Last few days

This should conclude my posts on Philippines. After our G.E camps, we had a visit to the geothermal plant in Northern Negros. It's something that Singapore will never have but the visit there wasn't noteworthy because we were not allowed inside the plant. The only thing that struck me was that they had the money to build such a plant but do not have the means to provide basic education for all the children. The main problem with the Philippines is not a lack of talent or resources. It's poor governance that is to blame for their plight. My host family kept telling me that during my homestay. The highest paid employees of the state are the soldiers because they are afraid the soldiers will revolt. There is a popular joke in the Philippines that goes like this: In other countries, they use crocodiles to make wallets, belts etc but in the Philippines, they use them to make politicians. The Filipinos are actually very educated people and some of their English is better than ours. It's a shame that, with such high levels of education, they are still one of the poorest countries in Asia.

We did some more shopping at Baccolod before heading to Manila. It was boring so I shall not say anything except for the fact that their snacks are good e.g the New York fries.

Over in Manila, it was pretty chaotic. I was assigned as the taxi i/c by virtue of my gender and was stuck with 3 other girls. Taking a taxi in Manila is very stressful as you need to bargain for the fare and endure through a series of near-accidents to get to your destination. The Filipinos' driving is exciting, to put it in a nice way. Their style of driving is offensive and they rely on their horns to do the talking. They are very skilful drivers and it's amazing that in such chaotic road conditions, they still manages one of the lowest accident rates in Asia. We did shopping on the first day but the mega mall was packed as it was a Sunday. It was not enjoyable at all. The next day, we had a guided tour. It was very expensive and totally not worth it. We had a visit to a volcano but it was actually just viewing from a restaurant. Then we had visits to a church and the old city. The church was grand, which reflects their religiousness as a Catholic country. The old city was so-so only, the only interesting thing is that there is a golf course just outside the walls of the city. The day was quite disappointing and only the tour guide was good. For the last night before we depart for Singapore, we went to explore the nightlife of Manila. Our hotel was situated in a red light district but I didn't see many prostitutes around. There were only a few and they all look ugly. We headed to Manila Bay in search of some alcohol and live band. However, the stretch of pubs was quite quiet because it was a Monday. We settled down in the pub with the best band and had some drinks. The alcohol in Philippines is cheaper than water and we had our money's worth of drinks. However, we went back to the hotel quite early because the live band was over. I didn't really get to see the real Manila nightlife. We went back to Singapore the next day and although there were a few hiccups along the way, we still got back home safely. Manila wasn't the nicest place to be in because the people there are not exactly friendly. I think urbanisation makes people cold. Also, it is not a safe place to be in. The cabbies are not honest and the streets are full of homeless people. There are also security checks everywhere we went which got a little irritating. We have to go through bodysearches even when we go into shopping malls. It's still good to be back home.

Some things I will miss:

Talking with friends on everything until the wee hours of the night

Cecilia going on and on about everything in her life

Ruth waking us up every morning with her cutesy voice and of course, disturbing her big face

Krystle's laugh out loud

My homestay host

The stupid Chi Chong cheer

Our driver and fly catching master Jun

The endless sugar fields and the magnificient views

Yung Chuan's shaking

The banana game

The friendly people of Bago City