Manila

This morning we were left breakfast in the lobby. Again, it was Filipino with rice and fried egg but there was some strange beef coated in something that didn't taste nice. I ate it anyway as it was free but had to chew gum to get rid of the flavour afterwards. I miss good food. The owner of our hotel got us a tricycle that took us to a jeepney. We were a tad unsure what to do with our bags when we got on the jeepney so ended up climbing through a load of people, dragging them with us (the other passengers could have moved but they chose to stare at us instead). It was super cramped and therefore sweaty for the half an hour ride to a bus that we wanted to catch to Manila. Off the jeepney we got straight on the bus and I had a nice little snooze for an hour. 

In Manila, the bus driver pointed us in the right direction and so we started to walk. After five minutes or so it was ridiculously hot so we caught a jeepney up the road to near where our hostel was (only 8 pesos each so just over 10p). Having found our hostel we dropped our bags and went out to explore Manila. 

By this point it was lunch time already so we sat down at a cafeteria like place and I had rice with an aubergine dish and was given a side of spaghetti also. Very strange. The place wasn't very clean so already I was put off my food but the aubergine dish wasn't pleasant and the spaghetti tasted sweet. I tried to eat it but in the end let Matt finish it off. 

We started the tour of Manila in Rizal Park. We saw a nice monument and then went to look at a memorial for a guy that was murdered by 15 men. His death was the start of the Filipinos revolt against the Spanish. There were statues showing the events of the murder. It was all quite interesting. We then moved through the park to a Chinese garden that was rather dull before getting an ice cream. It was just a cookies and cream flavoured one on a stick but it boosted my energy levels nicely. We strolled round the rest of the park, trying to stay in the shade as it was pretty hot. Unfortunately, it cost to go into the Japanese garden and an orchid garden so we decided against them, instead moving out of the park and into the old city which is named Intramuros. This area is surrounded by walls, similar to York, and has more of a medieval feel about it with the churches and old buildings. We stopped at San Augustin church, the most famous church in Manila, and checked out the museum inside. It was more European than any place we'd been so far but that was quite refreshing. There were old paintings of angels and Jesus lined up on the walls throughout the corridors that encircled a central courtyard. 

Further north in the old town was the cathedral. It lacked the grandeur of a normal cathedral so we chose not to enter and instead headed back towards our hostel, stopping at a nearby mall for some food. I had rice with slow cooked beef and a side of pickled cucumber. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything exciting. As it was only around six and both me and Matt have been missing watching television and films we decided to make a trip to the cinema (only £3 each) so we bought tickets to see Antman (the only film showing). As we had a half an hour wait we went to a supermarket and bought some shampoo as we were running low. However, this made us slightly late for the film (if anyone knows Matt then this will be understandable). I don't like to be late for the cinema as the adverts are almost as good as the film! Turns out there are no adverts before a film in the Philippines so we missed the first ten minutes. It didn't matter in the end as the film still made perfect sense. It wasn't the greatest but it was nice to escape from the craziness of travelling for an hour and a half. 

When we were back at the hostel we chose to have a drink in the rooftop bar (a mango daiquiri which was disgusting and again Matt finished for me) and attempted to plan the next part of our travels: Malaysia and Indonesia.