Manila

Manila has had its surprises. We enjoyed our first bath since leaving Canada.  And we fit in the beds!

The sign on this abandoned building reads
"Ria's Ladies Dorm, Art Gallery, Restaurant"

View over Manila from our hotel - clear skies!

I was expecting to see some slum areas, partly from a previous visit in 1988 and partly because that impression was reinforced by the film "Lola" that we watched at SSU before we left.  But instead I have seen a relatively modern city with lots of very tall buildings (a lot of banks), modern and very attractive museums, and lovely parks.  There have been some run-down or abandoned buildings and some construction that has obviously stopped, but these have been a minority and there is lots of new construction in progress.  Also, the air is a lot clearer than it was 24 years ago, although still not quite as pristine as Laoag.  A few times it took the sight of a jeepney to remind me I was in the Philippines.  I know there is still a lot of poverty and the slums are extensive but it seems more hopeful here than I was expecting.

Waiting for the Ayala Museum to open:
Kathleen, Randy, Jules and Nicole

We have made four stops at museums and art galleries during our brief stay here.  On Friday five of us crammed into a taxi designed for four passengers only and went to the National Museum and art gallery.  The star attraction there were two paintings, one by Juan Luna (remember the mustaches in Paoay) and one by Felix Hidalgo. The paining by Luna is called Spoliarium and depicts the room under the Colliseum in Rome where dead gladiators were disposed of.  Painted in 1894, it won a Gold Medal at an exposition in Madrid - a first for a Filipino painter.  The Luna work together with the Hidalgo painting became touchstones of the revolution against Spanish colonialism in 1898.

Even though it is only about eight km from our hotel, it took well over an hour for the return taxi trip

Intramuros Calessa ride

We heard a lot about Philippine history the next day, first with a visit to Ayala museum where we saw a series of 70 dioramas of various events in Philippine history.  This is a museum funded by the Ayala family, one of the wealthiest families in the Philippines.  It was first rate and our guide was excellent.  We wished we had had more than the two hours allotted.

The next visit to the Bagumbayan Light and Sound museum featured a walk through a series of life-size scenes of many of the same events depicted at the Ayala museum.  The third trip through history was a walking tour through the Intramuros district of Manila.  This was the walled section of the city built during the Spanish colonial era (1571 to 1898). Sadly the district was largely destroyed during WW II.  Our guide for this tour was very dramatic and gave impressions of various historical characters.  His take on General MacArthur was none too flattering and he was generally quite irreverent about many aspects of Philippine history.

Our guide`s take on MacArthur

The tour included a Calessa ride and a Halohalo, a typical Filipino dessert.

On Sunday we attended Word of Hope Christian Family Church.  They meet in a shopping mall and have 6 two-hour services every Sunday. They use two cinemas with parallel services in each. The music was mostly Hillsong, and the preaching was excellent.  The church has grown from almost zero to 6,000 members in six years.  Worship was exuberant and at a higher volume than I have experienced before.