manilla....

aint all that bad - ok the traffic is bad, and theres loads of fumes - and its a little bit of a dump (politely put) but it does have some nice points

we managed to get a nice room (7 quid , quite pricey) with a lovely courtyard which mentally sheilds us from all the bedlam, pimps and money changers outside! but the bars neeeearby are excellent

there is an area called J Napkil street which apparently goes off big time on friday and saturday night - and if last night was anything to go by (tuesday) then is should be good!

we also checked out the old spanish city of Intramuos this morning which was lovely - most of manilla was flattened after WW2 (after a previous flattening from earthquake in the 19th century), but this part seemed to escape so it was nice to see some old style colonial buildings

anyways, that was enough culture for us plebs so after a half hearted attempt to see the chinese cemetery we made a beeline for the worlds biggest mall (well, prob not, but there are 4 malls here, all linked to together - with another one outside) for some R and R

they are all air con, sell ice creams, and have lovely things i cant afford! they are all the same, but the body can only take so much manilla!

laters