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I’m fine with easing into the Asian experience, but the Makati district of Manila can be a little too easy. My hotel is across the street from the famous Greenbelt shopping mall, which is great if you need a souvenir from Gucci or Burberry, but it has all the Asian feel of Denver’s Colfax Avenue. I started my exploratory walk in the opposite direction.

The Landmark is a commercial area of mind-numbing width and breadth, with shops and restaurants sprawled and stacked in what must be deliberate labyrinths and mazes designed to insure the customer can never leave. On this Sunday, whole families were out in force for a little shopping and a meal, arriving in scores of Jeepneys, the colorful, mini school bus that is the most economical way to move around Manila.

The Filipinos are quick to make eye contact, atypical for most Asian cultures, and eye contact triggers an immediate smile, even from security guards, customs agents and other sundry government types, so you know this is a friendly people. As a result, a jet-lagged foreigner can be hopelessly lost in the midst of this bustling city and still feel quite comfortable and welcome.

I somehow emerged from the Landmark and wandered long enough without recognizing anything that I was ready to hail a cab to save me. Then I turned a corner and found myself at the entrance of my hotel. I celebrated by using the saved cab fare for a bowl of spicy shrimp. A good first day.

This entry was posted on July 22, 2012 at 3:53 am and is filed under Travel with tags Filipino, Manila, Philippines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.