Manila in two days!

No, you can't really do that, so my impressions from the visit is very limited. I admit not to know a lot about the Philippines and how life is there. After being in Manila for two days I know a bit more, and then not really anyway, because what we got to see isn't Manila or the Philippines. We saw the rich part -or one of them- somewhere in this mega million city.
The real thing, where the ordinary Philippine people live, we didn't see or experience. We got driven around by a driver and taken to the places where we could go without any danger, but into the streets of the neighborhoods for the ordinary people we never came, and I'm not sure that I would dare it anyway.
















We got a ride on a ferry on the Pasig river through a part of the city, and the most of the city we saw on that ride was slum and very poor settlements. The water was brown and filled with rubbish and plastic bottles, and once in a while a dead animal -dogs, pigs and what ever- was floating not far away from bathing children.
One thing I liked was the so called "Jeepneys", a fancy decorated vehicle used for public transport. These was old American army jeeps -or the leftovers from these- and then rebuild to a sort of mini bus, by it's owner, who then was the driver and serving one special route through the city. There was thousands of them always on the go and with people hopping on and of where it suited them the best. These trucks was a colourful part of the street life, even they couldn't live up to any of the new standarts of co 2 emission regulations.













Here is just two of the "Jeepneys", quite similar and yet so different. I spend some time just watching these auto mobiles pass on the street.