So staying with Lewis was the best choice we could have made for
finding accommodation in Manila unless of course we wanted to stay at
the Shangri-La . . . but the chandelier in the room just wasn't large
enough to hang my tiaras. So we opted for staying with a stranger
instead, who turned out to be completely awesome and had two extra
bedrooms for the three of us to sleep in. He was really open, friendly
and accommodating and on the first night he took us to a
hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Pandacan where we feasted on Tapsilog
(marinated beef, egg and rice), a Filipino specialty for 40 pesos each
($1 Canadian) - it was a steal! We went there the next night as well
and I indulged in baconsilog (bacon, egg and rice), which was almost
like having breakfast for dinner and no one can argue with the beauty
in that.
The next day was our first opportunity to explore Manila. We had a
great time finding our way to Intramuros, hoping that we weren't going
to get robbed the whole time. Intramuros is 'old-Manila' so it's what
Manila looked like before parts of the city were bombed in WWII. So
the area was okay, the best part was Fort Santiago where we learned
about Jose Rizal, a revolutionary leader. We had used the ipod touch
(courtesy of our overly anxious Mother who is full of gadget-wizardry)
to look up how to say 'thank-you' (salamat po) and 'no' (hindi) in
Tagalog and got pretty good at it except when Edgar said 'hindi,
hindi' to a guy who was trying to give him change when we were paying
for admission. After the fort we decided to make our way over to
Manila Bay to the only other place that I read should be checked out
in the city beside Intramuros, and ended up walking though the
sketchiest part that we had been in so far. I mean dirty, poor streets
with half-naked men sleeping on tables. At one point Kelsey wanted to
turn back but Ed and I thought we shouldn't appear lost and backtrack
but just confidently walk on and not seem easy targets. Clearly we
made it out of there alive and continued our way to Manila Bay and
ended up stumbling upon Manila Ocean Park where we munched on cotton
candy (decidated to our mom) that stuck to your hands and face like
HP's devil's snare due to the humidity and then we went on a virtual
4-D ride through a volcano and then with King Kong himself. So that
was an interesting day in Manila. It wasn't until later that we
realized that the sketchy area that we were walking in around the pier
was close to Tondo, the one area that we were told not to go to. We
weren't right in Tondo but it wasn't that far from the place we were
at - oops! Don't worry, family, we'll be more careful next time.
That night Ed, Lewis and I went out for a night on the town (Kels
wasn't feeling well and opted to stay in bed). The three of us had
such a hilarious night. We couldn't get into Republiq - this really
nice club in Resorts World that apparently is really hard to get into
- due to my lack of proper footwear. I was wearing flip-flips, which
they call slippers, a big no-no in nice clubs apparently. I didn't
have any choice though! Who thought that I had to pack heels for my
trip around Asia? So after pleading with the door people - we're
traveling, these are the only shows I have, we're only in Manila one
night, all of the shops are closed so we can't buy shoes, etc. - I got
a stroke of brilliance. If you don't have proper footwear - find a
stranger who is willing to part with theirs. Understandably though,
this is not the easiest task. I asked a girl at the info booth first,
she was very nice and understanding but said she was working so she
couldn't do it and to try the casino's lost and found. Once Lewis
realized what I was trying to do he got so into it and together we
tackled the casino front desk. While Edgar hid my shoes from their
suspecting eyes, we explained to the front desk that I had lost my
generic shoes sometime at some place and were hoping we could check
out their lost and found to see if they were there. They said that
they hadn't found anything but would keep an eye out for them. And
unfortunately, I couldn't borrow their shoes either. So after 20
minutes of that we resorted to asking random people in the hotel.
Everyone was really nice but couldn't help us. Lewis had lent Edgar a
spare pair of dress shoes so he should've done that for me too - geez.
We ended up trying to get into Opus, the other club, but it was the
same story there, with the same dress code. They probably thought we
were some crazy foreigners. Finally though, we were successful. While
Lewis and Ed were trying to con their way into the club, I was able to
beg a girl sitting in Starbucks to borrow her shoes while she drank
coffee with her boyfriend. After a lot of begging, pleading and
batting eyelashes, she gave me 15 minutes. So we went into Opus. And
even though it actually sucked inside, not busy at all - it felt like
such an accomplishment to be there! So after a few pictures and a
quick look around we left after 10 minutes to see what Republiq looked
like. Even though they usually charge a cover we got in without paying
- probably because we had distracted them so much before. "Ma'am! You
got shoes!" "I know!" While I lift up my grey, strappy heels that are
a size too big for me. It was a nice club too - if I didn't know that
I was in the Philippines I would've thought I was just in a normal
club in Vancouver. We danced like crazy for five minutes and then like
Cinderella I hurried out of there to return the shoes to theie
rightful owner. Luckily, their rightful owner was awesome and let me
use and abuse her shoes for the next thirty minutes - some of the best
minutes of my life ;)
The next day Kels, Ed and I attempted to leave Manila but we hadn't
bought our tickets yet. Naive as we were as new and unexperienced
travelers, we learned the hard way that this was not always entirely
possible. After numerous airline offices, cab rides, sold-out flights
and a 'travel agent' stalking us on the street - we decided that it
was a huge group fail. We ended up booking a flihgt to Puerto Princesa
in Palawan for the next day. After a lot of pondering about the pros
and cons of sleeping in an airport, I gave Lewis a call and luckily he
accepted up back with open arms. We spent that evening munching on
Mexican food at the Mall of Asia and I discovered that he thought that
Kelsey's name was Kasey the whole time :)
So the next day we repeated our departure. We even all wore the same
outfits as a 'let's try this again' sort of thing. Our departure this
time was quite smooth except for the fact that our plane was over four
hours delayed due to a typhoon, as was the case for many other flights
too. Everyone would get up and cheer when it was finally their turn to
board. It was a little sad how much time we wasted in airports in the
last two days but oh well, you live and learn. Do not attempt to book
same-day flights! Now we know.
