Manila

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Manila welcomed us with a 20 min wait on the tarmac followed by an immigration hall full of people. Even Filipinos have to fill in an arrival card here. Trust nobody.. where have I heard that before. We joined the queue with ~80 people in front of us. The airport felt like it hadn't been cleaned since the 70s, making me glad I had checked us into the Four Seasons Manila. Eventually we got through immigration, collected our bags and were on our way to our hotel, through the Manila slums. There was something about the outside of the four seasons that didn't seem right. It was only when we inspected the dirty box room, after lifting up the windows blinds to see our view (and fire exit) was boarded up, that we realised we made a mistake. After a quick investigation we realised we had been the victim of some cunning marketing. We were in the "Four Seasons Hometel" not Hotel...doh! I guess the 5EUR per night price tag should have given it away ;-)
Next day we left the Four Seasons and headed to Malate in the south of the city. This area seemed alot nicer and livelier. This was to be our base for the next few days.
The standard of living in Manila was alot worst than Hong Kong. There was considerable poverty here. Safety is something that seems to have passed Filipinos by. Not only was there a light switch in our bathroom but there was actually one in our shower. Point the shower head in the right direction and you shower the light switch. Well the cockroaches didn't seem too bothered about it so I guess it must be ok.
Traffic lights seem different here too. A red light means go a little slower through a junction.
There are a few subtle unsettling & strange things about Manila:
• Every shop/restaurant has a security guard outside with a handgun
• Every Bank has a few security guards with shot guns
• Upmarket hotels have a guards with machine guns
• Our hotel had no security guard outside (I think it was too classy)
• Nightclubs have signs outside stating, explosives and guns are not allowed inside.
• Such was the problem of male passengers groping female passengers during rush hour on the urban light rail transport system, that the authorities had to segregate the platforms into male and female sections.

In Europe we are told that we need to darken our skin in order to become beautiful, with lots of products & salons claiming to do this for you for a nominal.. I mean phenomenal fee. Here the apparently beauty is white skin, also lots of products claim to lighten your skin. Seems like a vicious circle to me.
On the way out of the Manila airport I was going through security and an interesting conversation ensued with the guard:

(GUARD) Where you from ?
(ME) Ireland
(G) Oh Ireland.. yeah.. the Corrs.. great band..
(M) Yeah ..
(G) What is this (he finds my money belt)
(M) It's my belt for holding my passport and stuff
(G) Can you open it please?
(I open the front pocket and he looks inside at my passport ..etc)
(G) Can you open the back pocket please?
(I open it to reveal some EUR/USD notes I had as backup)
(He picks up some EUR notes)
(G) What is this ?
(M) It's EURO
(G) It is a souvenir ?
(M) Sorry ?
(G) It is a souvenir for me ?
(M) No
(He picks up another note)
(G) What about this ? It is a souvenir for me ?
(M) No
(G) OK go on through..

I was taken back a little .. it wasn't what I'd come to expect from Manila airport.
3 days in Manila was enough.. We are not disappointed to leave, and won't be back unless necessary.

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Some more photos here
and a video of fish feeding.

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