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Published: March 29th 2013
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New wheels
1 owner , service history. Bargain. The trip to Manila was a classic, lots of motorbikes , ferries , buses , stress confusion, rows nearly tears , planes and taxis.
I Finally landed in Manila , hotel booked and went to grab a cab. The couple I was going to meet were really nice , Arthie and his wife Sheila I had met them at Subic Bay whilst diving and we met most eveings and drunk and ate a lot together, both worked for a call center dealing with complaints from loans for a company inthe USA , so these were the people working for the departments that outsourse thier work to Asia , that is so wrong but good for the Asian people and they openly admit not to understanding most of the conversations on the phone !
They kept warning me to be on my guard.No I know or knew by now that the Philippines were dodgy but apparantly Manila is the most dodgiest of places and it did look just like that !
Igot a cab and told the guy where to go but kept on insisting that i go and look at his mates Hotel as it was vey cheap
Never stopped smiling
Sheila ate more then me , but I kept saying that I had booked into one but he was nt having it and even went to turn into another street to go to this Hotel , that is when I got assy and told him to stop the cab ! Well he never and when we got to my hotel he told me to give him a tip ! Now I would have given him a tip but the way he demanded one obviously made me refuse , he looked angry and said " Well Ok ! " got out of the car opened the boot and threw my suticase on the road then speed off ! It was rather embarassing with everyone looking at me and the Hotel porter looked even more suprised then me !
The room had a spyhole and two chains on it with a notice saying do not open the door to anyone ! That unsettled me a little .
Arthie and Shiela told me not to leave the Hotel until they got there, so dangerous Manila is but I tend to do the opposite of peoples advise and went for a wander . I am a dirty
Still Eating
Arthie ate and drunk more then me. smoker and lit up when I wsas outside , that is when a unifromed sherif type bloke asked me for 100$ fine as it is forbidden to smoke in that street !Lookiing around I saw loads of people smoking but I didnt want to get argumentative but I also never wanted to give him any money ! So I said I am visitng my freind who is a police commisioner and this seemed to unsettle him , I then offerd to ring him and ask for his advice, the sheriff guy then got all flustered and said he wouild let me off with a warning ! " oh good , thank you " I said " can I have your name to let my friend know what a good guy you are ?" I really was confident now after travelling for so long ! Good job he neer called my bluff ! But he then burbled soemthing and buggerd off ! An old lady saw all this and said something to me whilst cackling thorugh a toothless smile ! This was great I love little experiences like this. I need money and found a ATM , one with an armed
Pig
Dont know what it was but it was yummy! guard as most have but I only got about 50$ out , I did nt want to get robbed of a fortune !
I told Arthie about this and he was not happy ! We went for some food in a Philippine buffet type place and it was amazing I choose a dish where the cook puts a spoon up the neck and into the skull of a pigs head and scoops the insides out , it never looked appetising but it was amazing !
We ate and ate and drunk and drunk , again I was the only white face to be seen ! Then for a walk downtown , great atmosphere , we drunk somemore and had to ate again ! God these guys can eat ! We choose a place where they were playing live music , good old Phillipinos belting out Abba hits ! Being the only whiteface there the singer stopped and embarassed me by saying a special hello to the foreigner , again a great experience.
We met again the next day to eat a HALO HALO , that desert with baked beans in it , they were dying to let
3 stoodges
Drunk in Manila me experience this since i met them in Subic, I did nt have the heart to tell them I had treid one with June the other week ,but it was nice all the same . !
I had to leave the next day to get back to Angeles to get a flight to Cambodia ,Now I was in Cambodia the month before but felt Ihad not seen enough , the country is magical it has somehting about it and I knew I had not fulfilled my curiousity of that country. Cambodia calls itself the " Kingdom of Wisdom " and that is somehow true .
To get to Angeles is a nioghtmare bus ride away, even getting the bus is a nightmare it is a big yard out of town with dozens of busstops and destinations . Arthie was worried about me doing this alone , but I was going to be ok but it was a bit daunting !
Well we said ourgoodbyes and off they went .. the next morning I was in the reception when they both walked in ! They were worried and both took the day off to take me and put
Late night supper
Fried minced pork with chili, cant remember the name of this dish but ate it a lot in Philippines me on the bus , for them to get to the Hotel was a 2 hour ride through the city and they did tha for me to make sure I was safe , that touched me a lot . This was the second time new friends have come to say goodbye albeit it at a bus station or airport , a great feeling !
I arrived in Angeles and had a day to think about how to get to Cambodia
This was going to be another epic journey !
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