On Our Way Home

It's hard to believe that in a few hours we will be checking out of the Shangri-La Hotel in Manila and checking in for our long flight back to the States. This trip began thirty-six days ago on a British Air  flight from Phoenix and will finally end with a Southwest flight from LAX getting to Phoenix just at midnight, if all goes right. Philippine Air cancelled our original flight, which gave us ample time for connecting in LA, and now we have a little over an hour to clear Immigration and Customs and hustle to Terminal 1 to check in. Wish us luck.

Manila has been quite a surprising city, with the poverty you'd expect in a developing country, but also with a surprisingly large and well developed money class replete with all of the high end shopping one would expect, towering chrome and glass skyscraper condominiums, fancy cars, restaurants and hustle and bustle of a modern city. If you stay, like we did, in the town of Makati, you could wake up and think you were in any number of world class cities.

Venture out of the confines of Makati and large pockets of poverty and very tough living conditions are everywhere to be seen.

This is a penthouse shanty built on top of a two level shanty town below it.

Like so many places we've seen, the poor live a large portion of their lives on the street.

As proud as our guide was of the economic progress the Philippines has made over the last few years, the daily minimum wage is still just twelve dollars a day. There is no social safety net as we would know it. Yet the people seem friendly and happy and activity is going on everywhere.

I entered into a sea of people in one of the parks and I can't begin to tell you about all the smiles I got and hellos. In less crowded situations and more personal interactions, the warmth just radiates from these people. I think the Philippine people were one of the highlights of this brief visit. You certainly won't come away depressed as you would from Cuba.

Each country has it's own highly favored means of transportation for the masses and here it is the Willie's Jitney. Thousands of Willie's jeeps were left after WWII and they were transformed into jitneys. Today they are manufactured in the Philippines, but keep the original style. Also, like we have seen every, size is no limitation when it comes to packing things on any form of wheeled transportation.

For a city as old as Manila, it was already a thriving city when the Spanish conquered it in 1561, there is very little history in the form of buildings. Why? The bombings of World War II destroyed most of the prominent historical buildings as the Japanese used them as shelter from the Allies. In fact one of the most imposing sites in Manila is the American Cemetery and Memorial. It is the largest military cemetery outside of the US. There are 17,097 headstones and the remains of 3,704 unknowns. It is astonishing that there are still 36, 286 still listed as missing in action. One can feel the weight of history and the sacrifices our soldiers gave as you walk through.

The historical center of Manila is the Intramuros and here are a few scenes from it. Unfortunately, many of the buildings have not been repaired and after the Marcos Regime was toppled many squatters moved in and they have yet to be removed. 

Those are only some the of highlights of our brief stay in Manila. I have to close now as it's time for us to depart. Kathy is more than ready to get home and I must say I am ready as well. There are still a few more posts left in me, one is a really cool Colombo, Sri Lanka, but that will have to wait until we get back.

I do want to leave you with a picture of the device that makes most of the mercantile commerce in the developing world work. Whether on the plains of the Serengeti, the streets of Mombasa, the back ways of Madagascar, the shops in Phuket, or the bazaars in Turkey, you see merchants every where doing their transactions with these:

This occurred to me at lunch when I saw a well dressed young woman doing a deal with a similarly well dressed man and his wife, who were using their cell phones throughout lunch, take out her Casio Calculator from her leather messenger bag and do the final numbers just as the guys we bought our Tingatinga paintings did in a hot, shack in Dar Es Salaam. The developing world would stop without them.

Off the ship

We left the ship yesterday morning for our hotel in Singapore after thirty days at sea covering almost 9000 miles, visiting 16 ports in 11 countries, consuming 29 bottles of wine, untold old fashions, martinis and prosecos,  gaining ( lets not go there ) pounds and having had a wonderful time. The food on the ship was absolutely fabulous, about the best we have had at sea. Expertly prepared and incredibly flavorful we had everything from soft shelled crabs, foie gras', and carpaccio to the best escargot I have ever had. Main courses included steaks, lobsters, quail, pastas, seafood, an incredible rotisserie chicken and Asian cuisine to die for. Here's a picture of my favorite: a chilean sea bass with a miso glaze.

 The wine list and wine service was the best we have ever had on a ship.  It was really unique with more sommelier's on board than Princess has in it's entire fleet and most were really knowledgable.

We could quibble about some things, it was pretty quiet at night, but that would amount to nit-picking. Oceania did that good of a job.

On the other hand, we had this amount of space and view for thirty days. I won't talk about the bathroom which was the size of a small hall closet or the shower contained within it. It was tight, but we managed. Fortunately, the bed was incredibly comfortable and the pillows so good, we ordered new ones for ourselves. ( you can actually order the mattress as well ) The deck was also nice sized and we spent more than a few evenings out there enjoying a late night Bailey's.

The ship is an old R2 from the failed Renaissance Line for those of you who cruise a lot. It is a small ship holding 680 passengers. Though built in 2000 it was incredibly maintained. The style was a formal, but not stuffy although the string quartet every evening got a little old.

It actually wasn't as stuffy as it looks and the staff was great. One bartender, Je. we became especially close to and he is pictured here at a gin tasting they did where I was the only attendee.  Je loved making Kathy her evening Old Fashioned.  They a different liquor tasting virtually every day although I only did the gin.

Then when leaving port or on days at sea, we head up to the Horizon Lounge on the tenth floor at the front of the ship and just enjoy the view and a cocktail, of course.

All in all, we had a great time on the ship. In May we will be on the exact same ship although this will be outfitted and run by Princess. The good new is we have a suite. We are worried that Princess will not at all be able to match our experience on Oceania.

