【Introduction】The scenery passes in front of you, and the story stays in your heart. Welcome to the post-80s travel writer Liu Xiaoshun,"Follow Xiaoshun to Travel" will continue to provide you with the most unique travel stories!
-"Past Tense" Season 3-
【10、Dirty mess!】 Maddening Manila, the capital of the Philippines, I spent a night there...
(This article was written in 2012, and the situation in the Philippines described in it has nothing to do with the present, thank you)
For Manila, the capital of the Philippines, before I went, I received almost all negative reviews.
The backpacker Bible Lonely Planet even depicts Manila as a huge but unplanned place of sewage, traffic chaos, noisy, beggars, "especially at night, which is even more nightmarish", and I am already dizzy just by looking at the map of Manila, which is said to be a gathering of more than a dozen cities, and the roads are as intricate as a huge spider web opening from Manila Bay.
The French couple I met at the home of Jonathan, a naval officer in Puerto Princesa, confirmed these claims with personal experience, and the wrinkled French woman told me in a tone of utter utter disgust that they had spent three nights in Manila, and that they had gone mad, full of unscrupulous unemployed vagrants and children holding your thighs begging for money: "You don't want to spend the night in that city at all!" ”
I told her I was planning to spend two nights in Manila, and she covered her chest and said to me in a tone similar to "God bless," "I hope you're having a good time there." ”
I wasn't too worried about these so-called dangers, because based on my years of travel experience, the actual situation is often not as scary and exaggerated as others have described. This time, however, under the repeated bombardment of various statements from various channels, or seeking truth from facts or alarmism, I have some psychological shadows. Plus, victor, the couch owner I contacted in Manila, wasn't the one I chose, but he reached out to me after he saw me online that I was going to Manila and said he could receive me.
After some understanding on the Internet, I know that Victor used to be a cook, now works in the church, Chinese is not bad, enthusiastic and generous, and should not be a bad person. But the man who lives in the big city always reassures me, and he offers to help me (well, every time I go to a new place, I always have preconceived similar thoughts, is it because I am too insecure?). I even wanted to dispel the idea of going to Manila alone, and simply flew to Clark and spent time in Angel City.
"Two nights in Angel City?" Why? Prostitution? "Whenever I have this dilemma, I call my good friend Jared. He answered me with a rhetorical question– Angel City near Clark Airport has the most famous red light district in the Philippines, where countless disgruntled foreigners linger.
Anyway, how could I possibly be interested in those parched and ugly prostitutes! Of course, plump and beautiful are not interested... Heck, it's not that I'm not interested, it's just that I'm a "poor egg" traveler who can't live and eat and can't eat, which door of prostitution?
"But... Isn't Manila dangerous? I said.
"What are you afraid of?" Jared asked.
"I'm afraid of people."
"Afraid of ghosts grinning at you!"
"Isn't it really dangerous?"
"Dangerous."
"Really?"
"Fake."
So I decided to go to Manila as planned.
Arriving at Clark Airport, how to get to Manila is another headache. Originally Clark Airport to Pasay, Manila (Pasay) there is an airport bus, which is the most convenient, out of the airport can be taken, but the price is very expensive, I believe there are other cheaper modes of transport, so I got on a big red bus with AirAsia advertisement printed on it.
The conductor, beautiful woman with a thick moustache, patiently explained to me that the shuttle was run by a Philippine coach company called Victoria, and that at a place called Maquee you could transfer to Pasay in Manila for half the price of the airport bus.
Although I don't know where Mackay is, and I don't understand the route, but the price is cheap, so why bother him! After sitting, as long as he can get to Manila, it doesn't matter whether he is sitting on a mule or a horse!
Later, I understood that the bus station in the Philippines is different from that in China, where the bus station is divided by region, and all the company's cars are parked in one piece, while the Philippines is divided by different companies, each company stops at its own bus station, and this place called Mackay is the victoria company's stop.
In order to attract customers, they set up a free shuttle bus between the airport and Makkai, and collect 50 pesos as a deposit, as long as you transfer to the same company car to go somewhere else, the 50 pesos will be automatically deducted. Apparently Victoria's route to Manila was unknown to few tourists, because when I stepped onto the bus bound for The city of Pasar, I was the only tourist on board.
Victor and I made an appointment to meet at 6 p.m. at an SM Mall called Bicutan (SM Malls are everywhere, do you want to flood it?). I looked it up on a map, it's located in paranaque, south of Manila, some distance from The city of Pasha, and the conductor suggested that I get off early at an SM Mall called Ayala (sm mall again!). There are buses that take you directly to Bikutan.
Alas, before I reached Manila, I was about to be overwhelmed by this complex ghost city!
Arriving in Manila was much faster than I expected, taking the highway in just over an hour, not even finishing the comedy movie in the coach. However, from the moment of entering downtown Manila, the situation became very bad, the speed of the car was reduced to turtle speed, all kinds of annoying noise and smoke filled the surroundings, and the skyscrapers erected in the middle of the slums stabbed like a deformed sword into the gray sky.
Sure enough, as everyone describes, the first impression of the city is terrible. Unless I meet nice guys like Nini and Jonathan here, it's hard for me to like it.
