The Ideas of March

Our four month stay in the Philippines is at an end. We have toured the northern half of the country and enjoyed the vistas, the peoples, and yes, even the local transit. We have now relocated to the major city of Manila to prepare for coming home.

But that hasn't stopped our adventures. We got to ride in a manual version of the tricycle, a cab beside a man  madly pedalling his bike to keep ahead of the diesel monsters sharing our road. Well, "sharing" is being generous. They believed it was their road and they would deign to let us use it, until we got in their way. But once we got onto a main road, our pedaller took a short cut by riding in the wrong lane, against traffic, and we got out of their way much faster. Thank goodness.











Manila streets are typical of a city, always busy and noisy, full of people trying to get somewhere by foot or car or bus.

Quite a contrast to the quiet luxury of the hotel, where we will be staying. Twenty-five floors above real life.





So, of course we need more.

We were treated to a trip to Pagsanjan Falls a couple of hours outside of the city. They paddled us up the river in long, narrow boats, similar to canoes but with flat shallow bottoms. The river was fairly fast, and our paddlers strong. They needed to be. The paddling was the easy part. Turns out there are 16 rapids between the launch and the falls. And these Filipinos don't portage. The paddlers jump in and out of the boat pushing and tugging us up narrow channels of fast, rocky rapids. We were told to keep all fingers well inside the vessel as we bounced off rocks and other boats. Suffice to say we got a little wet on the trip up.







Not that it mattered once we arrived at the main attraction. For after we landed, we were escorted to a bamboo raft which was launched out towards the falls. A raft like that can't hold water, and so it will still float when it is pushed under the waterfalls and into the cave behind it. I, however, was like a drowned rat by the time we reached dry land again.



We took a couple of trips around the city to see touristy things. Like Lunetta Park, which we visited during the hottest part of the day, not realizing that it comes to life in the cool evenings. Probably should have guessed from the name. As we were leaving, the food stalls were opening up and the fountains flowing. But we got to see it without the crowds. And we saw Manila Bay, which is deep enough to accommodate the Cunard's Queen Victoria cruise liner in port.






We toured the old walled city of Intramuros that used to hold the entire city in the late 1500's. It is still surrounded by a wall, which itself is now surrounded by a golf course. Which is so much better than allowing houses to crowd up against the outside of the walls.





We looked for a floating restaurant for two days. There used to be one back in the old days, I hear, but we couldn't find a trace of it now. So instead we dropped a bundle on the buffet at the Manila Hotel. You needed a map to navigate the different buffet sections. They had an appetizer table bigger than most other buffets, with not just salads but cheeses, canapes, seafood, pesto, you name it. Then the main meal selections were divided into Greek, Chinese, Italian....  I couldn't try them all.

Enjoying more of city life, we took in a theatre show of "The King and I". No Yul Brynner, but the actors did a fine job of it. I really enjoyed the "play within a play" interpretation of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" done in traditional Siam style. And when we came out, we enjoyed a spectacular fireworks display set to music. Thousands of people were watching this pyrotechnic competition between China and Australia behind the Mall by the Bay. We paid for chairs, and since it started 40 minutes later than the 7pm start time and ended up at 10:30 pm, I'm glad we did. But what an amazing display! We watched until the end, at which point the crush of people inched towards the streets to try to find a way home. The main road was blocked and taxis were turning down fares if they required using a major route.

Oh, the ups and downs of city life. All in one day. Just like us, trying to fit everything that's left into the few days remaining.

W