The "jeepney"
The "jeepney" loading
One of the local museums
Makati section of town
Makati - night and day appearance from other sections of Manila
Philippine Flag
One of the big malls right by my hotel - GreenBelt
My hotel (not so fancy) is very near some "fancy hotels"
Nice areas to walk around today
Great outside eating area - will need to take part tomorrow.
Manila, Philippines today. I'm just doing some country hopping - don't mind me. Why Manila? Back on my first visit to Europe many years ago on a ski trip to France (Val d'lsere), I picked up a US Today. On the back page, it listed 36 major world cities. At that time, I decided I wanted to visit all these cities at some point in my life if possible. Manila happens to be one of those cities. After this Asian Sabbatical - I'll have 3 left (Mexico City, Melbourne, and Jakarta).
Of all the places I'm going on this trip, Manila may be the biggest reach. Again, I know nearly nothing about the Philippines -- so this is an educational session for me if nothing else. First off, I couldn't spell Philippines. If I were in a spelling bee, I would have been out right away. I would have doubled the "l" and not the "p". The Philippines is located south of Taiwan and consists of 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under 3 main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has more than 100 million people with faster growth than any other Asian country. It's the 7th most populated country in Asia and 12th most populated country in the world.
So, I had an early start to the day in Taipei. I caught a 45-minute shuttle bus around 6:30am to the airport I had a 9:30am flight to Manila. All went well on the travel - on time with no issues. 2/2 on flights in the past week -- I have to keep this going. I got to my hotel around 12:30pm.
Initial impressions of Manila -- a little sketchy. Let's take a scale of New York City to Egypt when it comes to developed cities. I would put Manila on the Egypt side of the scale. It did get a lot better once I walked around the area of town next to my hotel (Astoria Greenbelt) - but the drive from the airport went through some rough areas.
In doing some research, the Philippines has a number of great beach areas - one of the most famous is Boracay. I think the beaches are the biggest draw for any tourists. Tomorrow I will hit Manila Bay any check it out myself. I wasn't able to work out logistics to Boracay -- I just didn't want to spend several days to get to this remote destination. All good, there's a lot to do in Manila.
The area of town I'm currently in is Makati. It's the urban, financial sector of Manila (and all of the Philippines for that matter). I basically took the whole afternoon and just walked around. I set up an actual tour tomorrow of the old section of the town. There were some interesting things I came across for sure:
(1) The jeepney -- see my first 2 pictures above. The jeepney is the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines. People are crammed into the back of this jeep-like vehicle. The jeepneys were originally made from the US military jeeps left over from World War II. When seeing these, I thought they looked really cool, but it also was a source of why I thought things were a little sketchy. People are hanging out the sides of the jeep, completely packed in. They just stop somewhere on the road and people jump in/out. Cool - but questionable.
(2) Shopping Malls -- 3 of the Top 10 biggest malls in the World are located in the Philippines
(3) Language - A heavy percentage of locals speak English as their main language; therefore, it was really easy to communicate and get around.
(4) Religion -- 90% of the country is Christian - predominantly Roman Catholic. I believe I read it's the only Asian country with Christianity as its #1 religion.
(5) The English word "boondocks" is actually a Filipino word. It came into the North American vernacular after the Philippines became involved in the Second World War.
One of the reasons I like travel - it's really about learning new things Walking around, reading things - even if only here a couple days - I will always be able to have a better grasp of this area.
Good night from the land of Manny Pacquiao!
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