Eff it's hot here

So after arriving at my hostel yesterday afternoon (which is really quite nice) I was so exhausted from travelling I needed to crash for a bit. I woke up after a couple hours when my roommate came in. Dennis is from South Korea and his English isn't so good but he's quite a nice guy. He encouraged me to get out and take a look around which I knew I should because if I just stayed in bed I would probably wake up at 3am and not be able to sleep again.

I went out and wandered a bit but i didn't have a map so i didn't really have a good sense of where i was going. I headed in the direction of the coconut palace and apparently just missed it by a block or so, I might wander back there today. What i did manage to see was a beautiful sunset over Manila Bay, quite spectacular!

My first real impression of this city is that it's very dirty, very busy, and kind of a dump. I wandered for a couple of hours and got tired again so i grabbed a quick bite and headed back to the hostel. Dennis came back again and he was going to head out to what he called a "sexy bar". I told him I was going to pass, I only really had about 10 hours of sleep in the last three nights combined so i wanted to catch up. I also told him not to bring any ladyboys back to the room.

This morning I got up early to head to the old Spanish fortification of Intramuros. It wasn't far, but it turned out to be a long walk because there is some kind of church event going on. There are thousands and thousands of people in the streets and it's a little difficult to navigate. I feel like a bit of a celebrity though. I've posed for several pictures with various random people and there was one boy of about 12 years old who came up to me and asked me if i was a priest. I said no and he asked what I was doing here. I told him that i was just visiting and he said "please enjoy this place". Kind of warmed my heart.

I'm going to head back to Intramuros later this afternoon to join a tour. I don't really know what else I should try to see. My Lonely Planet has a few ideas, but isn't very enthusiastic about any of them. Most of the good sights to be seen aren't in Manila, but around it. I'll make sure to get down to Taal volcano tomorrow. It will be a little pricy, but I don't think I want to spend another day here.

ps. These people LOVE Superman! I can't count how many people I saw wearing Superman logos today.