A week in Manila

by Wiyono Wiyono (Indonesia)

Making a local connection Philippines

Last February I have been to trip Philippines in several day and it was good journey for me because I have many experiences along my days. I was enjoying the local cultures, local food and also got connection with local people. One of my favorite food is banana caramel. It has amazing taste. Every young people there was love basket ball and they are always doing the exercize. Some of them also like use public transportation to go everywhere. Because it is very cheap and economic. I also try the public transportation like angkas. That is a kind of motor taxi by online. There are also LRT ( electrical train ) and bus. I also met some people who also got travel and we shared our experience. I like heard other people experiences that can make me motivated. Local people there are also amazing because they are very kind and warm. When we talked ecah other, there assume that me is local. They spoke in tagalog with me but i don't understand. So I told them where I come from. Some of them are like indoneisan and some of them like a chinesse mix. Philippines is a archipelago country like Indonesia. So It has many island like Cebu, Palawan, Luzon, Mindanao, Visazas, Bohol etc. Each island has magical panoramas inside. Sometime I think I get marriage with Filipino. I don't know why but I feel like have interest with Filipino. For me Filipino is a good people and They have a charisma. When I am in Manila, I have stayed in dormitel and I have met with Filipino in my room. Finally we make a friend and share each other about our culture, our goverment, and our daily activities. I told him about dangdut song and I also told him there was Filipino who win the dangdut competition in Indonesia. And actually he never heard dangdut before. Since I was in manila, I also have bad experience. When I was walked arround, there is someone asked me to ride his horse cart. Initially I have refuse it but he then told me. Let is go. Only fifty one arround. I think fifty is not expensive and I accept his offer. After one arround passed, he Asked me the money. I gave him one hundred and he told me. No. It is five thousands. I am shocked and don't believe it. He compeled me more. I told him that I have only two thousand. I wanna cry because he was fool me. It was very disappointed and I gave my money all. So In the next time I will be careful with those trick. It was unexpected experiences but I know many place in every country has kind like this. Out of it, over all I love this country and the good people too. Making local conection with people there is easy. Because most of them use english in second language. Everyone has good english so we got comunicate well. So I was not find difficulty. Every morning when I was in Manila. I usually wake up in the morning then take some plan where is to go. It is not easy way because there is not tour and travel package. After I have plan, I make sure that my phone is in full battery. One day on the first day in the Philippines, my cellphone ran out of battery and then I walked around looking for resources. but i can't find it. I did not give up and finally I found the police station. there I expressed my intention to ask for help so that I could charge the battery and I was very happy because the police on duty allowed me to charge my cellphone battery. after nearly two hours I waited even though it wasn't full, I decided to leave immediately. then I said goodbye and said many thanks to them. Finally I can use my cellphone again and then I found angkas driver to got the dormitory. In that day I decided to immediately go to the dormitel and got big rest after walk away. That is my experiences in Philippines that gave me wonderful jorney to shared. Thanks