www.clickthecity.com<\/a>. The former often have an amazing knowledge of the myriad of bus lines. Tell the driver the city you want to go to and you’ll be taken to the right bus station. The latter serves as a good online guide. You can search for ‘bus lines’ and add in the name of the city that’s your destination. Often the correct company will come up. Alternatively, search for ‘bus lines’ and ‘Manila’ and you’ll get a list of over 100 bus companies with services to and from Manila.<\/p>\nThe myriad of private operators have their own terminals scattered around the city. Most are close to EDSA (Manila’s ring road), which connects the highways going north and south of the capital. All the terminals are accessible by public transport; the suggested routes (jeepney or LRT\/MRT) to the terminals are from Ermita and Malate. From Makati, the companies are often just an MRT ride away. It should be noted that Filipino bus drivers are among the most maniacal on the face of the earth, although the number of accidents is surprisingly low. If you’re not used to traveling at breakneck speed, you may well be in for a white-knuckle ride.<\/p>\n
What follows is a list of some of the more important bus companies. Note the headings below refer to the suburb from which your journey originates.<\/p>\n
Boat
\nThe port of Manila is divided into two sections, South Harbor and North Harbor. Unfortunately for the traveler, two of the shipping lines use the hard-to-reach North Harbor. It’s best to take a taxi to North Harbor, as the area isn’t a place for a foreigner to be wandering around with luggage.<\/p>\n
Air
\nInternational
\nWith the exception of Philippine Airlines (PAL), international flights to and from Manila Airport (MNL; 877 1109) use the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal I (NAIA or NAIA I) in Para\u00f1aque. International and domestic PAL passengers use NAIA II (also known as the Centennial Terminal).<\/p>\n
NAIA I am long in the tooth but functional. NAIA II is relatively new and gleaming white. Both have currency-exchange counters and ATMs after customs in the arrival areas. Passengers changing terminals can use shuttles inside the airports before they exit the terminals.
\n
\nNote that someday an entire new terminal will open at the airport. NAIA III will be a cutting-edge replacement for most of the international services at ageing NAIA I. But when will it be done? Actually it was completed in 2003, and has since sat vast and empty. The tale of what went wrong here is a fable for the rest of the Philippines. There’s plenty of gossip and lawsuits but the real facts are lost in a swamp of cronyism and corruption. Should NAIA III open, it can be found on the airport’s east side, near the South Super Hwy.<\/p>\n
A P550 departure tax is payable for international departures.<\/p>\n
Many airlines have city ticket offices in addition to those at the airport. Also, several Asian discount carriers are now flying to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (CRK) at the Clark Special Economic Zone near Angeles, some two hours drive north.<\/p>\n
Getting around
\nFor many the worst part of Manila will simply be getting around. Like many Asian metropolises it has enormous traffic problems. Add in rush hour, rain or both and you’ve got a quagmire. Fortunately there’s one thing local transport isn’t: expensive. Even a cab will seldom cost more than P200 for even the longest journey. So when traffic grinds to a halt, you can sit back in the air-con and read a book or talk to the driver about favorite cover bands.<\/p>\n
Even cheaper are the jeepneys, which go everywhere in a confusing muddle, but also find them stuck in the same traffic despite the best kamikaze-like efforts of the drivers. The LRT and MRT trains are an excellent way to soar over and past traffic. The only downsides are the lack of comprehensive coverage of the city and the mobs using the trains at rush hour.<\/p>\n
Bus & tram<\/strong><\/p>\nBus
\nLocal buses are only really useful to get to places on the main roads such as Taft Ave, Espa\u00f1a Blvd or Epifanio de los Santos Ave (EDSA), as they are prohibited from most streets in the centre of town. Depending on the journey, ordinary buses cost from P10 to P15; air-con buses cost from P10 to P25.<\/p>\n
Like jeepneys, buses have their destinations written on signboards placed against the front windshield, for example ‘Ayala’ (for Ayala Center) and ‘Monumento’ (for Caloocan). Probably the most useful local bus is the air-con PVP Express bus from Quezon Blvd by Quiapo Church to Ayala Center in Makati.<\/p>\n
Car & motorcycle
\nYour first experience of Manila traffic may put you off the idea of renting a car permanently, but if you don’t mind the traffic jams and unorthodox local driving habits, a rented car is probably the best way to visit the attractions around Metro Manila. Remember, though, that you are prohibited from driving your car in the capital on certain weekdays: number-plates ending in 1 and 2 are banned on Monday, 3 and 4 on Tuesday and so on, through to 9 and 0 on Friday.<\/p>\n
International car-rental companies have offices at the airport terminals and some major hotels.<\/p>\n
Local transport<\/strong><\/p>\nTaxi
\nManila taxis are cheap. A trip across town from Intramuros to Makati won’t go over P200 on the meter. The key is to get your driver to use the meter. Most automatically turn it on as you get in, but a few will try various ploys to pad their fare such as ‘forgetting’ or refusing to and then suggesting a lump sum that is always more than a metered trip. But don’t fret; these practices are not prevalent and should the meter not go on (or in rare cases a previous fare not be erased), a good-natured reminder to the driver to ‘turn your meter on’ will usually do the trick.<\/p>\n
