Fascinating country, enjoyed my stay wish i could stay 6 months.
Observations from this trip.
1)Much to my dismay, as opposed to the last trip in april , i found that this trip the water was not ok, neither is the ice and although i never got sick, my gums ached terribly the whole time even though i really tried to avoid the water and drank bottled and bottled in my ice, but soup in the internet cafe was my downfall maybe,
2)Kidnappings in manila and all over the country are on the rise, dramatically, up almost 100% over last year, and Arroyos approval ratings are about 18%(The papers refer to her as GMA) Most of the kidnappings are not covered in the news at the request of the Govt, and a lot of kidnapping syndicates have recently moved to manila, most are chinese, korean, india, etc, kidnapping their own rich countrymen, But, a lot are fililipinos doing the kidnappings, A senators two children were kidnapped, 4 college professors in Zamboanga were kidnapped, and on and on. Please be aware that the phils is quickly becoming more dangerous.
3) Last Week , a group of communist rebels, about 100 or so, overtook the police station in Quezon province, on Luzon, killed the police chief and took all the weapons, This scared the )*(^ out of me, reading that, my gf did not seem as shocked, The rebels are responding to Arroyos recent proclamation of war against lawlessness. Their numbers are estimated to be about 12,000 by the govt, down from a high of 20,000 in the 1980s, their next threat is to attack the electric utilities...................
As to the other aspects of the trip , the fun stuff, i will post later., Good to be back but i wish i was there longer, maybe next trip
