We managed to survive Manila! I've never experienced anything like that city in my life, and probably never will. With close to 22 million people residing in the city, the traffic of cars and people is non-stop craziness. Cars, horse carriages, jeepneys and tricycles (that transport people) fill the densely busy streets at all times of the day. There isn't much for traffic lights either, so every one kind of yields to one another in a semi controlled chaos. Cars literally merge and swerve inches from one another. People walk amongst this chaos in and around the cars to get where they want to go.
Poverty in Manila is unreal. With no national welfare system, and minimum wage being at around $1 or less an hour; millions live in poverty. We constantly saw children from as young as 1-2 years old begging on the streets for money. They are aggressive too and don't leave you alone! You get swarmed by them! It was pretty sad.
We had the pleasure of visiting Lorie's dad and family at their home in Manila. We were fed delicious Filipino food. It was very nice of them to have us there!!
We were happy to get out of Manila, but it was an absolutely crazy experience that we will appreciate in the long run!
As I type this we are traveling on insanely winding roads on our 5 hour journey to El Nido; one of the worlds most beautiful places. We are accompanied by 14 other foreigners in a van, with all our bags strapped to the roof. We spent one night in Puerta Princesa, which is the main city you fly into on the island of Palawan. Here, we were planning on doing the underground river tour (one of the seven wonders of the natural world) but it was all booked! Fortunately though, we booked for Saturday and will come back from El Nido Friday. The city is a whole lot less crazy than Manila but I am looking forward to some beach and water in a few hours!! Paradise here we come!
Updated: since I wrote this when I didn't have wifi, I will carry on a bit! We are now in El Nido and the ride here was nuts. The can probably did not go in a straight line longer than 10 seconds and it was a 5 hour drive. Twists and turns the whole time, and a gravel road for the last hour and a half! But the beauty of this place was worth the back and butt pain! We are staying at a place over looking the beach for $25 split between 3 of us. We will be going on a tour tomorrow to explore more scenery!
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