwhelming. There are so many people and I felt there was a lack of order to almost everything. For example with traffic the white lines here are only a suggestion of lanes but usually there are four lanes even though there are three lanes of painted white lines ...

... it was somewhat like listening to an adult talk in a Charlie Brown cartoon ("waaa waa waaaaa waa waaa") When I asked at the gate I was told to listen to the announcements. They were having some trouble finding everyone who had checked in for the previous flight, so the gate attendants were a bit stressed and grumpy. When they appeared to find everyone, I went up and asked again, this time recognizing that she was busy and a bit stressed. She laughed and told ...

... follows the sea-front lining Manila Bay. It has been developed as a paved walkway (alongside the road) and lots of other local people and tourists do this walk as well. We were surprised to see lots of children swimming in the water because it did not look like a very sanitary place. It was hot enough outside though that I could not really blame them though. I figured that they were likely poor and needed to have fun too, but next to the American embassy there ...

... clocks down and I assumed it was to correct the time. But no. He put it back with the same wrong time it had before. A clocks primary function is to give the correct time so why did he take down the clock and not fix the most important thing that was wrong with it? As far as I can tell, the only clocks showing the correct time are the ones for Manila and Indonesia that's actually hard to determine since there are big differences between any clocks you look at ...

... architechture. Manila has much poverty, many kids asking for money or food, and they do not have pavements! The morning Fran is arriving, im so excited. I was worried about her never leaving brazil and flying via amsterdam for 33 hours!.. and at the airport they wouldnt let anyone wait at the door they come out, it was a level down.... but there she came smiling and waving with no worries, she even got a ride round the amsterdam airport on a ...

... again! Although it looked simple on the map things are not always as they appear and before you know it we're lost even with the best JPS (Jane Positioning System) effort. We make a wrong decision and end up in the downtown Pasay area. What we realized was that although it was a straight shot to the mall, you had to be careful of the "exit" ramps which could be on either side of the highway, don't look like an exit and are usually 2 or 3 ...

... illiterate population is 12 percent, portion of national budget spent on defense is 10 percent, and farmers' annual income amounts to 2,162 yuan. Just before I choked and dozed off on those figures, the flight attendant announced that we would be landing at the Macau international airport in a few minutes. We arrived at 8:45. The temperature was 16 degrees Celsius, very much like the weather in Taiwan. The first things that struck me about Macau are the Portuguese signage. Words ...

Russ arrives!!! Yay!!! Finally, after being here alone for a month he made it to Manila. He was a little weary from the long trip but here none the less. It was an uneventful trip, it arrived on time and he got through immigration faster than I expected. I looked down from the airport viewing platform where you wait to see your loved ones waiting for you and there he was. I texted my ...

... muggers. This came only one day after another Australian was found in Angeles after being murdered, chopped up and stashed in a suitcase..... It can get a bit rough out there, but it's far too easy to get carried away by the headlines. The Philippines has a bit of an image problem, but I love it here and so do most other visitors. It's one of the friendliest countries I've ever visited and one of the most beautiful ...

... amazed that he pulled the fuel line off and started sucking gas through it, into his mouth and then spit it directly into the carborator! Transfering enough gas into the main, he then jumped back into the cab, rev'd the engine and moved a little further down the express way, only to stall and repeat process.... for THREE HOURS... you can't imagine... I was there and I'm still not sure I can.