Enjoying Manila's Dating Spots with a Nice Young Man from Taiwan I Met Locally 2019/8/20【62】

Already at the halfway point, it's the 4th day of my stay in Manila.

This is the view from the window on the 2nd floor of the guesthouse. Makati has high-rise buildings, but there are also unmaintained roads and dilapidated buildings scattered around. Nonetheless, it's one of the most prosperous areas in the Philippines.

The guesthouse lobby also served as a cafe and bar, but I ended up not using it even once.

After getting ready, I headed to a cafe called COMMUNE with a young man from Taiwan. As it turns out, we greeted each other last night as he was staying in the bed next to mine. He's Taiwanese but speaks English at a native level and Japanese almost fluently. He mentioned that he would be staying in Manila for 10 days and had no particular plans, so we agreed to go sightseeing together.

Upon arriving at the cafe, I ordered a cafe latte and chocolate chip cookies.

He ordered a cafe mocha and chicken rice balls. He laughed saying, "I don't really like bitter coffee," but I was more surprised at how much he could eat in the morning.

Since neither of us had any plans, we searched hard for things to do and places to go in Manila using keywords like "Manila sightseeing" and "Manila famous." It's my 4th day and his 3rd day in Manila, so we haven't been here for long, but we realized there aren't many tourist spots in Manila. During our stay, numerous locals asked us, "Why are you staying in Manila for a whole week?"

After some desperate searching, we made a sightseeing plan to visit Chinatown, an aquarium, and watch the sunset over Manila Bay. Chinatown was far from the Makati area, so on the young man's suggestion, we decided to take the train. He's a student and seemed to prefer the cheapest mode of transportation, although a taxi would only cost a few hundred yen.

It was about a 20-minute walk under the scorching sun from the cafe to the station, which left us drenched in sweat. His words, "It's very close!" would be heard many times after this. Haha.

We bought tickets at the station and boarded the train. The trains in Manila are quite crowded, comparable to Tokyo's packed trains, and it was just before noon on a weekday. The speed is slow, and the train network isn't well-developed, so unless you're going far, there's no real reason to take the train. I used taxis for the rest of my stay.

The stations are overflowing with people.

We got off near Chinatown and after a short walk, the characteristic scenery appeared.

Manila's Chinatown is apparently quite large on a global scale. However, it's not very hygienic (it's quite dirty).

After a light stroll, we got hungry and decided to have lunch. The young man looked up a famous place, and we entered "Quick-Snack."

We couldn't even imagine what the dishes were like from the menu, so we ordered randomly.

I had a dish of rice noodles (similar to glass noodles) stir-fried with chicken and vegetables. It was hot and I wasn't very hungry, so I was satisfied with something light. The taste was not too strong for Chinese cuisine, which was good.

The young man had a dish similar to a mixed fried udon. We shared a bit and both were delicious.

By the way, the restaurant is located in such a back alley.

We took a photo of the large gate and left Chinatown.

We passed through the gate, crossed a bridge, and found a taxi in a parking area to hop into.

We got dropped off in front of an aquarium called Ocean Park and bought tickets.

We confirmed that the ticket allowed access to different areas and that there was a sea lion show, then entered.

Here's the translated text from Japanese to English:

While being thrilled about visiting an aquarium after many years, I also felt a slight emptiness about the fact that two guys came to see an aquarium all the way overseas.

While looking at various creatures, before I knew it, I was talking with the young man about his girlfriend.

When I said, "It would be more fun to come here with a girl, huh~", he quickly responded, "Yes, I want to come here with my girlfriend!!" with a laugh.

It seems he has a Japanese girlfriend at a university in Japan, but at that time, she was studying abroad in Canada. They have been in a long-distance relationship for about half a year, and he was venting about the hardships. Staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning to talk on the phone due to the time difference, adjusting to her tight schedule. Yet, he said he really likes her and will "keep trying!"

He is serious, kind, and really a good person, so I felt like cheering for him.

Although it's an aquarium, there were also reptile and bird areas. Probably with the cheapest ticket we bought, we couldn't see the bird area.

After looking around, it was time for the show to start, so we took our seats and enjoyed a 20-minute sea lion show.

It was all in English, so I could only understand about half of it, haha.

It was impressive to see the local children enjoying it so much.

We walked from the aquarium to a place where we could see Manila Bay. The young man checked the time of the sunset, and we decided to kill time at a nearby shopping mall called Robinsons Place until then.

We went into Razon's on the 1st floor of the shopping mall for tea. I ordered Halo-Halo, which I had also eaten the previous day, and he ate chicken rice. He really eats a lot, haha.

Even after finishing eating, there was about an hour left until sunset, so we relaxed. We were tired from walking since morning, and it was hot that day, so the cool interior of the shop was comfortable. He slept for about 30 minutes. I was killing time on a dating app for foreigners that I had learned about from a USA uncle the previous day.

When it was about time for the sunset, we moved to a place where we could see it.

There was a pedestrian bridge about 5 minutes from the shopping mall, so we both took a spot on it and waited for the sunset. There were already a few other people there.

Looking down, there was a lot of trash, and a foul smell was drifting, so it might not be a very good sightseeing spot.

Nonetheless, the sunset was beautiful.

While watching the setting sun, we shared our impressions of Manila and other Asian countries, laughing.

As it got dark, we walked towards an area called "Malate." We were solicited for a horse carriage ride several times along the way.

When we arrived in Malate, it had already gotten dark and a light rain had started to fall.

Feeling hungry, we entered a nearby Filipino restaurant called Max's. This restaurant has good service, and the interior was clean; I really liked it.

I ate Pancit Canton, a Filipino-style fried noodles, and Halo-Halo.

Pancit Canton was nutritious with a variety of ingredients like shrimp, chicken liver, and vegetables, besides its taste.

The Halo-Halo was also quite delicious. The taro ice cream wasn't too sweet, and it suited my taste. It's my personal best of Halo-Halo.

By the way, he ate fried chicken with rice... I couldn't help but ask, "Chicken again? Haha." For breakfast, he had a chicken rice bowl, for a snack, fried chicken, and for dinner, fried chicken again.

He said, "This restaurant is famous for its fried chicken, so I feel like I have to eat it."

After dinner, we caught a taxi back to Makati. This taxi driver was malicious. At the time of boarding, we confirmed the fare would be 300 pesos. However, upon disembarking, he demanded 1000 pesos. The reason was that there was additional fare due to traffic. Naturally, we couldn't agree, so we protested vehemently... he did, in fluent English.

"How could we know whether there would be traffic when boarding?", "We boarded because you agreed to 300 pesos!" he conveyed quite angrily in fluent English. Eventually, we paid 350 pesos and got off. Indeed, the road was quite congested, so the 50 pesos was a mercy.

I was impressed by his language skills, but at the same time, I felt frustrated about my own language skills, as I could only listen next to him. It was a frustrating night on the 4th day.