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Published: April 7th 2011
Arh Manila, you strange, strange little place! Dave summed the city up as 'a real life Grand Theft Auto'. With it's hispanic vibe, dingy streets, and pimped-out 'Jeepney' buses, I don't think he's too far off!
We stayed in a fairly standard hotel in Ermita, which is classed as one of the tourist areas. We're surrounded by karaoke bars/brothels and dodgy money changers so it's a very interesting place?! Every bank and most hotels around here have an armed security guard on the door, and even to go into a supermarket you get bag searched. We encountered a few child pickpockets on the first night but managed to get away from them fairly quickly. One night we went to a really nice steakhouse about two doors down from our hotel (so adventurous!). When we realised they didn't take card Dave offered to pop to the cash machine. The waitress insisted he go with their security guard. Instills great confidence doesn't it! We haven't strayed too far at night, and have spent a lot of time in the Robinson Shopping Centre and at the cinema.
It's not all bad though. We did a bit of sight seeing. Manila is renowned
for being a sprawling urban chaos. There are very few tourist attractions and the transport links are quite unorganised too. We did visit Rizal Park which had several botanical gardens you could go into for five pesos each (7p). They were pretty ropey at best with dried up ponds and very few plants?! Strange...
We also managed to navigate the LRT to the Chinese cemetery which is meant to be one of the top sites. After getting lost a few times in the local neighbourhoods we managed to find it. We were amazed by the size of some of the mausoleums, many of which were bigger than my flat and some even had air-con and satellite TV. Just in case the ancestors get bored I guess? On the way home I had a local kid ask if I was wearing contact lenses to make my eyes a different colour. Bless. I told him my eyes were naturally green but he didn't seem convinced!
After three days here we felt it was definitely time to move on. Our next stop is the dive resort of Sabang, but due to some infected cuts and bites we might have to steer
clear of the sea for a few days. Luckily antibiotics are as readily available as sweets over here (all medical professionals cringe), so they should clear up nicely!
Love Emma & Dave xx
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