After a long but not too uncomfortable night at Singapore airport I arrived in Manila. Getting out of the airport and finding a Jeepney (the local transport minibuses) was easy and so far so good.
Walking to my hotel and afterwards going for a walk around I felt like I was in some kind of slums, almost worse than the ones I have seen in Yangon.
Everything was dirty, people were living and sleeping in the street, kids asking for money and some trying to steal my wallet so it was a great start.
Still, despite it feeling very poor and dirty, at least people were friendly enough and everyone seemed more laid back than you get in Europe for example. This is one of the great things about Asia, no matter how rich or poor people are, everyone is more laid back.
After going through some other areas it still felt kind of run down and poor, even some of the more higher end hotels along the beach front looked shabby and the water by the beach was full of rubbish so nobody goes for a swim here.
Like in Jakarta before I got asked a lot to take photos of people even while just walking around so this was cool in a way as people were always nice.
The evening saw a rain storm come up but this at least meant it got rid of the dust in the air but it also meant the ground was even more dirty and muddy than before.
I am not quite sure what to think of Manila so far, it does look like a huge slum full of American style restaurant chains with kids and people living in the streets.
At least it's no problem to get along by speaking English here and most signs are in English anyway.
The Jeepneys are also cool so I like them although people go a bit overboard with their religious paintings and quotes from the Bible on them.
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