The Aussie and the Yank walking the back alleys of Chinatown.

 

After a good night's sleep of about 8 hours, it was up for breakfast at 8am.  Now if this was the African tour I would have been up and packed up my tent and having breakfast by 6am.  Bullshit, not in Manila.  I have a huge bed, cable TV, Wifi, and a shower.  Now this is a different tour.  

The first thing we did was head to the Thai Embassy to get a 30day visa.  After waiting in line and working out they wanted over 75 dollars, we decided to change our plan of attack.  We thought that if we enter Thailand we could ride for 14 days and enter Laos at Vietienne.  We want to ride at least a week in Laos before re-entering Thailand and heading back to Siem Reap Cambodia for our return to Manila.

After the embassy we went to Chinatown to have a look around.  This is your typical Asian market, selling everything from poulty, fish, vegetables, flowers, machines, music, and plenty of child beggars.  Although I'm not in the habit of taking photos of beggars, I had my camera out and was clicking everything to try and get that good shot.  This young girl just happen to be caught in the moment.

Before you can go on any good ride you must stock up on some good drugs.  Every cyclist knows that talent alone won't get you across the line without some kind of drugs.  I bought the legal ones.  Not sure what Len bought, but damn he's bags are going to be really heavy this tour.

Whilst walking up and down every street in Chinatown we came across these small waterways.  What you can see is a river system clogged with litter.  Even a dog floating in the mess.  

 

I always like to take photos of faces in the crowd, they seem to tell a story.  This one's obvious.

The Chinatown region is really worth the effort.  We walked around for hours admiring the shops and the people.  We had nice weather, not like back home where it's raining. 

We headed over to the Mall of Asia which is like Pacific Fair in Surfers Paradise.  Plenty of up market shops and people all dressed immaculately.  They even had a full size ice hockey rink in the centre.  I did want to hang around and go to the movies as nothing really got my eye. 

Tonight we're going to another large mall to visit the gun shop.  Might need some protection for the next part of our journey.

Safe riding,