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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY November 1 - 15, 2016
HEADLINES
Manila,oh, Manila
Life etc.
by Jun Cordero
Just got back from
an Asian cruise that took
us from Hong Kong to
Australia with several
port stops in the
Philippines, Malaysia
and Indonesia. It was
generally a pleasant
adventure though I
won’t bore you with
details - already
did that with our
incessant facebook
postings enough for
my envious buddies
to unfriend me.
For us this
particular cruise was
less impressive than
the others we’ve
been (what with half
of the people on
board were Chinese
from Hong Kong
who naturally had
some social and
etiquette challenges)
but this trip had a
significance.
What
made
this
significant is the fact that this
was our first visit to Manila
after more than thirty years,
and it was the first time I’ve
seen Manila from a ship,
at sunrise slowly emerging
from the horizon as we
entered the bay coming
from the South China Sea.
So even if this was a oneday stop we were excited.
Before I go on, a bit
of history. Manila never had
been a cruise stop. A story
I heard was that years ago
a cruise ship tried to visit
Manila but after port and
custom authorities came
on board at the invitation
of the captain for lunch or
dinner the ship apparently
was looted of items
such as silverwares and
some duty-free items. After
that incident it seems cruise
such as these. We’ve seen
better ports in much poorer
countries.
In every place it visits,
ride from the pier.
That
fifteen-minute
ride turned out to be an
hour-ride. MOA itself was a
lines blacklisted Manila.
Anyways, I made sure
to be at the bow of the
ship along with many other
passengers as we entered
Manila. I pointed to a spot
on the cityscape and proudly
told a fellow from Australia
beside me, “I was born from
there!”
As always, Pinoys are
very entertaining. As our
shipped docked, some
colorful ati-atihan dancers
were at port to greet us.
Naturally the ship passengers
were all delighted.
Sadly the port itself
looked pitiful in a very poor
condition that was not a
welcome sight for tourists
a cruise line promotes the
place and sells excursions in
advance. At the beginning
of this cruise we saw
planned excursions for a city
tour, Makati, Tagaytay and
Pagsanjan Falls, and many
of the cruise guests were
booking those excursions.
Something at the back
of my mind was whispering
words such as “traffic”,
“impossible”, “can’t come
back in time”, so we didn’t
sign up for any of those
excursions. Instead we
opted for the safest tour we rented a van to take us to
MOA, which from the map
looked like a fifteen-minute
delight but the traffic was
not as I remembered it thirty
years ago. It seems like a
wild-west with no traffic
laws!
At the end of the day
we returned to the ship and
that’s when we learned all of
the planned excursions were
cancelled for fear of traffic.
Then came the horrible
stories. A couple from
Malaysia took a calesa that
was supposed to take them
to a tour of Intramuros.
Instead they were taken to
some other place and were
forced to withdraw money
from an ATM under knife
point. Another Australian
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couple were held-up at
gunpoint after taking a
taxi for a tour of the city.
These and several other
horrible incidents
were reported to
the authorities and
to the cruise ship
officers.
Some
time
later in the cruise,
we learned that
the cruise line had
cancelled
future
stops in Manila
and
eventually
will be changing
it’s itinerary - to
exclude Manila. We
can only guess it
could be the result
of these incidents.
There’s only one
word that screams
into my mind:
“nakakahiya!”
Tourists are
funny and weird.
Besides
being
tacky they love to
spend so much money
on souvenirs. Number
one on the list are fridge
magnets! So after steaming
from Manila I was chatting
with an elderly Australian
couple over lunch. So what
souvenirs from Manila did
you get - I asked. Didn’t find
any, the gentleman replied.
Not even a magnet? I asked.
Well, he explained, we were
looking for a magnet we
want but can’t find one.
What kind were you
looking for, I was curious.
The guy chuckled. Well, he
said, it’s something showing
the traffic in Manila - that’s all
we remembered it anyways!