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I have just arrived in Puerto Galera and I have a room over looking the water which isnt too bad except the power is out hence me sitting in an aircon internet cafe.
Manilla is not the most pleasant of cities, its dirty, smoggy, smelly and has a lot of poor and down out people. It also has way to many touts and scamming cab drivers, and the weather is unbearable humid at the moment.
I arrived in the wee hours of the morning and after going to 3 or 4 places finally found a room at the Cityscape in Ermita more expensive than I would have liked but the location isnt to bad. The hotel slugged me an extra day because I arrived so early I found this a bit rude, but I had no choice.
I then went and crashed for about five hours before having some breakfast and wandering around the area to get my bearings I was immediately jumped on by a tout who was a real pain in the arse and would not leave me a lone, I did find a place where I could get a combined Jeepney/Boat ticket to here
so I purchased that and then went into a Wendies to escape the tout he followed me in and starting complaining that I hadnt followed him to what ever club he was going on about and then he started hasseling me to buy him lunch, by now I was getting angry and told him to get lost. Wendy's has Bacon and cheese mushroom melt burgers they are small but good.
I then went to try and get cash from an ATM, there was a guard with a pump action shot gun which I thought I might need with Ghollum still hanging around. I got my cash and went back to my room for the rest of the day.
The next morning I went to Intramuros and wandered the old city for a few hours visiting all the places of interest I could find and fending of touts trying to hassel me into a Kalessa, I was really quiet impressed by the San Augustine Museum and spent quite a while there, in one room they had pictures of the apostles these guys all seemed to die pretty gruesome deaths, I then went to mass for the second week in
a row, actually I went twice because walked to Quiapo Church and checked out mass there as well.
I also checked out Manilla Cathedral and Fort Santiago although there isnt much of it left, and wandered through a pretty huge market in Quiapo.
I sweated buckets by the time I walked through Rizal Park and got back to Ermita, I was dying, but I then came across the Slouch Hat bar, where I had a meat pie and chips and a few beers while I watched the Swans thump Fremantle. I met a bloke from WA there and got to chatting and drinking lots of beer for many hours, we were going to watch the soccer but it wasnt on, so we went to a place called the Hobbit House.
This place is politically incorrect to say the least it is staffed completely by little people one of which looked like the little guy from fantasy island.
This morning I was up at 6.30am I had to pack up and walk the couple of streets to the Swagman Inn wear I got on the mini bus sized Jeepney for the trip to the port at Batangas
and then an hour or so in a small boat called a pump boat to the island.
I think this plavce would be nice to veg in for a few days but that wont happen as I am moving on tomorrow, I want to get to Boracay and book a couple of flights as soon as possible.
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digital_explorer
Reymos
Thanks
It is nice feeling to read people's blog about the Philippines and how they described it. It seems that you enjoyed your stay. By the way, yes Dr. Jose Rizal is our national but he was not ''hanged'' by the Spaniards, instead he faced the ''firing squad'' publicly in Luneta Park. Best regards