The one exception to this rule is when traffic is jammed due to rush hour or rain. In these cases you may give your driver a break and agree to a fare in advance. However it shouldn’t be more than P100 over what the fare would normally be.<\/p>\n
The official flag-fall rate is P30 plus P2.5 for every 500 meters or two minutes of waiting time. Tips of roughly 10% are always appreciated. And do like the cabbies: lock your doors.<\/p>\n
History
\nThe city of Manila was established in 1571 when the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi arrived and made it the capitol of the colony “Felipinas.” At the time of Legaspi’s arrival, Manila was a walled Moslem settlement ruled by the Rajah Sulayman, who collected duties from the traders from neighboring island countries who wanted to travel up the Pasig River. Sulayman resisted the intrusion of the Spanish and fled across the river to the area known today as Tondo. When Sulayman’s men met Legaspi’s forces at the Battle of Bangkusay Channel on June 3, 1571, they faced the muskets and cannons of the Spanish with only spears and arrows. The Moslems were defeated, and Sulayman himself lost his life during the battle.<\/p>\n
Although the Chinese invaded Manila in 1574 and the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, the Spanish retained control of Manila for 327 years, except for a brief interlude in 1762 (during the Seven Years’ War) when the British occupied the city. When the Seven Years’ War ended, Manila was once again under the rule of Spain as a condition of the 1763 Treaty of Paris. The Spanish brought Roman Catholicism to Manila, founding many churches, convents, and schools. This influence remains to this day, as the Philippines are the only Asian country in which Christianity is the predominant faith.<\/p>\n
The citizens of Manila chafed under the yoke of Spanish domination. The seeds of revolution germinated in 1886 with the publication of Dr. Jose Rizal’s book Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), a novel critical of the way the Spanish friars were governing the Philippines. The Spanish condemned Noli Me Tangere, and Rizal was exiled to Hong Kong. In 1892 he returned to Manila to found La Liga Filipina, a nationalistic organization. Later that year in the Tondo section of Manila, Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan, a secret organization devoted to attaining Filipino freedom from Spain. The Spanish discovered the Katipunan in August of 1896 and banished hundreds of Filipinos. Many others were killed. Within ten days, the Katipunan Revolt began, with an open declaration of war against Spain. Jose Rizal became a martyr of the revolution when the Spanish executed him by firing squad on December 30, 1896, in Bagumbayan, Taguig (now part of Metro Manila), for his alleged role in the Katipunan Revolt.<\/p>\n
With the unmasking of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio called the Tejeros Convention, at which the revolutionary Tejeros government was formed, with General Emilio Aguinaldo at its head. The Tejeros government was unsuccessful in its fight for freedom from Spain, and as part of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato peace treaty, General Aguinaldo accepted exile in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
Despite the failure of the Tejeros revolution, Spanish rule of the Philippines was soon to come to an end. The Spanish-American War battlefield spread to Manila in 1898, where U.S. Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Manila Bay. With the Americans came General Aguinaldo, arriving on the U.S. warship USS McCullock, ready to resume his revolutionary activities against Spain. On June 12, 1898, in Manila, General Aguinaldo declared the Philippines independent from Spain; however, his declaration was not recognized internationally. The United States paid Spain 20 million dollars for their former colony, and Filipinos once again found themselves under foreign rule.<\/p>\n
War broke out between the Filipinos and the Americans on February 4, 1899, when an American soldier shot and killed a Filipino in Manila. The Philippine-American War continued through 1903 at the cost of many lives both in Manila and elsewhere throughout the islands.<\/p>\n
In 1935, the U.S. government committed itself to granting the Philippines independence after a ten-year transition, a period that was extended by one year due to World War II. On January 2, 1942, the Japanese landed in Manila, where they remained for three years until they were forced out of their Intramuros stronghold in February 1945. Manila was severely damaged by the bombings of World War II. Of national capitols, only Warsaw, Poland, suffered greater destruction. On July 4, 1946, the Philippine flag was raised for the first time in Rizal Park in Manila, and the nation celebrated its first day of independence.<\/p>\n
Manila played a key role in the upsetting of dictatorial President Ferdinand Marcos. On August 21, 1983, exiled former senator Benigno Aquino was assassinated at Manila Airport immediately upon his return to his homeland. This assassination shocked the city and the nation and united opposition groups to fight for the end to his rule.<\/p>\n
Source: http:\/\/www.city-data.com\/world-cities\/Manila.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s a pity that Manila is often disparaged, as there’s much here to like. For one, all the adjectives often used to describe the Philippines – jovial, laid back, casual, corrupt, shambolic, earnest and more are on display here more than anywhere else in the country. It’s a truly teeming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plan-your-vacation-to-asia-with-our-traveling-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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