Manila Mayhem

Last week (Tuesday) we flew into Clarks Airport near Angeles, jumped on a bus (Partas) and made our way to Manila. Why? a) Visas were about to expire, b) I had to attend a training update, c) Terry had to make his way to Puerto Galera to help out with some Tech courses.

It was late when we arrived at The Oxford Suites in Makati and so after getting hold of some Globe SIM cards, we went straight to the room to crash out. Early next morning, Terry left to catch his bus to Batangas, and I went to the update which lasted until about 3.30pm.

Next day I had to myself and wondered what on Earth I could do in Manila that was fun? Its not like there is anything to do in Manila... is there?

Well, yes there is! I spent 6 hourse wandering around with my camera around the Greenbelt/Glorietta area and had an unexpectadely nice day! The photo abouve captures the city from my hotel room on a rare clear day. the photo next to it is the front of The Peninsular hotel, made famous in late 2007 for the coup attempt (one of many in Philippines history)

I was amazed at how many great colours and textures were around - you just need to look hard enough and you find that there is beauty in this polluted, traffic ridden city!

The neon colours down P. Burgos street in Makati looked great at night. I sat outside a bar for an hour with a few white wine taking random snaps and was quite amused when a man (white) on a nearby table had a go at me for taking his photo in the "red light" area and I was not to use his photo on the internet as he was NOT there for THAT reason!!! I laughed and told him not to flatter himself and to get his baldy white head out of shots!

At the Greenbelt there is a landscaped park with a chapel in the centre. The park is rather nice and has ponds, statues, flowers and even ducks! There are coffee shops all around so you can sit amongst a little bit of nature and enjoy your skinny latte.

These dogs were all from K9 Unit and were all with their handlers who let me take their photos. The Rottweiler was the only on that I was not allowed to stroke...! You should have seen the Lab and Alsations tails wag when they got stroked. Gorgeous. It was nice to see dogs in SE Asia with some hair and fat on them.

We used to live in the Philippines (got married there too!) but Manila was always a place we just passed through, not somewhere we spent any time (the last time we were there I got so drunk on a nice bottle of white wine that the snooty ex-pats in the Irish bar banned me from participating in their team on the pub quiz as I kept shouting out answers.. ha ha ha). Anyway, now I won't be quite so quick to dismiss it. Yes, it is polluted, yes, there are some awful disgusting slums, yes, the taxi drivers will rip your last peso from you and yes, the local food is the blandest you will find in Asia, BUT it does some merits. I was disappointed that I didn't have enough time to visit Corregidor Island, or the Amercian Cemetery, or the Intromuros or the Museum... So, perhaps, the thought of going to Manila, should I need to go there again in the future, won't be so bad..