Arrived very early into Manila, met by another flag twirling band:)
Ship got in late and needs to leave earlier today… more about that later!. It is a bit of a history lesson… with links provided…. There may be a pop quiz… Here is what I visited:First the Fort… so it has been the site of a fort of one kind or another for a LONG time… first the Rajah Matanda, a Muslim Tagalog rajah of pre-Hispanic Manila, then the Spanish starting in 1570, then the British starting in 1762, then the US took over as part of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the Spanish-American war 1898…. It wasn’t all roses with the US… the Philippine War of Independence began on February 4, 1899 and continued for two years. The Commonwealth of the Philippines was established by the United States government in 1935 with a plan to grant Filipino independence within 10 years. But then WWII - the Japanese took over… not a good time. Not surprisingly the Japanese did bad things in the fort.. i only took a few photos… but it is a very impressive fort with tropical landscaping |
| Part of the wall |
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| A beautiful courtyard |
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One of the main gates, partially destroyed during WWII
Then restored |
Next the tour walked to San Augustin… here is some street art and photos of buildings on the way there
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| Random Courtyard |
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| An example of Colonial Architecture |
So two cool things I learned at San Augustin….
Cool thing #1
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The beautiful ceiling, which I thought was carved stone… was actually trompe l’oeil painted (all in shades of gray) by two Italians
Cool thing #2 | Saint Rite de Cascia
Advocate for the Impossible
Notice the creepy heads… like creepy dolls… I was riveted! |
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The story of Jose Rizal - he was truly a renaissance man (doctor, painter, writer). His books helped spur on the Philippine revolution against Spain… here is his monument and a rather kick ass Philippine Flag
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| Rizal Memorial |
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| Good looking Flag! |
Lastly the fantastic Manila Hotel… the ‘old part’. It was all decorated for upcoming Chinese New Year!!! This was Douglas MacArthur’s home from 1935 - 1941.
The link shows the suite that was added for him. I got the sense they really love him… Here are pictures I took at the hotel. It is really was magical.
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| Doorman - I made pose |
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| Boxes for the New Year Pastries |
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| The main Lounge |
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| Gotta Love the Dragon |
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| Looking down the hallway |
When we got back to the ship, I took myself out to lunch at the Grand Dining Room, quite civilized… then later in the afternoon before we left port, I went up to the Fitness Track to get my steps in, and I noticed this US Navy Destroyer, I believe it is the USS John Finn (Andy please verify). You can see the sailors, they were loading supplies by passing them up the line!
So in each Philippine port, the bridge staff would blow the horn 3 times on arrival and departure (doesn’t always happen, so I haven’t figured out the rules)… but on our departure the sailors on the John Finn waved to us as we left :). It was lovely
Ok now for the ‘why we are late getting in and have to leave early’. Well apparently there is something wrong with one of our engines… I’m not sure what is wrong… I haven’t been asked to troubleshoot :)… but apparently we cannot make the speed expected. For the engineers in the group… here is the Riviera Specs:)
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