Our first stop in the Philippines was the capital city of Manila. With 71,263 people per square kilometre, The City of Manila is the most densely populated city in the world. We actually stayed in Makati City just to the south east which is actually part of Metro Manila and not really part of The City of Manila – so many distinctions!
Makati City was very busy and offered some great city views. We spent a couple of evenings sitting in a rooftop restaurant with awesome views across the financial district’s sky scrapers and the immense Manila South Cemetery.
We also took a walk down by the Pasig River which runs through the heart of Manila and experienced not only the heat of the Philippines but some of the different styles of architecture, from the smaller shacks tucked against the roads right up to immense skyscrapers in beautifully kept tree-lined avenues.
There were all the usual forms of public transport; taxis, bikes and coaches but what seemed to be most prevalent were the jeepneys which which were essentially the local bus service (not build for 6ft tall westerners) they were nearly always decorated in crazy ways and if they weren’t covered in Chrome and bright colours, they were covered in rust and apparently about to fall apart.
Manila was a very noise, very busy place to spend a couple of days but I was eager to get out into the countryside.
