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Published: September 24th 2006
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Promise that this will be the last blog on the Philippines, you are probably all a little bored with listening to our stories by now but we promise that there will be no more beach pictures, at sunset or otherwise. This is because we have left the islands behind us (sob) and headed into the sprawling metropolis of manila.
When we wrote our last blog-buster we had just arrived in the capital and we that night checking out the local nightlife in Malate. Not being rich enough to visit any for the many bars in the area we found a little mobile-bar-thing with loads of tables about the place where we spent a wicked couple of hours listening to music and people watching. Whilst we were there the lovely people in the restaurant next door brought us free food as it was their opening night. Like much of the food in the Philippines it involved rice and chicken which is now basically our new favourite food. Chicken comes in all shapes and flavours but we always went for the garlic option when it came to rice, yum. Eggs also feature in a lot of Filipino recipe's and the guys that
night also brought us pieces of spicy omeltty eggy bread stuff which was really delicious. There plenty of people wandering up and down selling peanuts, ciggarettes and puppets as well as a man who would bring several snakes to your table, presumably in return for money, not sure though, we didn't want to get close enough to find out! (same goes for the plump transvestite who kept trying to dance for us.. ).
As promised we also spent some of our stay in Manila catching up some culture and during our two day stay we learnt more about the country that we had been visiting than in the rest of the trip. On Saturday we walked down to Rizal Park which is a memorial to the doctor and novelist Hose Rizel who was executed by the Spanish in 1896 on the site where the park now stands. he was accused of inciting a rebellion against the Spanish rule. Philippines actually gained Independence from the Spanish in 1898 but were then taken over by the Americans until they gained Independence again in 1946.
The park is huge and just about the only green space in the city centre. It
is full of little walled gardens which charge small entrance fees such as a chinease garden and a japanses one, and these were full of people hiding from the scorchio mid day sun. At one end of the park i the National Museum which was busy with school and university students and housed in a beautiful ex governmental building. It was full of really interesting artefacts and exhibitions to do with Philipine people culuure and history. Much of the bottom two floors is devoted the ship wreak of the San Diego a trading ship which was converted into a warship and sank off the island of Batangas after battling with the Dutch ship Mauritius in 1600. This find is particularly significant in the world of underwater archeology (so we throughout of you Marianne) because of the treasures that have been recovered in recent years including artifacts from Europe, the Philippines and throughout aisia. There is also plenty to excite your inner anthropologist with lot so exhibitions devoted to the different tribal groups living on the Philippines and a particularly pretty room with examples of different kinds of tribal dress from throughout the region.
Our last night at the hostel
was Saturday and as we had to be up at 5 (oh and had run out of pesos) so we had a quiet night in unlike everyone else in Manila who seemed to be partying outside our hotel room window, next time we will go for the can't-beat-them-join-them school of thought but with pillows over our ears we managed to get enough sleep for a taxi journey to the airport. The driver was really nice and after a successful haggle (yes!) we scored a reasonable price and he also gave us a little tour including the new shopping mall which is the biggest in Asia apparently, shopping is certainly a Manila obsession. The flight was fine as usual and the last one we will take before December as it is overland from here on.
Overall we had a wicked stay in the Philippines and visited some amazing places. True we met a few individuals who came on a bit too strong with the hard sell and this can be a serious pain (as you may have gathered) it is also true that some of the tourist destinations are really sleazy.. but despite our grumblings in these departments don't be
fooled, we had a really wicked time , we met some super nice people during our stay and especially when we were travelling about everyone was really helpful. Oh and there were lovely beaches and great food - ok apart from the spicy liver on the last day - yep would reccomend a visit for sure!
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Michael
non-member comment
safety
I wonder if you can help me. I have travelled a lot, but never to any country as dangerous as philippines is suppoed to be. I really want visit there but admit that i'm scared becuase i heard that theres lots of crimes against westerners. I only plan to go to the north of the country to bagiou, but am worried about getting through manila even though i can hire private driver that my wife knows as she is filpina. At this moment in time they say there is high risk of bombings, not just down the south. I'm quite a nervous person in general. please can someon be honest with me and give me a little bit of help