Day 7 After Breakfast, we drove by car to Tagatay. Tagaytay is 56km south of Manila & is a spectacular place to view the Taal Volcano. When we arrived in Tagatay, we drove to a property where a friend of our's, Pat & family were staying & also met up with Eleanor & her mum (who had also come up from Manila for the day). After morning Tea, we left to go down the winding road, to the town of Talisay (where the boats depart to go over to the volcano). We stopped half-way down to get our first view of the volcanoes. The volcano pictured, far right is dormant, but others are still active. img=http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8978/19ru... read more

Day 6 We travelled by car to Intramuros (the walled city), our first stop was Fort Santiago, which is situated at the mouth of the Pasig River. The fort is a defence settlement, established during the Spanish era. José Rizal, the country's national hero, was imprisoned here before his execution in 1896. The Fort has some nice gardens & ponds. It also has a museum dedicated to José Rizal where you will find a replica of Jose Rizal’s prison cell set up supposedly before he was executed. From the Fort, you can also see the suburb of Tondo on the other side of th... read more

Day 5 After Breakfast, we took a taxi to Rizal Park. The taxi ride only took 30 minutes, which was quite quick. As soon as we arrived, we were confronted by people trying to sell us souvenirs, old coins, food etc. The Park is quite big & is split into at least 2 sections separated by a main road. One part of the park was dedicated to busts of their National Heroes. Below is a Statue of Lapu Lapu. Around the park, there were also a number of cats (who looked like they could do with a good feed). Part of the park includes an Orchidarium, here there was a display of ... read more

Day 4 After breakfast, we were picked up by Lita's nephew Odie, to take us to the Green Hills Shopping Centre. As usual, there is always much traffic, so progress was quite slow. In fact, one city street, which was really two-way, was fully taken up by traffic treating it as one-way, so we had to divert down a side street. Once out of the Makati district, roads became narrower & buildings were much shabbier (than in the city). We passed through shopping areas, over the Pasig river (which seemed to have lots of green vegetation floating in it) & through the suburb of Mandaluyong. We saw all types of housing on our journey ranging from Apartments, Slums to properties with very high fences (protected by barb wire or broken glass embedded in the walls). There ... read more

Day 3 It was raining in the morning, when we woke up. Had breakfast in the alternate location called the Swiss Chalet (all staff dressed in Swiss Clothing). After breakfast, we went for a walk to look at the location of our next Hotel-The Somerset Salcedo (also in Makati). We will move there this Saturday, when Ruby's brother, Ronald & family arrive from Sydney. After that, we went for a walk around the Makati district, eventually ending up at the Greenbelt shopping centre (which has some nice Garden areas). In the early afternoon, Ruby & Sarah went to the Airport to retrieve a lost piece of luggage. Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk with Ruby to the Peninsula Hotel. img=http://img401.imag... read more

Day 2 Before breakfast, went for a swim in the Hotel Pool - water was not as warm as I expected, although not too bad once you were in for a few minutes. Had breakfast at the Motel (pictured below) & then we walked to the Glorietta Shopping Mall (no more than 15 minutes). The mall has 4 main sections & led to more shops in any direction (including SM & Landmark). I had a haircut (which was a bit expensive p780, but included wash, scalp massage, shoulder & back massage & finally a cut). Most of the day we were at the shops, except for a few hours when I went b... read more

Day 1 Left Sydney a bit late, because someone did not board the plane & they had to remove the luggage for that person. Flight was a bit rough when we flew into Queensland (they stopped serving lunch !), but after 15 minutes was smooth again. Arrived in Manila at 18:40 local time & was picked up by Lita's brother Rolly & nephew Odie, who drove us to our Hotel, the Somerset Olympia in Makati. When checking into our Hotel, there was a security check of luggage & vehicle (including sniffer dog) . This was due in part to the recent incident at the Ma... read more