Philippines - Manila

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David here...

The flight from Taglibaran was a good one. We were moved to an emergency exit row, so had lots of leg room and no reclining seats in front of us. The flight took a little over an hour and we were soon in Manila. The capital city of crime and kidnappings, no street is safe to walk down and don't you dare get into a taxi. Public transport is also a no no. If you do make it to your hotel from the airport, don't ever leave your room. All nonsense of course and Manila has built a reputation over recent years as being the place to be for New Years Eve, which is why we were here. We jumped into a yellow taxi from the airport and were soon on the Sky toll road into the Makati area. The taxi driver had put his meter on and was taking the quickest route. No scams, no issues and no problems. We arrived at the Red Planet Amorsolo hotel at around 13:00 and were soon checked in and in our room, though we did have to move rooms due to a leaky air-con, all dealt with with no hassle.

We decided we were hungry and required some shopping. I had picked up a cold and required some medication, and still needed some walking shoes. Nearby at Ayala was the Glorietta shopping centre so we walked the 30 minutes there, intent on treating ourselves to a nice meal at Hard Rock Cafe as we enjoyed the one in Denpasar airport so much. We walked about 30 minutes along a wide pavement, a luxury in most of Asia, and found the shopping centre easily. We then spent about an hour trying to find the Hard Rock Cafe in the centre. We had not anticipated just how big the centre was. There was no signage and every information point we found was broken.

Finally we found an information desk and got directions. We made our way to the 3rd floor however the last escalator was closed off so we could not get up to the right floor. Eventually we made it to the right floor, found a working information point and got directions to the HR Cafe, it was still ages away. We had passed an Army Navy (burrito chain) while walking round so ate there instead. Saved us some money. We then found a Merrill store and I managed to buy some new walking shoes, leaving my old, trusty Jack Wolfskin shoes with the shop to be thrown away. We then made our way to the supermarket in the centre for supplies before returning to the hotel to freshen up and do some research on where to go that night. The room we had was small but clean and modern with a great shower.

We found very little rock and metal during our research but did find a bar called Handle Bar that was owned by a local motorbike gang. We figured that would be a good place to start. It was a 40 minute walk to the bar and it was in quite a lively area. It was packed outside with lots of people smoking and watching sports but inside it was quieter and smoke free. We had arrived at 19:45 so there was still 15 minutes of happy hour left. This was unplanned but very welcome as the beer was quite expensive. We ordered a pitcher of beer and demolished it in 10 minutes, meaning we got another one ordered before happy hour finished. The pitchers were also quite big so we felt like we got decent value.

When we arrived the music was early American rock which was fine but then someone put Disturbed's cover of Sound of Silence on (officially the best cover ever made) and then we had about an hour or so of Disturbed tracks, great for us being fans but even we'd had enough by the time the live band started up as we left. I ordered a pint of draft Tenants Stout and we ordered loaded skins to share before leaving the bar in search of cheaper beer and maybe another light snack to see us through. Just around the corner was a little Mexican place called El Chupacabra so we headed there. They were playing Reggae quite loud but turned it down as we prepared to just walk away. We ended up staying, intent on having a beer and sharing some nachos. In the end we both had 3 beers and an Al Pastor buritto each. The music even got better. Then it was back to the hotel for a decent nights sleep.

The next day we headed out to the Rizal Park area in the hope that the National Museum was open. Most places were shut over New Year, but the National Museum website only mentioned normal opening hours. We used the LRT rail system to get there and had no issues. It was the same as any subway/sky train we've used in the past despite the stories of crime and violence all over the web. It cost us 20 pesos each (32p) get to the Central Terminal near to the museum and Rizal park.

Anyway, we got off the LRT and immediately went to find a coffee and/or lunch. We ended up in another mall and had our first experience of Jollibees, the Philippines fast food chain. We had a bucket of chicken, nothing special but nice enough, before going to the museum. Surprisingly, for a free museum, it was pretty good. Some nice pieces of work among the galleries and we spent about 2 hours there overall.

We walked through Rizal Park afterwards and found people already gathering for that nights NY countdown, some people already slightly rowdy and it was only 15:00 in the afternoon. Rizal is a national hero to the Filipinos, he was executed by the Spanish for his resistance efforts against their occupation, but was a polymath, painting, sculpting and writing. An interesting fellow.

After leaving the park, it began to rain. So we sheltered for a bit in a handy Starbucks before walking along the harbour, past many people living in dire straits before passing the navy headquarters and then the posh yacht club.

