Little red house
One of the fascinating things we saw in Manila was this red house (smack dab on the center of this photo). This was in one of the poorest areas along the Coastal highway. That is a 4-story house, only a few feet wide. I swear, if you stretch out your arms, you can touch both walls. It's in what we call the "squatters' area". Lacking land, they have to build up.

The yellow jeep is one of the famous passenger jeepneys, which seats 12-15 people, and can take you anywhere in Manila and the provinces.

Taal Volcano
One of the places I wanted to visit on this trip is the famous Taal Volcano which can be seen in Tagaytay. It's an active volcano in the middle of a lake. Last time it erupted was in the 70s but with the more frequent tremors happening recently, it's due for another eruption. Tagaytay has become ritzy and popular to retirees looking for affordable places to live in the Philippines. Tagaytay's climate is perfect .

Thunderstorm
This was what greeted us as while flew in to Manila. Massive thunderclouds, dark rain clouds and lightning. They shut down Manila Int'l Airport because of it. We later found out that heavy rains like this can shut down their radar/GPS thingies. No planes can land until the rain stops. The funny thing is, the 15 days we were there, it rained for 14 days, only in the afternoon, lasting for 15-30 minutes, and always in the afternoon. Guess what? A majority of incoming Int'l flights arrive in the afternoon and evening--lol!