A quick visit to Philippines

You can find the pictures from here on picasa or facebook.

A short word about Tiger Airways punctuality. As I told my friend while heading to the airport, we are in no rush. Previously, we got a call from Tiger customer service on Saturday saying that my friends flight has been changed from the morning flight to the evening flight. After coming back from the beach party at Azzura beach club, I got a call around 6am on Sunday morning, just couple of hours before we were supposed to leave to the airport - my flight was postponed too, but that was okay, now we had the same flight to attend to. We arrived to the Changi Airport Budget terminal around 2.30pm where we realized that we didn't have any details about the flight changed. We started asking around the counters and they started bouncing us around, but finally after 30min waiting we got ourselves a tickets to Clark, Manila. And as always, we almost missed our flights boarding which for the first time happened like scheduled. Even though we boarded the plane in time, we had to wait an hour for permission to departure, all of this without any information shared.

And so we arrived to Manila Clark, 100km off the target - money gives and taxi gets. We ended up taking a two hours taxi drive to inner parts of Manila, to the area of Malate. Ermita and Malate are the one place in town where to see lots of travelers enjoying the old neighborhoods stretching south from Rizal Park and east from the Manila Bay. It offers accommodation in every price range.

We had looked up an backpackers estate named Pension Natividad from Lonely Planet. It is a nice budget place. Set a bit back from the street and couple hundred meters from the Manila Bay. Outside it offers a long shady area for meeting other travelers and it also hosts a 24 hours coffee house with excellent breakfast. On the first night we headed to a close by 24h Pit Stop market to get some water and couple of beers. And so we chilled outside the estate planning our next day.

Monday was a day for sightseeing. We decided to checkout what Lonely Planets "see Manila in two + two days" had to offer. We woke and got up around 9am and headed to enjoy the best American breakfast I've had in these past 4 months! After breakfast we headed out for a quest of finding a hanging lock for the secure locker to hold our valuables.

Around 11am our trip started, our primary destination was the old area of Intramuros with Fort Santiago and Rizal Park in Ermita. First we headed towards the bay to check out the view. I admit, I got scammed by a horse tuktuk rider, "let me take a picture my ass." I should have just took a picture of him contrary and asked to give me 20 pesos. But yeah, that's practically nothing, like 35 euro cents...

From the shore we started zigzagging towards the Intramuros, we  knew it was towards north, just before the Pasig River which is the main river. After 50minutes walking through the Rizal Park we had seen a local movie filmed, visited a Chinese Garden, gazed upon some memorial statues and miniatures of Philippines 7000 islands floating in a vast watery pool.

Around half past noon we had seen also the Plaza de Roma with the 7th reconstruction of Cathedral of Manila and found our way to the Santa Clara Street in Intramuros. There we visited the most famous Fort Santiago guarding the vital entrance to the Pasig River. The walled city of Intramuros was founded 1571 by Spanish troops and thereafter, has been invaded by Chinese pirates, threatened by Dutch forces, and held by the British, Americans and Japanese at various times, yet it survived till the closing days of WWII, when it was finally destroyed in the Battle of Manila during the US bombing.

As a culinary tourists we decided to get something really tempting, something that really hits the spot and... ended up smashing it at Pizza Hut... Around 6pm we reached home. It was time for some planning beers, and planning. I have actually been craving to get into a proper beach to bath in the sun - to get some manly tan lines! The late night was actually spent reading happenings in Finland, Europe, everywhere, I have to admit that I've been in a bit of a news shade. We also watched the movie Kumar and Harold go to the White Castle before calling it night.

Our plans were to hop on a charter bus and head about 30km south of Manila to a beach resort close to Cavite, although these plans were ruined by the rain that kept us in until half past noon. We were supposed to plan something new but the closing change of t-storm kept the Internet channels dead. Although it allowed us to revise our memories by watching the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Finally the rain stopped and we headed to a post office about 2km in distance from our apartment. Just hoping that the postcards will find their way, because we were just told to leave them standing on an empty counter.

After the trip to the post office we headed towards the roundabout of Del Pilar which we had passed previously. We entered a premiere restaurant Adriatico for a proper meal. We enjoyed a full three course meal under 15euros per head consist of the best Hummus with Pita bread I've ever have had, tasty Chicken Corn Soup, delightful Penne del Puttanesca, Caramel Glazed Walnut Cheesecake and Chocolate Dressed Banana Crepes with premium San Miguel beer and coffee America.

While eating we realized a flaw in our plan, we were supposed to walk around the area of Malate to Manila Botanical and Zoological Gardens, but we were just too full. After a while of digesting we were ready to continue. We walked through slums filled with people and animals coexisting. Chickens and roosters roaming free with cats, dogs and children while some folk sleeping on the streets or trying to make living by offering tuktuk rides or selling something - actually anything. At the gates of the Zoo and Garden thingie we immediately realized that I would not have anything to offer after the one we saw in Singapore. This one only had the size of an big football field enclosed by busy streets from all around.

After the refreshing walk in the cloudy, but really moist and warm atmosphere we arrived back to our estate around 4pm. The rest of the day was spent reading news from back home and around the world. We also spent couple of hours planning our upcoming spring semester back home in the Technical University of Tampere, and my friend finished weekly work for his bachelor thesis. We chilled outside the backpackers lounge zipping beer and enjoying ourselves until 1am before calling it night.

On Wednesday we decided to travel a bit closer to the Clark Airport to the Angelos City. After a well slept night, refreshing cold shower and American breakfast with hot coffee, we were more than ready to checkout. The security guard of the pensions hailed us a cap and we drove to the Philtranco bus terminal in Pasay, Manila, 5km in distance. From there booked a tickets to a bus to Clark. Imagine the price difference, 4000 pesos taxi drive was only 450 pesos with a bus.

The bus took us directly to Clark airport and so we had to hail a cap to get us to the hotel in Angelos City close by. We had previously checked a quite affordable place online, stating only 1500 pesos night. Although in the end it was only 1350 pesos per head, due to 10% cash discount, it was just that we had to buy separate rooms so the price doubled. The hotel was nice, we had a quiet pool with a bar on the side and a restaurant at the back, and not to forget to mention, a free pool table to use - and so we did.

Angelos City was a bit contrary compared to the outskirts of Manila metropolis with 12million people and being the 18th biggest in the world. Although it wasn't as shady as the Malate, it showed another side of the Philippines. As one British guy stated to me at the poolside "Philippines is good for two things; one girls, two diving." He actually ended up sharing a part of his life... He had just found out that he had a three years old kid back here in Philippines and he had came here for two weeks time to make it legal, so that the bastard child would not be or get killed, and would have a change in life.

The reality hit you. The streets of Angelos City were filled with somewhat beautiful 20 year olds hanging out with older westerns, sometimes two to four with the same guy, and still the guys were flirting to some more girls. While chilling at the terrace of the Beer Garden bar and restaurant, enjoying some San Miguels and Nachos Grandes, we could see guys disappearing with the girls to the shady street across, and after a while later returning with a hint of a grin and a smoke on their lip. We called it night around 01am after some more pool and couple of more beers.

We woke up at 5am and backed our stuff and headed down for checkout. The nice girl at the counter helped us by ordering a taxi for us too. Everything went without surprises although at the airport we had to withdraw and exchange some extra money due to the airport service fee of 600 pesos per person on international flights. And so we arrived back to Singapore; for me to sleep on last night at UTown and for my friend to catch a flight back to Finland. It actually made me a bit homesick, but I think the morning flight to Vietnam will cure it!