Filipino Triangulation Complete

Another day of travelling, we lazed around in the morning and headed to the airport at 11. Being 5 minutes away from a little airport is great – it means you really don't have to leave that early. Plane number 5 took us back to were started in Manila, the map of the last few weeks now looks like a triangle.

Back in the queue for the airport taxi (looked like it would be another hour wait to get in one, there is no efficiency here) some of the non meters taxi drivers who charge a bomb suggested we paired up with an Aussie guy who was staying quite close to us. After some negotiation we agreed to pay a third of the fair (we didn't want to pay anymore and it seemed like we were doing him a favour too). We didn't catch his name but he was with a Filipino lady who he met a few weeks ago through a friend that lives in the south of the country. He had spoken to her on the phone a few times and he had taken her to Manila as she had never been on a plane (she lives in a little fishing village with houses on stilts etc). It made the taxi journey more interesting anyhow, they were already talking about Visa’s!

We got back to the Bayleaf hotel, which is by far my favourite thing in Manila. They have a Churros restaurant on the side of it so we went and got some coffee and tested them out – very good, even if not Filipino. I think you can tell I'm bored of the food now! The next few hours were spent catching up on the net/blog, and being hidden away in our room which was nice. Had more pizza in the evening on the third floor of the hotel, the restaurant was on a veranda and was just as good as the sky deck we went to on the first night.

Bowls of rice; 18
Hours travelled; 44.5
Beds slept in; 8