MANILA, PHILIPPINES

2015-12-08, 14:22, JASON

STAY: PINK MANILA HOSTEL

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Cebu Pacific, cheap flights, roundies for 130 SGD. Let's go to the Philippines!

We land at 0430, and the airport is bustling. It's dark outside, we're not quite sure where to go. We have an idea how to get to our hostel: Go to EDSA Light rail station, then take it up to Vito Cruz, then walk to our hostel. We ask for a taxi to take us to EDSA and they want to charge us 400 pesos (~12 SGD, ~8 USD ~6 GBP). Ridiculous! In US prices that's alright, but not for a distance of less than 3 kilometers. We eventually find the metered taxis, and the driver takes us. The city's already alive, and it's only 0500. Jeepneys, a big part of local transportation, are already honking and shuttling the morning commute. There's something strange about these WWII cars: they were leftover from the war, used by Americans to shuttle troops around. They're decked out in bling, usually praising Jesus. There's probably a motivating verse on one of them, John 3:16. Usually spray painted a dull primary color. And, engines that smoke more than a Londoner. That gas smell .. you know a Jeepney's nearby.

We get off at Vito Cruz, and start walking around. It's quiet, further away from EDSA station, the "Kings Cross" of Manila. Walking down the streets, we just take it all in. There's trash piled in the river, filled with black water. Shanties built up around the river, a few kids running around. Cats, here and there, joining them. There are people selling food, not like in Bangkok with their smaller carts, but just out of their homes. Thorin and I decide to go to the hostel: Pink Manila.

The hostel is nice. It occupies the fifth floor of a building, and there's a pool in there as well on the fifth floor. At the bottom floor, there is a gym that people are using, just your basic weights. There are a couple of people working out at 0530 in the morning. I guess it's never too early..?..late?.. to go to the gym! We're greeted by an understandably sleepy staff, so we decide to head out for the day. We turn into one of the small houses for breakfast, and the woman smiles. We pick out some processed meats: SPAM varieties, sausage, a fried egg, and the lady serves it to us happily with the quintessential cup-shaped mound of rice. Just what we needed in the early morning after taking that budget flight: some good breakfast food. Warm.. good for the soul.

The hostel staff tell us to go over to Rizal Park, or, Luneta, via Jeepney. She says for us to flag them down and then they will go. BUT, it's not that simple. These Jeepneys are on routes. There's a small placard indicating direction of travel on the front. We didn't know that, so we jeepney-hopped into a now crowded, bustling city until we were headed in the right direction. But, there's anothing thing too, you're expected to yell "para" -- I think that's the word, we're not quite sure, it's Spanish for 'stop' -- when you want to get off. We didn't know when to get off. So, we got off as far as the Jeepney man would take us: Binondo, the old Chinatown district. A few km north of Rizal Park.

Before I continue, Manila is a huge city. It's districted off into several regions, of which we probably visited about 4. And, each district in itself is huge. It's difficult to even walk from one district to the next, making the city expansive. Your best mode of getting around would be Jeepneys, as they're everywhere. If you're like us, you get out the old legs like you do, and walk your ass off! I don't count steps, but Thorin's temporarily wearing a fitbit, and we logged 46k in one day! Anyway--

We get into Binondo. We actually have no idea it's the old Chinatown district since most of it is tall buildings. There are a couple of streets indicated by the classic Chinatown Gate so you think you're in the right place. But, I'd say the Chinatown is still pretty Filipino. It's not as "Chinese" as the other ones. Most of them will speak Tagalog, with the ones speaking a language variety from China to either be Hokkien, Hakka, Teochew, or Cantonese. I tell you, these ethnic Chinese are everywhere! Anyway, since I'm dictating by timeline, we didn't do research beforehand, so we walk across the Pasig River into the Intramuros district area to check it out. It's 0700. The sun's alright bright out. 

Intramuros is a walled city leftover from the Spanish rule in the late 19th century. As a result, a lot of the sights to see are churches. The walls also have a few universities within them, and as a result, there were a lot of Filipino students going to school for the day. We were able to get a glimpse of the street food offered, and took note of a few stalls to get lunch later based on student popularity. Around the walls, we get touted quite a bit for a bike tour. They keep insisting that "Intramuros is very large, just 65..", and we never catch the unit of measurement. We realize eventually that they are saying that it's 65 hectares, a few half square kilometers around. We just insist that we're walking and going around to see the sites. They insist that it's too far of a walk, but it's not so bad. The interesting part of the city is that the upkeep efforts are quite low. There are a few UNESCO sites in between, but the whole Intramuros is not protected. We make a left down a random street as unassuming as any other, and it's a shantytown. In the middle of the tourist district. There are huts set up at the side of the street, kids playing locally, couple of stray dogs walking around, and people set up begging. But, they are moving on with their lives. This is in contrast to the other spots that were built-up, university-student laden, and built up for tourists. I've never seen the contrast so highly. Aside from that, most monuments (if not all) in Intramuros were destroyed or rebuilt by a series of events. There was the Spanish occupation, some destruction, then the American invasion, some destruction, an earthquake, some destruction, then the Japanese invasion, and more destruction. As a result, the rebuilding has all happened within the past 40 years, although the history of the area spans quite old: to around 1500, at least on a post-colonial timescale. Most of the memorials, interesting enough, don't memorialize Spanish or American occupation. If anything, there aren't monuments that we've noticed erected in honor of the Spanish or American wars on Philippine soil. The most recent big-scale war, WWII, with the Japanese, was heavily criticized in their language. Not sure if this is due to recency, or what. The good thing about the city is there is no entrance fee. You are free to walk around.. and so we do that with some gusto.

