These guys love nothing better than a good old chat and getting money out of you. 

They are a friendly bunch. They pit themselves against their rivals and wouldn’t think twice about shafting them.  

But there’s always a logic in their reason. 

‘The junkies will get you there,’ says Edward my new massage guy who has his position about halfway along the promenade facing Manila Bay.

My other massage guy Chris has his positioned about fifty meters from the junkies, many of them street urchins who sniff glue. 

‘Two foreigners went missing after messing with them,’ he warns me. ‘A German and a Swiss guy, they were never found.’ 

I caught him out of the corner of my own eye. This particular stretch is dark, the lamps don’t light it up.

It's a perfect place for crims who want to stab a tourist and rob him, without ever being seen. 

I moved on, vying away from the junky who probably robbed and killed the missing tourists. I’m sure he had a knife and was ready to plunge it into me and rob me.

He was very skinny.

'That's him,' says Edward. And I said he'd be running down the road with his junkie mates before anyone noticed me bleeding to death on the pavement.

I eventually managed to shake him off. It's not the first time I've looked behind me while walking forward. 

‘You played it safe,’ said Edward who knew the junky well.

I got a foot and back massage off him. It was a small price to pay for his life-saving advice. 

But while walking back to my hotel, he said don’t speak to anyone. 

‘Once you let them in, there’s all kinds of strife they can commit.’ 

The tout wanted to show me a card, it was of a strip joint. 

Sure hand it over. He wanted to take me there personally. 

I don’t want to go to a strip club.

‘Do you want to take a lady back to your hotel?'

And get robbed, no thanks. 

I only want to get back to my hotel safely and with cash in my pocket. 

My mum always said don’t speak to strangers and now that I have, I can’t shake him off. 

He lingered around while I spoke to the currency exchange folk. The tout was sure he had a fish and tried for his dear life to pull me out of the warm waters of Manila Bay.  

He’d have to try harder. 

And I broke the cardinal rule. At least the junkies didn’t get me. They were planning and conspiring, I could feel in my bones. 

‘Come down here and see the big fish,’ said the ringleader who was hanging around the rocks. I walked on and didn’t give him an inch. His buddy missed out on knifing me as I walked back. I can smell a 'rob a foreign tourist' plan a mile away.

One night in Manila, it’s as challenging as any other place. 

There are angels and demons, the question is, which one can be trusted. 

Popular Posts