Wow. What a start to my first full day in the Philippines. One of the first things that I did was get outside to explore the area that I'm staying in. Along the road as I was walking towards the ocean, a man approached me and said that he remembered me from the hotel last night. He said that he worked there. He introduced himself as Rico and I told him that I was Graham. He then told me that it was his day off and that he would take me and show me some of the touristy things. The first thing that we did was explore the coast next to the hotels. I was expecting a beach, but instead it's really just the ocean with a wall in the area that I'm staying at. He pointed to a few different things, one of which being the American Embassy, which I was thankful for.
He also was talking about an American cemetery that was nearby for the Filipino and American soldiers that had died during World War II. I thought we were going to walk there but instead he hailed a cab. At this point, I was too much of an idiot to ask how much it would cost. I thought that it was just going to be a quick ride. Instead, it turned out to be probably a 15 minute ride. I was very nervous at this point and realized that this guy was going to try to take advantage of me.
Once we got there, however, the cemetery was really beautiful. The grass was perfectly trimmed and the facilities were in pristine condition. I would have stayed and enjoyed it longer, but the taxi parked instead of leaving, and that's when I realized that I was in serious trouble. At this point, he was talking about taking me to another location, and that's when I finally asked him about how much this whole deal would set me back. He told me $100. I was thinking Philippine Pesos. He was not. I said that I could handle that. Somehow, the message became clear that he was talking about American dollars and the situation got more interesting. I said that I was unwilling to pay $100 American for anything and he said that instead I could pay $2500 peso. I said that that plan would not work either. I told him that I was only carrying $500 peso. He told me that we could go back to the hotel for $1000 peso. I reluctantly agreed to that offer. I pulled out $500 peso, but he saw that I was carrying more than just the one bill. After talking with him a little more I gave him another $300 peso with the agreement to pay the last $200 once we reached the hotel.
The ride home was very tense. He called about three different people and was absolutely livid. At least whenever he was talking to me he was much calmer. He ended up getting dropped off close to the hotel so he could be with his “baby” that he kept talking about. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. He also wanted a bottle of milk for his baby because it was its birthday. But before the taxi rode away, I made sure that all of the expenses were already paid. The driver said that they were. He then drove a couple more blocks and dropped me off. As of now, I have still only paid the $800 peso. I don't plan on paying any more because it looked like my money was the only money that was given to the cab driver. The thing that makes me nervous is that he knows where I am staying because I stupidly said my hostel, even though the hotel that he thought I was staying at was right across the street. But I forgot the name of that when we were driving so I just wanted to make sure that I got back successfully. I am now out $800 peso but at least I know from now on ALWAYS to ask for the cost before I do anything. There is no such thing as free hospitality in the area that I am staying.
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