Return to MNL Boutique - New friends and a drama-filled night!

13th Feb

Awoke at 6am and got ready to catch a minivan to Puerto Princessa for my flight back to Manila. Took a tricycle to the bus terminal and got on the 2nd minivan that was departing as a French guy wanted to travel with his friends on the one I first got on so gave up my seat – look at me being the good Samaritan. But worked out better as this one wasn’t as full. Then proceeded a very bumpy 7hr journey from El Nido to Puerto Princessa. We stopped off at a roadside cafe for lunch so had a chance to try some more local food. Arrived at Puerto Princessa around 1.30pm and got dropped off at a hotel just across the road from the airport (the airports in the Philippines are tiny), to use their wifi as I had 3hrs to kill before I had to be at the airport. So just uploaded photos to Facebook and booked accommodation for Singapore and did some more Lonely Planet guide Vietnam reading.

Checked in and waited for my flight, ended up being delayed by 40mins. Then arrived at Manila around 7.30pm, got a taxi to MNL Hostel (it was so good the first time around I decided to stay another two nights before leaving the Philippines). However the taxi driver did one of the scams that was to make the meter go higher than it should, so I had an argument with him and when I got to the hostel I only paid him what I was told it should cost (200 pesos, not 400 like he was gonna charge me), Christina-1 - Taxi Driver-0 – ha!
I walked in and was instantly welcomed back by the hostel gang - they were happy to see I had returned. Turns out 2 of the people I’d met the first time around were back again too - how freaky is that?! 

Then I went out to get dinner as by now it was 9pm so I was starving. Went to the food market next door and got some beef brisket noodles with three pieces of Soimai, some sweet coconut rice and grilled bacon wrapped around asparagus. Then walked past Dominos and couldn’t resist getting a pizza too – though it was BOGOFF day so I got TWO pizzas! Lol. Got back to the hostel and it was one of the girls from England’s birthday (Danni) so we all sat outside at the ‘Bring Your Own Drink’ social tables on the sidewalk and all just got to know each other, shared travel stories and advice, whilst drinking several bottles of Tanduay rum and San Miguel beers. Me and a girl called Sarah became instant buddies – she’s an awesome girl and we’re hoping to meet up again along our S.E.Asia travels – hopefully in Vietnam or Cambodia! We both agreed it would be great to travel together. Then we all decided to venture out to a bar nearby, however when we got there the beers were double the price they normally are so we all decided to have cocktails – big mistake! Turns out the cocktails had basically no alcohol in and we were paying extortionate prices for them.

Complained several times but no-one listened so some of the girls decided not to drink them and not pay for them. I decided to pay for mine as it was actually the only cocktail that had alcohol in it! When it came around to leaving (we should have just walked away) but we were cornered to pay the bill and commenced a massive argument (15 of us against the manager and security guard) about why we weren’t paying for them. The manager then decided he was going to call the police and made up some rubbish that if we didn’t pay the waitress would have to foot the bill out of her wages (which was a load of rubbish as she kept smiling the whole way through, she wasn’t bothered at all). We made it known that we didn’t care that she’d have to foot the bill, it was the responsibility of the waitress and the bartender to bring us what we’d ordered – alcoholic cocktails. 

So by this point it had started getting heated and we’d attracted a massive audience, so me and one of the guys from Canada tried to get all the girls to just walk away – which they did but then I was then accosted by the security guard who held me back with some force (I wasn’t helping matters by almost hitting him for ‘picking on the smallest girl’ lol) I was shouting at him that I’d paid for my drink why was he holding me back? Sarah and the Canadian guy came running back to assist and to confirm I’d paid for my drink but he still wouldn’t let me go so I think to actually save the security guard from my anger more than me from him, Canada said to hold him back instead and he’d speak to the police so that I could be let go. Bless his heart. So the security guard eventually let me go.

The police showed up but when told about the situation he seemed to just laugh and walk away. So the situation didn’t really go anywhere. Then to just kill it, one of the girls from the Netherlands decided to just pay the bill so that they’d let Canada go, which they did! So after all the drama we then headed to another bar for some cheap beers and further chats before rolling home at about 4am! I didn’t get much sleep though as a big Texan woman we’d met earlier (she was heavily obese but had the most amazing travel stories, we could have listened to her all night!) was on the bunk below me and was snoring like a trouper – well, it was more like gargling!