Rainy Manila and Most of the Crew Made it Back to the Ship by All Aboard Time

Friday, 22 February 2013 - Manila, Philippines

The last port call on the cruise was Manila, the capital of the Philippines and home of a adobo load of the ship's crew. Unfortunately, cruise ships don't often stop here because the South China sea is not known for its smooth sailing; there are a number of seas days required from Hong Kong which is the closest popular port; and Manila is not really a touristic city. The main attractions for a visitor are the ruins of the old walled city, a pretty nice 16 century cathedral, and a few scattered but interesting museums. The Philippines were occupied by the Spanish for almost 500 years, the Americans for almost 50 years, and of course the Japanese during WWII. But the Filipinos are friendly, educated people, and the culture is interesting. This is the only Christian country in the Far East. So, the Philippines is one interesting place.

A bunch of small outrigger fishing single man boats dotted the very historic Manila Harbor (lots of battles here throughout the country's history) as we arrived in heavy rain. The crew members were already out of their robot like characters and very much focused on seeing their families, many of whom traveled all night from outlying parts of the country for a short visit. FYI, most crew members work 7 days a week on the ship and don't see their spouses and children for their entire 10 month contracts. The arrival of Silver Whisper in Manila was a very big deal for the crew, and the ship's management accommodated them by allowing extended leave hours and welcomed many families on board for short tours. The ship was electric all day.

We could see some of the families waiting in the terminal for the ship to arrive as we were greeted by two high school bands. They were very wet but nevertheless played American band music and danced to Philippine traditional drum beats, respectively, with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately both groups did these things simultaneously. Needless to say, with the crew's impending family reunions, the bands, and the dozens of Philippine officials who always seem to arrive by boat before we dock, it was a very festive morning in the rain.

Barbara took a wet morning tour of the city's sights. (She reported later that the guide on her bus substituted an expanded city tour by bus for the scheduled outdoor walking tour.) While Barbara was touring I ventured out alone on the ship's shuttle bus. It took me and a few hardy other guests to a gigantic shopping mall, the "3rd largest in Asia", the guide said. Unfortunately it is located far from anything interesting in Manila, but happily the typically heavy Manila traffic wasn't so bad as usual. As previously posted, I enjoyed the free Internet in the mall but didn't penetrate any further than the entrance to the first Starbucks and Forever 21 store until Barbara and I returned later in the day and checked out the ice rink and endless teenybopper clothes and sneaker stores.

In the rain, I was able to see from the shuttle the iconic Philippine's "jeepneys", originally converted US Army jeeps but now custom built. These private buses operate on obscure routes and are adorned frequently with either biblical quotes or names of the girlfriends, wives, or children of the owners. They provide very cheap local transportation but have seats that don't fit "Westerners' bums" said our ship's destination lecturer, but it is very cool to get directions such as, "Take Blood of Christ and change in about 2 km to Cherry May"

I saw many Filipinos waiting in the rain for the US Embassy to open for the day to apply for visas to work in the US. It was nice to return for my third visit to this wonderful country--on the first I was given a private tour of nearby Corregidor by John Eisenhower, son of Ike and father of David of Camp David fame and husband of Julie Nixon--but it would have been nice if it didn't rain.