Manila Philippines Temple

On our way back from Boracay via Kalibo, we stopped back in Manila for the night. When we arrived at the airport, we decided to go straight to the Manila Temple to take some pictures before checking into our hostel. It was kind of an interested start. Apparently in Manila there are the white taxis and the yellow taxis. Yellow taxis start their fares at 70 pesos, and white taxis start at 40 pesos. As we were waiting at the airport for a taxi, we must have seen at least half a dozen unoccupied ones drive by. We asked the men who were coordinating the line and they said "You're in line for a yellow taxi" When asked what the difference was, he just said they had different starting rates... weird. We ended up getting a white taxi while the others continued to stand in line. Maybe they knew something we didn't? Who knows? 

So we get in the taxi and tell the driver where we want to go. He drives for about 2-3 minutes, then pulls over and tells us he is out of gas. He hails another taxi for us and we switch our things over. Then, we ask the other driver to start the meter and he tells us our original driver told him we'd pay 1000 pesos. We said no, we will pay the metered rate. Then he asked us where we lived, and we said China... he reluctantly agreed. We explained we wanted to go take pictures at the first address, then get dropped off at the hostel. He kept saying they are very far very far. We insisted and he drove. A few minutes into the drive he asked if we were Mormon because we were going the the Mormon Temple (we hadn't told him that, we just showed the address). I told him I was, and he said "Oh, that's good" then he started telling us stories about the poverty in Manila and to make sure we keep the windows rolled up and the doors locked because it is common for young kids to come up to taxis and try to rob people at knife point. Uh, thanks taxi man. Luckily we drove mainly on the freeway to our destinations. 

The Manila Temple is gated and fenced in. The security guard almost didn't let us drive into the compound because I didn't have a temple recommend. After a few minutes of waiting for him to communicate with someone on the radio, he let us in. It was about to rain, but I managed to snap a few shots while Ashley stayed in the taxi so he wouldn't leave us behind. 

 

 Because I was so close I couldn't get the whole picture without cutting off the top.

As we were leaving, I noticed there was an MTC (Missionary Training Center) across the street. Too bad we were driving too fast to get a picture.