Manila, Philippines - November 3, 2013

The Thrilla in Manila. This is what comes to mind as I am walking off the ship this morning, Mohammad Ali and George Foreman I believe was the big fight that night so many years ago. Day one in Manila was spent on the wrong side of the tracks as it were. We walked off the ship to a wonderful group playing local music and performing traditional dances, very nice - great photo op. We then headed out of port, today was with Jeff/Joy and Mary Rose and husband Lionel. We stopped to look at the local transportation, interesting motorbike/sidecart things as well as interesting horse and buggy carts. Through Jeff we negotiated three horse driven buggies for a half an hour for about $8US bucks each cart. Forty five minutes later we get off and they wanted to charge us for an hour and half at about $15.00 per person. We finally agreed on the $15.00 but per cart and walked away. Note to self, write down the agreed time and price and have the driver sign it prior to getting it any vehicle of this nature.

We then had a wonderful visit to the Intramuros area, a walled old city district. We visited Fort Santiago which is definitely worth a look through, our writing up on this is as follows: Fort Santiago, One of the oldest fortifications in Manila. Built in 1571, on the site of the native settlement of Raja Soliman. The first for was a palisaded structure of logs and earth. Destroyed in the Limahong attack in 1574. A stone fort was built between 1589 and 1592. Damaged in the 1645 earthquake. Repaired and strengthened from 1658 to 1663. Became the headquarters of the British occupation army from 1762 to 1764. Repaired and renovated in 1778. Occupied by the Japanese military in 1942 where hundreds of civilians and guerillas were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Destroyed in the Battle of Manila in 1945. This was definitely worth visiting.

And then we headed off the beaten path to a shanty town across the river... As we were walking it began to rain buckets, maybe a sign. A taxi pulled up and all six of us jumped, jammed and crammed into it, not a pretty sight. The taxi driver was very worried that the police would see him and give him a big fine - we said "drive on" to a spot in Chinatown, so yes we bypassed the now flooded streets of the shanty town (sorry for safety sake no pictures). The worried driver pulled up to a 7/11 and we all sprung ourselves from the vehicle. As it was still pouring out, what to do - too early to eat, well one our troop saw a sign for cheap massages, $18.00 per hour for a full body massage. They could take five of us, the last man out had a beer and a nap (the massage shop provided him with a lounge chair). Once again another excellent massage, ahhh.

WIth the sun now shining we headed further into chinatown and to a great little spot for lunch. After lunch we headed towards the illusive San Sebastian church (built entirely out of steel). Illusive because we walked and walked and walked and not in the nicest part of this city, lots of children sleeping on the sidewalks (well not real sidewalks but in areas off the street), not too much begging but lots of unclean streets. I now know what Chicago meant but upgrading their river from toxic to polluted. This rivers and channels of water were truly "Toxic". And then it began to rain once again, we jumped into two cabs this time and visited the Cathedral, very nice and mass was going on so we stayed for about 15 minutes and listened to the english language sermon - nice. As it was still raining when we left we waded through a few huge puddles and hailed a cab to take us back to the ship. We will visit the other side of Manila tomorrow.