A quick tour of Old Manila

We are in Manila, Philippines for a day.

 The really neat thing about this stop is that most of the crew will get to see their families and loved ones. Many of our fellow passengers chose to stay on board and look in on the crew reunions. Bonnie and I discussed it and decided that that is the crew’s special time and much as we wanted to meet a few of the children and relatives of some of our favorite crew members, we do not want to infringe on their limited time alone.

We opted for a half-day tour of the old city – Intramuros, the old Spanish city within the walls – and a quick glimpse of part of the "American" city, that is outside the walls of Intramuros.We had only four places scheduled for the tour: Fort Santiago; San Augustin Church; the Jose Rizal monument; a refreshment stop.

The old fort was interesting in that the Japanese used it as their last stand during WWII. Over 600 bodies were found in a dungeon, many of whom had been starved or suffocated.

 The entrance to Fort Santiago.

A view across the old parade ground which is now a park.

San Augustin Church is, as you might expect, dedicated to Saint Augustine. The church is a “working” church, but the church complex also houses a museum, a monastery, and a soup kitchen. We saw the inside of the church and part of the museum. The trompe l’oeil ceilings and doorway arches are incredible. The museum has a relic collection that we found hard to understand, but many people of the Catholic faith would probably find them much more interesting.

 That is a FLAT, painted ceiling! Quite an eyeful...

The detail around the doorway is also a flat, painted work of art.

After we left the church, we crossed the street to a kitschy tourist restaurant – “Barbara’s Restaurant and Dinner Show” – that is strictly for tourist groups. We had originally been scheduled to have that refreshment stop at the famed Manila Hotel, but there is a marathon race being held and traffic is a nightmare.

After our rest stop, we toured several of the more recent landmarks from the bus: the Coconut Palace; the US Embassy (the most heavily fortified embassy in the world); the Cultural Center of the Philippines; the Jose Rizal monument and execution ground.

The Coconut Palace was originally built by Imelda Marcos as a private hotel for Pope John Paul II to stay on his visit in 1981. He felt it was too opulent for a Pope and declined. It is currently used as the Vice Presidential Palace.

The Coconut Palace is indeed constructed from all coconut palm materials.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines was built in the late 1960s by then-President Ferdinand Marcos. It was to showcase Philippine culture, history, and arts. Unfortunately, it has evolved into a rather large, unwieldy, exhibition center with some theatre and arts programs, but is not used nearly to its potential.

The Jose Rizal Monument and Execution Ground are remembrances of the man considered to be one of the Philippines greatest heroes in that he was the loudest voice urging the overthrow of the Spanish occupation of the Philippines in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. His monument is guarded 24 hours a day by uniformed Philippine Army personnel and a smaller monument nearby commemorates the exact spot where he was executed in 1896 (at the age of 35). Rizal Park is, however, a beautiful oasis of parks, playgrounds, and other monuments to which Manila’s populace flock when possible.

 A view across Rizal Park.

The monument and its guardians.

We were back on the ship in time for lunch!

Tomorrow we have a sea day and then Hong Kong (HK). HK is the last stop on this leg of the trip and we will spend two nights overnight there. Actually, the ship will overnight there, Bonnie and I will be taking off for three days in Beijing. I will write that up on our return.

The next leg of the voyage – HK to Singapore – will be tough to keep up with the blog. In two weeks we will visit five ports and have overnight stays in four of them. There are only four sea days from this coming Sunday until March 21st.

Soooo…stay tuned and expect a lag between notices.