Manila

Manila is, as I was told to expect, hot and dirty and crowded. The air is quite possibly the most polluted I've ever inhaled; it's worse than Bangkok and Beijing, even. I'd also been warned that everyone would be out to scam me, especially taxi drivers. It's probably better to arrive somewhere with low expectations and be pleasantly surprised than to be careless and unaware, but unfortunately that meant that I was a bit paranoid at first; it took me a while to sort of get used to the city and relax and enjoy it. I really hate to be suspicious of chatty strangers and taxi drivers and of the people surrounding me on crowded buses or subways, but that's how I found myself feeling. I hope none of them noticed when I clutched my backpack (worn in front, of course, so that I could keep my eye on it) a bit closer or checked to be sure my camera strap was wrapped tightly around my wrist, because I think the chatty ones were genuinely friendly and interested in talking to an American and my fellow passengers were just going about their normal business without thinking twice about my presence! For the record, no taxi drivers did scam us - though a couple started out asking for exorbitant fares. We always insisted on them using the meter, and all of them were quick to do so once we asked.

There isn't really that much to see in Manila; it's mostly a conglomeration of various residential areas, many of them (as in the photo above) very poor. There are a couple of somewhat nicer areas, and also a (relatively) sparkly, new business/shopping district called Makati. I wandered around Chinatown and a market area the day before Kirsten arrived; while not particularly attractive, the street scenes in those places were colorful and the food good! Here's a street sign from Chinatown:


Kirsten's first day in the city we attended church in the morning, then walked through Intramuros (what's left of the colonial section of the city), which we both found quite shabby and a bit disappointing. We also toured an old fortress and then people-watched in giant Rizal Park, where kids were flying kites, musical groups were performing on a festival stage, and martial art students were practicing their moves. These kids in the park wanted us to take their picture:


We'd been advised - rightly so, I think - to spend as little time as possible in Manila. After coordinating bus schedules to match our flights though, we ended up with another day in the city at the end of our trip. We visited a really great museum in Makati that morning, did a bit of shopping, splurged on Haagen Dazs, and then visited a small spa. Kirsten treated herself to a massage and me to a facial, which was lovely. We finished off the day with mango margaritas a sidewalk table in Malate, Manila's main backpacker district. As we sipped our drinks and watched the traffic go by - bikes, cars, pedestrians, peanut and mango sellers pushing their large carts - we both agreed that the city, or at least that small part of it, does have a certain charm. Still, I'd give other travelers the same advice that I received: while Manila might not be as bad as people say, time in the Philippines could much better be spent exploring the beautiful parts of the country outside the capital.