. Friday night was supposed to be a quiet night out but ended up being a late one with lots of beer and entertainment in the LA Cafe. The pretty girls are also known as GRO's (Guest Relations Officers) and they entice the many western men out here to stay at the bar longer than they may have first planned. We had a great night chatting to both the girls and guys and before we knew it it was time to hit the sack. Today we flew to Cebu and were treated to a 'gameshow' on our plane. This involved 5 lucky passengers winning a blow-up pillow by being the first to hold up a certain item (e.g. cell phone charger??), unfortunately we didn't win anything despite our best efforts. Cebu is a quieter version of Manila and we went to a concert at night time to see as many couples kissing at once to try and beat the current record in guinness book of records. Unfortunately it was raining and was very muddy so we visited a bar instead with some Cebuanos we had met at the concert. The Philippines is great so far - a little crazy but very very friendly people and we are looking forward to exploring this interesting country more over the next few weeks.
We arrived in Manila on 8th February after taking our free AirAsia flights from Malaysia and checked into an old style 'pensionne' where everyone was so friendly and couldn't do enough for you. After a long day's travelling (as we'd slept in KL airport on the Tues night for connecting flights) we decided to go out for a few beers which turned into a few more and at only 25-35p a bottle (San Miguel) we had a great night out. The next day was a sorting out kind of day but it took us to the business district of Makati where it's very posh and modern and the internet cafe's give out free coffee. We also got to ride on a Jeepney which is a kind of Jeep/Truck/Bus with chrome frontage and brightly coloured paint on the sides - they're great fun and very cheap (about 6 or 7p a ride). On Friday we visited the 'Intramuros' section of the city which is the old walled section of the city with Fort Santiago at one end of the town and the oldest stone church in Manila - San Augustin. There was a wedding going on at the church so we got to see the pretty bridesmaids there