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7NNT25: Days 23 & 24 – Angeles City
Soundtrack: any bass-heavy party track from the last 30 years. Angeles City is just down the road from Manila, less than 100km, so only about 2-3 hours to drive if the traffic is normal. It seems to have three claims to fame: the food is awesome; they know how to party; and there used to be a really big US air base here (now converted to an international airport). I was hoping I could use it as a base to do the Mt Pinatubo trek, but sadly that was not to be. When picking accommodation options, I stumbled across a hotel too swanky to really be true, at a price…
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7NNT25: Day 22 – Manila
Soundtrack: “In These Shoes?”, Kirsty MacColl Shoe day. Older folks, such as myself, will remember legendary First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, who in western media at least was portrayed as liking the luxuries in life, including shoes. When the Marcos dictatorship was ended, the western media was full of stories of the hundreds and hundreds and thousands of custom and designer shoes she owned, this was part of the claims of excess that the ruling family indulged in. Successive Philippine governments used the shoe collection, among other things, for their own marketing/propaganda purposes until earlier this century, when a part of the collection was put on display in…
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7NNT25: Day 21 – Manila
Soundtrack: “Abracadabra”, Lady Gaga The day started slowly, as I was still feeling the effects of the hike. I figured I should get out of the hotel room for at least a while, so after reading about the Legazpi Sunday Market, got a Grab and headed out. At this point it seems my bank with the nice card that refunds international transaction fees has developed issues with Grab, so I spent some time arguing with the app before choosing the cash option. Figured I’d be able to sort later. Legazpi Sunday Market isn’t huge, but has a bunch of great food options as well as some shops selling bits and…
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7NNT25: Day 20 – Mt Butalao (& Manila)
Soundtrack: “Easy”, The Commodores (though probably the Faith No More cover version) / “When the Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)”, Billy Ocean One of the big ticket items I’d planned for this trip was to visit the crater of Mt Pinatubo, prior to 1991 a fairly unassuming, nondescript place that no one really paid too much attention to: it wasn’t the highest peak in the area, and hadn’t really shown much activity. Until early 1991, when it did, culminating in the second biggest eruption of the 20th century, making for some wonderful sunsets around the world because of all the stuff it threw into the atmosphere. Sadly about…
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7NNT25: Day 19 – Manila
Soundtrack: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”, The Police Bit of a catchup time, am pushing out a couple of days at the same time. We’ll see how it goes. Manila. It’s a big, tall, loud city. From my 9th floor hotel room I can hear all the sounds of Malati, cars, horns, scooters, trucks, people, machinery. I truly sympathise with any introvert who lives in this city, as it’s not a city for quiet spaces. My main mission for Day 19 (Friday 2 May) was to find the Australian Embassy and vote. I was still unsure of how Saturday would work with the booked tour, so to be safe…
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7NNT25: Day 18 – HCMC – Manila
Soundtrack: “Concrete Jungle”, The Specials It was an earlyish morning, but at least not 530am. Grabbed a standard breakfast in the hotel, while the room was awesome, the breakfast lacked a little dedicated pho station so it was just bacon and eggs for me. Traffic to the airport was a lot less busy, possibly helped by it being a second public holiday, and it only took 25 minutes. Customs and immigration took a while, as there were a lot of people leaving, but I got through with plenty of time to wander the various overpriced souvenir shops on the way to the gate. The flight was full, who knew that…
