On the downside, I still feel like crap.

On the plus side though, I’ve been sleeping in a bed.

When I got to Manila on the heels of the Macau pooch, I was looking at pulling another all-nighter to start things off here, but then I had an inspiration while waiting for my pack at the luggage carousel (see:  Necessity.  Mother.  Invention).

Soon as it rolled off, I headed over to the Arrivals area of the airport and started chatting up the Westerners.  “Heading to Japan or Hong Kong by any chance?”  A yes to this and I followed up with “get a guidebook yet?”  I had had to purchase separate Lonely Planet guides for those two places.  All the other Asian countries I’m going to are including in a single Southeast Asia version.  Before I left the states I was slightly annoyed I had to shell out for two more.  In retrospect it turned out to be one of my best purchases.  Within minutes I found someone who was going to be hitting Japan soon and had planned to pick one up at the airport there.  A quick exchange and she had her book and I had my 1000 pesos (about 20 bucks).  Worked great for both of us…in the Tokyo airport she’d have been looking at probably $40 for a copy of the book, plus she got to start in on it while on the plane.  And I got a place to stay tonight.  Actually two nights.  And food.  Maybe a beer.  Alright, two.

$20 sure  gets you a whole lot further in the Philippines than it does in Hong Korg or Tokyo.  As long as you’re not too picky, you can get a bed for about 300 pesos.  So with my 1000 pesos I was looking at two nights, a few adobo meals and–it’s hot and sweltering, so–a couple 35 peso San Miguel beers.  Ahhh, Manila.  You had me at ‘50 cent beer’.

Even though it wasn’t anything I wrote, I liked the fact that the written word was paying the expenses.   I felt like I was living like a king last night sitting curbside, sipping my beer watching the mass of traffic and pedestrians move past.  And I’ve still got Hong Kong.  It’s a smaller, abridged book, but probably still worth another night’s room and —- to an outgoing tourist.

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Before I touch on Manila, one last little bit about Hong Kong.  I kind of short-changed it in my last post.  Probably being bitter about losing my bet–not to mention sick–made me gloss over it.

Actually I enjoyed the city alot.  The place is a bizarre one structurally.  Take Manhattan, remove any building under 20 stories and squeeze the rest together into an area the the size of midtown, and you’ve got Central Hong Kong.  Oh and slope all these buildings up a sharp incline like Lombard street in SF for good measure.

That’s the scaffolding they use to build everything.  It’s bamboo.  Call me crazy, but when I think bamboo structures, I think a rickity shack on the Lost island, not stuff to scramble around on 300 feet in the air.

Everything is so tight there that your outdoor lounging options are a little limited.  Still, it doesn’t stop all the foreign domestic workers from throwing a Sunday afternoon  picnic on their day off. 

 

At first when I came across rows of people lining the walkway tunnel, I thought it was a homeless gathering.  Then, I thought, huh, that’s a pretty sweet hairdo for a homeless woman.  And she’s got a cellphone. 

One other thing about the Hong Kong/Macau portion of the trip.  Right after I took that picture of me I posted last time, I got on the casino courtesy shuttle that’s right behind me in the photo.  Turned out to be the wrong one.  And so, instead of taking me to the ferry boat back to Hong Kong, it took me to a different ferry station that was going who knows where.  Sulking in my loss I didn’t realize it until we were rising up onto this long bridge that took us over to another island.  When we finally got to the other port, I asked around, got pointed to the “proper” bus, and promptly went…to another wrong stop.  This time I was at yet another casino even further away from where I was supposed to be.

Not one though to pass up a chance to turn lemons into, well you know, I ran in and put my last coins in the first slot machine I saw.  You never know, right?  Maybe that was why I got on the wrong bus.

Nope.  I got on the wrong bus because I’m an idiot.

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Coming up next…Manila.  The city of my parents’ whirlwind relationship.  The place my father was living when, after meeting my mom on a plane to Bangkok, he invited her to spend Christmas.  By the time she left, she was Mrs. del Prado, pregnant with my sister (born 14 months after they were married for those of you raising an eyebrow out there) and moving to Caracus, Venezuela.

Must be quite the city.