Manila – The Philippines – A Forgotten Destination?

First off - Sorry if you have video background or no background at all.  And for the music if any.  I am experimenting with something.  The blog will be back to normal soon.

For some reason Aussie overseas tourism seems to be focussed on cheap holidays in Bali and Thailand.  I have to admit that my own first overseas destinations were Japan and Thailand too.  But that changed when I walked out through the doors of the airport into Manila's daily life.

I had been warned that the city is dirty, smelly and that I would have to watch my wallet.  The reality was that it was no worse than some parts of Australia and I could have been stepping off a train into any one of Australia's bigger cities.

Before visiting Isla Verde I first stayed with friends at their home in Pasay, not far from the Ninoy Aquino National Airport.  Pasay is not the most glamorous destination in the country, but it is only a short walk or ride from many of Manila's historical attractions.  It also has in interesting mix of people and accommodation.  A short walk from where I was staying were big fancy homes, and around a few corners, slums crammed in along the banks of a smelly, dirty creek.  Yet it didn;t seem to matter where I went on my daily walks, I came across more smiles than frowns.

The Philippines is a fascinating place with a long history of involvement with Oriental and later, European culture.  This has had a big influence on developing the modern lifestyle of the country, which seems to be a fascinating blend of indiginous ethnic culture and modern practice.

One of the first things you notice in Manila is the traffic.  Another thing is the skill of the drivers negotiating this traffic.  In a city that seems to have very few traffic signals, there is a lot of use of the horn by drivers.  But it doesn't seem to be used much in anger as it would be in Australia for example.  In Manila, a beep on the horn lets you know someone would like to enter traffic and is asking for space.  An answering beep is not uncommon to let someone know it's ok.  Overtaking, merging, crossing - everything seems to have some sort of agreed procedure that is not technically goverened by 'rules'.  More by common courtesy.

I travelled in buses with only inches to spare and the drivers just seemed to fit into places, but still made room for cars, jeepneys, trucks and motorcycles, while all the time there were pedestrians and cyclists mixing in amongst all this apparent mayhem.

The craziest drivers seem to be the tricycle riders.  These motorbike and sidecar 'cabs' often make U-turns in traffic regardless of what is going on around them.  They drive the wrong way on the wrong side of the road and stop in weird places.  All in the attempt to grab a fare.

The jeepney drivers seem to live in a world of their own however.  Jeepneys are big, colourful and cumbersome.  With their rather primitive design, like an oversized 'stretch jeep' they have a lousy turning circle.  There's no such thing as a simple U-turn for a jeepney.  But some how they manage to get into and out of tight narrow streets and lanes.  I was amazed constantly at the odd places I found jeepneys.

Travel by jeepney or tricycle is affordable for most Filipinos, but for the visiting tourist, it is ridiculously cheap.  Even taxis here are so cheap I wondered how they made a living between the cost of buying and maintaining the vehicle, and the high cost of fuel.

Of course, all this means travel in the Philippines for a foreign tourist who wants to experience 'life in a tin can' is an amazing adventure.  We would often walk through crowded streets to the shops or the market.  Then outside, take a tricycle back to the house.  And of course, there's also that wonder of Manila, the Light Rail.  The light rail seems to go just about everywhere important and the fares are affordable.

For country travel there are obviously airports and some ferries.  But land travel is catered to by an extensive and again, affordable network of buses.  Everything from old buses that look like they should be written off, to modern air conditoned coaches that show TV channels when in the city limits, then switch over to a movie once they are out of town.

Travel on the coaches is an experience well worth while.  it is common to pull up at a stop for a few minutes and in that time roadside vendors work their way through the bus selling anythign form water, to skinny paper tubes of roasted peanuts, to pastries or sweets.  In many part of the Philippines, a district or city is more or less famous for a particular food or delicacy.  One example was on a trip when we passed through a place called Laguna, not far out of Manila.

The bus stopped and some people got on the bus offering what looked like an apple pie.  Jo looked at me and said we must get a pie.  It was only later I discovered that this is the famous 'Laguna Buko Pie'.  Now, I thought buko was just the generic name for coconut.  But I think it is more specifically the young coconut, which is kind of sweet and rubbery in textrue.  Whatever it is, buko pie is apparently made from this and a kind of custard based on evaporated milk and egg yolk.

(Photo - Martin Sordilla)

Leaving aside my lack of knowledge of Filipino cuisine, this pie is delicious.  I have never tasted anything else that is close to this and I can't even think of wordsd that describe it, because it doesn;t taste like the sort of dessicated coconut flavouring we in the west get in desserts.

The buko pie experience was just one example of roadside marketing.  I had the tastiest peanuts brought to me while I was seated on the bus and varous other nice treats.  You don;t starve while travelling in the Philippines and almost certainly won't fade away from starvation.