Welcome to the Philippines!

My first piece of advice for anyone arriving here in Manila is get ready for a traffic congestion nightmare and don't judge the country on this first impression. I thought I'd seen bad traffic in Lima Peru but it's way worse here.

So the first thing I decided to do was leave. I'm taking a bus north to anywhere they will take me. When I showed up at the bus terminal, everything was booked thanks to a long holiday weekend for Chinese New Year. So I just told the woman at the ticket counter to get me out of here anyway you can and that's what she did. Next stop... up north somewhere.