One Bad Trip to Manila

June 26-27

This is not exactly what I expected. To make a long story short-scratch that. To not have to repeat a story that makes me mad, I was not able to receive a visa extension on the trip to Taipei. Therefore, to be able to study for the full stay, I had to leave Taiwan and then return in order to get a fresh 30 day stay. So I needed to look for a cheap place to stay for a few days. The two cheapest choices that I found were Thailand and the Philippines. Since Thailand has so many political problems, the choice became pretty easy- I would spend a few days in Manila.

Since Alex, Ray, Emilie, and I were already in Taipei, I looked for a flight that would depart while I was still in town. That would save money as opposed to traveling back to Chiayi and then coming back to Taipei a couple of days later. One of the drawbacks to this was that I had only packed for a one night stay in Taipei. Luckily for me, I had packed a few extra things, but still not enough for the three night stay in Manila. Even with that problem, I still booked an 11:00 am flight to Manila at about 9:00 pm the night before.

After all of the shenanigans, the four of us still elected to check out some of the bars in the area. The one that we decided on was a bar that was going to have a live band playing about 20 minutes after we got there. We decided that it was worth the NT600 charge to go. The band ended up being really awesome. They were a Taiwanese group that played a lot of American covers. They had both a male and a female singer. Both had really great voices and their English was pretty much spot on. They both talked with a good Midwestern accent. Unfortunately, the ventilation was poor and it got smoky pretty quickly. Ray ended up having problems with his asthma and I joined him for the taxi ride home.

In the morning, I woke up around 7 and began my trek to the second largest archipelago in the world. After a scary bus ride where we almost got into an accident, I successfully made it to the airport. Surprisingly, there were no problems getting my boarding pass and getting through immigration. The flight was nice and I was glad that I got a window seat because I was able to look at the different islands that we were flying over on the way down. Arriving was interesting, because apparently our plane was too small to use the normal gate (it appeared that only the big 747 and 777s could use it) so we had to take a bus to the terminal. Customs in the Philippines was pretty nuts because we also had to fill out a health form. On each of the three forms that were required, each one asked to write a permanent Philippines address. I didn't realize that it meant the hotel or hostel that I was staying at so there were problems fixing my forms. I am so glad that I had my hostel information on my Expeedia confirmation because I'm not sure if they would have let me into the country otherwise. They seemed to be very strict about having a place to stay. Once I got through that part though, the rest was really easy. Going through Customs, they didn't even check what was in my backpack.

The taxi ride to the hostel was eye opening because I quickly learned how little importance lanes are here. There were people driving between lanes and the congestion was so bad that I wondered if people just picked a lane if it would be nearly as bad. I successfully arrived at the hostel and got checked in. After a nap, I had dinner at a seafood place. It was delicious. I got a seafood dish were I dipped my assorted animals into a mix of soy sauce, chili mix, and some sort of little green citrus food. The woman told me the name of it but I quickly forgot. Whatever it is, it added an excellent kick to the dish and made it worthwhile to order.

The main drawback to the area so far is sticking out as an American. So far walking down about two blocks I have already been offered some silver coins, 2 different sets of watches, ganja, Viagra, and of course, a full body massage with the emphasis on “full body.” It makes me realize how much I enjoy staying in Taiwan because being American is a cool thing, but for the most part they will still leave you alone. Here, it appears that being an American is just going to be a hassle and people will just try to take advantage of me. Hopefully I will be wrong about that.