Hitchhiking in Philippines: days in Manila
22nd to 24th of March, 2025.
We have breakfast early in the morning, with my beloved pan de sal. Yummy! They would get that every morning for breakfast, as they noticed how much I love it! I write a little bit after breakfast and after that we go to the local market to get some groceries.
Tin shows me how to make a traditional candy from Philippines which is called polvoron. It’s basically made out of flour, sugar, powdered milk and butter, and you can add some other ingredients for the flavouring. Tin chose to crush some Oreo cookies for ours, but you can add also nuts, for example. It’s not difficult to make it but you must know how to cook in order for them to be good and work, and Tin makes them perfectly! You have to cool it in the freezer for a few hours.
I write a bit more after lunch, and try to take a nap, unsuccessfully.
I try the cooled polvorons in the middle afternoon and I fall in love for them. So amazing! I make a joke with Tin that, if in my previous life I was a dog (because I love dogs so much), in the life before that I was a polvoron.
They have an absolutely adorable shiatsu called London. She is so cute that I just want to hug her and squeeze her until her eyes pop out of her face even more. Laugh. She reminds me of Amarula a lot (my dog from Brazil), although her teeth are not sticking out of her mouth. She is very calm and friendly, completely different of most shiatsus I have met here in the Philippines. Of course she’s lovely, she’s an adorable baby princess, even though she’s eight years old already. They also have two bigger dogs, which stay outside, and are also gorgeous. Inside the house live also two big cats, Blike and his mum Ginger. She is completely amiable and goes with everybody; he is the opposite and is always scared of mostly everybody.
We sing karaoke in the evening. At first, I didn’t want to because I know what a terrible singer I am. But then Tin insisted so much, in a very nice way, that she convinced me, and it was super fun. Now I get it why Filipinos like to sing in the karaoke so much.
After dinner a friend of Zei comes over and Tin tells me we are going to the city. What? I’m so surprised. She tells me that they want to show me some places. We go in two different bikes, and baby London join us too. The ride is nice as it can be very pleasant, at least for me, to ride in the back of a motorcycle, when it’s warm at night, and you are not carrying 23 kg with you.
We visit the Jones Bridge Esplanade, which is all illuminated and full of people. It’s very beautiful and I wish I had made a video of when we arrived. We take a quick walk around and I carry baby London for a while, which allows Zei to take a photograph of us. She’s so adorable that she even smile in the photo! We also take a photo of all of us together, of course!
Then we head towards the stones walls called Muralla, which surround a big area called Intramuros, the old quarters of the city. It’s a historical place, of course, and I love it! There are so many schools, some huge, all in the same place. We pass in front of Tin’s schools and it looks very nice, apart from a big onion monument right in front. Just kidding, it was supposed to be a torch, but it actually looks like an onion pakora.
We miss the chance to see the Cathedral, because they don’t keep the lights on at night, which doesn’t make any sense, being the capital and all; but it’s still possible to have an idea of it’s ancient architecture beauty. We walk to a street very similar to Calle Crisologo, in Vigan. We go back to where the motorbike are after 23.00 hours.
Next morning I get up a bit later, I think all of us, so we have breakfast after 7 o’clock. I actually only woke up because someone started knocking some stones outside. Laugh.
London has an appointment in the vet, and Tin asks me if I want to come with them. Of course! A place full of dogs? Count me in! But they actually tell me that, after the appointment, we will all go to the mall, as this is one of London’s favourite hobbies. How cute!
At the vet clinic, we see the clinic’s cat, a very grumpy and fatty cat. There’s even a warning sign on the wall, explaining that the cat can be moody “sometimes” (meaning always grumpy, as Tin tells me), so people should be careful when trying to pet him. I think it’s a hilarious warning and I wish I’ve had taken a photo of it. He is gorgeous, with extremely fluffy hair and beautiful green eyes. How do I know? For what it seems to be the first time, according to Tin, he comes all the way to us, and let me pat him, just a tad. He actually came because of London’s cart, laugh, which is indeed adorable, and I understand why he like it so much. We see also some other adorable dogs, of course.
I forgot to say that London is wearing an adorable jeans and pink dress.
At the mall, she walks a little bit here and there, and even run! She’s not that much into exercising herself, rather being carried in the arms or in her cute cart. So we are all happy that at least she moved a little bit.
