What is the story of your first visit to the Philippines? What brought you there, and what were your thoughts on arrival? (I guess this is aimed towards the non-filipinos!
)
I first visited in 2000. A good friend of mine was working in Cebu. The Philippines sounded like an interesting place, so I arranged to spend a 2 week holiday there with him.
Like most, my first experience of the Philippines was the chaos of NAIA. My flight arrived in the evening and my connection to Cebu was the next morning, so I stayed at the "Townhouse", a small, friendly backpacker type place near the airport in Paranaque. My first problem was getting there. I kept pronouncing Roxas Blvd as "Rocks-ass"!
Eventually the taxi driver found it. My room was only about P300 but I wished that I had spent the extra P100 for air con! I enjoyed having little lizards running around on the ceiling though!
On the way back to the airport in the morning light, the full Manila experience hit me: traffic, jeepneys, people everywhere, shantys, billboards, roadside stalls.....
After enduring the Domestic Airport and taking part in Cebu Pacific's in flight games, my mate met me at Mactan Airport. He'd been in Cebu for several months, so knew all the good places to visit and exciting things to do. We had an amazing time!
It was so good that I resigned from my job by fax and stayed for a year! It was the best decision I ever made!
First Visit To The Philippines
Originally Posted by Jamesey
My god,that takes me back a bit,the owner Bill once took me on a tour of manila,I cant remember what his car was now it was so long ago,he is a VERY interesting individual 
I should have known what sort of trip it was going to be when I tried to book into the hotel and I was asked by reception how many hours I would stay
