I’ve been back in manila for the last 12 hours and it sure is better without the rain, but there still isn’t anything that I feel comfortable taking photos of. Just like when I was in Cebu it seemed like I never could get away from prying eyes enough to snap a photo and I felt that I was exploiting people if I took a photo of their poverty. So I ended up carrying my camera all day and didn’t take a photo.

I ended up walking all around the financial center and the docks. There are a few things that I’m starting to realize about the Philippines in general and Manila specifically; it must be a dangerous place. I haven’t had any problems, but everywhere I go there are security guards, and as I mentioned before they are normally heavily armed. I’ve also been warned dozens of times not to show my computer… I even had one old woman get a security guard to come over and tell me that I shouldn’t show my computer. She was frantic when she was trying to explain to me. The thing was, was that I got it I just had to look at the map.

I’m staying in a different hostel than I did the last time I was here and this one seems better, but the neighborhood is a little bit sleazy. Each time I’ve left the hostel I’ve been propositioned by prostitutes, and they were not subtle in their intentions. I don’t think I’d stay here again just because of the neighborhood, but having said that, I’ve been propositioned all over the city so it may  just go with being “on the ground” here.

I leave for Hong Kong tomorrow morning and I’m starting to get a bit excited. I think I’ll have better opportunities for taking photos than I’ve had here and that will be a good thing. I plan on going to Macau for at least a day, and I’ve got about four walking tours planned as of now. It’s also the last part of my vacation so I’m going to try and do some relaxing too.

The ferry I’m on is more of a local type of transport than I used to using. In fact when I look around there are no other European looking people, I have seen a few today, maybe four in total, but they must be staying in their cabins because I haven’t seen them very often. The lack of other Europeans is a good thing for the most part, but there is a down side to it as well. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so conspicuous as I have today. Everywhere I go I can feel the stares burning into my back and hear the giggles from girls that I pass by. The best way to describe it is to say that I feel like a celebrity (if I actually knew what being a celebrity felt like). I don’t want to bore anyone with the details, but it has been strange to say the least.

Later on I guess some people were curious about me first I had a couple girls come sit down next to me and valiantly tried to get into a conversation, but they didn’t speak English well, and I don’t speak Tagalog. They did manage to tell me that they liked my nose… okay.  They got up for a second and a guy and his mother sat down and started asking me questions about everything. They asked where I was from, what I did for a living, how old I am, if I was on FB, and pretty much everything else I can think of. I kind of felt bad because the girls came back and the guy and his mother were still there. After that I headed in for dinner and the waitress started asking questions and even the girl behind the counter was super friendly. Since this all happened in relatively the same place I figure that each had seen me speaking to someone else and that made it easier for them to speak to me, just a guess though.

Honestly, I wasn’t in a social mood and that is really a shame because people were so friendly that I could have, or better yet, should have, had a blast. Instead I kept to myself. I think the problem was I didn’t find any place to just unwind, as I mentioned I felt like everywhere I went I was being watched. If I were to take the same ferry again, I think a stateroom would be the best thing for me. Even still when I was leaving this morning, three people went out of their way to say good-bye to me. One girl came out the shop that she worked at to wave goodbye as I was leaving. Nice.

The area where I slept was different than any place I’ve ever slept before. If you can imagine about fifty bunk beds in one room, that’s what it was like. I’ll put a photo up to give you an idea. When I first got on board there were two girls reading tickets and telling people where they should go, one of them took me away from the group and led me to an empty room and told me to pick the bunk that I wanted. It was nice to pick the bunk bed that I wanted since the room did fill up, and it gave me some control to pick a bed with a window and better yet my back was against the wall.

It was a long walk to the hostel from the terminal at about 8 this morning. It wasn’t a long walk, just a long walk while carrying my two packs. No real stories except for the amount of people pestering my when I got off the boat. Geez, I’ve been rushed before by taxi drivers and other merchants, but it was pretty bad this morning. At one point while trying to get away from one of the drivers, I asked him which direction he was going… and went the opposite way. I even told one to get away from me. The terminal is really long maybe a kilometer or so, and the whole length is lined with taxis each one is saying, “Taxi?” to me as I pass. At one point I said, “You know you’re about the thirtieth driver to ask me that?” The guy busted out laughing, like he got how stupid it was for him to ask me.

Today I have been extremely lazy. After walking all around Cebu yesterday and not seeing anything worth taking photos of I couldn’t get the interest up to go out walking today. Seriously I’m not sure what happened but I ended up spending the day watching the Olympics and various Discovery Channel programs. Since I don’t have cable at home, I guess this was kind of relaxing… vacation”y” in some strange way.

At about 6 I got up to kind of wrap my mind around what I’m going to be doing tomorrow. I know the basics; I’m taking a ferry to Manila, but after that I’m not really sure of anything else. I don’t even know when it leaves, except I kind of remember it being 10am. Turns out, after having read the ticket that the ferry leaves at 9 and I’m supposed to be at the terminal four hours prior. Okay, I wasn’t expecting that I’d have to be getting up at 4am to get to the terminal at 9.  I’m pretty sure if I was there 3 or maybe even 2 hours early things would be okay. By tradition I believe the ferry would be carrying vehicles which may take longer to load onto the ship, so four hours seems pretty necessary.