Manila traffic is insane. I landed at 6am and was out of the airport in a cab by 6:40. I thought I’d get to my hostel within a half hour at the latest. Short distance and pretty early in the morning, figured traffic shouldn’t be too bad. I was very wrong. It took over an hour and according to the driver, that was a “light” traffic morning. Mental note, try to avoid cabs as much as possible in Manila. A couple hours later, my next mental note was, Manila is huge and you cannot walk everywhere, idiot.

I’m going to post a bit differently today. The following is what I did over the next 18 hours.

• checked into Our Melting Pot
• walked to M Cafe
• had breakfast at M Cafe
• cabbed to Rizal Park after realizing it could not be walked
• sat in cab for over an hour
• visited Rizal Park for a half hour
• saw the National Museum next
• went to check out Intramuros for over 2 hours
• cabbed to Milkway Cafe
• had lunch at Milkway Cafe. If i remember correctly, I did not like this place.
• cabbed to Max’s Jupiter
• ate again at Max’s. Think it was some fast food chain. I may have eaten again cause I didn’t eat much at Milkyway Cafe? Shrug.
• walked back to the hostel
• washed up and rested for a couple hours
• walked to Commune Cafe to attempt to do some work. Internet was horrible so could not. Not even sure what “work” i had to do. Assuming it was travel logistics related.
• went back to hostel to call it a night
• somehow started to chit chat with a guy named Lionel
• discovered that Lionel is pretty cool
• Lionel offers to show me some of the scene around the area
• ate some street food
• visited a bar
• got back to the hostel to pack
• got an awesome swedish massage at a discount cause the owner of the hostel also owned the massage spot
• finally slept