What's the difference between a Doctor's Waiting room, Hell and Manila?  Give up? "The Doctor has old magazines."  Manila is not one of my favorite places and we have relatives in Paco, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Metro Manila.  -Heck- everyone has a relative in Metro Manila.  The city is very old and years behind in many services.  As with any big city in a poor country, people flock to Manila for opportunity and work.  The city is very overburdened, noisy, overcrowded, and has the worst traffic in the world. Paco is only a few miles from the airport but the ride takes almost an hour.  I always ask the taxi driver,  "What do the white lines down the street mean?"  "Nothing" is the typical reply. EDSA Blvd. is three lanes wide but the jeepneys and trucks travel six or seven abreast. Traffic signals,- of the 10% that work,-  mean little, and private vehicles are restricted to an odd/even driving day.  The wealthy, just buy another car to use on the even numbered days.  Seventeen towns comprise Metro Manila andmost of them are along the "belt-way" EDSA.  The population is around twelve million.  (eleven million are childen, and ten million of those children live on Nong Coro's street in Paco.  We did tour Manila on one trip, brother-in-law Bob has an old classmate who is a big deal with the telephone company, "PLDT" and he showed us the town.  We rode about in a Mercedes Van which was HUGE! (seats 16) and we went up to Tagatay, Taal Volcano, Peoples Park (The Palace in the Sky), Rizal Park, Coconut Palace, Intramuros, the American Cemetery, and Forbes Park.  There is a very dramatic and moving statue of Ninoy Aquino in Makati, but I didn't get a good picture of it.