Atlast, at a computer. Thursday and Friday is the apparently the biggest holiday in the country so everything shots down... and when I say everything... I litterly mean every street corner shop to the humongous malls all around in Manila. But there I was, waking up thursday... gotten a bit more sleep then the other days and I had no idea what to do... I already had a plan made for the day, but I had to flush it down the drain since, everything there was on my "to do" list was non available. So after a roomservice breakfast, since the hotel restaurant was closed aswel, I went out and took a taxi to Malete, this is told to be a tourist area, but hey.. everything was closed. I strolled up and down the streets, watching a closed store after another till i came to a small bar?restaurant with western music booming out the door. Inside there was neon lights, flashing lights, booming speakers with the latest western pop. Prices were off the charge - compared to the other places I had been. Oh right, only tourist were 50+ fat man sitting with a local girl.. yrk... I got myself a coke, enjoyed the highmusic and aircon for a while and headed out on the streets again. Think the time was around 13 PM when I got outside.. devastating temperature.. went down to the seafront.. a long avenue with a nice waterfront of manila bay. Water didnt look too inviting, but the view on the other hand was spectacular. I sat there for a long time, enjoying the hot weather, and the clear skies, drinking my water supply.

At that point I felt like going to a white beach with clear blue water, so I went to look for an internet cafe. Took me like forever, and when I finally found one open, it was full. So I didnt even bother to try to write something on my blog cause, it was hot, filled with people and the prices was x4 than standard. I flipped through my guidebook and found a decent prices resort in Anda, Bohol and made the reservation. After I had made the reservation I tried to call the resort.. but only got "the number you are calling is not yet in service" so I got a bit anxious at that point. Because everyting was closed I couldnt not even contact the Manila Tourism office or anything. So all I could do was hope it went through, later I found out the "forgot" to change the number.

After that I went back down to the waterfront chcked my location in the city and thought.. hey I can walk to the airport from here to get a flight to Bohol. But quickly found out it was a big mistake.. 30 mins later soken wet with swet and no more water in my bottle I had to get out of the heat. So I raied my hand and a jumped a jeepney heading down to a jeepney central south of the airport - my luck :D I didnt realise it when I arrived at the airport, but its goddamn hard to find the right place to buy a ticket, and the terminals are spread on 2-3 entrances. The travel agencies are not located at the airport, but outside or beside it, and you have to walk over the only most traffic jammed road in the whole city. As I said before, it is holiday, so the only place there is traffic is at the airport where hordes of philippins are jumping flights to get in and out of Manila. But I found the agency I wanted to use and stepped inside a low temperature room, totally dehydrated and asked for some water which the presented me faster than the speed of light. Think the color in my face was scaring them a bit :P Got the ticket, a bit overprizy since I got it on a days notice, but now my trip to Bohol was planned and complete. Went outside found a taxi who said 800 pesos. ( like x1.5 or double price than normally ) I said no thanks, and tried another. Same there.. Think I went into 3-4 different taxies around the airport till I found one who just tunred on the taxi-meter. Atlast I could get back to the hotel. Stopped by the first open convenience store ( 7/11, yes they have them everywhere, and is the only thing open ) got myself 3 liters of water. Took a shower, went down to a local restaturant, got a nice lunch for 50 pesos. Got back to my room and slept for a few hours. Late siesta.

I woke up around 19-20 PM same day, room was like a sauna, had forgotten to turn on the aircon, while i was too exhausted and dehydrated when I came back. Took a shower got dressed and headed for "China town" in Manila. I figured that would be the only place in Manila that was still open. I was wrong, but I did experience something totally different and amazing. Traffic was dull and empty most of the way to downtown Manila, but suddenly there was cars and people everywhere. I asked the taxidriver to jump off and I went in the big group of people. At first I followed the crowd into a night market. You could buy everything here, food, clothing, sunglass, DVDs, music, everything expect cameras, yaye of course. At the end of the market was a huge beautiful cathedral, which must have been the destination of the crowd. Took 10mins just to get inside but it was worth the waiting. This was the first time of that night I regreted not having invested in a camera. I got outside dazzled and amazed of the amount of people being inside and outside, but the night was not over yet. So I couldnt really figure why the stream of people went both ways back into the night market again. So I followed the crowd going the opposite way. The stream of people went through narrow streets filled with small vendors selling food and beverages untill 15mins later, we arrived at another spectacular cathedral. Went into this one aswel, maybe not as beautiful than the other, but christ it could hold a lot of people. During the evening I followed the road between 5 different cathedrals, pass crowds with banners and cross', into the Manila local market, again through poor areas, narrow streets, stench of piss hanging all over, but the crowd didnt seem to care. Most of them was having a fun time as it seemed. After we passed the Manila local market, we went out on a "highway" where the crowd filled 4 - carlanes. Though the road was not being cut off by police, the locales knew about this event cause there was no cars on the road. Think I walked on the road for 15-20 mins till we hit a new area of the city. Again. the people was waiting in line outside of the cathedral, more vendors etc. I followed the stream of people all the way down to Rizal park, and at that point it felt like i had been walking 100 kms. Again I was thirsty, hungry and mostly exhausted. I jumped of the big march and went through Rizal Park to hopefully find some traffic and a taxi on the otherside. The park was also filled with people. thousands of people was sitting with their families, enjoying the evening with a picnic, calm clasically music was being played, not too high or low, but at the right volume so you could enjoy it. the fountain in the middle of the park was lighten with rainbow colours. I stopped there for like 30mins, exhaused and dehydrated and enjoyed this view. Beautiful and calming. Colours changing - children playing, laughter, joy and music. Again, and probably the moment I regret the most, a time I wished I had a camera with me.

I got out of the dreamlike trance I was in, and walked into Malate to find some water, but there was nothing open. Maybe the local 7/11 but they could only provide me with water. So I jumped a taxi and headed back to the hotel. Tired, with a head spinning with beautiful pictures. Times was around 23.30 when i got back to the area, so I head around to the local McD to get some food into the system before going to bed. Seriously the best meal I have had for a long time, probably boosted by the fact I was running low on everything.

That was Thursday 21.04.11

Today, I am sitting and waiting to check out, plain leaving in a few hours. Hopefully there will be a place I can get a camera soon, and I am pretty sure, not a 100%, that there will be internet connection at the resort I am heading to.