Visa problems and robbery.

Cool jeepney

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia), Benjie (Philippines), Rich (Philippines), Isobel (Canada), Mark (New Zealand), Sam (England), Chris (England)

Arriving into Manila airport at 6am, having not slept in a day, our mood went from bad to worse, when we realised the horrible old man at the Philippines Embassy in Bangkok had only given Julia a 21 day visa. We had paid for 59 days and it was only in the small print at the bottom, where it said 21, the rest of the visa was identical to mine. We dropped our bags at Friendly's Guesthouse and spent the rest of the morning trying to sort out the visa situation. We were passed amongst offices, spread out across Manila, with each person agreeing it was unfair and that we should get a free extension.

Hanging out with the Old Bill in Fort Santiago

We had already encountered several street children in our first few hours in the city, but as we walked back to the hotel, we got our first bad experience with them. 3 of them crowded around Julia begging for money, then one tried to open the bag around her waist, whilst another was trying to unzip the rucksack on her back, which was thankfully padlocked. I grabbed one of them and pulled him off, at which point he pretended he was going to start crying.

Manila cathedral

Not wanting to get bad imprinted impressions, we decided that we would put it down to experience and copncentrated on the really interesting things that we were experiencing. For starters the jeepneys are the coolest form of transport on the planet, with each driver going to exceptional lengths to jazzing up their rides! Also the majority of people we were meeting were amazingly helpful and friendly and we were also shocked that pretty much everyone spoke some English. After an afternoon nap, the World semed a better place!

We were planning on getting an early night, but Friendly's Guesthouse is the wrong place to look for this! Its extremely sociable atmosphere, led by the owner Benjie handing out free wine at every given opportunity, led to us meeting some great people.

Malate district, viewed from our hostel balcony

The following day we visited the streets of Intramuros, taking in Manila Cathedral and San Augustin Church, where we were lucky enough to witness a beautiful wedding ceremony and relax in the tranquil gardens at the back of the Church museum. After this, we walked up to Fort Santiago where we spent some time in the interesting Rizal Museum and clowning around in the surrounding gardens that skirt the Pasig River. We walked back to the hostel through Rizal Park, which was a pretty getaway from the bustling city. That evening was spent enjoying a few more beers with the people in the hostel, before a relatively early 1am finish.