Right so this is quite a long post but it might be worth it. I went to the Philippines for work a couple of weeks ago. It was quite a surprise as I only agreed to it on Wednesday evening and I flew out on Friday morning. It wasn’t even my project I was going out for either. Anyway I wrote this whilst I was out there and thought someone might be interested.
Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd June
Flight to Hong Kong – not very comfortable so didn’t sleep that well, this, I knew was going to be a problem later. The movies were ok (“Starter for 10″ – a reasonable english romcom about a poor kid who gets on the University challenge team and falls in love yada, yada, yada. “Music and Lyric” a romcom with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, this was, frankly, awful; well not awful, maybe just awfully trashy – I couldn’t face “A Beautiful Mind” and I’d already watch the Friends and Top Gear episodes twice that flight)
HongKong airport is nice, as airports go, Manilla airport is grotty, and they are quite strict, it’s the only airport I know that actually checks the luggage tags against the tags you get given to make sure you haven’t got someone else’s bag.
The Shangri-La hotel in the business district, Makati, is very posh. So posh infact that I’d almost prefer a cheaper one….almost. Everyone says “Hello Sir” as you pass them, I’ve just got out of the habit of looking round to check to see if they’re talking to someone else. It just feels a bit odd, Give that the only people at work who do something if I ask them to are the secretaries, and I even feel guilty doing that.
Anyhow, I get to the hotel at around 12:30 localtime (some time around 5:30am BST I think) and find out I’m going into the vendor at 2. A quick shower and then lots of work (I left at around 10:30 that evening), most of which I tried to do standing up, or at the very least typing so I didn’t fall asleep.
We ate that evening in a Pirate themed italien restaurant run by some Italians who had somehow ended up in Eastwood city. Even at around 10 in the evening the office buildings were quite busy. A lot of call centre work is being located in the Philippines, probably due to the price and the obvious advantage of english speaking workers. Dell have a large call centre there so there is always someone around
Sunday 24th
Today is a day off, they don’t work Sundays (they don’t work Saturdays either but they came in since I was there). I got up late as I haven’t quite got used to the time. I headed out to have a wander.
Manilla is quite a cosmopolitan place. If you removed the people from the business district only the temperature and humidity would give away the fact you were in S.E. Asia. As a rule most Philippinos are Bi-Lingual and all the signs are in english. I think they are fairly westernised. That’s certainly the impression you get as you walk out of the hotel and past the one of the many Starbucks in Makati.
Just opposite the hotel is a large complex of shopping centres, many of the shops were recognisable, even Marks and Spencers & Crabtree and Evelyn. Near a park type area was a series of restaurants, all I could find that would even vaguely resemble Philippino food was a Japanese restaurant, so I did what any sensible person would do…and went to a Creperie. I was sat there feeling guilty about eating european food when two French women came and sat down, I felt a bit better after that.
After lunch I decided to head for Rizal park in the city center in the hope of it being a little more ‘authentic’, it seemed a pity to leave without getting a bit of an idea what the city is really like. In the taxi on the way to the park the driver was talking about the corruption of the government and how the value of the Peso has fallen since the new head of state got in to power. The park was very nice, lots of flags, there’s an auditorium opposite and there was a Christian concert going on. The Philippines has only been independant since 1946 and it was occupied until 1899 by the Spanish. I suppose that explains the corruption, a young government. The Spanish occupation explains the religion, most people converted to Catholosism at some point during their 300 year rule.
After the park I headed into the walled bit of the city to see the San Agustin Church, it’s a UNESCO world heritage site etc. It’s quite nice, it looked really nice inside but there was a mass going on so I couldn’t go in.
I then headed back. Another ‘interesting’ taxi ride. In the Philippines they tend to take the rules of the road as guidance more than rules. It’s not they don’t have red lights, it’s more that they don’t pay them any attention. Rights of way don’t exist either. That’s not to say pedestrians are any better. So much for, ‘look left, look right, look left again’ it appears to be wander out into the road and assume cars will stop for you.
Anyhow, back at the hotel doing some writing up of the trip so far (I’m sure I’ll have to prepare a trip report for work so I might as well do it now). I’m considering heading out for dinner soon, I’ll propably have a mexican 
Sunday 24th Continued….
I did actually have an oriental meal in a ‘Asian Fusion’ place, a bit of a fast food place really but I didn’t feel like walking too far. I was sat opposite a flatscreen TV on the wall which advertised various things inbetween showing pictures of the food and tips on texting etiquette.
One of the adverts was for Brown Rice Tea “Stop frequent night urination”, the other was for a cooling company that bizarrly both made the air con units for the hotel I’m staying in and have a base in Havant. It’s a small world. Quite why one would sit eating Singapore Fried noodles (or whatever) and think “I really want one of those hemetically sealed, horizonal screw refigeration units” is beyond me.
Monday 25th
Mostly work today. On the way in to work we passed through the chaos (or something closely resembling chaos) of rush hour traffic. As the driver weaved his way through the traffic we slowly passed through the less weathly areas of Manila. Staying the in Shangri-La makes it even more shocking to see the huts and cobbled together shanties in the middle of the city.
I found out today why English seems so common despite having a native language. The Philippines was tribal for a long time, it was only with the colonisation that it was attempted to bring the tribes together. The tribal nature means that there are several vastly different dialects, so it seems easier to use English.
The Rest
Work took up most of the rest of the trip. The only other remarkable point of the trip was leaving. Manilla airport is quite grotty and much like the rest of the country the security was really tight and as a white male on my own I figured the chances of being pulled aside were quite high. Fortunately everything went fine but I’ve never been quite so glad to get out of an airport.
Photos are here
