Exit Philippines
Sunday, May 25th, 2008We left donsol on the sunday afternoon to plenty more ‘hello joe’s. Our target for the night was the city of naga which is about 4 hours up the road on the long bumpy road back to manilla. We decided to take the trip during the day as you see more off the country that way and you also get to avoid the horrible practice of sleep depravation that goes hand in hand with night time travelling on a bus. We stopped over in naga which apart from a lively market sqaure didn’t have too much to convince us to stay longer than was strictly necessary. We jumped on a bus the following day going back towards manila. Being a bus in the philippines it only left the station as soon as every seat was filled up, we were the first ones on so we had to sit in the bus station in our seats for 3 full hours before the last person boarded up. This screwed up our plans royally for the day as instead of arriving at our destination at the intended, decent hour of 8 we didn;t get there till well past 11. We got a place to stay and went into the videokee bar next door for a few drinks to help us sleep over the loud street noise coming through the paper thin windows.
There is a volcano about 2 hours south of manila which we interested in seeing, getting there was a pain as it involved several jeepney changes in some god awful weather, the wet season had well and truely kicked off. We got to the pier where the boats leave for the volcano, took one look at the sky and another at the size of the volcano and one last one at the sandels, shorts and damp t-shirts we were both sporting and decided that we really weren’t that bothered about climbing it so we decided to head onto the next town before knocking on up to manila the following day.
Getting to the next town was impossible though, the taxi drivers wanted us to part with limbs to pay for the fare, we didn’t budge so were left on the side of the road. Manila seemed better idea with each passing minute, before we jumped back into a jeepney to retrace our steps we heard an almighty roar come from up the road. Our curiosity perked we wandered down to investigate. Cock fighting!! Its a horrible practice, really really disgusting but watching the men place their bets was fascinating, the announcer dude in the middle of the ring spotted us right away and stopped proceedings to inform the 400 or so people stuffed into this cattle shed of the appearance of the 2 white boys, or americanos as we were called. We didn’t stay long here, down the road and on up to the bus station where we picked up the first bus back to manila.
Manila is manila, is bloody massive. We stayed away from the nightlife this time – several of the people we met first time around were still in the hostel so we hung around with them, took some time to visit the 3rd largest shopping mall in the world where we caught the new indiana jones movie (which is complete garbage) and then flew out of manila to malaysia once more after 2 nights. The sly feckers at the airport charge you 750 pesos services tax after you have checked in n all, its very sly. The airport is the worst I have ever seen, there isn’t even a seat to sit down befor eyou check in, checking in takes hours, there are a ridiculous number of security checks – all in all its very exhausting. To top it all off the food is shocking aswell, but thats the country in a nutshell.
Its a strange place the philippines, there is so much to love about the place. I had an absolutely amazing time there, the people are complete dotes and they are immensely beautiful. Myself and bobby agree that they are prob the best looking race in the world (well off the ones I have come across), the first thing you experience of the country is the peoples accent, they all speak with a hispanic tone which took me completely by surprise – you’d swear you were in south or central america with the accent sometimes. Its dark side is also very prevalent, when the security guards at the local shop on the corner can justify holding a pump action shotgun you know its a country with some serious social issues that need sorting out. Once while waiting for a bus (something you end up doing alot in the country) two guys sat either side of me, both of them had massive assault rifles with attached grenade launchers casually strung over their shoulders, its not a country you’d want to start a fight in. I’ve already alluded to the sex industry which is rampant here, I don’t think I need to say anymore – it puts me in a bad mood even thinking about it. The worst aspect of the country is definitely its food – not once in 3 weeks could I say that I had a meal that I enjoyed. Its almost entirely meat based, really poor fatty meat. They salt everything up, dammit even their chocolate sucks, they cannot make tea nor coffee. I ended up subsisting on pot noodles for alot of my time there. American cheeseburgers can be bought on every corner, american tv in every room, american basketball players are the heroes for the little kids dribbling on the streets. If the food is this bad in america I think I will have to give it a miss. Shocking, they have all the basic ingredients that the likes of thai and india has so I don’t understand how it can all be so consistently and emphatically horrible. Shocker!!!
But apart from those grumblings I had a blast. We flew back into kualar lumpur the other night after watching john terry fall on his arse in moscow, myself and bobby went our seperate ways in the airport. He is off to cambodia while my malaysian adventure is to start again with a trip up to the Cameron Highlands 4 hours north of Kualar Lumpur. I had an amazing time with the bob and I was very sad for us to go our seperate ways but we will meet again back in dublin, limerick cavan or whereever. I have promised to take him on my next trip to india so it looks like I am stuck with him….
Made it to the cameron highlands in one piece but thats another story for another day.
Ciao Ciao,
Phil
Phil Gill