Manila

"You will never see such a wretched hive of scum and villainy." - Ben Kenobi


Every adventure has a jumping off point. This time mine was Manila.

I don't like this city. It's the kind of place where whatever can go wrong will go wrong. From the overly crowed, dirty streets with muddy water filled potholes and no sidewalks to the crappy rainy August weather that greeted me when I arrived late Wednesday night.

After waiting about 30min at the baggage claim carousel watching the same pieces of luggage go unclaimed and block up any chance of new luggage from being added to the conveyer belt, I finally got my bags, went outside, and my friend Daniel's younger sister Nicole met me outside the airport.


Nicole

Even something simple like finding a taxi cab became difficult. The late night cabs refused to turn on their meter and asked 2x the normal fair. We eventually settled on the over priced official airport taxi simply because we'd exhausted all other avenues.

Luckily, the pension where Daniel had reserved a room for me was nice and clean with a very friendly staff that offered shelter from the storm.

Thursday, it was overcast and rainy, so Nicole and I decided to go see the re-make of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' at a nearby mega-mall.

Afterwards, we went out to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas with a group of Peace Corps volunteers while a Filipino band blasted Eagles & Whitney Houston cover songs at us with no harmony.

Multiple margaritas later we were joined a drunken Filipino muscle head that was looking for a fight. I started tequila talking with him, and the next thing I knew he's giving me the evil eye and asking me to step outside. His friends quickly escorted him out and nothing else came of it.


Early the next morning after a few hours sleep and feeling the tequila tomorrow sickness, Nicole and I went to the domestic airport to catch a flight to the northern Batanes Islands. We arrived with 10min to spare, rushed through the check-in, quickly bought some doughnuts for the flight, and sat down in the white walled waiting room near a portrait of the Bleeding Heart of Mother Mary only to wait for a half an hour for them to cancel our flight due to wicked weather.

I'm getting out of this city tomorrow. One way or another.