Post by: Tony
We arrived in Manila (capital of the Philippines) at about 4:30 in the morning. The flight from Saigon was fairly short but the combination of leaving at 11 at night and the plane being late off the tarmac made for very little sleep. We were able to catch a cab easily but once we arrived at our hotel we were informed that they didn't have a room ready for us, and one wouldn't be available until noon. They held our bags while we went for some breakfast. We ran across the street for some pancit (a Philippine noodle dish) and coffee. While out we decided to check a few other hotels around the area for availability but were told the same spiel about no rooms being available until noon, or else they were way too expensive ($75 vs. the $20 we were planning to pay). After giving up our search we headed back to our hotel's common room to wait out the next 6 hours until a room was ready. Having not had any sleep the night before Dom and I were quickly dispatched to our dreams, curled up in balls on the couch located in the middle of the room.

Finally, our room was ready and we were escorted to a small prison cell of a place. It was about 8'x8' with no windows to speak of, walls painted a dark orange and floors a dark brown. The bathroom was large and all pastel blue expect for a dark forest green rug in front of the shower that looked as though it had been laying in the doorway of a college dorm's shared bathroom. We made it a point not to touch or step on it with bare feet for the remainder of our stay. This was a big change compared to the nice $20/night rooms we've been paying throughout our trip. We were not used to paying more and getting less. We decided to try and catch up on our sleep for the first day in Manila but that threw off our sleep schedule worse than it was, and we ended up spending a few days sleeping in. Once we felt like we were getting back to normal we decided to venture out to the one thing that seemed to be the "thing to do in Manila"... explore the COLOSSAL malls.

The malls in Manila are completely INSANE!!! Think of your favorite, over-the-top mall. In Dallas, you have the Galleria or Frisco Mall. In San Francisco, there's the SF Shopping Center. Now expand that mall by two blocks in every direction and three stories up... that is your average Manila mall. It took us two days to explore one wing of one mall. We gave up on that one and tried a smaller mall the next few days. The second mall was much smaller and only took a day and a half to walk around once. It was also the place to go for the least expensive food! Actually, Dom and I were in sticker shock for most of our stint in Manila. It was quickly apparent that we weren't in Southeast Asia any longer.

It was strange to see the contrast of children begging & sleeping on the street (filthy from head to toe), next to these gigantic malls with luxury stores. It was also strange to see very young looking girls (under 18) with much OLDER, fat white men. It's worse than in Thailand. At least there, the girls look over 18 and seemed to be enjoying themselves. While the young girls in Manila walk around with these old white men with their heads down.

Anyway, after a week (and realizing this was probably our least favorite city) we needed a change of scenery, and it came in the form of Boracay.

Getting to the island of Boracay was pretty uneventful as long as you don't count the additional fees that we had to pay along the way. We seemed to be charged for something or other every step of the way. "You want to take a ferry to the island, that'll be $4 for a transition fee, $7 for a terminal fee, and $9 for the boat ticket". We thought "Dang, $7 for a terminal fee... it must be new and extravagant or something". Turns out its an old run down building with a plastic sign above it that reads "TERMINAL". Hahaha! The 1hr flight out there was nice though, flying over other Philippine islands. Once on Boracay we checked into Dave's Straw Hat Inn. It was one of the nicest places we've stayed in, with the highlight being the staff. All were extremely welcoming and they even had a mascot, a golden lab/boonie mix named Freckles.

While in Boracay we visited a few different shopping centers (where the least expensive food seemed to be) and walked along the coastline taking in the beauty of the island. When it wasn't raining (which is seemed to be doing with great frequency at this point) we spent the days hanging out at the beach just taking in rays, listening to music and reading... enjoying the clean white sand & clear blue water. At one point we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner on the beach. We decided on a surf and turf all you can eat buffet. I think we paid $12 total. After dinner we stuck around to have a few drinks and listen to some live music while basking in the warm off-shore breeze.

After 5 days in Boracay we had to make our way back to Manila since we were flying out of there to Guam. We were able to book another hotel near our last one and were pleasantly surprised by how much nicer it was (albeit a bit more expensive). The trick seemed to be to book your hotel online instead of trying to walk in off the street! The price online through a travel site, $35. The price for a walk-in, $50! Go figure. We had to stay in Manila for a day before heading to Guam so we decided to check out another mall while in town.

The ride there was pretty adventurous. We hopped in this cab and started to make our way across town. The cabbie seemed to be driving a little jerky but I figured it was just bad skill behind the wheel. It turns out he was running out of gas... actually, he was out of gas. We were putting along down a main artery of the city when "kerplunk", the car dies. He tried a few times to get it going again but to no avail. So he apologized and suggested we grab another cab. We offered to help push him to the nearest gas station but I don't think he spoke enough English to understand what we were trying to get across. So, we paid him most of what the flag had on it and grabbed another cab around the corner. The mall that we went to was supposed to have knock-off gear as far as the eye can see and it did not disappoint. There were shoes and electronics for aisles and aisles. After checking out as much as we could stand we decided to catch a movie, The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen that movie yet, go see it. It was AWESOME! I won't be surprised if Heath Ledger ends up with a posthumous Oscar nod.

Anyhoo, the next stop is Guam! We're both really excited to spend some time in Dom's old stomping grounds. It should be a nice way to end our 6 month journey! -t
MANILA&BORACAY PICS