It is fair to mention that begging in the Philippines is everywhere, especially from kids. We'd already had lots of kids running up to us with hands out asking for money, wishing us a Happy New Year or just the direct 'Hello, give me money'. We're determined not to support this way of life so have resisted, but it is difficult. Being noticeably different also makes you a target, with people running over to you and it does get very tiresome. You sometimes do get the impression that you are seen as a walking ATM and some of the kids in particular have appeared shocked when we shake our heads and say no. It is relentless at times and it does get to you, as well as making you feel sad for those begging, who clearly have no other choices. All along the walk we had been chased and pestered for money though during our time in Manila we only felt uneasy once when asked for money aggressively by some teenagers who then followed us for while.

Unlike us, we actually flagged down a taxi when we got tired and were dropped off at our hotel, again no scams and the meter was on, though he didn't know where the hotel was so we had to direct him. We then prepared to head out for New Years Eve. We had already done research in advance and found that Makati, where we were staying, usually has a big street party. We double checked online at the hotel and could find no reference to it for this year. Last year it was held at a big stadium and it was cancelled the two years before. We could only find references to hotels with ticket only parties or Rizal Park, which we really did not fancy.

We decided to walk through the area that the street party used to be, on the off chance something was happening (it wasn't) before heading back to the area that had seemed so lively the night before. We walked round and a found most places were girlie bars. Feeling hot and bothered we wandered into an Irish bar to cool off and grab a beer and decide what to do next. We ended up having a pitcher of San Mig Pilsen and a bottle of Strongbow and Hoegaardan as the bar were playing Thin Lizzy, probably as we were the only ones in. We decided to cut our losses and go back to Handle Bar as we knew it had decent music and good food and was likely to be busy. We walked in to find that the music was shocking and no one else was in. When we asked the staff about the music they asked us what we wanted. Obviously we said Rock, so they put on The Rolling Stones. We left! Not having any other plan, and worried we were not going to get any dinner, we walked back to the hotel in the hope we would pass something, anything where we could eat. Near our hotel we passed a Yellow Cab Pizza Company that was open until 03:00 which had a 7-11 next door. We ended up ordering an 18" pepperoni and mushroom pizza and chicken wings. When asked what drinks we would like, we asked if it was OK to pop next door and bring some beer in. The member of staff was unsure but the manager said it was fine, it was New Years Eve after all.

The pizza was nice, the chicken wings were unnecessary and the 2 litres of beer were lovely. We ended up back at our hotel room with more beer around 23:15 as we waited for the countdown. The hotel wouldn't let us up on the roof so had to make do with watching the fireworks from a 9th floor corridor with beer. It is true about Manila, the fireworks going off were like a warzone, but they were everywhere, without a single focal point. Most countries have a place where people go, like Trafalgar Square, the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Petronas Towers for example. Manila just doesn't have that. Anyway, while it didn't go to plan, we enjoyed ourselves, saw lots of fireworks, and were happy to be together.

On New Years Day we made our way on the LRT to the walled city of Intramuros. It has a number of museums, churches, monuments and Manila Cathedral within the walls. The cathedral was nice once inside but everywhere else was shut. We then walked back through Rizal Park to try and find some lunch as the places in Intramuros we'd picked out were also shut. As we approached the park a couple asked us for directions which we could help with. As we walked on they followed behind when someone shouted out to me and waved. As always I waved back and I heard the couple behind ask each other if I was famous. Nope, just tall with long blonde hair that Asians like to wave to!

Anyway we targetted some more restaurants, all of which were shut and the ones that were open just weren't grabbing us. We ended up, yet again, in a shopping centre drinking coffee trying to use free wi-fi, Costa Coffee this time, the first one we've seen on this trip. Eventually we found somewhere to eat (Tambayan Bistro) where we both had the Grilled Cheese Cheese Burger with some beer before grabbing a taxi again back to the hotel where we had an early night.

The next morning we left the hotel as late as possible before making our way to Draft pub for lunch. It was nearby and we knew they did German Beers. We arrived and found they did 2 for 1 on draft Warsteiner pints so downed 4 of them with our meals. I had pork knuckle and Suzanne had a meat pie. Both tasty but not a patch on originals. We got some final shopping in and changed some money at the Greenbelt shopping centre before jumping into a taxi to the airport for our flight to Palawan Island and Puerto Princesa.

We enjoyed Manila, however 3 nights was enough. MetroManila is a number of cities that have expanded and merged together to make one big sprawling mass, much like Mangua in Nicaragua. This means that a lot of the sights and museums are spread out over a large area and can be difficult to get to. There isn't enough to see in one area, it is just too big. We were personally lucky with traffic over New Year as our taxi journeys were pretty easy. Since then we've heard stories from other travellers of 15 minute journeys taking hours. So taking a taxi to see the sights is not really viable. Along with the begging, Manila isn't our favourite city. A good travel hub perhaps and very good for shopping centres, but we did not feel that there was much more to see even in a city of that size. Although perhaps that was not helped by the fact so much was closed for New Year.

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