Manila. Not My Cup Of Tea.

---

I don't want to say it was terrible, cause unfortunately it is my only opinion, and that seems unfair. So what's you'll read below is my opinion, no one else's. Just Annie's.

First and foremost; ALWAYS do your research! When we were back in the states, I was looking for hostels to stay in. I wanted something cheap and close to the airport. I found one, Townhouse Hostel, it was even recommended in our Lonely Planet guide. Price was about $6 a night. Pretty sweet huh? Sure, but like everywhere else, you get what you pay for.

This hostel was only 10 minutes away from the airport. Which I was pleased with, considering I didn't want to spend forever in a cab after being stuck on an airplane. We landed around 6pm. Took an hour to get our bags. We posted up at a free charging station to bring back the life in all our devices. We were trying to figure out how to walk to the hostel from the airport. Cheaper than getting an overpriced cab. Note: The white taxi cabs are privately owned and will try to make you pay double, as well they have no idea where they are going because they do not live in Manila. That was one lesson we thankfully didn't have to learn the hard way.

About an hour later we decided to strap up and head off. When we stepped outside it felt like a wall of humidty hit us. Ahhh. It was so hot. So sticky. The sun sunken below the horizon, and still a sorching 92°.
Since we didn't know where we were going, we asked some police officers. After asking 5 of them, one informed us that you couldn't walk. They pointed us to a green stand, the sign read "Grab Cab". Grab Cab is very similar to Uber or Lyft. But if you don't have cell phone service, you're still in luck. They had employees posted at the stand waiting to help you out. You simply write down your name, destination, and nationality(why that matters, I don't have a clue). They look up where you're going and contact a driver while you chill in their waiting zone. That's after they find out where you're going. The multiple times we used Grab Cab to get to Townhouse it was a nightmare. Google maps couldn't find it, people at the hostel couldn't give directions to it. When the driver arrives they escort you to the appropriate car, the driver rushes out to help you with your bags and closes your doors. So not only are you getting a discounted price like Uber, but you also get friendly service. And on the plus side, all their cars had air con, blasting. 😊 😊 I was happy to see our cool chariot arrive.

At first I thought our driver was horrible at driving until we got into the city. Literally no rules. Red lights must mean yield. The white lines are suggestions to a lane you could stay in, if you wanted. Motorbikes haul ass, splitting the lanes, weaving in between the bumpers of other cars. It appeared blinkers are encouraged but to really get over, you used your horn. Honk when your passing someone, honk at pedestrians, honk at eveything and everyone. Complete total anarchy. Forget trying to cross the road on foot. When Anthony Bourdain visited Manila, he said something along the lines of, just close your eyes and cross, you'll have a better chance. Pretty accurate.

After driving down the packed streets of busy Manila, we turned off into a much smaller road. No street lighting, fires built on sidewalks, families sleeping next to them. We continued down this road for a few minutes then turned into a completely dark alley. I started praying, please don't let us be staying here. Amen. I looked up and out the front windshield to see a lit sign "Townhouse". Fuck me.

We checked in. Walked up a flight of very high, very narrow stairs. We were stoked to be in our own private room and bath for the next few nights. The room was small. Enough to house a full mattress and twin mattress. Crammed between the full bed and wall was a stand with an unplugged tv. In between both beds was another stand with a poorly working fan. Or perhaps it was working just fine, and the weather was that bad. The only spot that had working Wi-Fi was at the head of the twin bed. There was an erie dark space at the head of the bed. The ceiling started to slant, it was underneath the next staircase. On the wall, coming out of this dark hole was a steady stream of ants crawling up to the next floor. They were clearly on a mission, one that didn't involve crawling into the bed or bothering us.

The bathroom was small, to the left of the entrance of our stuffy room. There was a toliet with out a seat, squating time. In order to flush you had to fill up a bucket of water and pour it down the bowl. Never experienced that before. Everything was tile, a home for standing water and a nest for mosquitos. Across from the toilet is the shower. By shower, I mean just a showerhead with some notes next to it. "Philippines have the 2nd lowest fresh water in all of Southeast Asia" "A 5 minute shower uses 10-15 gallons of fresh water" "5 gallons to flush the toilet" "watch your usage".

We planned on staying at this hostel for 4 nights. But after 1 day and 2 nights in Manila we decided to leave early. We didn't get a refund, which sucked but we learned a valuable lesson.

