Manila- greetings from The Philippines!

---

So after a four hour flight we arrived into Manila and immediately the contrast between here and Kuala Lumpur, the capital we had just departed, was obvious.

Manila is a huge place that actually comprises a number of smaller cities that have grown into one enormous city and the airport we flew into is several hours outside of Manila proper. The journey into the city gave us a chance to see what would be in store for us and the first thing i noticed was the prevelence of fast food chains and franchises. Despite the Philippines former Spanish colonisers, the Philippines have a distinctly American vibe and an apparent love for all things 'USA'. This said, much of the language and the place names have retained a Spanish edge and the people definitely have that Mediterranean passion about them!

We checked into the cheapest hostel we could find, although it was still over-priced, and settled into the extremely warm and claustophobic 12-person dorm. Ermita and the surrounding area was a surprising mix of shanty towns, tourist restaurants and go-go-bars and we were taken back by the poverty that greeted us each time we left our hostel. I found it difficult initially to find any genuine Filipino restaurants, so sampling the local specialties was harder than I had hoped it would be. Actually, the food turned out to be disappointingly bad and for the first time "Jolibee" (the Asian KFC) was a welcomed sight!

We wandered around the city but were driven indoors by the heat and strength of the sun! But we did visit the National Museum, Rizal park and the old Spanish quarters and I was impressed not only by the sights but by how friendly and helpful the local people were and how easy it was to get around thanks to their help! The city itself is neither the best nor the worst I've encountered in Asia and, while I wouldn't recommend it and I also don't think it deserves it's bad reputation- the modern shopping district and it's malls rival those even in KL and the tourist areas most definitely have the character i missed in Kuala Lumpur! Getting around is made a little easier by the monorail and a lot easier by the constant stream of local people offering directions and advise.

Our time in Manila was enormously enhanced by the hostel we were staying in and it was a great place to seek shelter from the midday (all day!) heat and to meet other people. We received a lot of recommendations and very quickly realised that the three weeks we had to travel around the country would not be nearly enough.

So we packed our bags and made some plans and soon found ourselves on a night bus north...
... Next Stop: Ifagao...

---

Comments

[Mike]

hostel
Which hostel did you stay at guys? im visiting my GF next week finding it hard to find anywhere tho....thanks