Blimey, Manila is as dodge as the guidebooks hint. Or as dodgy as you wanna make it. Most gentrified, just another Asian supercity with malls cinemas etc. But theres a nasty undercurrent if you get off the main streets. as usual.

I hear helipcopters from my grotty room in a crap guesthouse...im staying in a dorm here.....it all sounds very Vietnam, its really humid and the copters are echoing off the buildings around the city, so im off to have a look. Turns out its huge city wide walk for stamping out drugs and street crime. Pretty impressive, but not the excitement i was hoping for.

Head off that evening to the cinema, well you know i have been fairly cultural recently, so i go see the Watchmen which is pretty ace. Bit long. Impressive to see how the Filipinos love the cinema, however there is a constant glow of light from everyone using their phones. Mark Kermode would hate it!!

Anyway the only real excitement is that i get lost in the mall where the cinema is and end up in the seedy backstreets of Manilla late at night. I have no idea where i am as usual so i turn to the nearest safe person i see. As i walk over to what looks like a shop front i see a man in uniform which all looks fairly safe and is if he knows where the backpacker loddge is. All i get to see is a shotgun barrell poked in my face and the most charming speedy gonzales voice saying 'eeets over there sir'!!

Brilliant, but Manilla is a dirty smelly seedy city so im off to Puerto Valera.

Ciao for now....