Caboose

The flight to Manila was uneventful and boring. Qantas seem to still be catching up with entertainment technology; we all had to watch the same films on a large projector screen, very quaint. The films were good though: “Across the Universe” and “September”.

I’m staying at Friendly’s Guesthouse in the Malate area of Manila. It’s quite busy but in a good location for local bars and restaurants.

On Sunday I wandered around town a bit, visiting Rizal Park (a memorial to the Philippines national hero), Intramuros and Fort Santiago.

It was interesting to note that on one side of the fort is a golf course that follows the old walls, on the other small boys were paddling rafts cobbled together out of scrap polystyrene foam up the river as they gathered rubbish.

I’ve been enjoying local food, there’s an interesting article about filipino food which also mentions the fondness for “doorbell names” (I saw a poster for a film starring someone called Ding-Dong today).

My last stop before leaving Australia was Sydney. I had a couple of days to wander around and see the sights, trying to avoid spending too much money (I was way over budget by this point).

Here are the standard ones: the Harbour Bridge (complete with some people doing the BridgeClimb) and the Opera House (the foyer reminded me very much of a 1970s dull and gloomy concrete shopping centre — the pre-refit Thistle Centre in Stirling being a fine example).

I also went for a tour around the city on the monorail. Although it consists of a single one-way loop it actually has a driver taking up the whole front carriage, reducing passenger space quite a bit. I’m guessing the unions had something to do with that as it looks like a prime candidate for automation.

Leaving Sydney was easy, there’s a fast and frequent rail service from Central station — about five minutes walk from where I was staying — in comfortable double-decker trains. My flight departure was delayed a bit though, they’d lost power to the gate so the staff had to process us manually and light our way down the airbridge with torches.