After a few hours at Intramuros, we decide to walk down to our initial destination, Rizal park that memorializes José Rizal, a George Washington figure of Filipino history. We walk back the way the jeepney took us and we eventually get there. As it's still early, the crowd hasn't kicked in too much yet. We stroll around, look at some flags, and just chill out. It's only 11 or so but we're exhausted, so we have a sitdown. Then, we keep walking. The park was a good, quiet resting spot. The whole area is dedicated to José Rizal who was a revolutionary that wrote heavy propaganda against Spain back in the turn of the 20th century. He was executed quite early, but his death spurred on the actual revolutionary movement. It's good to read about other countries' histories to see what, or who, they memorialize.

Moving on from Rizal park, we decide to check out the United Nations area. We walk over, since it just borders Rizal park, and it's alright. There's heavy security at the WHO, and just a few fastfood shops down the streets. There's really not much to comment on from this part 

After our rest in the park, brief journey into United Nations area, we decide that, perhaps we should head BACK into Intramuros because we forgot to visit Fort Santiago. This was built by some Spanish dude as a defense post. José Rizal was held here before his execution as well. It's actually where most of the tourists were -- we didn't see to many in Intramuros otherwise. There were a couple of things to see here: some of the old citadel walls, a prison, a museum that talks about José Rizal's life, as well as just some open grounds to see the ruins. It's cool because most of the walls bordered upon the river, of course, so there were nice views of the city. We get out of the Fort Santiago area, which borders along the edge, and decide to check out the food stalls where the university students were. We have a sirving of Sisig Tapa, which is a fried egg/onion/meat dish, served with rice. It tastes a bit like American breakfast food. Flavorful. A bit salty and processed, but, all the better!

So, as we are bordered along Binondo again, we decide that our next stop should be Divisoria market. This is one of the largest outdoor markets in Asia, and, it sells absolutely everything. The human traffic on the ground here is in-SANE. It's like Carnival on London weekend, but way more people. You're packed to the brim, pushing up against other people, and there are still motorbikes, pushcarts (to transfer foods), bicycles, and jeepneys weaving in and out of the already-small halls filled to the masses with people. I've never seen anything like it. Forget that spacious, quiet shopping experience, Divisoria is the real DEAL HONEY. It's so exciting, there are people selling little minion trinkets, backscratchers, fruits, random goods, everything you need. And, the crowd is unbelievable. Everyone's sweat is rubbing on you, yours on them, and it's such an intimate experience. People do not pay you attention, you either buy or move on. Shanties here and there dispersed throughout blend right in. If you guys ever get a chance to go, I highly recommend it. It's one of those very "Southeast Asian" moments defined by masses of people, good deals, and just an air of uniqueness to it. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this time since I wanted to save my batteries, and, refrain from getting my phone stolen. Regardless, it's amazing. OK, I'm done singing its praises. From here, we walk what seems like hours to the nearest light rail station so that we can check in our hostel. We've just done from 0600 to 1500, and we're freakin' tired, and decide to head back into the hostel.

The hosteliers are cool. We bunk with a young Londoner, met an American girl working with refugees, and also a former young restauranteur from Wisconsin. We meet, for the first time, a few Af Am women traveling as well, and we get to chatting with them since they openly shared to us their stories about traveling while black. We meet a young, southern English guy too who was an oceanographer. Full on diver, into that stuff. The owner, from Toronto, lived in Suzhou, but currently teaches and runs the hostel in Manila. There are interesting people to be met everywhere! After washing the day off us, we decide to go into the street to try some of the food. We first have a bit of lechón, a roasted pig dish. Pretty good. You can't go too wrong with pork, you either like it or don't. We see the infamous Balut, which is a duck embryo, and we decide to give it a try. Here's the verdict, folks, it really just tastes like egg. There's a little bit more juice and squishyness to it due to the embryo, but the yolk and albumen are already so set in that it tastes eggish. If anything, it taste like duck soup. There's a video of us eating it somewhere.

By the end of the day, we're exhausted. I think we crash eventually at around 22:00 just because we got in so early the morning.

The next morning, we decide to check out Makati, which is the central business district of the Philippines. We get in via LRT to Ayala station (shoutout to my anteater readers, remember Francisco Ayala??) and step out. Stark contrast. The streets are all very clean, the buildings are all very new. It's built a bit like old-reno, with those massive block buildings, wide halls covered by the ceiling overhang, a little windy, but it's noticeably more modern. There isn't a trace of poverty (in sight). It looks rich, new, all done up, like CBDs in many areas. They have all your chain outlet stores, restaurants, etc. that you can get in the West. As it is with CBDs, it's very catered to a more luxurious, bubble lifestyle. Apparently, the government had invested a lot into the CBD but not the surrounding city.

