Manila

Arriving in Manila after 10 days in an island paradise is almost a bit of a shock. The fact that the last major city that we visited before Manila was Tokyo made the shock even bigger.

Tokyo and Manila are both huge metropolitan areas in over populated island nations in the pacific ocean. But that is where the similarities stop. Where Tokyo is clean, organized and safe, Manila is dirty, chaotic, polluted and leaves a constant feeling of insecurity. The fact that we had managed to book a hotel in the "wrong" part of town did not make us feel anymore secure.

Stepping out of the taxi at 1 am,  we managed to wake up the cockroaches sleeping on the sidewalk as well the hotel security guard who was sound asleep.

We were meant to have a three day stop over in Manila. Before going here everyone asked us why on earth we were going to stay in Manila for three days. We were told it was unpleasant and nothing to do. After a few hours in Manila we started to understand what they meant...

Having had enough of the pollution we found a flight to the Philippine island of Boracay. After a day trip to the volcanic island of Taal we left Manila a day earlier than planned.