One night in Manila

We board the airplane, it is almost empty. There is plenty of room for everyone to lay down on 3 seats and take naps and that's exactly what happens just a few minutes after take off. So many feet hanging out over the edge of the seats, it looks funny.
We are on our way to the Philippines Islands to experience the friendliness of the Philippine people and do some diving as well. Depending on who you talk to, not everyone would advice going to PI for vacation. Well, instead of asking why, we will go there and figure out for ourselves.
The rumor is that a life in the Philippines is only worth $100, that you can get someone killed for a bank note carrying the image of Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately I did not have room in my luggage for my bulletproof west, as my diving gear took up most of the space, so I will travel without.
After an hours nap and some last moment studying of the Philippines, better late than never. The plane is approaching landing and through the windows we get to see the first images of the Philippines, Manila. More correctly would be Manila Metro, as it is a huge area consisting of suburbs to the center of Manila. Looking out the window, it actually looks like a place with plenty of money, lots of highrises in the distance. The last few moments before touch down, I guess we get a snapshot of the real Manila, a huge area of sheds and lets say, lower quality housing.
The plane lands and we are officially in Manila, lets get out of here. The door opens and we are met with a wall of humidity and heat like I haven't felt it in a long time. It is warm, phew, feels wrong walking around in jeans and a fleece, but what can you do when you packed too much and have to stay below the maximum luggage check-in weight without having to pay over price.
Immigration is pretty painless and moments later we are standing outside and I was a little surprised that we were not attacked by taxi drivers like in China or Thailand, offering a very "cheap" ride. There seems to be a lot of control here, the taxi drivers are here, but they don't cross a certain line. Instead the guard comes up to me and asks if we need a taxi or have a ride ordered already. I see a lady holding the sing of our hotel, I guess we should go with her then. Martin wants some money, have to go with him and watch his bag, after all, this is Manila, haha

We driver towards our hotel and the tour there takes us through some of the areas not depicted in the Lonely Plant book. Not very inviting to say the least. We get to our hotel, Swagman in Manila, an Australian hotel/bar that looked pretty nice on the pictures. That was on the pictures, haha. Long live Photoshop! It does have a mini bar though, that contains an entire bottle of Rum!
It is an old worn down place, the room is not anything we will remember forever, the view of the hotel room is a huge building with the text, In God We Trust! We go down to get some food and a beer and for the first time we have the chance of seeing some real people. The hotel is full of old guys sitting with very nice young Philippine girls. Then there is Martin and I sharing a table. We are looking at people, they are looking at us. We must be doing something wrong, we have been in the Philippines for almost 45minutes now and we are still alone. We grab some food, and have a couple of beers, big surprise. I tell Martin that to get rid of his jet-lag we have to keep going all night long. To my surprise he agrees, there goes all my good arguments I had prepared, haha. I come prepared and after exchanging some money at the hotel, we open the door and... I walk back to the receptionist and ask her if it is safe to walk around the area on our own. No problem sir, just don't talk to strangers. We open the door again and this time we also exit. The area outside is not inviting, have the feeling there are eyes everywhere in the night looking at us. Especially Martin in his bright yellow t-shirt, there is my reason for choice of dark clothing. I had checked the map in the hotel where to go and the first stop is a place where a small guy opens a door like to a little underground cave in the forest.
Maybe because this is the Hobbit Bar. All people working here are midgets except the live band playing this evening. We smile and order a beer, funny concept, but I guess they have to discriminate during the job interview? Unless the door to the hiring managers office is only 120cm high, haha. We get the bill and there seems to be an entrance fee to pay as well. What can you do, hard to argue with it, so we pay and leave, the bouncer comes to assist on opening the door. We are double his size, height and width, he must know some tricks being the smallest bouncer I have ever seen.
I know approximately where the other place we are going to is located, but I can't say I am totally sure. We pass a few bars and we stop to check for the one we are looking for. Actually we are standing right in front of it. I open the door and tell Martin to follow me.
I got the name of this bar from people who has been traveling in Manila before, so I have an idea what it is, but not quite sure they told me the full story. There is maybe around 30 girls shouting for my attention when I get in, they are waitresses/hostesses, who apparently are on a commission for whatever we spent that evening. We walk a few other steps and then I see... I see very well, because Martin and I are both a head higher than everyone in there. There are probably close to 250 girls standing there smiling to us, and staring at us like we are cattle at the local farmers market ready to be auctioned.
This is a bar for foreigners to hook up with local girls for whatever reason, like piano classes, or authentic Philippine cooking or just a game of chess. Well, I am sure you can get whatever you want in there. We go to the bar and order a beer, and 10 seconds later there are 10-12 girls around us asking for name, hotel and phone number. I am pretty sure some of them suggested I marry them right away to save myself time and trouble, haha
We stand there talking with different girls, I scan the room. Well, scan and scan, whenever I look more than 2-3 seconds on a girl, she comes over to introduce herself. You can't really look anywhere, the entire room moves towards you. We talk to some girls, some more "normal" than others. They all want something else, but now they seem to settle for just a drink, but we are too cheap, so girls come and go, all giving it a shot for our attention. We order a couple of different beers and when we settle on one called the Red Horse, some of the girls sense a party coming up, because they come over and tell us that it is a very strong beer. Yeah, around 6%, I wonder what the rest of the beers have
After a couple of beers and drinks a girl sitting on a chair close to us, introduce herself in a very different manner than the other girls. She had been quiet for 45mins, kind of waiting for the storm to pass sipping on her coke. We order her a coke and start talking to her. She seems a different type of girl, really well spoken in English, a little older compared to the other 19-20 year old girls attacking us earlier. We get into a good conversation, she seems very sincere and not aggressive at all, very pleasant to talk to and very pretty. We shares a lot of good information as a newbie here, the hours pass and we buy her a couple of drinks too. Many of the other girls are disappearing from the bar giving up hope, with the very few number of guys in there. I think it is close to 2 in the morning when we call it a quit and say goodbye to the young lady. She asks if we don't want company the next week, she might be going to the same way anyway. Thanks but no thanks I say, we are going Sabang Beach to do some diving. But I can wait in the room when you go diving...  Turns out she didn't have a chance yet to play her card, so now she is trying desperately to wind it in. 2-3 hours of talking and it never struck my mind it was part of her game too.
We stumble out of the bar, suddenly realizing we are in Manila again, a bit quiet outside compared to when we came. People are laying around sleeping wherever they can find a spot, kids among adults, laying everywhere. What a contrast, we just paid 250 pesos for beers and drinks in the bar, 100 meters away. This is probably the biggest contrast I have seen in a long time, it is easy to see why poverty goes hand in hand with crime.
Back at the hotel, the girls that were playing at dinner time are still on stage, now playing for... no-one. I guess nobody told them to quit singing. It is super humid and hot here, the temperature doesn't seem to drop much during night. So nice, but a bit sticky