There aren't many sites to be seen, but there is one we check out: the Greenbelt Chapel. Let me explain. Imagine a small island, with pews arranged in a semicircle. To get onto the island, you take one of four small bridges in. Overhead, there is a dome that covers the island, but not entirely, so that it's open air. Surounding it is a small garden, and surrounding the garden, no more than 30 seconds walk, are a bunch of shops and restaurants -- quiet, because we arrived in the early morning. It's a unique chapel, but interesting, since the commercialization in this area is centered around religion. We even see a sign for a guy whose job description is "EXORCIST." Yikes. I'll just take a look at the architecture here..

There apparently is another cemetery in the Makati region, but it's on the other side of Makati, so we decide not to go. We bounce out of the CBD and, where do we decide to go? Yes! Back to Binondo. Apparently, there was a church that we forgot to see there, so we decide to go allllll the way back to the Chinatown region to check it out. Yes, we're that weird. We LRT over, and then do a walkaround to the church. We finally get there, and we see it. It's alright. The best thing about the churches in Manila is that a lot of them are surrounded by just chaos, the traffic, the cars, the people. But, inside, it's always calm and church-like. Here's what I mean:

And, from here, we decide to check out the last church we haven't. What's so special about this last church? Oh, I don't know.. just BLACK JESUS. Yes, BLACK JESUS!! This is located in the Quiapo region, which is just next to Binondo. The history behind this one is fascinating: it was made by a Mexican sculptor and brought via galleon in the 1600s, making it a very old statue. See what I mean by the Philippines, a lot of stuff here is very old, it's just been through a bit. Anyway, we go through another hustle-bustle market, not on the scale of Divisoria, but smaller, to get to the church. The best part about the church is that it's in the middle of a pedestrian intersection, and so people are constantly passing through the church on all three sides (the last side occupied by Jesus, of course) as the main thoroughfare. It was probably more lively than your average church surrounded by the cars and jeepneys. Of course, there was still some of that, but since the surrounding streets were largely pedestrianized there was just a lot of traffic. And, of course, some people praying. I felt weird taking a picture of their Jesus, but here's a snapshot of the congregation. If you look hard, the statue at the far end is the black Jesus. I'd actually call it more of a Brown Jesus..

After, we decide to have some 'local grub', and, by that I mean try one of the various fast food restaurants in Manila. There are a few to choose from: Jollibee, or Chowking. Jollibee is the Filipino fast food chain, but we found it to be a bit expensive, so we went with Chowking, some interesting Filipino-Chinese fusion fast food restaurant. We were thinking Panda, but, I gotta say it folks, the Filipinos have Americans beat on Chinese fast food. A lot of Chinese cuisine is influenced by Cantonese and more ethnic-styles of cooking, so a lot of their rice bowls had siu mai (they call it siomai) on it. Pretty good for fast food, not gonna lie. I could've sworn my dad made a fried rice similar to theirs back in the day.. or maybe that's just a commentary on my dad's cooking!

Afterwards, we head back to the hostel and just chill out. It's just a bit later in the afternoon and we decide that we've seen so much of Manila that we just need a bit of a break. We chat with the hostelers, chill out, and then throw back a few Red Horses and San Miguels, the former not exported but made by the San Miguel brewery. We talk to people about their various travels.. etc.. and then.. go for another Sisig Bandug meal (another type of Sisig dish like the Tapa we tried earlier). We also grab some baked goods and just head back for the night.

The next morning, we leave pretty early to get to Ninoy Aquino International Airport. We find this really random, small, shoddy house to pop in in the morning for Sunday brunch (such a Western thing isn't it..). There are a couple of dishes outside, fresh cooked. Thorin spots it. We pop in. You guys... if you ever see a small shop, with someone who just cooked food and is selling it, GO. That is my advice. TRY it. It was probably the best meal we had all trip, and we got 4 dishes, 2 rice, 2 bottles of Coke, at 160 pesos. That is the equivalent of 5 Singapore dollars, 3.5 U.S., 2.5 GBP. For Two! And, this shit is fresh! Tilapia caught the day of, other dishes I had no idea what the name was but it was making our tastebuds orgasm like no other. There's nothing better than a cheap meal that is cooked with a little bit of Filipina love. We then take the LRT to Baclaran station, at the end of the line, one past EDSA. Big mistake. We end up in *another* huge market (seems to be a trend here), but make it out just in time to get to Ninoy Aquino. We take a Jeepney -- our final ride -- there. Not even before we reach the front of the departure gates, he drops us off. He says, get out and walk, I don't want to go through security. Fair enough, it's a bit of hassle for them. Then, like the street travelers we are, we haul our legs for the last climb to our departure flight.

Manila, you nuts, but you da bo$$.

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