Back on the road

After just over two weeks, an inordinate amount of flying and some confusing time changes, I returned to my trip. It was waiting for me in the Islas 8817 guesthouse in Manila. The climate here was quite a contrast to the snows and ices of London, in fact it was decidedly warm. Approximately 28 degrees C, which did nicely to nurse the nasty British cold I`d picked up the day before I was due to fly. The day before I was due to fly was fraught with snot and worry that there would be no flight. However all worked out, aside from the cold - I had to deal with that over 14 hours and sleeping on a plane with a cold and 4 screaming children simply isn`t possible.

Thus my first day in the Philippines was spent trying not to sleep all day, I wanted to adjust to the time difference. This proved difficult as I had effectively lost 8 hours and hadn`t slept a wink in 24. Thus, despite being offered all manner of options to fill my day with from the owners of the guesthouse, I drifted out of a sequence of dreams until around 6pm when I slapped myself around the face and thought it best time for some food. I hadn`t been too sure of the streets around the hostel when I first arrived, Manila reminded me a little of the streets of Delhi; I could see there was a lot of poverty here and I had heard certain areas were unsafe at night. As it was now dark, I opted for home cooked food at Islas, which was darned tasty.

Having met a lovely lady called Becky from London, Spain, Australia and the Philippines (seriously) and two Swedish guys, Kristian and Patrick, the evening was passed in good company. The next day it was decided to explore Manila together, and at this I felt some relief.

In the early hours of the morning a group of guys arrived, 2 Americans and 2 Canadians, and before long we were all resolved to hit Manila together. So, seeing morning the 7 of us went out into the traffic and smog of Manila. Suffice to say we stuck out like a tee-totaler in a liquour store, there weren`t many other large groups of white people walking around. After standing about on the street corner for a while, looking a little lost and confused, we resolved to cross the road. Upon doing so we were presented with a number of options for taxis. We agreed a price (35 Philippine Pesos per person) and off we went.

We must have gotten in what is known as a FX taxi; this means it crams in whoever it can fit (not within reason) along the way. Quite an experience. We evetually arrived outside the American Embassy and made our way to Rizal Park. The first vision of the park was of many homeless people taking naps under the trees; slightly eyebrow raising. The main part of the park was pleasant and traquil (and colourful). There were two guards "guarding" a statue at the entrance, I can only assume they were both incredibly bored as they put on a show of spinning their guns in sequence. The rest of the park was plastic swans, loud music from speakers in various positions and themed gardens.

We walked from the park down into the walled city Intramuros, which felt very Spanish and stumbled upon most unlucky church with a plethora of unfortunate histories and then off we went to Fort Santiago. In this prison building the Philippine's national hero, Jose Rizal, was confined before he was executed on Dec. 30, 1896. And I tried to get my head around Filippino history.

Following this we tried to get the Markati shopping district. We must have picked the Manila rush hour to do this, because after an hour of Jeepney swapping (the open-backed vans that pick up people along the way - similar to the ones in Chiang Mai), a serious amount of car fumes and a whole heap of confusion, we found ourselves lost on a roadside desperately pouring over a map. A kindly Filippino woman helped us out, and it turned out to get to this place would take quite sometime to reach. So we resolved to head to the "Mall of Asia" (the biggest shopping mall in Asia, if not the world).

This was a bizarre place; there was a marching band continually circumnavigating the mall and a number of fairground rides as well as an ice rink inside. As shopping wasn't actually on the agenda we soon made our way back to the hostel, narrowly avoiding being ripped off by some opportunistic taxi drivers - 7 white people equals beacon for rip-off merchants.

Upon arriving home everyone hit the beer - we all felt we deserved it after all the time we had spent sitting in taxis. Too right! I also felt the need to hit the beer after a petrifying story from our taxi driver about motorcycle gangs who store weapons in their bikes and hold up tourists travelling at night in taxis. Suffice to say I locked the door.

I was happier to venture the streets around the hostel after dark with a group, so we went out and sampled some of the street food and sang along to karaoke in one of the bars. The drinking went on well into the evening, and certainly helped me get a good night's sleep. Overall Manila can be done in a day, it's a vast city that is not easy to navigate but with a bit of effort you can see all the main points of attraction. The Islas guesthouse is a great location for getting flights, as it's only a short, cheap taxi ride from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the owners are fantastic. The people at the hostel were headed to a number of amazing sounding destinations throughout the Philippines, for that reason I intend to go back there in the future.