Welcome back. We have finished breakfast at the hotel so let's see what Manila and the Philippines is all about. When in Manila you have several ways to get around. You can take a taxi. Depending on where you stay and what your budget is you can take a hotel cal complete with driver. You can take a bus. You can take a jeepney. If possible I would take the hotel car for the first trip or so you can get a feel for the area and not get charged extra by the driver. It is pretty much impossible to not stand out like a sore thumb as a foreigner unless you are of Filipino descent.
The most popular form of transportation is the Jeepney. The original Jeepneys started out life as surplus army jeeps after World War 2 that were sold, give to the locals or just abandoned after the war. Jeepneys are hard to miss. They have been outfitted with roofs and long bench seats. They tend to have some pretty flamboyant color schemes. A jeepney rarely stops for more than a few seconds. When it does you hop on and take a seat and then you pass the fare up the line of passengers to the driver. You do need to know where it is going. They have very particular routes so unless you know for sure where a jeepney is headed you probably don't want to get on.
One thing you do not want to miss in Manila is Greenhills Shopping Center. It is to the Philippines what the Flea Market is to the United States. It is a phenomenal experience. Crowded isles with little stalls selling anything you can think of. With regular stores on the outskirts of the stalls, it is a wonderful thing to see and be a part of. I am not a big fan of shopping but I would go again and again to see this.
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