Manila

A slightly scatological blog for you from an internet cafe...

After a sleepless night in a tiny, window-less, stinky (it was freshly painted), lime green cell on the far outskirts of Manila, where we were advised not to go out but call for takeaway if we wanted dinner, we upgraded to a more swanky hotel in the centre of town, albeit in a pretty seedy district. Manila is a big sprawling city with no specific centre. It's amazing to find so many ugly looking older white guys, geeks mainly, walking about with their Filipino brides.

One dude brought three to the breakfast table this morning! I wonder what the staff and indeed other locals must think? A much more upsetting facet of the sex trade is of course that which involves children, not that we've seen or expect to see evidence of that. I do find it distressing to see so many kids on the streets, playing in the gutters, begging, flogging stuff or sniffing glue. Didn't see this in Malaysia. That's the funny thing. On the face of it, this place seems quite Western with lots of malls (the Mall of Asia is the biggest we've been to yet) and billboards and hotels it's still very Asian and very poor. No middle class here.

Although the architecture here is very interesting, what with all the American and Spanish influences and we've been hanging out with Ric's old friend Keith Sicat, a fantastically interesting and enthusiastic film maker, I'm not enjoying the Philippines yet. God, what a moaner I am.

I'm also very upset about what's happening, or NOT, in Burma but you don't hear much about it except on foreign news channels. The news here is predictably very censored. The Philippines has one of the highest death/disappearance tolls among journalists in the world! Coming from a country where so much is printed and broadcast, truth and lies, I find that hard to get my head round. People here think the wet season is coming early to this part of Asia. Global warming or a knock on effect of the typhoons?

Someone, an emaciated middle-aged woman, tried to mug me the other night when I nipped out, yes on my own, to get some food. She was fast and got in to my bag by getting up close to me while I crossed the road. I noticed though and ran after her screaming. I think she was more scared of me and jumped in to the back of a jeepney (local bus kind of thing) where she just sat squished in between a dozen other people and stared at me before giving my purse back! No wonder I'm feeling a bit unsure of myself in this place and perhaps sound a bit exasperated.

For the first time I'm feeling pretty lost, trapped (now I really don't want to go out on my own anywhere!) and tired of being hassled constantly by taxi and tricycle drivers, street vendors and beggars who I'm ashamed to admit I also feel such a strange mixture of pity and dislike for. To them we are so well off. But I'm moreover frustrated at being just a tourist and so impotent in terms of my ability to help or support or even understand what's going on here properly.

We're eager to get out Manila soon and visit some of the 7000+ islands which are supposed to be incredibly beautiful. Good wreck dives there too.