I really didn’t have high expectations for Manila and, to be honest, I still don’t have a clue what to expect from the place because I didn’t see much. My time here was spent getting a visa for Bangladesh, playing poker, and spending an all nighter at a local pub.
My visa effort was a disaster. I managed to suss out the rough area I needed to go, figured out public transport, walked for a zillion years and got to the street the Embassy of Bangladesh was on only to discover I’d left the address behind. I promptly hopped in a cab back to the hostel, grabbed the address, started chatting to a Canadian guy, had lunch with him, and then grabbed another cab straight back to where I was.
Big waste of time but I did learn that there are some nice cabbies who will put your fare on the metre and some bad dudes who will attempt to cut you a deal for twice as much off the metre claiming that traffic is really bad and it will work out cheaper. Well, it won’t. I know this now.
Back at the hostel I found myself in a game of poker, then another, then another, then another the next night and another and, well, you get the idea. I won once and got second three times which means I got my money back. I think I might be a little bit of a poker shark, if I may say so. Are poker people called ’sharks’ or is that only for pool? Anyways, I like it and not knowing what you’re doing seems to throw the other people off.
On Saturday night the place I was staying, Friendly’s Hostel, put on a wine and cheese night thing with other munchies. New bottles of wine kept appearing and it was a really sociable atmosphere and a big bunch of us ended up at a pub around the corner with some live bands.
I was worried about missing my 9am flight the next morning because I don’t have an alarm clock but it turns out I should have been more worried about missing it due to still being at the pub. Me, a Dutch girl and a Belgian dude ended up drinking with the staff and owner until 6am so I just went straight from the pub to the airport.
Anyone who knows what my hangovers are like will know that the following journey of plane, bus, boat was a very long and painful adventure.
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