Airport

With 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 Parañ aque. International and domestic PAL passengers use NAIA II (also known as the Centennial Terminal).

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport is the Philippine's most used gateway to the country and is the largest international airport in the country as well. Unfortunately it is divided into four terminals - Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and the Manila Domestic Airport - without easy connections between them and the only way of hopping around terminals is through taxis and jeepneys.

There are buses outside the arrival area heading to downtown Makati City and Quezon City via EDSA or Efipanio de Los Santos Ave. This arrangement is preferable for those with only one light backpack heading for the mentioned areas.

Airport metered taxis are colored yellow, and have the right to stop and pick up passengers and line up the porte cochere area as you step out of the arrival hall. Each departing taxi is registered by a dispatcher. The base fare is ₱ 70.

For those penny pincher budget junkies, go up the elevator to the departure level and " hijack" those white painted (standard color for all city taxis) taxis that have just dropped off their departing passengers and are heading their way out of the airport. Fortunately, they don't pass any airport fees to passengers they may pick up and that's the advantage. The pay back is since the yellow ones have the exclusive right to pick up passengers, security guards are under orders to shoo away non-yellow (and non-registered) taxis picking up passengers in the departure area. But based on experiences by other travelers, yellow cabs, although registered, tend to have faster calibrated meters. So it may end up that a white cab can get you to your destination for less than half the fare it cost you to use the yellow cab.

It would not be easy updating the list of airlines using which Terminal as it's still in a state of flux and confusion. Airlines keep on moving their landing/take-off locations between the three within a year or so. However, the rule of thumb is all international airlines use Terminal 1 while Philippine Airlines uses Terminal 2 and Cebu Pacific uses Terminal 3.

Binondo is the " Chinatown " district in Manila. It became the center of commerce during the American occupation. Many of Binondo's commercial establishments were destroyed after World War II, with companies moving to Makati, one of the financial capitals of the Philippines.

Binondo was created by Spanish Governor Luis Pé rez Dasmariñ as on 1584 for a settlement for the Chinese Immigrants (called Sangleys), with the intentions of converting the Chinese to Catholicism at the initiative of the Spanish Dominican Fathers. Spanish officials forced the Chinese to convert into Catholicism and if not they'd be executed. Luis Pé rez Dasmariñ as played a prominent role in the massacre of 24, 000 Chinese after the Chinese revolt in 1603. The reason for the massacre was that he wanted to avenge his father's death under the hand of the Sangleys. Binondo's population grew rapidly with many Chinese Mestizos, products of intermarriage between the now-Catholic Chinese and local Filipinos. The district is therefore known as the birthplace of the Chinese Mestizos, including St. Lorenzo Ruiz, who became the first Filipino saint, and Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, a Mestiza de Sangley who was the founder of the congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary.