Arriving in Manila

Trip Start Jan 03, 2012

Trip End Mar 22, 2012

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Flag of Philippines Manila, Luzon, Philippines
Thursday, January 5, 2012

We have finally arrived in Manila! We went from Phoenix to San Fran to Honolulu to Guam to Manila. Lots of restless airtime and layovers, but it was worth it. We arrived about an hour later than expected, which put us in Manila at 11pm. At 11pm the city was ALIVE! We were told it is the city that never sleeps. At 6am the next morning people were non-stop as they were at 11pm the night before. Having 18 million people in one city and 24-7 action is the result. We went to bed around 1am and woke up at 6am, so with 5 hours of sleep within a 48 hour time period we are exhausted. We woke-up and walked about 2 min. to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. We enjoyed a cup of coffee and Skyped our family to let them know we have arrived safely. Now we are exploring the city after eating brunch with our friends. We will post pictures soon of our travels to get here. Talk to ya soon!

...End of day one

Naping in Honolulu during our 4 hr layover.

. Today we did a lot of necessary errands and chores. We got one cell phone set up and will get the second tomorrow. We wondered around a lot in the area we will be living in to try and get a sense of direction. The city is crazy busy. Weather wasn't horrible, but pretty warm and humid. In the mornings and evenings its really nice (usually 70's with a little breeze) We also found a condo that we will be renting while we are here. This condo is not what you think when someone says condo. Its nice, but about 300 sq ft. It is actually not super cheap either (around $580 a month), but the part of town where we are staying is a business district, so prices are a little higher than other parts. Tomorrow we can move in hopefully and get our living situation all squared away.

Talking with Dave today (our main contact here) I found out that a very nice island area (Puerto Galera) is only 3 hrs south of Manila (2hr bus ride + 1hr boat ride) It cost him $12 to get there. That's good news :)

I'll try and get some pictures up tomorrow

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