Part 45: Decisions.....
I felt I deserved a bit of a break from the training for a while, my body most certainly needed rest. A few more Filipino massages, and days by the pool helped with that!
My Filipino friend organized a few trips for me over the next coming days.
The first one was to one of central Manila's most famous outdoor markets, named Quiapo.
We rode a jeepney and crowded MRT train there from Paranaque city on a Saturday afternoon, and when we arrived near the main square, there was a beautiful church where people were queuing to kiss a statue of christ for luck.
In the center of the square lay a fountain with several young children splashing in the water to cool off.
It was a fantastic photo opportunity.
They hilariously posed for me making 'gang signs' with their hands just as I snapped the pic - I captured a great shot!
I walked towards the market, and was warned how busy it was going to be, and to be extra careful of pick pockets too.
This was like stepping into a cauldron. Oh my days, talk about frantic!! It was the real deal, and not exactly what I envisioned a busy market to be like.
I had visited several different types of market over the last few months.
Hong kong and Bangkok were great,
don't get me wrong, they had a sense of order, but this one was incredible!! I will do my best to describe it through my eyes.
Firs thing I noticed was the busy traders waving their arms in the air, shouting to get the attention of customers. In turn, customers were bartering back, shouting to be heard over the insane noise.
Cars, jeepneys and trikes beeping their horns in the narrow streets, stuck in gridlock traffic. Thick exhaust fumes, masked slightly by the sizzling food and fruit smell.
More marketeers on foot weaving in and out of the crowds and cars, selling anything from second hand vacuum cleaners to clothes, and bizarrely water on the end of sticks!!
Dozens of other traders not being able to afford pitches were kneeling down on the pavement selling neatly stacked rows of fruits, vegetables, chillies, herbs, spices, eggs, coconuts and more.
Basic wooden stall benches full with second hand books, clothes, and ornaments, stalls of fresh fish swarmed by flies, row upon row of street food and open barbecues smoking away, crowded outdoor cafes full of people sitting outside eating. A maze of countless streets, and alley ways leading off the main road, all as packed as the next one.
There were chickens just running loose on the streets, beggars scrounging for money, and random kids playing too.
Trike drivers parked up on the roadside with seemingly no consideration for any of the other traffic, taking a nap laying across the seats with their sandaled feet hanging out of the back
Thats what it was like here - it was all just very crazy and random but the atmosphere was electric!
The packed crowds were frantically moving in different directions making it impossible to read which way they were going and mirroring the traffic on the roads - I was doing my best to not bump into them.
And once more I did not notice a single foreigner, just locals.
Despite all the craziness, there were plenty of bargains to be had everywhere you looked.
I picked up a decent weekly shop here for next to nothing, fresh mangoes, melons, lychees, potatoes, onions, cucumber, carrots, broccoli and dried fish.
We continued wandering through the packed market towards China town - a place where it was far less frantic, just to get a breather, and momentarily escape the chaos.
I tried fresh Lumpia, kind of like a thin pancake wrap with bean-sprouts, mince and vegetables.
It was very tasty indeed!
This area was completely authentic, and you could quite easily spend an afternoon eating your way around.
Don't be put off by street food vendors either. Ideally you should avoid the bigger more expensive restaurants, instead spend time searching for the smaller cafes or street food, which is delicious, and for me, more fun than just sitting at a quiet table, its a fantastic experience.
On the way back we found a small vendor and couldn't resist sampling some of their exquisite freshly made dim sum and dumplings. Watching these shy ladies expertly roll and prepare the food was fun.
After lapping that up, I had to brace my self to head back into the chaotic market, which was even busier now, to get home.
Taking a slightly different route back, to try and avoid the crowds proved fruitless as I passed through a dark bridge under the MRT trains, full of even more stalls and people. This place was relentless.
The heat and crowds were exhausting, and as much I as wanted to stay, it was definitely time to head home.
