We arrived in Manila with the intention of staying only one night and then flying on to the island of Palwan the next day. So after arriving at the airport we took a taxi to the backpacker part of town and found somewhere to stay. We were immediately impressed with the English speaking ability of the Filipinos. At the dive we chose to stay at a cute little girl seemed to be running the place. She spoke great English and was so cute and such a businesswoman that we decided to stay. She didn't mention that the place doubled as a zoo though and we hardly slept at all due to the noise produced by the pigs, chickens and monkeys belonging to the family. We awoke eager to start our trip to Palawan. Due to some unfortunate circumstances and some wrong decisions we missed our flight. We took the local transportation, jeepneys (old US army pickups converted into jeep looking things that can carry about 50 people when properly packed), rather than taxi and we ended up at the wrong airport. Since we were going to be taking a domestic flight we incorrectly assumed it would leave from the airport labeled "Domestic Airport" in our guide books. Upon finally arriving at the "Domestic Airport", and going through security, we realized that the national airline's, our airline's, domestic flights left from the airport labeling in our guidebook "International Airport". In a tizzy we flagged the nearest cabbie, agreed to an exorbitant price, and he took us to the International (but sometimes domestic) Airport. All in vain however as our flight was just about to taxi down the runway as we arrived. However it all turned out well as our tickets were exchanged for ones on the following day.

So we spent the rest of the day taking in some of the sights of Manila and getting used to the smells, and the culture of a people who live in a big city in a developing country. We checked into a different, less personal and less zooey, hotel for the night. Not repeating our mistake of the previous day we took advantage of the hotel's shuttle bus which took us to the International/Domestic Airport right on time the next morning.

Click here to continue our trip in Palawan

After being in Palawan for ten days being back in Manila was quite a different experience than when we had first arrived. Everything seemed new and modern, at least comparatively. The people in Manila live a lot differently than those in rural places. Their lives are urbanized which we suppose can mean more conveniences and more money in your pocket but also comes with the consequences of noise, pollution and the other things that come in big cities.

One of the biggest things that surprised is how quickly you can change worlds. In Manila. You can been a poor slum and a few minutes later you can be in Makati, the commercial center of Manila, which has a feel similar to downtown Chicago. Broad avenues and shopping malls galore. The Filipinos seem to enjoy the possibility to change worlds in an instant. We met two university students who were Filipino but now lived in Los Angeles, who said that Filipinos are out and out mall rats. They said Filipinos may be poor and may live in substandard housing but they save their pennies and escape from the drudgery of life at the mall.

We spent the last three days of our trip visiting the major sights in Manila and we also spent more time than we probably care to admit shopping in the malls. And in a final fling we definitely remember fondly we splurged at the Outback Steakhouse.

Click here for some links about the Philippines and traveling there.