I stayed up all night at the airport in K.L but that wasn't too bad as there was a Dunkin Donuts there and I got talking to Guy from Bangladesh at the airport.
Well, I say I was talking to a guy from Bangladsh but the truth is, I mentioned Dhaka and Chittagong (The only two places that I remember from leaving cert Geography (Thanks, Mr Langran - I knew they would come in handy some day!)) and he responded by talking with random english words. It was quite an interesting conversationas it lasted for about 20 minutes and I am guessing I made as much sense to him as he did to me!
The plan take off around 7a.m. and due to the fact that I had not slept, I actually fell asleep before the plane took off! I woke up a few hours later just in time to see the landing in Clark airport (which is about a billion miles away from Manila (I flew Air Asia and they always fly in through Clark and to be honest I knew that I landed quite a distance away from Manila.I guess Air Asia is the Ryan Air of Asia.) ) Anyway, when I landed ,I grabbed my luggage (My luggage consists of a big bag and a smaller bag which is attached to the bigger bag.) I grabbed the bag without realising the small bag was detached from the large bag. I walked out from departures to the a.t.m and waited in the queue to get some pesos.When I got to the front of the queue, I realised that I hadn't a clue of the exchange rate so consequently I hadn't a clue about what amount to take out so I asked the girl behind me in the queue about the exchange rate! She was traveling on the same plane as myself and we got chatting and decided to grab a bus/car/jeepney/horse and cart/pigeon/any method of transport to get into Manila. Loren (the girls name) is from South Africa and is teaching in Malyasia and is here on holidays.We got chatting even more when the atm failed to work when i used my debit card...At this point, I decided to look for my lost luggage so I had to go back through departures and explain what happened.To be honest, the guys in Air Asia werecool about it.One of the lads asked me to fill in a form detailing the loss of the bag , so I had to fill out where I was staying in Manila.This was a bit tricky as I had not booked anywhere yet! (I grabbed a location out of the lonely planet and wrote that location.) In the meantime , I got talking to another guy who had travelled from Malaysia to the Philippines but was stuck in the airport as the police didn't believe that he was here for business. He had a hotel booked already so that's when I started to worry (a small bit!) I didn't get the time to fill out the form fully though as another guy (from Air Asia) came along and started talking in half Tagalog\ half English to the first guy saying that he had already seen the bag! He got the bag and I was able to zip the smaller bag to the large bag again....what a relief!!!
Anyway, Loren had figured out that we should grab a Jeepney to Dau and then a bus from there to Manila. There was another guy at the terminal (Nazrul from Bangladesh) and we all decided to grab a jeepney at the same time.
Anyway, we grabbed a Jeepney to Dau and then took a non air conditioned bus (well, it was 25 pesos cheaper- in retrospect, air conditioned buses are definately the way to travel! ) to get to Manila.
By the way, Jeepneys are cars that were originally made from the US army jeeps left over from World War 2. If you are ever visiting Manila, you should try to use one of them.You can't miss them.They are everywhere!!
We hit the outskirts of Manila at rush hour (around 5ish) so it took a bit of time to get to Makati. Unfortunaely, we were dropped in Makati when we really wanted to go to Malate (As I had heard that Malate is the place to be. ) So, we had to grab a taxi to get to Malate and eventually at 7 pm we reached our destination (a hostel called Friendlys on Adriatico street) We got talking to Benji the manager. He is one chilled out guy.There was a rum and coke night arranged but I decided to give it a miss and catch up on some sleep.
View of Manila from Adriatico street
The next morning, I headed off with Loren in search of some history! So, we garbbed a quick bite to eat at Bacolod chicken house.
mmmmmmm......Value meal one please!
There was a stall outside Bacolad that sold painting and one of the paintings seemed really cool.I could not buy it as I am sure I would have ripped it to shreds\accidentally spilled shaving cream\toothpaste on it
Picture being sold on the street
We went down to the Intramuras (the old part of the city where the Spanish had colonised and built a wall around.) We decided to take a horse and cart tour around the area so we got a driver and a tour guide (called Grace) .
The tour cost 1000 pesos each.
The first stop involved respecting the war memorial for all the dead from world war 2 (Manila was the second most bombed city during world war 2 (Warsaw was the most bombed) ) During Japanese occupation, The allies bombed almost every building (with the exception of an old church) so if you visit the Philippines today, the city looks very American . ie: rIf you see a map of Manila, the roads are gridded. It looks like a bunch of squares. The Americans designed the city after the war.
All the presidents (since independence - 1898) faces.
Independence day is June 12th
anyway, here is a photo of the Philippino version of McDonalds [Jollibee- basically macdonalds with rice and pancakes with maple syrup mmmmmmm , I'm lovin' i...wait a minute, that's been used for a restaurant slogan already...]