Carrying all my bags on the MRT and packed jeepney's was a challenge, although certainly well worth the effort. Plus I had a weeks worth of shopping, whilst saving a fortune too.
The following day I went to Moa bay with some friends, Its lovely to stroll up and down the coastline. There is so much to do here. Hundreds of places to eat - shops, malls, cinemas, bowling, ice skating, activities for children and museums. You are spoilt for choice here and although busy, it was a thousand times less chaotic than yesterday.
Sunday is the only day Filipinos don't work, its a 6 day week for the majority here. You will mostly see families going out and spending quality time on a Sunday, after going to church of course.
Easily the most popular place to eat in the Philippines is 'Jollie-Bee'. They are everywhere.
Its their version of McDonald's and incredibly cheap. You will never see a quiet Jollie-bee joint. The mascot is a cute branded bumble bee, whose happy face can be seen all around, the kids love him here.
I strolled along the bay for a while later that afternoon for a bit of piece and quiet and just kept walking, I had a fair bit on my mind with a tough decision to make - do I stay in the Philippines longer or move on. The rain season was fast approaching and it gets battered by really bad typhoons - probably the worse in Asia. The country is known to grind to a halt, with floods making transport extremely difficult.
I decided as much as I loved this country, it was for the best I headed further South to avoid the rain.
After walking for nearly an hour I reached the main road and took the jeepney back home.
Whilst on the bus, I was overcome with a little sadness knowing that in the next few days I was likely to move on to my next destination.
An old man with a baseball cap was facing me sitting opposite on the bus and kept smiling for some reason. It wasn't the prettiest sight to be honest as he had no teeth - still, I remained pleasant, smiling back.
This strange fellow kept pointing at my feet and I wondered what was going on. He then accidentally dropped some coins on the floor which landed to my left.
I bent over and thought it best to just pick up the coins and hand them back to him. Not long after thanking me, he got off the bus chuckling to himself. No harm done I thought but he was a strange man. My stop near the condo was a few minutes later.
As I stepped off the bus, it was then I noticed my shoulder bag was unzipped. Reaching inside I checked for my wallet, suddenly panicking it then hit me like a bolt of lightning.
I had just been robbed!!
Checking and re-checking my bag, unzipping all the compartments over and over again, it was nowhere to be seen. My stomach sank - I was done by the oldest trick in the book!!
Since arriving in the Philippines I always took great care and never forgot Cy's words all those months ago about being security conscious at all times.
In the exact instance that my wallet was stolen, I was thinking about leaving the Philippines, switched off for barely a minute, but that was enough.
I had money, credit and cash cards plus my driving license in that wallet.
By miracle my phone was still in my bag.
Without a means to withdraw money, all I had to my name was 200 pesos.
Less than £4 in my pocket.
The first thing I did was phone my bank canceling the card, reporting it stolen and ordered a replacement.
But it would take two weeks to reach me!
In that time, I could not book any flights, or accommodation.
All these things started entering my mind, for a start what was I going to do for money, my rent was due, how would I pay for the condo until my card arrived, what will I do for food, will I be stranded in rain season.
Either way it didn't matter, I was going nowhere for at least 2 weeks.
Next thing I did was contact Cy, bless her she came straight over and managed to borrow 1000 pesos from her neighbor for me (£15) for which I was extremely grateful.
But I still had to pay the condo. There was no way I was going to get my family involved. This was something of a crisis and one I was determined to figure out on my own.
Other than feeling angry, sick and extremely embarrassed at what happened, there was nothing I could do.
My friend Lorraine who was a seasoned traveller back home who helped me book my tickets here, said to me just before I left
'You will get robbed Vince, don't let it ruin your experiences or put you off traveling, it will test your resourcefulness and see what you are made of'
Well she was absolutely right, her words kept on echoing through my mind. I did get robbed and indeed this will test me.
But right now, at this moment I did not have a lot of options.
And it would indeed prove exactly what I was made of.....