Manila-what a culture shock after Japan and Taiwan! We enjoyed the order and cleanliness of Japan.
Manila is a mix of Mega shopping malls and shanty towns, wealthy government officials and begging children, Catholic nuns and head-scarfed Muslim women, uniformed street sweepers and uniformed school kids, armed security guards and armed police. Even McDonald's has armed guards. At the shopping malls guards search your bags and feel your waist for hidden guns (well I think that is what they are feeling you for).
Manila has a population of 10 million people with 14 cities included and 3 municipalities.
Tricycles using motorbikes.The transport system is organised chaos and there is lots of it! There are not many public buses but thousands of jeepneys. These were originally jeeps left by the Americans and converted to hold passengers at the back. They advertise their route on a card at the front and cruise the streets until they are full and then head off on their route. You don"t have to wait long for one to come along and they hold about 10 passengers in the back and two in front with the driver. Some are air brushed and others are hand-painted and some are polished stainless steel. Some have statues of stallions on their bonnets and these are supposed to be for the mistresses the driver has! Competing with these are tricycles: a motorbike with a sidecar that seats 2 people facing forward and 2 more facing backwards. Competing with theses are the FXs: Toyota and Isuzu vans which seat two in front with the driver and a bench seat behind seats 4 and then two short seats that are accessed through the back door seat another 4. Competing with these are the taxi and private cars as well as some local buses. I had better not forget the motorbikes and the bicycles and the cycles with sidecars.
The diesel fumes are thick and I had trouble breathing. The buildings are covered with black soot and combined with the heat and humidity it is very tiring sightseeing in Manila.
The water on the street is black!We stayed in a new hostel near the airport that we found online. They opened in March and we were the first guests they had that arrived by jeepney. Online we were given instructions on how to get to the hostel by taxi and jeepney. The airport taxis charge 35 times the rate of the jeepney and will often tell you they don't know the address where you want to go so that they can take you to a place they know that will give them commission. They also say they don't have change so they keep whatever you give them regardless of the price. We found the jeepney drivers helpful and honest although the ride is not as comfortable as a taxi.
Beside our hostel was an empty yard with a shack and a tarpaulin set up for an outdoor cooking area. They had 6 roosters in bamboo cages and they crowed all the time, night and day. Filipinos love cock fighting.
Everyday vendors came to the hostel gates selling vegetables, plasticware, and fresh fish. Here the fish vendor is preparing the fish street side for the hostel owners a Filipina lady and her Japanese husband.
We visited a fort from the days when the Spanish ruled here and the Catholic Cathedral of San Augustin and learnt about the Filipino hero Dr Jose Rizal.
The museum had a great display of local tribal life and relics from some of the many shipwrecks discovered in waters around the islands.
On the left: apartments, on the right apartments.
On the left these are for the dead. On the right these are for the living!
The Chinese cemetery was built because the Spanish wouldn't allow the Chinese to be buried in a Spanish cemetery. It has mausoleums which have air conditioning, chandeliers, flush toilets and kitchens as well as offerings of food to accompany the dead to the afterlife. There are also tombs called apartments which are leased for 25 years. One even has a swimming pool!
