The Heritage Hotel Manila Pasay

... of view when we re-experience life in the US. So we are going into this trip realizing that it is another "new" experience and not a journey back to relive the same old experiences or to a comfort zone we can crawl back to. A fellow expat told me that the first time he traveled back to the US and spent a few weeks living out of his suitcase, he realized his "home" was now in Manila and he looked forward to getting back here. We'll see.

... how much I had. Luckily I keep my large bills separate from the others and showed him that I only had 500 which he promptly said that he would take. Again, laughing I told him that I'd give him 200 where he said no, 500. Anyway to make a long story not go any longer we ended up giving him 400 pesos for the "Policeman's ball". And the funny thing was; he didn't want to take the money but had me fold it and put it in his ...

... There were no waivers to sign for the roller coaster that had harnesses that may or may not have been working properly. But there was a waiver for the snow room. Apparantly cold weather and ice can kill you faster than being flung from a speeding coaster. This is funny to those of us who spent most of our lives braving winter temperatures and storms and lived to tell the tale. We were given jackets ...

... rien. Il file alors prendre une recharge pour 50 pesos. J'obtiens la Seair en ligne, on commence la resa, ca prend du temps, et puis paf, le mobile est decharge. Arghhh. L'employe retourne acheter de la recharge. On rappelle, on reprend la resa, et rebelote, ca couic. Cette fois-ci, je lui dit d'en prendre pour 100 pesos. C'est reparti, et au moment fatidique du paiement, ma carte ne passe pas non plus. Ils vont m'entendre a la banque !!! Donc pas de resa possible. Mon plan sera donc ...

... forgiveable. Housed in a block of apartments, its squirreled away on the fourth floor behind an innocuous front door with a tiny sign. This block is like something out of the 50's, with a touch of the 'Shining' about it. But the rooms are clean, the showers are warm and we never get cold at night, mainly because the 'double bed' we have to share is a double only to those under the age of 7. If you invest in finding out about it, its ...

... that's great. If he looks at it and decides it's just a bunch of junk he can throw it all away. We don't care as long as it's not laying around here. After living with very little for 4 months, we've realized we really don't need that much in order to live a normal life. Being a minimalist was kind of nice. It was easy to decide what to wear because we didn't have that much to choose from. It was easy to ...

... medicine store, we went to a delicacy shop where my companions really went wild buying Chinese cookies, spices, snack foods, and almost anything edible. They bought so much that we had to go back to the store after our boat trip to get their boxes of goodies. Our tour guide kept on wincing every time she saw our baggage multiplying by the hours. "When you first came here, you carried with you 23 suitcases, " she said in Chinese. "Now you're going back with 28!" But hey, whose ...

... olds included). Then to lighten things up a bit they pulled out their home made Karaoke machine and started belting out some tunes (mostly of the sad local 'Pinoy' variety). There followed a scattered procession of neighbours visiting and saying hi to this weird English fellah in their neighbourhood and also asking if I knew any illegible bachelors back home (nahh, all my mates are settled...I lied). The house itself was tiny and in a slightly ropey area but...the place was ...

... came for my fare (25 cents). The bus stopped, people got off while the driver said the destination to me about six times before I realised he was repeating what I had initially said to him. "Ayala" Sure sounds different when said by a Filipino. I got off, and walked for another forty five minutes. By the time I got to the Cathay Pacific office, a fair amount of dirt that had adhered to my skin. No one else seemed to care. As I walked down Ayala avenue in Makati city (the office ...