Daniele Somenzi's Philippines

I usually never leave in September, my work prevented it, but this time I made an exception to the rule. By car to Nicola's house at Peschiera, where I slept a couple of nights to organise myself. The airline I chose this time was Emirates, which still, at the moment on a par with Virgin Atlantic, I consider the best I've used. The flight left from Malpensa, stops at Dubai, and then a connection for Manila. I arrive in the evening local time, so a taxi into the city to a random hotel. As luck would have it I meet 2 nice lads from Vicenza, they'd gone there just for sex, at least they kept me company, since on this trip too I was alone. My mobile kept me in constant contact with Italy through little messages, a thing that still amazes me today. You send an SMS and on the other side, the time to write the reply and there's the letter already arrived.

Manila is one of the most horrible, chaotic and polluted cities I've ever seen, on a par with Bangkok and Cairo. I wanted to escape quickly from there; after 2 nights I organise the trip to the island of Palawan at Puerto Princesa with the ferry and 2 days of crossing. The 2 friends would follow me 2 days later by plane.

Meanwhile I had myself taken on those little tricycle motorbikes to a nice little hotel right on the edge of the airport. Just past the lobby, a lovely garden surrounded by tropical plants full of just as many parasitic plants on their trunks. Small fountains and streams completed the green frame.

On board the tricycle taxis I had myself taken the 3 km that separate the hotel from the centre of Puerto Princesa, for a look at the little shops, but the chaos made me flee at once; I'm a lover of nature and of breathing well, imagine the smog with all those mopeds.

So I decide to hire a 125 enduro motorbike, and so with the heat and humidity of these places I set off on the adventure, and so it was, since after some twenty km I had to stop under the shelter of a bus stop because of the rain.

Other Filipinos had also sheltered from the rain next to me, and to my question of how long these tropical downpours usually last, they answered... two... or three..... DAYS.

I got a shock then.

But not because I would get wet but because I had nothing to protect my camera from the water.

After a couple of hours I made up my mind to cross the road and ask the shopkeeper for a plastic bag to protect the camcorder, and then I set off back to the hotel in the rain. Luckily I managed not to get it wet.

The next day the 2 lads from Vicenza arrived on the A330 Philippine Airlines flight from Manila; I took them to my hotel, and they, straight off in search of girls.

I had the motorbike for 24 hours, so I took advantage the next day, finally with sunshine, for another short ride, seeing very green places and new beaches, with kinds of mats where they dried sardines or anyway Filipino fish that we don't have.

In the middle of the night, thanks to the satellite TV the hotel had, I managed to watch the Monza Formula 1 GP.

The following day it was the lads from Vicenza who took me to the airport; in fact this time I was taking the Philippine Airlines flight to Manila, which covered the route in a couple of hours, whereas on the way there with the ferry I'd spent 2 days of sailing in third class out of five.

There the Emirates connection awaited me, which by the way was overbooked; I risked not leaving, but in the end I got on, heading for Dubai and Europe.