"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report # 61 Manila, Philippines February 28, 2014 Friday Day One Partly cloudy, 88 degrees

The crew tent on the pier in Manila

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is one of the world's largest capitals. Metropolitan Manila is made up of 6 districts and 12 cities. How many people live here? Try 12 million. It is huge, and so is the traffic. The Spanish

Welcome to Manila

ruled here for over 300 years, giving the city much of its historical charm. More recent history finds Manila involved with much World War II activity, with extensive damage caused from the fighting between the American and Japanese armies. Who would guess that a number of years later, Manila would become a shopper's paradise with markets and malls galore? We hear that outside the city, the mountains turn lush with volcanoes, both active and extinct. The landscape turns into hillsides of rice paddies. Last but not least, the array of food from a blend of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and American can keep you busy for weeks of dining options.

But we only have two days here, so it is hard to see it all. As for us, we have taken tours of the old and new Manila more than once. Some of our buddies have gone on a ferry to see Corregidor Island, where many battles occured during the war. General MacArthur's headquarters were based in a carvernous tunnel on this island, making it even more famous....a very sobering place to visit. One of our destinations will be Rizal Park near the pier where we are docked, and a trip to Robinsons Mall for an afternoon of window shopping and lunch.

Lucky for us, there was a complimentary shuttle provided by the local Port Authority. It was running from 9:30am to 11pm to the Robinsons Place Manila Mall, which is great. The ride only takes 20 minutes if the traffic is moving. But first before we left, it was necessary to finish the blog from yesterday and get it sent. It is so hard to keep up with daily reports, and so far, we have been pretty disciplined in doing so. We only wish that the internet would cooperate all of the time, but that's another story. It has gotten much better. So while one of us typed, the other went down to check out the pier stalls and look for the promised maps Barbara H said the ship had ordered. Good thing, because all of the freebies were almost gone. We did receive one woven fan, a detailed map, info on the Intramuros district, and another map with fun things to do in the Philippines. Included on this map were fast facts and hints for traveling around the city. Oh yeah, we also now own two necklaces made of strings and painted wooden beads......all complimentary.

Local dancers and band

Entertaining us from 8am to about 10am, were a local band and native girls and guys performing the bamboo dance. Two of them were decked out in costumes of "big" people, which we have seen also in Mexico and Central America and even Brazil. By 10:30am, we were ready to go and so were three large buses that were waiting outside the gate. Between the passengers and some crew members, the bus filled quickly and we were off.

Traditional dance with bamboo sticks

"Big" people

Dance on a bench

Colorful costumes

Xylophones

"Big" people

Robinsons Place Manila Mall

Robinsons Place Manila is considered a regular mall here. Compared to the Mall of Asia, the third largest mall in the world, it is small. With over 600 dining, service, and shopping venues, together with Robinsons Department Store and grocery store, it more than big enough for us. There are four levels where one can find everything and anything you need or don't need. Some of the restaurants are open until 2am, taking care of the late night crowd that go to their theaters. There are four major entrances, all guarded by policemen armed with rifles. Yes, rifles. Need we say more? Most people stay inside this spacious mall just for the air-conditioning.

Customers at TGIFridays

Our main reason for coming was to get some exercise and go out to lunch. There were numerous pizza places, but most were the fast food type. TGIFridays was a better bet, since they serve some of our favorite Mexican cuisine. So we did end up getting one of the last tables for two available at 1:30pm.

San Miguel Draft beer

We shared a chicken quesadilla and a platter of boneless chicken wings, crispy fried chicken strips, celery sticks, chips and dips. Our waitress suggested the San Miguel draft beer, which was served in a chilled 16 ounce mug. The beer cost the equivalent of $2.44. each. Good deal. We were halfway into our meal when Barbara H, our port lecturer, and Joanne, the future cruise consultant were seated next to us. We found it amusing that with all of the choices they had to choose from, the ladies picked Fridays, like us. We chatted until their entrees arrived, which turned out to be Mexican fare also.

A platter to share

Chicken quesadilla to share

We followed up our visit with a stop at Robinsons Supermarket on the first level of the mall. They have everything our supermarkets sell at home as well as Filipino food. We remembered from last year, that their 16 ounce Coke Zero bottles were about 50 cents each. We stocked up on those along with some bags of chips. While we were here, we always like to check out all of their items.

The famous durian fruit cost about $3.50
- has a "nasty" smell we heard

We found one interesting fruit sold here.....the durian. If you have never heard of it, you would think it was a strange-looking type of pineapple with a prickly skin, like cactus. It is what's inside that is nasty to those who do not have a taste for the fruit. It smells like something rotten, or worse. The sign on the fruit said it is high in fiber and good for digestion, like a laxative. Guess we will never find out, because we would not go within a mile of one that has been cut in half. In fact, we have heard that it is forbidden for anyone to bring a durian onboard the ship.

OK, it is healthy too.....you can have ours.....

The bus was waiting right outside the front entrance, and we were back to the ship in less than a half hour. The traffic was almost at a standstill on the main boulevard leading to the pier, and it was only 4pm. Bet the tours coming back at 6 or 7pm will have it a lot worse. Speaking of tours, some of our tablemates did the same tour to Corregidor Island, but did not book the same way. One bought the shore excursion through the ship, while the other went with an independent group. Should be interesting to see how they compared.

Relaxing in our room before dinner, we watched a movie about life in modern Manila for a young, but out-of-work homeless family. It portrayed the seedier side of the city, and we were surprised it was even shown while we were docked here. Very depressing to say the least. Let's just say crime has no good ending.

There were only seven of us for dinner, four of whom were pretty exhausted after their all day tour. It turned out that the Corregidor Island tours were identical, but the difference in price was $160. each. We have been there and done that many times by taking the HAL tours. But there is insurance involved with the more expensive tours, where there is zero coverage by going independant. Most times everything goes well, but it only takes once to be caught in a bad situation. It's a chance that many more passengers are willing to take these days, due to the rising tour costs on the ship.

Along with several Filipino items on the menu, we enjoyed the meatloaf with mashed potatoes entree this evening. Sounds funny, but sometimes good old down home country food is just what we needed. Add the small lemon tarts with blueberries for dessert, and we were happy campers.

It will be strange to be "parked" all night as we are spending another full day in Manila tomorrow. If the weather is as good as today's, it should be a nice day.