Manila, Philippines

Now was our second flight in 2 days from Kuala Lumpur to Manila. Of course the flight was late again, Air Asia seem to be consistent with their planes being delayed. That’s what you get when you fly budget. In the terminal there were no information boards so hundreds of passengers from our flight as well as other flights were all walking around aimlessly trying to find out when their flight was going to take off as all the flights seemed to be delayed. It was the usual stressful chaos as we tried to avoid missing our flight but we made it, it was about an hour late and arrived in Manila by late afternoon. We ordered a GRAB taxi from outside the terminal and we arrived at our condo half an hour later near the airport. The traffic in Manila is notorious and it lived up to its billing so we paid the driver extra to take the skyway which is an elevated section that you pay for via tolls to drive above all the traffic below. It worked a treat. Also it avoided the infamous white/yellow Taxi scams that are eponymous with the terminals of Manila airport.

View from our condo.

The condo looked spectacular from the outside but once inside it was tiny. It had a bedroom and a separate kitchen /diner then a bathroom but this place was so small you couldn’t swing a mouse in it. I guess this is the norm for Filippino’s as space is a premium in this over crowded city. Also the pool could not be used by foreigners on Friday to Sunday which happened to be the days we were staying! Greeeaaat!. I had heard stories about Manila being rough with high drug usage and gangs patrolling the streets but our condo owner assured us it was safe to walk the streets. I was sceptical of this as this condo complex had security everywhere and segregated away from normal street life by very high barb wire topped walls. Even cars coming in were vetted and registrations taken like some sort of military coup. Brave or stupid as we were, we decided to hit the streets and go to a supermarket to top up on supplies as it was possible to cook at the condo. We tried to hail a tricycle (a motorbike with a sidecar strapped to it) with no avail until the condo owner saw us and hailed one in seconds. The tricycle was tiny, built for 5ft Filippino’s and I sat in the tiny seat with my head straining in the plastic covered roof like the starting sequence in the Flintstones where their pet dinosaur pops his head through the roof of the car to see better. My legs also made contact with my chin on every bump in the road. Not a great experience. After paying the tricycle owner 50p we went shopping. Food was more expensive than the rest of Asia but the beer was rock bottom and we bought a pile of a beer called Colt 45 which was 7% and only 52p for a 500ml bottle. Happy days!

Kathy looks for somewhere to swing a mouse.

The ride back to the condo in the dark was interesting with all our shopping. A bit of a squeeze. The streets were busy and the traffic congested. It all felt a bit edgy with many people staring at us. I guess this was because we were in a non-touristy side of town or they were sizing us up for a quick armed mugging. We both felt anxious as the people here were so poor, many people just living in tiny corrugated sheet huts with kids playing in derelict building site rubble. Not a nice for place for a visiting tourist.

As Manila was low on sights, being an European church, (wow) a park, (double wow) and their so called nightlife which was legendary but also was the prime time to get mugged down town according to Lonely Planet. We decided it was safer with all our security at the condo (which was there for a reason ) to hunker down to do a bit of research. We had decent internet and as a treat we had multiple English speaking cable channels so over indulged in that as well. Some laundry was also done and hung out on the balcony.

Later that day there was a knock on the door and a security guard, sour faced and stern was standing there, filling the doorway with her oversized frame and handed us a warning from their residents association. We found out that we were in violation of the rules by hanging our clothes on the balcony and risked a fine if we did it again or did not remove the clothes immediately. We are so badass. She handed us a ‘warning’ letter detailing the consequences if we did it again. We kept hold of it as a mark of Manila street cred and thus reinforcing the reputation of Brits being trouble makers abroad.

Warning for team trouble.

    Apart from that, Manila was uneventful, but we were only there for 2 nights as a stopover until we got our next flight to Puerto Princessa to go onto El Nido in Palawan.