Manila is split into a lot of different areas: service & finance, shopping centers & offices , Chinatown as well as the old town. We were staying in the old town, where all the budget plan accommodation, restaurants, go-go bars, gay clubs as well as prostitution takes place. Going out for the night needs doing some research study to make sure you don’t end up in the wrong type of bar! getting around is simple as we soon discovered out, since of the amazing array of transportation. The more usual being the LRT, MRT, buses, taxis as well as cars. The unusual being jeepneys as well as tricycles.

a jeepney
 

tricycle drivers waiting on customers
Jeepneys are utilized everywhere here, it’s like a minibus however less comfortable. people utilize them to get from point a to b as well as to transfer whatever as well as anything; the original versions of these vehicles were made of vehicles left behind by the Americans at the end of WWII. They’ve altered rather a bit since then as well as are now mass created machines. These contraptions are hilarious, they spit as well as spew dark clouds of smoke as they bounce down the streets. I don’t believe any type of of them have a muffler so you can hear them coming a mile away as well as they are always decked out – crucifixes on the dashboard, lights, some have a little fan taped to the ceiling, some have chrome on them, photos of stars as well as of course, they are all painted in different colours.

inside our very first jeepney
Tricycles are either a bicycle or a motorbike with a bit side-cart welded on! It’s possible to in shape 2 people in the cart as well as 2 other people on the back of the motorbike. Again, no muffler whatsoever.

Manila wasn’t our favourite huge city, to put it nicely. There was no genuine center of town, as well many people, it was so hot as well as great deals of pollution. We did, however, have a nice time wandering around the old town with all of the cobblestone streets as well as seeing the oldest church in the Philippines.

San Agustin, the oldest stone church in the Philippines

 

Beautiful Manila Cathedral
 

entering Fort Santiago

 

beautiful entrance in the old town
 

a game of checkers on the street

 

tricycle drivers taking a break
 

view of the Manila Skyline

We ended up having to stay in Manila for 5 days to get our visas extended. We had a night out at a cool streetside pub, had a container of 6 extremely chilly San Miguels for 80 cents a piece! Beer is extremely economical in this country.

a night out with buckets of San Miguel in Manila

 

ice chilly San Miguels
 

a perfect location for a bottle opener
We figured out the crazy transportation system, walked in the old town, strolled with the markets as well as discovered some great locations to eat. someday we took a two hour bus trip outside of the city to Tagaytay where we had a picnic as well as saw the lovely Lake Taal as well as the Taal Volcano, which is an active volcano right in the middle of the lake! even though it is one of the smaller volcanoes in the Philippines, it was still incredible to see.

our picnic view – Taal Lake as well as Volcano in the distance
 

a zoomed in picture of Taal Volcano

 

Enjoying the picnic spot
After 5 days, we were dying to get out of the huge city. when we got our visas back, we were on a bus to Vigan, one of the oldest towns in the Philippines with a extremely Spanish, colonial feel.

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