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Last Day in Boracay and Back to Manila

Yesterday was my last day in Boracay and as I wandered around I noticed how many trikes were buzzing about me, so I filmed them.

In the evening Dennis, our friends, and I went out for a goodbye meal before I headed back to pack.

This morning I woke at 4:30am to catch a trike to the jetty where I caught a boat across to the main land and then another trike that took me to the airport.

Once at the airport it was the normal filipino airport shenanigans, queuing outside with lots of people worried they will miss their flight. I was ok because I had checked in online and had my eBoarding pass. I eventually got inside and, as I headed straight to the departure gate, wondered why more people didn’t check in online and were queuing once again. I show my eBoarding pass and the gaurd informed me that this airport does not have the facility to use it, so I had to queue after all.

Once inside I met a really interesting guy who is a doctor and flies around the world treating patients for travel insurance companies. He gave me lots of good ideas for Canada.

Once I boarded the plane and landed in Manila I was ready to jump in a taxi and head to my hotel. No taxi would take me because the roads were closed because of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) which is being attended by the Chinese, USA, Philippines and many more heads of states. The only way they could get me to my hotel was after 10pm this evening, meaning a 12 hour wait. I started asking around to see if I could get a taxi to drop me as close as they could to my hotel, but this was a no go and the wait for the taxis was already a couple of hours long. I then spoke to the Police information booth and inquired how far it was to walk. The police had a debate as to whether it was safe for me to do this. The guy felt it was and female officer felt it wasn’t. They showed me on a map that it was 3km straight out of the airport.

I thought about it and decided I would start walking and if I felt intimidated I would turn back and wait. As I left the airport on foot I notice alot of other people walking too, though I was the only non filipino and did stand out. I nipped in to a 7 /11 shop to get myself some water and then carried on walking. When I looked over my shoulder I notice another guy who looked like he was doing the same as me. I thought he looks a big guy and safety in numbers. I started chatting to him, his name was Andrew and he was from South Africa, and we walked about 1.5km together before we had to head our separate ways.

I never felt unsafe at any point and as I was getting closer to my hotel, lots of roads were closed off to traffic and there was lots of police about, so it worked out really well and turned in to a little adventure.

By Mark

The areas of life I am most interested in are great design, the golden ratio, minimalism, Pareidolia (faces in everyday objects), micro living and finally I will be searching for remarkable human beings who use the power of their mind to achieve amazing effects.

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