Manila, Philippines

Manila

Our stop today is Manila, the capital of the Philippines.  Not only were the passengers looking forward to this stop, many of the crew were as well.  The Philippines is home to a large number of crew on the Amsterdam. This was a stop home, and many crew were having family and friend come on board to visit.  There was estimated about 1600 visitors would be coming on board including several small children from a nearby orphanage who put on a holiday show for us (they were SO cute!)

 There's a love/hate relationship with the Durian in these areas. Here is a store that only sells it.

 Our tour in Manila was “The charms of Old Manila”.  We started our tour at Rizal Park and the old walled city of Intramuros.  Intramuros was built during the Spanish colonial period but was mostly wiped out in WWII and has never recovered.

We then had a walking tour of Fort Santiago which served as headquarters of the military might of the Spanish, American and Japanese colonizers until its destruction in 1945. Here we were treated to a demonstration of Carnival, Philippine style.  The local Mardi Gras celebration is a “frenzied merriment” where revelers wear colorful costumes, body paint and make-up, while they dance, prance, stomp, shriek, shout uninhibitedly to a hypnotic drumbeat.

 

 

 

 

Next up was the Manila Cathedral, a magnificent architectural feat with stone carvings, stained glass mosaics and rosette windows.  Unfortunately, we were only able to see the outside of this church due to renovations.

 

We then went to Casa Manila, a reconstructed 19^th century mansion complete with 16^th to 19^th century furniture and furnishings.  The home showed what daily life may be like to live in the hot, humid climate.  All the rooms had windows and wall pieces that would slide open to create cross drafts in order to cool the home. It was visually very Spanish in style.  We were not able to take and pictures of the inside of this home.

 

After the Casa we headed to St. Augustin Church, the oldest structure in the Philippines which dates back to 1571.  Inside the cathedral is a cemetery, here because of the flooding issues in the Phillipines people are cremated and placed in above ground niches.

Our last stop was to the local hand craft market.  We were able to browse the local ebony wood sculptures, pearl jewelry, and intricately designed clothing from the area.

After returning to the ship for a break we went to the local mall – Robinson Mall.   This mall was HUGE 7 floors in some sections, yet mall size on each floor.  There was almost every American fast food and mall store here, including Krispy Crème which Ty took advantage of and got himself a dozen to bring back on the ship. As we entered the mall, we could tell this was not a normal day. There were hundreds of young people crowding different areas, taking pictures and screaming.  We saw that the objects of the commotion were all young men.  At first we thought they must be some sort of boy band.  As we pushed on into the crowds we realized that they were actually basketball players.  The mall was hosting the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) 2013 draft.  These young men were the draftee’s and future professional ball players.  What we thought was so funny was the fact that so many young girls were screaming, doting and nearly fainting at the sight of them like we would see with Justin Beiber at home.  It was quite an interesting situation to be thrown into. 

We browsed the mall then returned back to the ship after our long day.

 

Ty's treats from the mall.