We have lunch at a Chinese restaurant and Tin order some delicious tempura shrimp for me, while they have some chicken. It comes also with some vegetables, unlimited rice, and we all have a red ice tea. It’s all so good! We also have a traditional dessert from the Philippines called Halo Halo and it’s yummy!
I ask them if we can check the cinemas area, just so I can see what is streaming. Nothing interesting.
Before we leave, Tin tries to buy me a cloth bag, as a souvenir from the Philippines, in a really nice shop. But she doesn’t say anything that it’s for me, so I’m so glad that I had a feeling and asked her, before she paid. I feel incredible honoured that she wanted to gift me with something, but as part of my principles, I cannot have something with me which I don’t really need it, and as I already have one cloth bag with me, which was given by the women empowerment community from Zugididi in Georgia, I cannot accept for someone to buy me another one. Plus, there’s also the extra wait which my back cannot afford to carry it anymore. I’m glad that Tin understood and respected my feelings. She does say that she has something at home which she can give it to me and it will not weight anything, plus I can have a souvenir from them. I really appreciated that.
Back at home, we chat for a while, and soon after dinner we all go to bed, as I think we are tired, and tomorrow is working day and leaving day.
I get up before six already, and pack all my things. We have an amazing breakfast, with some egg spread which Tin made it last night, and it’s delicious! She also made it so I can bring a sandwich for my waiting time at the airport. And of course, we also have some pan de sal. The other family members of Tin and Zei (aunties and uncles, and Tin’s sister) are all very lovely and care a lot about making me feel comfortable and at home. It’s so sweet! The whole family, individually, tried to offer me an alternative way of getting to the airport instead of hitchhiking. They are all worried about me not getting lifts, and also about the hot sun. I kindly refuse all the offers because I know that the drive to the airport from here is about one hour, and I don’t want to anyone of them to have this extra cost with me.
I pack my sandwich, some pan de sal (of course), coffee, and Tin gives me more brownies. Everything is great! Ah! And she gives me an adorable silver bracelet with four little dog paws on it, which were a souvenir from London’s photo shoot. It’s adorable and I love it!
I start hitchhiking sometime after 8 a.m. Not so much because I’m worried about not arriving at the airport in time. My flight is at 18.25 hours, so I must be at the airport, at latest, sometime around 15.00 hours. The main reason why I started so early is because of the sun. Even at this early time, it’s already burning.
The first motorbike to stop for me tries to give me some cash for the jeep. How sweet! Tin, Zei and their family are nearby, watching me, so I tell them that. In some ten minutes, a police truck stops, and the police officer Esmeralda comes and tells me they can drop me off where I’m trying to go, which is a popular roundabout called Circle, about 10 kilometres from here. I think this is one of the few cases which I don’t need to tell the person from the car that I cannot pay for the ride. Laugh.
I tell Officer Esmeralda all about my travels. He’s surprised! We ride in the back of the truck, together with an inmate who is being transferred somewhere. He’s wearing handcuffs. It breaks my heart and I can not even imagine what is going on in his head. He looks really sad.
I chose to stand again in Queson Avenue, in front of a place called Wild Life, because this is a secondary avenue which will lead to the famous, busy and impossible to hitchhike EDSA. Here, I still have a good chance to, either get a lift to somewhere in EDSA, near to the airport; or who knows! Even all the way to the airport. In less than ten minutes somebody stops.
Priest Johnathan actually came back for me, and that’s not biblical or metaphorical. He’s in a taxi / Uber, and they passed by me, but when he saw me and my sign, he asked to the driver to make a u-turn and come back. He is going to the airport. Yep! I cannot believe it as well. He is flying to one of the islands, to Iloilo City, and from there he will take another transportation to his home place. We talk about my travels and about life. He’s going to Terminal 1, and I to the Terminal 3, so he asks the driver to drop me off there. I have a feeling that he didn’t even needed to ask because the driver would bring me there anyway, as he seems like a nice guy too.
So that’s it, just like that, I get to the airport, all the way from Queson City, by hitchhiking, in about 2 hours. Isn’t that amazing?
And all of that after having the most lovely weekend with Tin, Zei, London and all their family. I’m so glad that I accept their invitation to stay for the whole three nights. I had an incredible time with them, and they were always so kind and generous all the time. Plus, it always felt so comfortable, as we already knew each other and were friends for a long time. I think I will never get used to with how amazing people can be.
10 Years Around the World 