We were up at 9am this morning so that we wouldn’t be late for breakfast. We packed our bags and got ourselves ready for a full day. We were both excited to head to the orphanage and spend time with the babies, but Ronald thought that we should do a different itinerary and wouldn’t allow us to go with John. We were both disappointed, but were ready to take on the rest of the sites in Manila. Our first stop was at Coconut Palace, which is a palace that was built for the pope’s visit in 1981. The pope thought the palace was tooextravagant and never ended up staying there. Just our luck, it was closed, so we looked from the outside. Today was HOT! I’d say that the temperature was above 90 degrees, Jess and I we’re constantly sweating and just couldn’t get hydrated.
Since the palace was closed we decided to jump back in the taxi and head to the Mall of Asia (the next stop on our itinerary made by Ronald). The Mall of Asia is the largest mall in all of Asia, and we could definitely see why! The mall even had an ice skating rink which I thought was the coolest!
We spent the rest of the day in the Manila Bay area. Our first stop was at the aquarium where we saw lots of cool fish, got to touch star fish and sea cucumbers, and even saw a cool jelly fish exhibit.
Next we headed to the Manila Hotel which was is the oldest hostel in Manila. It has a beautiful pool and a grand entrance with a band playing.
I felt very underdressed in my yoga pants and sweaty t-shirt. We were getting tired at this point, but decided to walk along Manila Bay. This is the spot that is supposed to have the best sunset in all of the Philippines (its sad- but the reason that the sunset is so beautiful is because of all of the pollution). We were shocked to see all of the trash floating in the bay, it was horrible to see car tires, bottles, and pieces of who knows what.
The walk along the bay was nice, we passed the US Embassy, the Philippine’s Navy base and the Manila yacht club. I during the walk I was surprised by the locals. Throughout our several mile walk we past probably about 50 locals, most clearly poverty stricken and resting from the heat. Some were sleeping in the shade, others were swimming in the dirty water and some where trying to make a living by selling massages, cold drinks, snacks, and tri-cycle rides. I was a little hesitant to walk by them especially because we were two young foreign women, plus I had heard about how dangerous the Philippines is. I was shocked that most of the people that we passed simply wanted to say hello and looked for just a simple “hi” and a smile in return. The people are all friendly there, not once were we in a dangerous situation. On our walk we did encounter people trying to sell us massages or rides on their tricycles or taxis, when we said no and that we wanted to walk they didn’t nag or follow us, most of the time they said “okay, have a good day,” it was great and gave me a new respect for them.
After our walk we were both so hot and exhausted that we decided to head back to the hostel. We were supposed to meet Paulo again for dinner, but he was running late and we we’re nervous that we would be late getting to the airport because the traffic had been so bad, so we had to cancel with him. We said our goodbyes to John and Chiato and were off!
The taxi ride to the airport was much like all of the taxi rides we’ve taken very fast with lots of stop and go traffic. Jess has gotten a little car sick on almost all of the taxi rides. I usually am white knuckled by the time we make it to our destination- its quite an experience.
We got to the airport with over 3 hours before our flight took off which ended up being way too much extra time. All of the airports that we have been to so far on our journey have been huge with lots of shopping areas and tons of restaurants. Since we had so much time to kill we decided to sit down at a restaurant and have dinner. Of course this airport terminal was very different from all of the other airports and had about 2 options for dinner both places were to go only and only served sandwiches. Jess and I shared a “Santa Club” (a club with spiced pears and ham) and a “Christmas Club” (a club on carrot bread with Christmas ham and pineapple). I really enjoyed them both. Here in the Philippines they love the holiday season and they say that as soon as the “ber-months” hit they start with the Christmas decorations and music- September, October, November, and December. I love that!
We spent some time catching up on our blogs and reading our books at the airport. Our flight to Indonesia is 3 hours and 45 minutes. We’ll be staying with Jess’s friend Mezaya at her home in Jakarta, then traveling with her and her sister to the island of Bali- were so excited!
Well that’s it for now… More to come from Indonesia!
Love,
Katie
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