Return to Manila ... a pretty darn big city

Manila is HUGE. With some eleven million people, extraordinary non-stop shopping malls, and cars galore, there's actually a lot of "first world" in this "developing country" ...



That being said, things are REALLY cheap. In my total time here, I would end up having:

• Some 15 (?!) cheap massages (not those kind, ok!) for as cheap as $5US an hour!
• Facials - gee these take a long time - $3.50
• Foot spas/massages - $8
• Hair cuts/massages - $4 in this really nice salon
• I even ended up getting my teeth checked here ...!

If we had any doubt that Philippines was a potential business location for entrepreneurs, it was all silenced when we met up with one of our Stanford Alumni, for a cocktail party with the future president, the CEO of the 2nd biggest bank and some government ministers (remember this is a county with almost 90 million people - more than 4 times the size of Oz!). His house - where the building materials cost $10 million AUS alone - had us in awe (as well as what we learned, of course!) ...!