Manila (last time), 28 – 31 Jan 2014

Jo on a bus

Got to our new hostel, Where 2Next at around 7am, pretty tired, but more grubby than anything. Sadly couldn’t go back to Our Melting Pot as they had no room. No great loss however, as a new hostel and area gave us a new place to explore. We were given breakfast by the staff very kindly, and we sat around reading and doing not much until our room was ready for check in at 12. As per normal, we dumped bags and toddled off into the sunshine. We found some grub in a local place around the corner, which served the “delicacy” balut, which is a fertilised and salted boiled egg. I found one with my meal and gave it a sniff and a small nibble, but my fatigue had weakened my stomach and I wimped out, eventually not even being able to look at it.

We carried on wandering, ending up in another mall. Eventually made it home much later, absolutely shattered, and glad of the private room.

Jo and I at the top

We got up at a reasonable hour, and following th advice of an American guy I spoke to in the hostel the previous day, made our way to a bus terminal to get to Lake Taal. This is the thing I really wanted to do, but wasn’t willing to go on the organised trip (surprise surprise) to see. Turned out to be quite easy, and after a fair bit of haggling, a taxi, bus, and loooong trike ride, we were on a boat, heading out across a lake, to an volcano island, which has a lake in the centre of it, and another smaller island in the centre of that! Quite the geographical Russian doll.

The hike up

View from the top with Lake Taal in distance

The hike was only short, but very arid and in the late morning heat we were burning through our water pretty fast. An alternative way to get up to the top is on horseback that the locals keep on the island. As with a lot of the Philippines, there are a lot of Korean and Chinese tourists, and they are more than happy to hop on one of these exhausted, often lame animals. Was quite a pity to watch, and each horse had a handler that on the way up would constantly be pulling back on the tail. Whether this was to control the animal or to pull the handler up the hill I don’t know, but it looked even more discomforting.

Clever google stitched together pic of sulphuric lake and island

Poor horseys

We trudged up, me stopping constantly to take photos. Jo stopped close to the top, where a lot of huts had been built for shade and to sell you drinks. She thought this was it, so she got a nice little surprise when I took her a few more feet up to the crater edge to look down at the sulphuric lake and island in the centre. We took a load of photos, drank the remains of our water and wandered back down to the boat. Cheeky bloody boat-driver (he doesn’t deserve the title “captain”) said it was customary to give the man who put the “bridge” up for us 50 pesos. 50 pesos to put a rickety stool in front of the boat that we didn’t ask for or need, and that the boat man used first anyway! I told he was taking the piss and off we went. I took the front seat, and got bloody soaked on the boat, but was nice and refreshing. When we got to shore, the cheeky sod then asked for “tip?” Needless to say he didn’t get anything. These guys are used to seeing rich and gullible Asian tourists, and obviously expected the same from us. Backpackers pockets are nowhere near as deep, so we haggle harder!

A goat

We went for a walk to dry off, and got shouted at by everyone trying to get us on a boat or in a trike. One bloke followed us for the whole time in his trike, adamant to get our business. True to form he gave us a silly price, and we had to walk away from him 3 times before he came down, but we eventually got back up to the town, and packed away on a bus back to Manila. Decided to jeepney it back from the terminal, and arrived home happy.

£2.30.... for 6 ice cold beers!!!!

We went out to a place across the road for dinner and drinks. I was over the bloody moon as a bucket of 6 San Miguels was £2.30. They were ice cold, and the food was cheap and good too. There was also loads of locals all in there too, so the craic was great. We got chatting to two girls and one guy next to us who were local, although the guy was off his face, and asked me the same questions over and over again!

Church near Where 2Next

Kids smoking in Manila

Following day was our last full day in the Philippines and we wandered around Rizal park again, and found ourselves in another mall for some lunch and meandering. We found our way back to the hostel, chilled out for a bit, then went back across the road when we heard the Chinese New Year celebrations outside, and sat drinking and eating, with me drinking lots to make the most of the beautifully cold beer. Had a great time, with dragons dancing all around us (I wasn’t hallucinating, they were Chinese dragons).

Next morning, I was a little worse for wear, but we only had to pack, eat, and make our way to the airport to leave our Philippine adventure and start our Malay!