Today began with our last dive in the Philippines. We went out to the Sabang Wrecks, three different ship wrecks in about 40 to 60 feet of water. This was Shelley's favorite dive and one of my first real shipwreck dives. After the dive we hurried to pack and shower to catch a ferry back to Batangas. After the 1.5 hour boat ride to Batangas we boarded a bus back to Manila (another 3 hour journey). We have learned so much here in the Philippines. When we first arrived, our 100 km journey from Manila to Sabang cost us about $60.00. Today the same journey back cost us $14.00. Simply by knowing the bus system and refusing to let others carry our baggage for us, we saved a lot of money. We checked into a first class hotel in Manila. There have been problems with terrorist bombings at nice hotels in Manila and a K9 unit sniffed all our baggage. A common sight in the hotel lobby and hallways is Manila Police Swat Teams with machine guns and riffles walking around. By the time we arrived at our hotel it had been a long day so we dropped our luggage and headed out for dinner. The traffic in Manila is exactly how you would expect a busy South East Asian city's to be; thick black clouds of pollution streaming from every motorbike, bus, jeepney, and taxi. These gasses mix into a toxic cloud that literally makes your eyes burn and your throat hurt. Everybody smokes here but it is not distinguishable from the rest of the air. After dinner Shelley took a shower and went to bed and I headed out to the city to explore its night life. I took a map but still got lost when a nice lady from Capital One customer service saw me and helped me. She did not have kind words about most the people from America that call, but she was nice to me. I asked her where the ocean was and was able to orient myself using the moon. I did not get lost again. As I walked many vendors would yell things out or approach me and a simple "no thank you" would make them back off. One man approached and walked with me for several minutes I said "no thank you", "I have no money", and "leave me please". He insisted I check something out down some ally; I just kept walking and saying no. Over the minutes I had not noticed how close he had gotten to me and soon a felt something near my back pocket. I reacted and he pretended to be checking his watch and quickly ran off (luckily everything was in my front pocket). About 1 hour later while walking another man attempted a much wiser scam on me, but I save this story for later. Near the water is the boardwalk. There are live bands playing covers of American songs everywhere and it is very clean. It reminds me of Old Town Pasadena. Well my 2 hour journey through the streets of Manila was certainly exciting.