As regards the tour itself, Grace went into detail talking about Jose Rizal who lead the revolution and was rewarded by ....execution
An Artists depiction of Rizal being executed by people who did not want to execute him
Rizal was a bit of a jack of all trades.He was a dentist and was able to speak many languages .He wrote many controversial books. Well, one too many conroversial books as he was executed by his followers (who were instructed to kill or be killed , note: In the picture above, the soldiers behind the soldiers killing Rizal getting ready to kill the other soldiers if they did not do what they were told.)
There is a statue close to the Rizal painting which remembers 600 soldiers who were starved to detah during the last few days of world war 2. Here is that statue.
These soldiers were left in a dungeon.The Americans did not bomb this site.The soldiers all starved to death\ died of pneumonia.
After the tour finished, we saw that a wedding was taking place and seeing as there wasn't much else to do, we decided to take a few shots of the wedding!
Who can throw a Dove the first (My money is on the bride)
And the deed is done!
The Rizal monument
.
We met up with Nazrul and his friend Anna and headed into the Chinese Gardens (within Rizal park) It's a short walk but as it cost 5 pesos , you can't go too wrong with that!
I got a taxi back with Loren to the hostel as I was going to meet up with Tin Tin [one of the couch surfing crew ]
As we were paying for the taxi , the driver asked for the tip and named the price of the tip. Nice Chutzpah!!
Anyway, as TinTin was stuck in traffic coming from work , Loren and I decided to tuck into some grub at cafe Adriatico on Adriatico street. I was super Adventurous and ....went for the burger. TinTin came in a few minutes later (damn traffic in Manila!!!) and ordered pigs blood mixed with some pig meat and sweet rice. To be honest, I ate most of it as It looked quite tasty
Some pigs blood with sweet rice please!
Loren had to leg it back to the hostel as she had to get her stuff in gear as she was heading on the next morning so I headed with TinTin to a bar up the road. It started to rain cats and dogs and more vicious cats and dogs so we decided to get a sidecar (and when I say we , I mean TinTin got the sidecar (I tend to stay out in the rain and get drenched but not this time as the rain was unreal, Thanks for convincing me to get the sidecar TinTin , otherwise I would still have a cold now!) )
when we got to the bar, I decided to have a go at some Lechon(pig skin) which cam with peanut butter sauce
They go down surprisingly well with beers!
Thanks for staying out to the early hours listening to me talking nonsense,It could not have been that easy! I hope you got up in time for work the next day! It's good to hear that independent living is working out for you...Just don't drink too many fruit based alcoholic drinks as they are bad for the stomach!! Thanks for making me try the Melon, I never realised that some melons taste like sour apples.
I will try to use some of the Tagalog you told me in the future....
e.g: (affectionate terms for the following...)
man - kua
woman - atay
mother - naneye
father - tateye
gran - lolo
grandad - lola
aunt - teta
uncle - teto
thank you - sa-lamat po
At this rate, I will pick up Tagalog before the year 3000 I reckon!
The ritual of 'Harana' where in olden days, if a man wanted to court a woman, he would have to learn to play the guitar and serenade the woman (and impress her parents at the same time.) Sounds horrific. Philippino Men in their 50s and 60s must be quite good at playing the guitar!
Actually, just one quick sad point. When I was drinking with TinTin , kids would come out from the street and try to beg/sell peanuts/roses/anything and everything. This really sucked as they were trying to sell this brick a brack stuff at 1.30 in the morning.
The next morning, I met up with Minnie and her friend Jubi (Both are on couch surfing although Jubi has just been converted!)
Minnie, Jubi and I (at Jollibee)
Boy, was this a long day (and I mean that in a good sense!) First of all, we visited Jollibee for some breakfast. I have never drank so much pineapple juice in all my life (in the last few weeks) although it really is tasty!
You don't want pancakes? try rice instead!
After this we decided o head to Tagaytay for a spot of scaring the life out of me!! (to be honest that's easily achieved) but before the scary part Minnie drove for around an hour and a half and we visited a church on the top of a hill close to Tagaytay. This was nice as I hadn't visited a church in quite a while and it seemed kind of peaceful.
Caleruega
Look at that view from the church!
Smile for the camera!
Inside view of the church
While visiting the church grounds, I saw a water catcher. One hollowed out piece of bark deposited water into another hollwed out piece of bark until the 2nd piece was full, As it got heavier, the bark would move in a see-saw formation until it was at the angle to deposit water into a pot and then the process began again.
A Water Catcher
After the chuch visit, we had a spot of dinner with a great view of the smallest volcano in the world.
Description of the Taal Vocano
That's Taal Volcano in the middle of the picture
Another pic of the Volcano
The Menu
We had a HUGE dinner with as far as I can remember contained the local fish with rice and soup with pork and NO BALUT (thank god. Actually since this happened, I have tried 'fried one day old' chick and it tasted like fried mars bar minus the mars bar! Although I did make a promise Minnie . I will try the Balut at some stage (hopefully, the stage after death).)
