I suppose I should have been prepared for it, arriving as a single man by plane in Manila in the middle of the night. "I can offer you a good, clean 16-year old university girl", said the taxi driver.
I had added the Philippines to a round-the-world itinerary, because Mount Mayon looked interesting. But soon found the local people even more lively than this active volcano:
"Mayon is not a mountain, it is a volcano. Are you up to it?", asked a girl, presuming that I wasn`t. I guess.
"Is there water, is there water!" mocked a younger child from a safe distance after I had asked her "is there water on the mountain?", got a quizzical look and then moved further up the track..
"Do you like sex", asked an alternatively persuaded young man in the YMCA in Manila, after I checked in to a twin-bed room at 7 o`clock in the morning, fit for a full 8 hours sleep. He had just gotten up, but when I came in, he got undressed again and jumped back in to his bed. But was flush-faced and fully clothed again, and gone within 10 minutes, after I had turned him down.
It felt a great relief to escape from all this adventure onto the tamer slopes of Mayon, and partake of an activity more in keeping with my genteel upbringing.