12:45 Two last weeks of our epic Philippines journey, we spent in capital region Manila, Makati city. It is not all white sand beaches and zipping cocktails at resorts. Although Manila overall is big, dirty and fairly uninteresting place to be, it also offers more than few things to do.
Best way to get around Manila is to have or make some local friends – It would be almost impossible to find all the neatest places only relying on tripadvisor or another sources. Making new friends in multi million city is hard, but couchsurfing made it a lot easier for us.
Our arrival happened to be again on rush hour – bummer. That ment, that Uber prices surged 1.9 (could surge up to 4 times, making it very expensive) times and going from harbour to Indonesian embassy took more than it should.
Our hunt for long term visa got a quick end and our mood was little bit low. You can’t get long term visa without approval or invitation letter directly from Indonesia – for what you need to have a person in Indonesia (friend for example), who could get to paper and probably mail it to you – I would guess digital papers and emailing is science fiction around here. And how long would that take, to get this paper from one county to another? So we gave up, we are flexible and willing to change our plans on the go.
Thank you Jay for being great host. Our 5 first days we spent in newly built 41 story skyscraper – Penthouse apartment. Small but cozy, with beautiful views from the roof deck.
Not having AC in the apartement made it pretty unbearable, but thank our saviours – two little fans. To be honest, the time there was pretty lazy, not doing much.
Our days went by in hanging malls (Oh how I hate malls, but its cooler there), going to gym, running stairs, having long swims in the pool and watching movies. You could say, that time was wasted, but it is good to have a time off now and then – be just good old lazy 🙂
Thank you Nathan, for the second time putting up with us 🙂 You were not wrong, if you said that it is going to be hellishly hot. I don’t mind it being +36C outside, but inside on the second floor I guess it was almost like a lightweight sauna (even all the metal was hot).
But we didn’t melt and actually had a good night sleep for 7 days. I guess it has something to with the AC in your room, that shared little bit of cold air for us also. Nathan beeing really outgoing person, we got to enjoy the crazy nightlife of Manila once again.
Yep, I’m getting too old for that, don’t know how you are keeping up with it. If you ever happen to have time in Manila, you should visit of course the red light district and Black Market underground nightclub in Metro Manila. Nathan we hope all your dreams come true and wish you all the best.
Our highlight was definitely the day of hiking Pico de Loro. Getting out of the concrete jungle is a bless. I do really enjoy nature a lot more, it is relaxing and resting, even though you have to hike through most of the day. There are actually a handful of different mountains to hike around Manila, but unfortunately some of them require for permits, that have to be requested before arrival – And of course they wouldn’t, reply through the email as quickly as needed.
Making Manila your top travel destination would be definitely bad choice, but for a few days stop, it’s okay. If you’re a big city kind of person, you might even love it, but I’m more of a nature boy. Ironically our next destination is also big city 🙂