Destination – Philippines
–
Manila – It feels a lot like home…
We get up at
3:30 am and take an Air Asia flight to Clark, near Manila. From there a 2 hour bus ride to Manila and
then a taxi, shared with another Aussie guy, to the Grand Prix hotel, in Ermita.
The room is tiny but the hotel is cool, business type but very well located,
just a couple of blocks from the bay and a block away from a huge shopping
centre. The food is cheap and fantastic, the shopping is really the best ever (apologies
Bangkok and Singapore) and Chilean and Spanish wine is under 4 dollars. A bottle of nice rum for $1.50? Am I in
heaven? Please don’t pinch me…
We met a lovely
couple at the airport when we were in Myanmar who are from here, and we’ve been emailing
each other for a while. He is currently away
working but on our second night she comes over to have dinner with us. How nice
is that? The people here seem to be really nice and cool. The Filipino people
of course as most of the tourists are weirdo ancient sexpats. This time, mostly American, not many Aussies,
but still embarrassing for the West.
Ok, if you
thought her coming over to have dinner with us was nice, think again. When we
go back home, we get an email from her saying, come over on Friday to stay in
my condo for the weekend and I will cook Filipino food for you. Insane! So, we
take Thursday off to go to the immigration department and extend our visas (travelling
is such hard work) and on the Friday we take a taxi and stay over at her place.
We meet her cute little girl, a 3 & ½
year old she adopted when she was just a few days old and two of her nieces and
have a wonderful lunch. We cannot believe we are actually eating home cooked
local food. In the evening there’s more local home cooked food and we get to
meet three of her cool, nice friends. We have a few glasses of red wine and the
conversation flows like amongst old friends. Next day we have lechon (roast
suckling pig) another wonderful typical dish and some prawns for our lunch. How
lucky are we? Another awesome meal proudly sponsored by our lovely instant
friend, Mia. In the evening we leave Manila thinking it feels a lot like home.
The shopping and sightseeing are on hold til when we get back from the islands.
Next stop Boracay - voted by many as the best beach in the world.
