One of wonderful facets of Holland America Line is their association with Filipino staff. Equally with Indonesian staff but that story happens in four weeks and we’ll be long gone.
We’re in the Manila, capital of this seafaring country. Just like on our last visit the ship is hosting friends and families of our amazing crew. As we get off, after the band and dancers, we pass people beaming from ear to ear in anticipation of seeing their loved ones for the first time in many months.
It’s quite tearful and several times over the next two days I’m struggling to hold back. Fortunately it’s a fairly long walk off the pier and our hard faces are back on in time to fend of the taxi touts, out in force. Firstly we pass Mr Rizal, at the foot of his park of which, and whom, more tomorrow.
Firstly a note about navigating Manila, it could be the most traffic-crazy place on earth, although I may rescind that after Mumbai next year. We learned very quickly that the only way to cross the road is by Death Wish – just do it and avoid the oncoming traffic – it’s quite alarming but it does work, mostly because there is so much congestion it is only slow (for the most part) and bikes do it all the time in every direction!
We have a specific destination in mind but en route we have numerous places to check out, and some sights we couldn’t have planned. An old cemetery – now Paco Park – is a lovely oasis.
Leaving the city we are walking through poor areas. Not poor like we know, poor like we cannot imagine. It’s quite hard to articulate the hardship on show, but as an example we walk though an area where the street market has only fish heads, and no refrigeration. Beggars and rough sleeping is everywhere.
Within a mile the area changes and we see houses, some with two cars, it’s a noticeable difference. Before long we are into high-rise and what might be described as the “City” with recognisable names on doors, like KPMG for example.
Our first intended stop is Nielsen Field which is the site of the old airport in the 1930s, impossible to imagine now surrounded by huge skyscrapers. Only the art-deco control tower remains to remind us of it’s former glory, now a fine restaurant.
We struggle to achieve our next stop, in fact it takes us three different attempts to cross the main road which is so crazy all the pavements are barricaded. The only blessing is that we find our all-time-favourite sandwich shop “Paul” and so take this as karma and get a drink and pastry as it’s only just 11:00.
Eventually we do cross said road and make it to Mckinley Rd which is the millionaires area of town. We try to walk up a sidestreet but are turned back by security personnel. Sticking to the thoroughfare we pass a nice church and then progress on to our ultimate destination, the American Cemetery.
This is the largest American overseas cemetery In the world, with over 17,000 bodies and 36,000 names, the difference representing those who are missing in action from this region. It’s a moving experience and the visitors centre even more so. I stole a couple of screenshots to get the perspective of this incredible 150 acre site.
Returning along McKinley we decide Paul is too good to miss so stop for lunch too, before turning away from our previous route heading back home. Once again we go through many diverse neighbourhoods. It’s notable how many fire stations we pass today.
Eventually we are walking alongside the water’s edge although it’s not easy to tell. Only the naval college (they love posting the recent graduates´ photos, which we will observe again tomorrow at the university) and later the gates to the Navy HQ give us a clue. We continue to see some sights as we return.
Later catch the full moon from our balcony. The show is a cultural one which we really enjoy, having watched many staff-shows over the years we are familiar with the music and dance.
Dinner is at Canaletto the Italian restaurant – osso bucco and sea bass are fabulous. We have a great time with our Thai waitress practicing our very limited language skills.
