Manila, interesting travelers and awesome malls
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2008
1
19
23
Trip End
Aug 06, 2008
Manila,
Luzon,
Philippines
Monday, August 4, 2008
Anyway, now that you know where I am let's blog about where I have been and in this cpater we'll learn all there is to learn about Manila, which is not much other than big malls, jeepneys, a walled historic center, and a bunch of cool travelers
Free wine at the hostel
.From Borocay we took Asian Spirit to fly to Manila, a plane with propellors, with 13 people in it nad 45 seats in total. Oh, and teh scariest flight fo my life. Dom and I were sitting next to each other and at times I thought we were going down, and I have taken my fare share of sketchy flights between all the various low costs I have taken over the past years. It truly was a rollercoaste, the plane would go up and down like nothing. The AC vents were throwing out mist so the plane was filled with white smoke half the trip, and the landing was close to disastreous I guess because of the wind but probably because we were flyign Asian Spirit. The pilot literally flipped over the plane (or at least that's what it felt like when we touched ground) and also made teh plane touch/bounce twice before being safely stable on the runway.
Anyway, once we arrived to Manila we were told to walk away from the airport as teh cab would have been 100 pesos instead of 400 (exchange rate is 44 pesos to 1 dollar). So we do this, hop in a cab after we specifically asked for meter, put all our bags int eh trunk adn he starts going. At this point I ask him to start the meter and he says "yes, meter" and taked out a piece of paper he laminated himself that said airport to malate (area where we were staying) 400 pesos
Inside Intramuros, the only history or Manila
. At this point i laughed in his face because I really couldn't hold it back and proceeded to take my seatbelt off and slightly open the door so eh would stop the cab. WE got our stuff, and 10 meters ahead we got another cab with a real meter and ended up paying 100 pesos.Once we made it to our palce (Friendly's) we put our stuff down and since it was pouring we walked to a mall 3 blocks away called Robinson's Place. Roamed around for 2 hours and then made it back to our hotel by 6 as we knew there Saturday was wine tasting night and the hostel brought wine and odeurs to the lounge for everyone to enjoy. Couple of glasses of wine and plenty of cheeses, olives, nachos, etc., later Dom and I started talking to these two older fellas enjoying the atmosphere and the wine (only one of them as far as the wine goes). Here is where the interesting story begins. These two guys were not travelign together and actually had just met each other. The first guy must have been between 60 and 70 and his story was that he left his home (Great Britain) 2 years ago and has been traveling, backpacking, living with tribes, living under bridges at times, robbed, beat up, cured by witch doctors, close to being killed, etc. He was stuck in Manila as he had been robbed of all his belongings a couple weeks earlier and was in the process of getting his crazy life back on track> What we learned from him are stories that not even in books you can find but at the same time, it was noticeable that while he has had amazing experiences, he was telling us to travel more and more but not the way he did it because now he was stuck with no home, nowhere to go, no family, no contacts, nothing
Our new found friend Dustin
. Pretty sad.The second guy was definitely over 70 and hsi story was that he was a druggie and alcoholic and about 3-4 years ago he cleaned up his act and decided to go cycling around and around. His stories were just as amazing as the otehr guy's and at times they start taling about their experiences in various parts of the world and they'd sound so similar because they had both seen the same tribes that the world barely knows they exist, both have had accidents and hospitals were scarce, etc. Anyway, this guy just pciks up whenever he wants and bikes to the next destination. Very impressive to say the least. He also had nothing back at home. Actually did not have a home, or friends, or contacts. Anyway, after chatting for some hours with them and learning what tourist books don't tell u, it was 11:30PM and we went to sleep with some good wine flowing in our veins. Only downfall of that night, int he dorm room in the hostel they put me in the bottom bunk in the corner and out of the several fans in the room, not one reached me. Because of this I woke up at 5 in a pool of sweat not able to sleep and went to read my newly traded book about the memoirs of a Phnom Penh prisoner that stayed at S21, the torture camp we went to see.
The next day, I was exhausted alld ay due to lack of sleep but no time to rest so we met Dustin, a 25 year old from the US who now lives in Cebu, Philippines, and was traveling for some days to see Manila. Together with him and Dominique we hopped on Jeepneys which are the preferred mode of transportation in Manila. Thay are old army truck turned into covered pick-up style Jeeps that have set routes and you can hop on and off for a fixed rate of 8 pesos. We went to Ritzal Park which was a ncie celan park in the middle of the city and then went to Intramuros, the only cultural thing that can be done in Manila
The 3rd biggest all in the world
. We walked on top of the walls fo this city which had been taken over by Spaniards in the 15/16 hundreds, then by the Japanese, by the Americans, and so on. Once we walked on the walls for about 20 minutes we went inside the walled city to Augustine's church where tehre was a liturgy so we couldn't go in. After some pics in front of it, we got a cab as it was starting to rain (it ended up pouring until the evening) and went to the 3rd biggest mall in the world, called Mall of Asia. Here Dominique split up from us as she did some girl shopping while Dustin and I walked around, entered random stores, and just cahtted about his life in the Philippines. The cultural differences are drastic but these islands are his new home and he loves it. After this, before returning to the hostel, we ate at Wendy's and it was like heaven on earth!Once we left the mall of Asia, I took a 1 hour nap and then Dom and I returned to Robinson's where I bought a cool watch for 3 dollars, and then we went to see Batman The Dark Night. Movie theather was brand new, spotless, and only 3 dollars. Not bad. If anyone hasn't seen the movie, go see it now!!! You can finish reading my blog after it.
Sleep at midnight then we checked out of the hostel, left the bags there just so we could walk around Robinson's again to waste a couple hours, ate for 1.50 dollars (food wasn't the best as Dom puked it all 1 hour later) and then we met upw ith Dustin and left for the airport way too early
World famous Manila Jeepneys
. We were there at 4 for a flight that left at 7:30PM. We hung out at the airport and then took CEBU to Macau, a Special Administrative Area of China where you don't need a visa to enter and where gambling makes more money than Las Vegas. More about this in my next entry...Phillippines, CHECK
ps. one of the funniest times on this trip was at the airport in Manila when we were checking in. The lady that was checking us in goes to Dominique and says, word by word, "Excuse me Ma'am, may I ask you, are you pregnant?" "for security reasons" was whay she asked she said but Dom and I just laughed for a good 10 minuets after the incident.
Pics from Manila will be posted shortly.
