Arriving in Manila

After about five more hours, we land in Manila. The descent was much more normal because I could see lights and skyscrapers. We got off the plane and kind of milled around until a guard or something pointed and we all start moving toward immigration and baggage claim..

I'm not sure what the immigration was all about. We had to turn in two pieces of paper that said what we were bringing in. I put down that I brought 15 Hershey Bars, but I guess that wasn't what they were looking for. I don't remember if the agent opened my passport or not.

This whole time I am obsessing on all the bad things people told me. I try to be aware of who is around me and keep my hand on my wallet, which was in my front pocket. I probably looked pretty stupid.

After that there was the luggage carousel. I grabbed my two bags and headed to the podium to get checked out or something. The guard seemed to want to know why I was bothering him.

When a Philippine citizen returns to the Philippines he is allowed to bring a box about 20 inches square with no limit and no inspection as to what can be in it. At least half of the luggage consisted of these "balikbayan" boxes.

After passing through the luggage area, there was another room with a taxi stand and what I found out to be hawkers for town cars. I had specifically warned to only use the Yellow Co. taxis and to make sure they used the meter. I was feeling pretty cocky by then and, besides, I had to walk through the hawkers to get the the ATM, since I had no pesos so, of course one of them approaches that knows exactly where my hotel is. He seemed surprised that I didn't want to go have a few drinks and maybe find a companion for the evening.

I stood down a side street with the hawker while we waited for the car to show up. We agreed to about $12 for the ride. About ten minutes later I arrived at the Jupiter Hotel right at midnight.