Manila Day 2: To the beach!

After working all night, we finished up at 7 a.m. and headed back to the hotel for a breather before heading to the beach. We got a full-on taste of life for our agents: They work 3rd shift all week, and then move onto a 'regular' life schedule for the weekend, and then (I'm expecting) are dead to the world on Monday...

At 9:30, we headed out for the beach. We ended up going north, to a resort off of Subic Bay, about 110 km north of Manila. The drive was fascinating! We got to see a real taste of the Philippines (and I do mean just a taste; there is no doubt more to see here). Experiences included ungodly traffic, the driving (which, overall, is far less 'safe' than in the US, but not nearly as terrifying as when I was in Thailand), we saw poverty and shantytowns along the highway, smaller communities and their roadside food huts, wares, and services...and then arrived at the beach!

The resort was ok; like most, it looks better on the internet than in person - however, we had a group of about 20+ of us and the folks who were along are goodtimers, so it was a good time! We opted to stay only one night, rather than the two we originally planned, just because we were going to get back to Manila at 5 p.m. Monday - and then have to work at 11 p.m. No good. Upon arrival, we had a terrific thunder and lightening storm! Holy cats - it was a storm like I haven't been in for probably more than 10 years! You know the game where you count in betwee the lightening and thunder to see how far away the strike was? Well, there was no counting. It was practically simultaneous. Whoa.