Endings 2

Flight control delays in Manila meant that the plane I was taking was delayed arriving and then delayed departing so I was about an hour late getting in to Manila. Checked in to my hotel which felt tiny and unpleasant in comparison to the resort. I'm not a fan of the bathroom layout, but it is a decent enough place for an overnight stay.

I walked down the street to a small bakery that I had spotted the day I arrived and ate a cookies and cream donut (possibly it's just a cream bun). Yum. Then I walked up the street and looked around the nearby mall before heading back to my hotel. I was expecting the bride and groom to message me so I wanted to have internet plus I felt like having a bit of a nap.

The couple were heading to the SM Mall of Asia, so I got the hotel to get me a car so I could meet them there. Malls are very generic. I felt like I was in a big city in Canada or the US rather than across the Pacific. Well, there were certain differences - there security guards with shotguns, metal detectors, and pat downs at all the entrances. There were less ominous differences as well - parts of the mall were enclosed and air conditioned and parts of it were outside and hot and humid.

Taking advantage of the brides fluency in the local language, I got her to arrange the cab ride back. When she and the groom didn't get in the car, the driver was confused and probably slightly annoyed. (I suspect I would have gotten a worse price than she did for the same drive.) As we were driving away, he kept trying to convince me that he could find nice girls for me. I'm sure they would have been quite friendly, but I really just wanted to go back to my hotel.

I didn't really see much of real Manila. I walked around the resort area that I'm staying at and the mall, but both of those are clean and modern. I did walk a bit outside the resort area, but there are essentially no sidewalks and it was late and dark so I didn't go far and I saw some of it from the cab ride to and from the mall, but not enough to get a real feel for it. No time for it now though. In under four hours, I'll be on a plane back to Hong Kong and then under 24 hours later, assuming all goes as planned, I'll be back in Regina.