Blogs from Malate, Manila, Philippines, Asia - page 3

Before I ever got the opportunity to, my Dad urged me to take care of fishes first. My cousin Miguel and I made merry arranging a fish tank for the fishes. Dad bought gold fishes from the pet store. We had four of it. Miguel and I named them Gigi, Olive, Lance, and Dash - to bring their initials together and spell GOLD. We fed them everyday. Sadly, on the fourth day, we found Olive lying down on the aquarium sand. As naÔve children, Miguel and I didn't know what caused its death. The following day, Dash was outside the aquarium, lying dead as well! My heart broke. Was it my lack of petting skills? Did a cat get Dash but got caught by our maid and left it there? Did Dash jump off and wanted ... read more

Ello ello We're now in Manila in the Phillipines and life is much different. Not the best of place if I was honest. Poverty is everywhere, Bangkok doesn't come anywhere near close. Children looking after children and sleeping rough. Beggars are a plenty and seems like everyoneis out to get your last Peso. Soon clued ourselves up after paying 3 times as much for our initial cab journey, only cost the equilivant of ten pounds for an hours journey though. So musn't grumble too much. We've been here for three days now, one more than expected as there were problems with our flight to Palawan today (paradise- google some images). But we fly tomorrow for definite. We went to the Philly embassy today and have extended our visa for another month as we are desperate to ... read more

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The start of last week gave me an insight into the Filipino court system. We travelled to Cavite which is about 30km south of Manila, however, it took about 90 minutes to get there because of the traffic (motorcycling here truly is dangerous and you need to be as skilled as Valentino Rossi (world champion motorcyclist) not to crash or be hit). The court from the outside looked like any other but as we walked towards it there was a flag raising ceremony with many court officials and police stood ready to raise the flag. The people I was with ran to the shade when they saw this and I didn't realise why until the national anthem started to play and everyone had to stand still as a sign of respect. I was left in the ... read more

Well, I'm currently sat in my hotel room, tired, sweaty and happy. I've just arrived and almost everything went to plan. I must say that Cathay Pacific is probably the best airline I've flown with. Check in was easy at Heathrow, and the space you get in economy class was surprisingly good. There were loads of films and TV shows to watch - enough to keep anyone entertained and yes, Claire, I held back from watching Dexter 5. Straight off one plane at Hong Kong and onto the next where I was stopped at passport control. I handed over my boarding pass and the woman scanned it only to look up and say "I'm afraid we're going to move your seat... to Business Class". You can only imagine my delight after a 12 hour ride in ... read more