Manila and enroute Hong Kong

Sunday, March 16

We were a little tardy getting into Manila and spent some time drifting around Manila Bay along with a myriad of other ships and boats. Something about having to wait for the lanes to clear.

Video: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipO8GEnlzNknee4h1LHevfMFeJB4wt3uk9lhT0nU

But none of the excursions were delayed to my knowledge. We met our new German geocaching friends, Jan and Dorothy for breakfast to plan our strategy to get a Mystery Cache in order to qualify for a Pi Day souvenir (We had 3 days from 3/14 to get a Mystery Cache). They both speak fluent English and Sue had been communicating with Jan (pronounced yon) to figure out how to solve the puzzle and find the correct coordinates for the hidden cache. We had an excursion scheduled for the morning and they had it free. We decided to meet after our excursion was over at around 12:30 and travel together via taxi to the cache location.

Our excursion included a Kalesa ride, a two wheeled, horse drawn cart around “Old Town” Manila, and a tour of Baluarte de San Diego, a 16^th century fort and a visit to Rizal Park and finally a rolling bus tour of downtown Manila.

Coral Tree flowers

Water cistern

Our first stop was the fort. Built from 1591 to 1594 to protect from invaders. It is shaped somewhat like the Ace of Spades. The most interesting part was the elaborate cistern system built to provide water to the fort and surrounding area. It also had lodging quarters, a workshop and a nice courtyard.

Coral Tree?

The courtyard now contains a beautiful tree with orange flowers that I think was called Coral Tree.
The grounds also had a bonsai tree garden. Some looked in kind of sad shape but they all looked very old.

Bonsai Garden

We next boarded the Kalesa, a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage. They are brightly painted and decorated and the ones we had held four passengers. These were the primary mode of public and private transport in the Philippines during the Spanish and American colonial period.

Wilson ready

A couple boarded ahead of us and our driver, Kenzie, had Sue sit opposite them and wanted me to sit up front with him to provide the correct balance. This would help, Wilson, the grey horse pulling us, have an easier time of it.

Kenzie

He offered to take our picture before we started our tour around the Intramuros, the quarter square mile, centuries-old historic district, entirely surrounded by fortifications.

The wall

Kenzie did a nice job of describing the different areas as we passed by. Some of the fortifications had barred areas where prisoners were held, and sometimes mass executions, by the Japanese during their occupation here in World War II.

former prisoner area
of wall fortification

We left Intramuros, entering Extramuros, which meant anyplace outside the stone wall. He took us around the area which boasted many colleges and universities. Evidently, Manila is the place to come for higher learning.

Look at that tangled mass of wires!

Very noticeable in this older section of Manila was the tangled mass of electric and phone lines stretched everywhere. Even worse than what I have experienced in border towns of Mexico. The ride took about 45 minutes, and we returned back where our bus was waiting to take us to the next stop.

Rizal Park

Which was, Rizal Park and Monument. Jose Rizal is widely regarded as the Philippine national hero. He dedicated his life to advocating for the reform under Spanish colonial rule. Through his published writings, he exposed the injustices of Spanish rule and was influential in the Philippine reform movement.

Jose Rizal Memorial

His remains are contained within the monument which is located just outside the park area which is a lovely area filled with families

enjoying the day. It also contains a geocache, hidden in one of the numerous covered structures built to provide shade. We had to excuse ourselves as we intruded on a couple seated there to step up on the frame to retrieve the cache. Our first in the Philippines!

The next hour was taken up the rolling tour through the downtown area of Manila. I took a few pictures through the bus window, but it was mostly highlighting buildings and parks, golf course and other things I cared little about.

We ended the tour back at the Terminal Building where we were going to meet up with Jan and Dorothy. We waited a bit and Sue shopped at some of the shops there. Dorothy had had enough and wanted to return to the ship.

Jan & Sue

The three of us grabbed a taxi and settled on the price of US$40 to take us to the geocache sight which Jan figured would take nearly an hour. What geocachers won’t do to earn a souvenir, a virtual one at that! The cab ride was an experience. The traffic, although light according to our driver, because it was Sunday, was very chaotic. There were lanes but not many paid much attention to them, especially the motor scooters, which were everywhere! Almost all of them had two people aboard and our driver said a lot of them were taxis. Locals used them instead of cabs since they were more economical. They weaved in and out of traffic, cutting in front of us all the time and riding so close to us, only inches separating them from us and others. If this was light, I would hate to see it during rush hour on a weekday. Manila proper has a population of just under two million, but the metroplex is around 12 million! All trying to get to work, rush hour lasts about three hours he tells us.

It does take the better part of an hour before arriving at our destination and after several attempts to get him to find a place to drop us off, he finally does and of course he will stay in the area and give us a ride back. We find a cross walk to get across the street to where our GPS says the cache should be. The clue was something about tying your shoe but don’t get your feet wet. We found a type of water main connection low to the ground up against a wrought iron fence.

Found it!

After some clearing away some debris (the cache had last been found in January) I finally found it tucked away underneath the framework for the piping connections. It was a metal bison tube containing the log. We all signed and dated it and replaced it like we found it. We had earned our Pi Day souvenir. Our cabby was watching from the traffic and was soon alongside. On our way back, we came upon an accident. One of the motor scooter taxis was involved in a crash of some sort and the female passenger was lying in the roadway. There was plenty of help there to divert traffic until she could be taken care of, so we kept on our way. I can’t think that this is unusual considering how they drive.

We have the cabby drop us off at Robinson’s Mall where the shuttle can be caught to take us back to the ship. It is now around 3PM and none of us have eaten since breakfast. We went into the mall and found a TGIF Fridays. I wanted a San Miguel beer which is what most sailors drank back in the day. Sue had Mojito and ordered something called Crispy Spinach. Jan settled for a diet coke.

San Miguel

Crispy Spinach

We shared the spinach, which was quite good actually, I may have to try it at home. Jan and Sue wanted to do some shopping, so they left, and I ordered another San Miguel. While they were gone, a man came in a sat not far away and ordered a Hangover Burger. He sounded like an American, so I asked him what that was. He said he thought it was because it is so big it hangs over the side of the bun. Anyway, I asked where he was from, and he said Utah originally, but he now lived here. When he found out I was from Iowa, he said his grandfather, James Braddy, founded a town in Iowa on the Missouri border called Braddyville. (I later verified this on Google). Jan and Sue returned, so we quickly left to catch the shuttle back to the Queen.

Quite a day in all, Sue and I relaxed on our balcony and watched the sunset before exiting Manila Bay, heading for the South China Sea and Hong Kong.

I took a short video of the lighted Manila skyline. I tried to do a narration as well, but I don’t think it was picked up.

Video: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMZOiwciY8HbboWDA1xoOtJP89mK0CdB7VnPc9l

This post was written Monday, March 17th, so Happy St. Pat's Day to everyone. Unfortunately, the weather has made the South China Sea the roughest we have encountered so far. Our stateroom was creaking and rocking and rolling when we got up this morning. Sue was OK through breakfast but as the morning progressed, she got seasick and made several runs to the bathroom. Fortunately, it only lasted a couple of hours as conditions improved somewhat, or she got accustomed to it, she recovered nicely. I'll post a few more pictures from Manila. Next stop is Hong Kong tomorrow. We will lose our internet due to some restrictions from Starlink or Communist China while there.