Southeast Asia Tour: Manila, Philippines

The Republic of Philippines 

I couldn't breathe.
Weight was pressing against me from all sides and things were jamming into the most inappropriate places.
I looked over the sea of people and grinned at Jeff. This was awesome. 
'I've never felt so close to so many people at once!'
Half an hour before, I had landed in Manila. After hopping on a bus, Jeff and I were now part of the human sandwich that was the public MRT. 
People aggressively pushed their way in to pack each carriage, there was no space between me and anyone else. 
'Haha, welcome to Manila baby!' Jeff laughed.

Since I hadn't eaten yet, our first stop was SM Mega Mall. We then spent the next three hours devouring as much food as possible, no stall vendor was a stranger after that. From pork skewers to sisig (pig's ear) to puto (Filipino dessert), I was in heaven. There was so much good food! 

As Jeff and I strolled through the mall, we caught up on each other's trips. Jeff was making his way though Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan, over the course of 2 months. He had climbed Mt. Fuji and had relaxed on the beaches of Boracay. 

We met up with his cousins afterwards and hung out for a bit before heading home. 

'There's no hot water here, and you have to dump a bucket of water to flush the toilet,' Jeff informed me. 'I hope you're okay with that.'

'Nice! It's still that way in some parts of Singapore, no sweat man.' I was secretly looking forward to the cold water. With temperatures at a humid 32 degrees, it was hard to want a hot shower. 

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