Rice, Veggies,local fish and some Pork
After dinner, we had a quick walk around the Tagaytay grounds where we had an ice cream (which tastes a bit different to the ones at home but still good. Then, I heard that there was some ziplining going on here.) Ask anyone who knows me about my love of heights (I am looking at you Dave C- stop laughing now!) So ziplining was as thrilling as a visit to the dentist (When told that the dentist is Freddie Krugar). So, like I have done umpteen times in the past (I am now looking at you Phil G.) I said no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no oh go on...Well, that's not quite true, I travelled with Minnie and Jubi in a cable car over the gorge first.
I think I can see the ground ....somewhere
That was surprisingly ok (Until, Minnie tried to scare me with a random shout.)
Minnie: The ziplining experience will be over in no time..try it!
look at the 'excitement' written all over my face!Anyway, after about another hour of humming and hawing, I had a go at the ziplining and by that stage, the rain had descended so there was a kind of mist over the trees that I was passing over. I wasn't too disappointed though and I was never so happy to see the other side.
Nearly ready, Make sure the harness covers my whole body!
Where is the 'down'button!!!!
To be honest, I should have tried the return trip but I will definately try this again at some stage (as long as my legs are strapped in tighter and i dont scare the life out iof the guys who were supposed to slow down my speed!!!).
We had a go at some fruit afterwards. wow, they have some class fruit out here. the languistines are really nice
The white part tastes really sweet,Apparently in the US, they crush the outer red part down for medicinal purposes
There were loads of these fruit stands dotted along the roads
So many 'nanas!
After that, we decided to feed some fish at some mall on the way back to Manila. This sounds really boring until you actually see the fish jumping out of the water and on topn of each other when the fish food is chucked in.This sounds really dumb but I have never had so much fun feeding fish....
Fishes get ready to fight for their food (in Nuvali)
Don't fight, there's plenty of food for everyone!
These fush are REALLY hungry!
We hadn't eaten in at least 15 minutes so it was time for pasta and pizza.They made a 36 inch pizza while we were waiting. I had never seen a pizza take over a table before.
A pizza fit for a table.... that's a 36'' pizza!
A.K.A the ninth wonder of the worldThey gave us our own drinks dispenser which was a nice touch.
Pouring some red liquid
They should try that at home (on soft drinks).It's a bit gimmicky but gimmicks work, right?
What good is some beverage without the pasta and the pizza? Ah, here they are!
Some exotic foods
By this stage, it was getting dark so we headed back into the traffic....oh no, the Manila traffic....nnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo . Ah well, at least I had my harmonica with me. ( Sorry for making the journey home seem 10 times longer girls [Here are youtube links to oh susanna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfv9FDnMcaI) and the camptown lady [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gj9uEeuDtQ]. Those songs really DO exist!] !)
On the plus side Minnie gave us a tour of Chinatown [It was the first time since I left Ireland that I had seen drunk people walking around the streets.] and I found out that my hostel is surrounded by the red light district. I swear I did not know this beforehand! It was 'The Lonely Planet' book that recommended the hostel! In saying that, I guess most of the hostels mentioned in the lonely planet are situated in the run down parts of every town and that usually coincides with red liight districts. Anyway,Thanks for that quick tour Minnie, it would have been an eye opener only my eyes were blinded by all the red lights!
Anyway,we had another quick bite to eat at 'Chow King' (The Chinese McDonalds) and headed back to the Hostel where the girls were told that they weren't allowed in as they\I looked a bit dodgy! (sorry about that Minnie/Jubi) If I get back to Manila, please let me buy you guys some food! By the way, the 'Halo Halo' drink (ice cream mixed with ice and fruit and other bits and bobs) tastes really good!
Oh yeah, thanks for telling me about the mythical Philippino vampire 'Aswang' who comes along just to scare the life out of you! (And the belief that a butterfly will contain the soul of someone who has just passed on . Also, I never realised that another country celebrated 'waking' someone after they died.)
To summarise the last few days....
1. Thanks for hanging out with me Loren.Otherwise , I reckon I could have ended up in Timbuktoo!
2. Thanks for the chat and the advice\food tips TinTin. Remember the traffic in Manila and keep smiling!
3. Remember to buy a Burqa if you end up in Kuwait Jubi!
4. Minnie: When I say that I don't want to try ziplining more than 4 times, It usually means that I do want to try it...genuinely! I have never eaten so much in my life (and that is an achievement in itself. I will try some Balut at some stage!)
By the way (as an aside), I have just figured out what C.R means .It stands for 'Comfort Room' and it's used in the same way as w.c (Washroom Closet) \ RestRoom\ Toilet\ Jax. This comes in handy when you book into a hostel and the person behind the counter says it costs 'x' without a C.R and 'x+y' with a C.R. I think I will pay for the room with 'x+y' from now on!
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