After a short walk into the city for more than an hour, I got off the bus in Ayala, it was already dark, the time had passed 6 o'clock, because I couldn't find the internet, I couldn't contact Victor, I don't know if he had arrived. There was no way, I had to go to Bikutan without a head and make plans.
It's a deadly fight! Ayala has six or seven bus lanes, located under the overpass, forming a relatively enclosed space, and the sound of horns, noise, and shouting is like a can gathered in a can, and people can't think.
I struggled through the crowds and traffic, found a uniformed assistant who directed traffic, asked him which bus was going to Bikutan, and he pointed to one of the platforms and told me to wait there.
The bus platform in the Philippines is different from what we usually see, it has no stop sign, the buses passing by do not have numbers, and even look like buses, and the long-distance bus I took from Clark looks similar, all of them are grunting, there is no unified sign, God knows which one is going to Bikutan!
"May I ask, is it waiting at this platform for the bus to Bikutan?" I approached a little girl next to me and confirmed with her.
"Yes." The little girl nodded, while vigilantly covering the bag, just such a subconscious anti-theft action, let me dare not say anything more, the distance between people and people was suddenly pulled away. I had to say thank you and continue to guess for myself which car was going to Bikutan.
From Ani Island to Puerto Princesa, and from Clark to Manila, I felt like I was falling from heaven to hell step by step. I wish I had left this haunted place sooner, and I even considered finding a place to stay overnight nearby and going back to Clark the next day.
Fortunately, later I met a pair of kind siblings, which made me feel a little warmth. They happened to be back to Bikutan, so they took me to the car with them. If they hadn't reminded me, the word Bicutan hidden in the mass of ornaments on the front window of the bus wouldn't have been clear.
The car was crowded, I couldn't stand with a big bag on my back, and everyone in front of me was expressionless and looked unhappy. I didn't know what to say to the siblings (I always felt they were wary of strangers), so I had to look out the window while trying to balance.
The bus in Manila is not a stop-by-stop, but a point-to-point, direct drive, such as from Ayala to Bikutan, driving for nearly half an hour, without stopping halfway, directly arrived.
I got out of the car with the crowds, and across the dirty road was the eye-catching SM Mall, which was doing weekend promotions, and the popularity was so strong that I couldn't wait to run into the mall and find Wi-Fi to get in touch with Victor.
"Shun, let's see you at Mega Mall instead!" You come from Clark and get off directly there, it's more convenient, I'll wait for you here! "As soon as I connected to the network, I received a message from Victor.
sky! How did you suddenly change places? I knew Victor was well-intentioned, afraid I wouldn't find a remote Bikutan, but now... What to do? At night in Manila, I really didn't dare to run around, only to stay in the mall is the safest.
I quickly sent a message back to Victor, saying that I was in Bikutan, and asked him if he could come to me? Since he had made an appointment to meet in this place before, it must be more convenient to go to his house. But after waiting for nearly ten minutes, he did not reply, and I began to be anxious, calling him on the Internet phone, but I never answered.
"Wouldn't you?" I thought to myself, "Is he going to let me pigeons go?" ”
No, no, don't you play me like this? Maybe it's because it's not convenient for him to answer the phone for a while? I'll wait and see, anyway, it's still early, let's fix the dinner first.
I went to eat a super fast food with nothing new, and this time I didn't order fried rice, but ordered something similar to braised fish rice.
There are so many people! I could only sit on the outside table to eat, in order to delay the time not to be driven away, I ate slowly, ate for nearly an hour without daring to finish eating, the meal was all cold. I sent Victor a few more messages and made a few phone calls, but still no response, and I was desperate.
Seeing that it's almost 9 o'clock, I can't get to check online to see if there is a suitable hotel accommodation nearby - damn! I really shouldn't have come to Manila! Just as I was about to find another way out, Victor finally sent a message, saying that he had come to Bikutan in a car to find me, about an hour, and asked me to wait for him, and I was like a life-saving straw, eager to stand up and cheer.
The mall security guard told me that the mall closed at 11 o'clock. And I had finished eating, embarrassed not to go, had to order another cup of Coke, change to the store to sit (this is not much people), I also relaxed, open the computer to buy a train ticket from Guangzhou to Wuhan on October 8, 2012.
An hour had passed, and at 10 o'clock, Victor had not yet appeared, and it was a state of no return of information and no answer of the phone. Didn't he want to entertain the couch guests at all, just to amuse a foreigner? I began to have an increasingly ominous premonition...
"Shun?" Just as I was thinking about leaving before the mall closed, an uncle in a dark shirt, carrying a black backpack and carrying a long umbrella appeared in front of me.
I've seen pictures of him online and recognized at a glance who he was.
"Victor!" I was like a life-saving straw, if he didn't show up in time, I didn't know where to go, and if I was left alone with a hiking bag on my back in the streets of Manila late at night looking for a hotel, I was really timid.
Victor said that he and a few friends had gone to the Mega Mall to watch a movie and it was inconvenient to answer the phone, and I used the Internet to send him messages, and his phone did not know how to reply, so it was delayed so much time.
Before leaving the mall, Victor dragged me to buy a Filipino mobile phone card, I didn't think it was necessary, but he was afraid that I would lose myself again...
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Liu Xiaoshun (WeChat public account: lxslvxing)
Life does not need to be too smooth, a little smooth is good.