Running around Manila

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Turns out I was pretty close on what they call kebabs -- "sawarma". That's what we had for lunch and it was really good. After lunch we went to the Tourist Information and asked about the Taiwan embassy -- we needed to know about visas. The man gave us their address and phone number and let us make a call from their phone. The woman said that a US passport holder did not need to apply for a visa beforehand, but a Chilean passport holder did, and it would be 2,400 PHP and would take 3 business days.

So we went to the embassy, ok it wasn't an embassy, it was the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office located in the RCBC plaza fairly near the Ayala metro. So we went to the LRT metro stop near the tourist info and paid 12 PHP each for a ride to the second-to-last station on the line, EDSA. While we were riding the train we noticed the map on the wall and the last station actually had an icon listing transportation to the airport. No idea which airport or how much, but we wondered why nobody had told us that! Whenever we asked anyone the only option they gave us was a taxi that would be around 150 PHP if it was white.

Anyways, we got to that stop, had to leave the station to go to the MRT line 3 where there was an enormous line for tickets, wait in that line, and pay 10 PHP each for a ticket for two stops away at Ayala (here's a map of the lines if you're interested). We got out and didn't know which way to go but found help with a security guard who told us to go to the other exit on the opposite side, go to the Shell gas station, and take a jeep to the RCBC plaza.

We got to the gas station and there was a long line of jeeps behind it waiting to fill up and take people away. It was 8 pesos each to the plaza and the jeep quickly (over)filled with people. It wasn't a long ride, but it was already past 4 pm and we didn't know how long the office would be open, so we figured we could just walk it next time. When we saw the big towers we got off, and ran inside to ask about visas. There was a woman on the ground floor acting as a representative for the office who told us that they only issued applications in the mornings and that the afternoons were for returning the passports with visas. Somehow we convinced her to just let us go up and talk with someone to find out our options -- we had a flight and needed to be at the airport at 19:00.

Up on the 41st floor the guard asked us why we were there and we told him and he almost didn't let us enter because they weren't giving visas at that hour, but let us go in to talk to the information lady at booth 1. We waited for a bit because she was helping someone else, but when Ronald asked he found out that pretty much his only option was to fill out an application form with two pictures (with white backgrounds) and have a travel agency take it to their office in the morning. She gave us the tour agency's information and we called and they said they could help but that they closed at 18:00. This gave us about 1 hour!

So we ran downstairs to the photo place the woman had told us to go to, took his pictures, and got in a taxi to head to Malate. We arrived at the office about 3 minutes before 6 pm and they were open! Yay! Ronald printed out his proof of income and gave them the application, photos, his passport, and 3,000 PHP. Then we walked back to the hotel, got our bags, and hopped into a taxi, agreeing on 150 to go to terminal 3 (Cebu Pacific flies from there) instead of using the meter.

We passed through security, took off some weight from our bags while checking in, went through security again, and walked to the gate. Ronald got his umbrella taken away but we breathed a sigh of relief when our tent with its spiky stakes was allowed through. I was super surprised that most of the businesses past security were closed -- it was only 19:00! When do these people eat?!

We were in the exit row during the flight and it only left about 30 minutes late. When we got off we got our bags and asked the information man how much it should be to go into the center. He said 200 for white cabs and 250 or more for the yellow ones. So we walked outside and passed the yellow ones and went upstairs to another place where the taxis gathered and stood in line for a few minutes before deciding to walk farther down the road to what we assumed was the entrance to the airport.

We passed a few of their yellow truck buses (jeeps, as they call them) and had we not had our large backpacks would have taken one of those. Since we had our large bags we kept walking and found the car rental section and after a few more steps a taxi stopped and quoted 200 for Mango Ave, a price much lower than what the others had said (350+...no, thanks...). We hopped in and when we got there checked for rooms at the Cebu Guesthouse and decided to keep walking to see if we could find something cheaper. There are also a lot of people living on the streets here and we also saw a lot of girls/boys who seemed to be prostituting.

We settled on King Soloman Lodge for 500 (AC, private bathroom, two beds, TV, minifridge, free water, 10 peso toilet paper, free towels and blankets). After setting our stuff down Ronald wanted to work a bit so we went to a large hotel nearby that had given him their wifi password (valentines -- funny, I thought) but it didn't work so we headed on back, showered, and finally hit the hay around 2:30 am.

Technical details
-They all love singing and most are really good at it
-They speak English for business and a lot of times mix the two -- in the cab we heard the radio DJ switching back from his native Tagalog to English with ease.
-Tagalog is an interesting mix of languages and they actually use a lot of Spanish words

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Photos

sawarma
our lunch place