Manila, Philippines - February 29, 2008
I'm back in the Philippines for one month before starting the new job in a new country, Japan. This is a trip with 'the wife' as she's Filipina-American (grew up in the Philippines, and lived in California and Nevada for years). So we'll be traveling around together and I'll be writing it all down here.
First off, Manila was a mess. The taxi driver tried to triple or quadruple the fare into the city. My wife's cousin also joined us, and I didn't really know what happened until later. Apparently the cousin saw the driver cover the meter. Then the taxi was telling my wife to ask me for a much higher price. They argued in Tagalog and she told him to just 'ask me', and then the swindling began. He appeared very angry when I told the correct fare should be around 80 pesos and not 400 as he was asking. Eventually we settled for 250 which was still a killing on his part. I was thinking how much different this would be if I'd been with other seasoned travelers who would have had him pull the taxi over right at the moment or arguing and we'd have taken another cab (or when he tried to cover the meter). Being with local Filipinas who may or may not be accustomed to the fleecing of foreigners of their cash, they didn't seem to handle it that way that I'm accustomed to my fellow travelers as would handle it. Instead I basically paid around three times the price haggled down from 5-6 times the price. (It was later when we went to the airport again that I did realize that 80 pesos was indeed the correct price as I thought it would be from Makati to the Airport.
Next, since I had to do a work visa and such for Japan, I needed to open a mailbox so I could have all of those important documents mailed to me to bring to an embassy later. That also involved a lot of running around, again with two filipinas who were trying to help, but were equally frustrated, as no one seemed able to give a foreigner a mailbox anywhere. Eventually through the internet, I was able to find 'Mailbox, Inc.' which is a company I've opened up mailbox accounts in other countries with as well. Makati does have ONE branch open, and we were finally able to do this relatively simple task.
We later checked into a hotel in Makati and received a lot of 'bad feelings' from the place. I think they think they had a foreigner with two women, when in fact it was a foreigner with his Filipina wife and her cousin. We were received very coldly and I felt very unwelcome the entire day we stayed there. Virginia Pensionne was the name of the place in Makati, and I'll be sure to never stay there again. Sadly it is near the malls and such, so it's a good location, but I'd rather be welcomed. In fact, the lady refused to speak to me at all in English and basically grumbled stuff to my wife and her cousin, probably assuming the worse of them and myself.
Later that evening, my wife's sister and her two bandmates joined us, so then there were five girls visiting, and I stepped out and let them have fun speaking Tagalog and such. I'm sure the hotel owner was even more irate thinking I was who-knows-what. Later I came back, and the sister and her bandmates told me Filipino stories and jokes that they tried to translate into English and we had a good time just hanging out until everyone went back home and it was just me and the wife.
Typical of Manila/Makati, when I was alone for a bit running additional errands, I ate at Wendy's Restaurant. Some 'weirdo' decided to join me at my table and start telling all kinds of stories. In Manila/Makati I equally equate this with bad news, as is usually the case. I excused myself and told him I had to go meet my wife. As soon as I left Wendy's Restaurant, I quickly looked behind me, and ducked into the first side-street shopping area I saw, made a few more cuts and corners and then tried to figure out where I was. Suddenly the same guy popped up 'where's your wife?'. A bad sign. He had followed me, and a good guy wouldn't follow you, he was after something. I told him again I had to go in the eye and made it very clear and left again. Ah, can't wait to get out of Manila. Bought the next ticket to General Santos, the wife's hometown, and will be out of the cesspool of Manila.
Continued journal entries in the Philippines:
March 3, 2008
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com