Following the Canada trip I had decided to make an Asia trip. Not a preplanned tour type, but more a trip to explore and learn cultures that were unfamiliar to me in wherever I decided to go. I had traveled the Philippines (Subic Bay), many years ago when I was on a submarine in the U.S. military. The sub also made good-will stops in Hong Kong and Japan. This time I would do it at my leisure.

Flight out of San Francisco to Taiwan, then on to Manilla, Philippines. Long plane ride aboard China Airlines, about 15 hours, but thankfully the 747 plane was nowhere near as uncomfortable as that Continental flight to Newark was. Stayed perhaps 10 day's in Manilla. Really something to see! Traffic is unbelievable! No way to make any sense of how to drive in Manilla, so public transportation is the way to go. But, public transportation is just as bad, too many people in too small of an area. Be it the city as a whole, or public transportation, the word crowded must have been first coined in Manilla.

On the plus side I met many interesting local people and I found the population to be quite openly friendly. Stayed several different hotels/resorts in several different city's outside of Manilla. The west is trying it's hardest to change the Philippine culture to match their own. Doing so with bribes of money if you do this, or don't do that. The west lost their lease on the "defensive" military bases in the Philippines a few years back, but can't seem to help themselves from exerting influence on how people there should live their lives. Granted, it's a dangerous place. While I was eating dinner one night we learned through buzz in the restaurant a bus of Chinese visitors had been taken hostage there in Manilla a few blocks from where we were by an armed disgruntled former policeman. The restaurant tuned the cable T.V. to CNN which was covering the hostage situation live. When shots finally rang out I could hear them just outside from inside the restaurant. There was not a good ending to that one.

Finally after having enough day's in the Philippines instead of changing hotels I went to the airport. Asked where the next departure was going and was informed Shanghai, China, but plane was full. Next one following that departure was a flight to Bangkok, Thailand, and yes there was availability on that flight. Book me!