Hello Philipines and Manila

A Jeepney

The street our hotel was on.

We got up at 3:30 am to get to the airport for 5 and catch our flight to the Philippines at 7:20. We flew Air Asia which was a really good flight considering it was a budget airline. The plane was comfortable enough, we had leather seats! It was much better than Easy Jet. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Manila though unfortunately Air Asia doesn't fly to the International Airport in Manila but to the airport at Clark Airbase (its an old US airbase now Domestic and International Airport) which was 80 odd KM from Manila. When we arrived we had a bit of trouble getting some cash as the cash machine wouldn't let us have any money. We had some British pounds on us so changed some at the exchange counter. We then got on a bus to get to Manila which took about 2 hours and we got to watch Under Siege on the way lol :-).

Once in Manila we got a taxi to the hotel. The people seemed really friendly, a guy came over and helped us get a taxi and agreed a price for us. When we got to the hotel the taxi driver did try to double the fair but we paid the agreed price in the end. The Philippines seems quite strange on first impression. It was nothing like we had seen in the other South East Asian countries we had been too. Nothing seemed familiar. The Philippines had previously been under Spanish and American occupation and you can really tell. We have not been to South America but this is what we would expect it to be like and other people we have spoken to who have been agreed. One guy said "put a sombrero on the Filipinos heads and you wouldn't know the difference!" All the road signs, street names, shop names, menus, newspapers, radio etc etc are in English. It is very strange. It seems they speak in Tagalog (Filipino) and read in English. Obviously they speak very good English with an American twang. They are super friendly and always say good morning ma'am, sir or hello ma'am, sir whenever you walk by. On the morning we were leaving Manila I popped in to the 7 11 for a drink and the whole shop erupted in to a chorus of Good Morning Ma'am. It was really funny, everyone started to laugh as they all seemed to have said it at the same time, it certainly made the early morning much happier. They also have a strange mode of public transport. They call them Jeepneys. When the Americans left they left behind many jeeps and these were adapted for use as public transport, now they still use the same design but really customise them. Some are really elaborate with many decorations and ornaments and are quite terrifying when you cross a road and have 2 or 3 jeepneys heading for you. You really wouldn't want to be hit by one, they are like tanks!!

Manila was a strange one though. I don't think it helped that we had to be up so early to catch our flight we were walking round feeling like we had just been on the DNA Mixer a couple of times. The Lonely Planet describes Manila as "Delhi/Jakarta on street level and New York from the 3rd storey up". How true that seemed as well. On the way in there were many slums that I had only really seen in Cambodia before. Also some of the streets in Manila where we were staying were very narrow with lots of money exchange shops which Billy said did very much remind him of India. The amount of times we were hassled about changing money! Also in every shop and hotel there was an armed guard which made it slightly unnerving. They were obviously there for a reason. The lonely Planet had also said that at night Manila was "sketchy at best". So we decided to have a quick wander, get some food and then go back to the hotel. We wanted the Internet and we were told there was a place in the department store up the road. We found it and had a look for some places to stay in Puerto Galera as we were going to head out there the next day and wanted an idea of places to go and check out. After we finished we went back out on the street and Billy had said he would like Pizza Hut for tea. We saw a guy with a take away box and asked him where Pizza Hut was. He pointed back in the direction of the department store but to another door way. We walked up and went inside and found ourselves in this huge shopping mall, with designer shops and restaurants. It was bizarre. Where did this place come from!! It was likes we walked through a door in to another dimension. Anyway we found Pizza Hut and they were certainly redeemed from our last experience. We had excellent customer service, we were even told how many minutes our pizzas would be and they were really good too. After we had a quick wander around the mall but couldn't be bothered to walk too much and then headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep before getting up at 7 to get the bus and boat to Puerto Galera.