Back in the early 70s we were living in Manila in the Philippines. We lived in an apartment Building downtown — right on Manila Bay and from our balcony we could see what looked like a very nice motel, pretty much right out behind our apartment building. It always looked like it was well maintained and the grass and trees were always cut and trimmed. It was laid out in a “U” and all the rooms were located above a covered area where the cars could be parked. It seemed like there were always cars there so it appeared to be doing a good business.
A friend of ours was stationed at Clark Air Force Base, about 50 miles from Manila, but the road between Manila and Clark wasn’t the best and the trip often took several hours. Our friend was going on a trip to a neighboring country to install some equipment and his flight was out of Manila International Airport early one morning. Since it was an early morning flight I told him he should come down the day before and stay with us and I could take him to the airport to catch his flight. He thought staying in Manila overnight was a good idea, but he said he didn’t want to stay with anyone — he’d just stay in a hotel.
I suggested if he didn’t stay with us he stay at the nice little motel very near out apartment and then I could just pick him up in the morning and take him to the airport. He thought that was a pretty good idea and he came to Manila the day before his flight. That afternoon, I drove him over to the motel so he could check in and then we were going to go out to dinner that night. We drove to the motel and went into the office — the clerk was very friendly and asked how he could help us. Our friend said that he need a room. The hotel clerk asked for how long and our friend said, “just one night.” The hotel clerk’s eyes grew wide and he asked, “ALL night?”
Our friend stayed in our extra bedroom that night. Things are not always what they seem…..
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