Manila

From the international airport

The adventure can begin with your first step in the airport of Manila. Nothing nor nobody indicates any bus, only some taxies rush towards you to take you a minimum of 300 pesos to the city , which is 2 km from the airport.

A solution consists in moving away from the gates of the airport, to find a Jeepney or a bus, to stop at the subway station of Bacalran and to continue. Or, associate with other tourists to pay a taxi either to Manila, or until Baclaran Station.

Lodging

I stayed in the air-conditioned dormitory of Malate pension, in the district of Malate as you could guess. It is very clean, there is a restaurant for rich person, a pub and hall of very accessible greeting...

In the dormitory, it is each one its iron cupboard with stuck above ; recent articles from newspapers reporting the tourists kidnapped and killed in Manila.

The dormitory of 6 with AC costs 270 pesos, Or... you have always the option without air-conditioned : 220 p, but you will quickly understand the interest of the AC in Manila.
Finally, single rooms, double... can cost up to 800 pesos approximately.

Food

Mc Do serves meals which cost about 50 pesos. But you will find many restaurants in Ermita which cost around 100 - 150 pesos.

What to see

Most of the people you will meet will undoubtedly say there is nothing to see in Manila...
They are right...!

But, when you stay a few days in the Capital, you absolutely have to visit the luxurious shopping centres of Makati, the Slums of the North part of the city, the Baclaran's market to buy some bags and shoees, Intramuros to see the old district of Manila ...

In short, Manila is not very interesting, rather oppressive, but Manila is unique then... take time to make a stop there.

Getting away

To get away from Manila, you can travel by plane, boat or bus. I can only tell you about the plane and the bus : If you wanna take the bus you need to know WHERE you go. Then it is enough to find the corresponding Bus station (23 bus stations !) to find time tables and tickets.

(To get to Tagaytay, I travelled by bus from Edsa station, with the BLTB : 30 pesos)

By plane, you need first to have a ticket bought in a travel agency (really ???) and to join the National Airport . To get there You can Take a taxi : it is fast, comfortable and it should cost you less than 50 pesos. Yep, you can easily imagine that negocations with taxi are very hard to manage, so be patient and keep smiling :-)