The one afternoon we spent in Manila was one for the books. We woke up that morning, did some research on a mountain called, Sagada. Yup, we wanted to hang out there for a week. Calvin looked up directions on how to walk to the bus liner so we could purchase tickets for that night. It would be an overnight air con bus ride.
The walk was brutal. 98° out, not a cloud in sight. We walked through a huge market and kept getting lost. No street signs at the intersections. So like all the other times, we kept asking for directions. Everyone we asked would send us in a different way. My thoughts after all the run around was, maybe if we only ask the police officers we will finally get there. Although approaching some of the officers was quite intimidating. These men had guns, and not 9mm's, but assault rifles and used up shotguns. Plus they all looked like they wanted to kick some ass. However the majority of them would smile when you came up to them and were happy to help you find your way.
Everyone was staring at us, which was to be expected being white in the slums of Manila. Families would send their young children after us, begging for money. It was hard saying no to their sad faces. I know it sounds rude but one advice I had received before coming on this trip, was to never give money to the children. After you give one some, a whole group follows and won't stop begging. At one point a little boy yelled from across the street in a truck, "Hey! Give me your money!". It was sad and hard to see this kind of poverty. Some families had dirty sheets laid out on the sidewalk, that was their bed, their home.
I've always been grateful to be born in America and have a middle class lifestyle. After seeing what I saw on the streets of Manila, I don't think I can ever be grateful enough.

My anxiety had been raging the second we got deep into the market. It took so much to keep it suppressed and not look horrified. The last thing I wanted was to pop a Xanax and droop around in a drugged stupper. I made eye contact with an older Filipino man who seemed to be carrying a large metal bar. When our eyes locked he sprinted full speed towards me while screaming like a crazy man. As you can imagine, I freaked out! I jumped up onto a 3 foot ledge and white knuckled Calvin's shoulder. The guy kept running on past me, yielding his bar and yelling. I began to shake. I started hyperventilating. I was choking. That dying feeling washed over me. And all I could do was try to ease my racing mind. This was not the time nor place to have an anxiety attack. It finally came to an end and I was back in control of myself. Its so hard to explain the feeling of being completely lost in yourself. If I didn't have Calvin by my side who knows how long this would've lasted. I don't know how he does it, but having him near helps the anxiety pass, quick. I believe it was at that moment Calvin knew he had to get me out of Manila.

We finally reached a main road, saw a police tent and asked for more directions. We walked about a mile and found the Victory Bus Liner. We had to have walked at least 4 miles that day. Calvin walked up to the ticket counter and bought us 2 tickets to Sagada that night.

There was a hotel with a cafe near the station. That's where we had breakfast, although it was lunch hour. Both of us had the pork adobo. I thought it tasted just fine. Little did we know that every time we will order it, it will keep getting better and better.

After lunch we hopped on the MRT (train) and headed to Makati. Pops told me it's a cool place, plenty to see. Makati houses a lot of the embassies and an enormous mall. This mall was huge! 4 stories and spread out at least 3 street blocks. I'm sure you could easily find anything in there. Unless you're 2 Americans and the directory is broken. All we were looking for is a memory card for the camera. Every electronics store we went into directed us to another that we had a hard time locating. Eventually we found one though.

We got lost in Makati, over and over again. They had underground tunnels that were used for crossing the road. You weren't allowed to cross at the street. That definitely messed us up a time or two. All we wanted was tacos from a spot called El Chupacabra! We walked all around, "didn't we already pass that McDonald's?" we thought. Our dogs were barking! Bad day to decide to break in our new shoes. 2 huge blisters, ow. We never found that taco shop. Strike 2 for our Lonely Planet guide.

We hailed a Grab Cab at the mall and returned to our hostel. Calvin asked our driver of he could pick us back up at 1030pm and take us to the bus station. The driver had said yes. Now we just hoped he would follow through.

Back at the hostel we had a nice dinner. I order the spaghetti bolognese, just what I needed. A nice spaghetti with cut up got dogs in it. Calvin had the chick adobo, and guess what? Tasted better then the first one. The food was hot and tasted great. After that day I couldn't complain, nor did i have any.

Our driver arrives at 1018pm. Perfect. He helped us with our bags and drive us to the station. He didn't meter the ride and said we could pay whatever we decided was right. 200 pesos. The first ride, from the mall, costed 130 pesos, we have him 200 pesos, which he was extremely thankful for. Maybe that's why he decided to pick us up again that night.

We loaded up on the bus and headed for Sagada. By morning we would be far, far away from the crazy city. Peace Manila.

---

Comments

[Josevich]

gotham city
i hope your trip to Sagada redeems the Philippines :)

[AdventureCrazy]

Everywhere we have been to has redeemed the Philippines. We are living it here. We've been to Coron, El Nido, Puerto Princesa, and Cebu today, followed by Bahol.