Manila #2
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
47
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Manila, Luzon, Philippines
Saturday, April 25, 2009
We stayed at Friendly's Guesthouse in Manila for our final three nights of the trip and mostly just concentrated on shopping, as this was our 2nd visit to the city. Of course Friendly's Guesthouse is one of the best places for having fun that we have ever stayed at, so we ended up drinking on the roof top on both the first and second nights. I got a little carried away on our 2nd night (April 22nd, 2009) and didn't make it to bed until after 7:00. I cannot recall completely what that night entailed, as Lisa went to bed around 2:30, but I am sure that it seemed like a lot of fun while I was experiencing it. The next day I woke up around noon and immediately felt the cost to my health from the fun of the night before. It didn't stop me from going shopping though and Lisa and I decided to make our way to Green Hills mall.
I had first discovered Green Hills by using Google, but the owner of Friendly's and some of the long term guests confirmed that it was one of the best and cheapest places to shop for souvenirs in the city. We decided to try and get there by public transportation and started by walking to the ___ station on Line 1 of the Light Rail Transit system. It cost us 15 pesos to go 5 stations away and we transferred at ___ to Line 2 of the LRT where we had to pay another 12 pesos to get to the ____ station. This station is the one used to get to the SM Mall of Asia, which is the biggest mall in all of the Philippines and something like the 7th largest mall in the world.
We shopped around this mall for a little while but soon decided that we should try and continue on to Green Hills to see if there were better bargains. We jumped in a taxi and a short ride and 50 pesos later we arrived at Green Hills. As I mentioned earlier, I was not feeling at my best at this point but Green Hills turned out to be exactly the type of place that we had hoped for. We spent about an hour browsing and buying clothing and other souvenirs before I ran out of energy and had to go home. We decided to forego public transportation this time and spent around 45 minutes in a taxi which only cost around 150 pesos. Although riding in taxis is very affordable in Manila, it is also a slow and frustrating process due to traffic conditions and every driver we had drove in a fashion that inspired riders to get car sick.
With my hangover now in full effect (and Lisa not feeling great either), we did not join the party on the roof of Friendly's again this night and we both got a really good sleep. We decided that we would return to Green Hills again for another round on our last day of our trip and this time we both woke up early and in a mood ready to shop. We had to check out of our room for noon, so we spent the morning sipping on coffee and packing up our stuff so that it would be ready for our flight later that day. After having a delicious lunch at Pizza Hut for 99 pesos each, we jumped on the Light Rail Transit system and made our way to Green Hills the same way as the previous day. We had planned on buying a canvas or tarp like bag to bring our goodies home, but the only bags we could find were fake designer bags that we didn't really want. The large designer bags went for 1,500 pesos (before the bargaining process began) and we could not find any cheaper options, so after we had bought several bags worth of goods, we figured our backpacks were now completely full and we headed home.
The jerky taxi rides and traffic of Manila inspired us to take the LRT system home. It was 17:00 when we left and I figured that no matter what option we used would be agonizing, but I was surprised that the LRT system was not nearly as crowded as Toronto's subway would be at rush hour on a week day. Since we were walking by Robinson's mall again, we headed back to Pizza Hut for a pasta dinner before returning to Friendly's Guesthouse for the last time. As we showered and packed up our bags we could see that the staff of Friendly's was busy cooking up a barbecue on the rooftop for its guests. I am not sure how Friendly's Guesthouse can be profitable because they always seem to be doing stuff like this for their guests. We were not hungry though, so we just showered, packed and headed to the airport.
The security process at the Manila airport is rather intensive and it took us an hour to get through it. We had found out earlier about the 750 peso fee for International passengers, but changed the rest of our Philippine currency into US dollars. I am waiting for the flight in the waiting room as I write this and I managed to secure one of the only available electrical plugs yet again. Every seat in the waiting room is full though and I had to give up my seat in order to get access to the electrical plug. I guess this is going to be a full flight because there are lots of people sitting around me on the floor and dozens of others are standing.
We have a long journey home in front of us now. Our flight to Abu Dhabi leaves Manila at 1:15 and is scheduled to last eight hours. After this we have a five hour stop over and then we get on a 14 hour flights from Abu Dhabi to Toronto. I will be glad when this flight is over but I am sad that our journey through Asia has finally come to an end. It will be nice to see the familiar faces of family and friends again, but it is still sad that I will have to return to a normal life once again. Unless something special happens in Abu Dhabi though, this will be my final journal entry and the conclusion of this story. If you have read any or all of this journal, I hope you plan on travelling through Asia yourself as I tried to provide as much practical information as I could remember.
Comments
Thanks for such a detailed story of travelling around SE Asia! I really enjoyed your blog from Saigon and Nha Trang, Bangkok and Surat Thani and other places, where I've been too, and entries about Phillipines where I'm heading in a couple of days! :)