Just a quick post to say I have arrived in Manila safe and well. I meant to blog my reflections on Korea and something about my last day at school before I left Korea but ran out of time. I have half written the post tho so I will finish it before I leave the Philippines. Although internet cafes are not as easy to find here they are in Korea so this blog may be quiet for a few days.

Some of my thoughs on arriving in Manila to keep you going until I write again. Hopefully there will be some pictures to accompany this post uploaded in a couple of days.

It very different here to Korea, although we still get stared at!! And it is very, very, very, very VERY hot. Our hostel is OK. Not quite like the pictures and the room is very warm because we didn’t book an air conditioned room but it’s habitable and the hostel has a cold shower which is nice!

There is no subway system in Manila so getting around is much more difficult that we are used to. We got off to a bit of a rocky start yesterday being ripped off by a taxi driver who charged us 2.50GBP for a ride that should have cost 80p. But you live and learn. Ironically he was taking us to the tourist information office. We then spent yesterday afternoon at the tourist information office finding out what there is to do and learning about how to get around Manila.

We went on a trip today to the Taal volcano (about 2 hours from Manila) which was beautiful. We took a boat to the volcano then walked to the crater where you could look down over the crater lake and see the steam rising from the edges. I’ll put some photos on my blog soon. A lot of people chose to take horses to the top of the volcano but we decided to save the money and walk. Which I’m glad we did. The walk up to the top wasn’t too difficult but it was sooooo hot. By the time we got to the top the sweat was actually dripping off me. It was pretty gross. I actually don’t think I have ever been that hot before.

After we walked back down and sailed back to the mainland we were shown to a room where we could take a well needed shower. We were very sweaty and covered in dust from the track. Then we had a gorgeous traditional Filipino lunch of chicken, fish, and rice the fish was fresh from the water we crossed to get the the volcano. The food here is lovely unlike Korean food.

We got back around four and have just spent some time wondering around the area where we are staying.

We are staying in an area called Sampaloc which is a little way out of central Manila. During our walk we saw loads of random things. People here are very poor and make their own entertainment hanging out on the street. We saw a cock fight about to take place. No crowd or anything just two guys with a cockerel each preparing to make them fight. A group of people crowded round a table playing bingo and lots of kids playing basket ball and badminton! It was really nice to get onto the back streets and just look around seeing how the people here live.

There is also Manila’s largest Lochon district. Luchon is a kind of sit roasted whole pig. Walking around there were whole pigs of varying sizes on poles everywhere, we even manged to fins an area of white hot colas where they were being cooked. (Again pictures coming soon)

Everyone here stares but unlike Korea they are polite with it, they call us, and each other, ma’am. We get shouted at a lot by the men, which is very different to Korea, but if you ignore them they don’t push it and most people seem content with just saying hello. Walking around earlier most people we passes would say hello to us. Also everyone seems to speak English. We’ve been trying to spot the signs written in Filipino and so far have only seen two. Everything else in in English. Although they all talk to each other in Filipino. Very strange. But it makes our life easier cause everyone can understand what we are saying, something we’re not used to!

Anyway best go and pay my 25p for an hour in the PC room.

* Posted by j150vsc on 14/06/2007.