And now we have this.  The deck looks out onto the bay and we are directly across from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which you can see in the background.  You can also see it from the bathtub and or shower, we have both, housed in a room almost as big as our cabin on the ship.

Of course we won't wake up in a new country in the morning and we will have to pay for dinner, but having the space feels liberating. We had one night on the ship in Singapore and will spend another two before heading off to Manila.  Singapore is a food lover's paradise and we intend to take full advantage of that fact.

And we did last night! I started writing this before we went out in the afternoon and instead of more travelogue how about this: Chili Crab, a famous Singaporean specialty.

It's a giant crab caught in Sri Lanka, then steamed and smothered in a slightly sweet, slightly spicy chili sauce. The dish is to die for not to mention messy. We started the meal with appetizers that looked vaguely familiar, but we weren't sure what they were. Kathy started first and said they are wonderful, which they were. When the waiter arrived we asked what they were, he said, "pickled vegetables and fried fish skin". Ok, so we now have some new favorites that I doubt the chef at the Club will put on the menu. I just wish we had the foresight to take pictures.

The rest of the meal was just as good. Pomegranate Chicken and Mee Goring noodles all washed down with a nice Shiraz. The setting was right on Fullerton Bay with the Marina Bay Sands Hotel behind us, putting on a wonderful laser light show and the iconic Merlion, the mystical symbol of Singapore to our left. The weather was perfect with a light breeze cooling us off as we were sitting outside. It was one of those times you were happy to be right in the moment.

Singapore is an amazing place. It has ethnic diversity, a fascinating history, modern infrastructure, incredible architecture with all the hustle and bustle of a modern city. It is meticulously clean and safe. The subway is a joy. You can shop in an ultra modern mall or an authentic bazaar. You can eat fabulous food at a hawker stall or in a five star restaurant. You can have British formality or laid back comfort. It's really all here.

Tonight we are off to visit our friend Lucas at Mario Batali's Mozza Restaurant. We were there last March with our friends Patti and Paul and it was fantastic. We wish you were here to join us at dinner.

Tomorrow morning, it's off to Manila.

Island Paradises

We left Mombasa and headed on a northeasterly course for the nearly 1600 mile journey to a place we had wanted to visit from the first time we heard about it in the early 1970's, until now, when we finally were able to accomplish our dream of visiting the Seychelles. When you and your spouse are working hard, building a career and a family together, having an island escape, if only in your mind, is a great thing to have. We would finally set foot on ours some forty five years later.

Idyllic, secluded, white sand beaches with 87 degree ocean water lapping up on the shore and a gentle breeze cooling you off, as you sip tropical drinks, and gaze into each others eyes, realizing you finally accomplished your dream. How fortunate are we?

Unfortunately, this isn't a romance novel and while I managed to snap these shots in the few hours we had sunshine and blue skies, we had the misfortune of visiting during rainy season and we had dark skies and periods of rain the two days we were there.

On our first day, we booked a snorkeling and beach trip that would have been wonderful  except for the dark skies and rain. We ditched the snorkeling and made it to some shelter on the beach under a convenient branch of a tree. On our way back to the ship we stopped at a spice plantation, for a nature hike and got to see a giant tortoise, they inhabit the islands, but most are kept in captivity. 

There ware only 86,000 inhabitants in the islands and atolls that make up the Seychelles. It is the smallest country in the African Union. We were surprised to learn that they consider themselves part of Africa. It's a mixed race culture with a heavy French influence and they refer to themselves and their language as Creole. At a folkloric show that evening , if you closed your eyes and just listened to the music, you would have thought you were in the Bayou's of Louisiana.

The next day we hired a car and did a drive around Mahe, the largest island. The island itself is basically a giant mountain rising out of the sea with little flat land. It is lush and densely tropical.

The main town, Victoria, is small and compact and frankly, there is not much to see there. So as we pulled away from town to head for the Maldives, were we disappointed? The answer is no. It would be a spectacular place to visit if one went to one of the resorts on one of the islands and just wanted to vegetate on the beach. That is just not us. , but we got get to be in a place we always had dreamed about.

Two days and 1300 miles later, we sailed into the archipelago called the Maldives, consisting of two strings of atolls containing about 26 islands each.  The first sights you see are the amazing resort islands.

Then, seemingly out of no where pops up this mini metropolis, reminiscent of Manhattan, but without the skyscrapers. Male' is the capital city of the Maldives and houses 100,000 people in an area of 1.2 miles by .6 miles. It is the world's lowest country sitting only 4.5 feet above sea level and Asia's smallest. It was quite a sight to see.

If seeing this city suddenly appear in the middle of the ocean wasn't shocking enough, getting off of the ship and wading into the throngs of people, cars and motorbikes certainly was. Kathy is rarely uncomfortable anywhere we have been, but she wondered if we should be diving into the market area.

The Maldives has been a Muslim country since the 1100's. While much more open than most Arab countries, women are not seen as much in the working fish and produce market areas. We were literally surrounded at times by staring men who were getting off of fishing boats, hauling vegetables,  selling fish, or just standing around. Nothing happened, but you could understand her discomfort.

On the other hand, the markets were fabulous. The produce market was in a building and was dark and hot. We saw this mysterious looking fruit called the pine fruit that when cut open was a brilliant red and stalls everywhere selling the betel leave. We ate and bought some type of coconut/honey concoction that really tasted good and had no intestinal problems from it.

The fish market was crowded, wet, slippery, but also airy and light. There was no smell despite there being fish and fish parts everywhere. The guys filleting the fish could do a large tuna in less than a minute.

Then there was the street action. It seemed like everywhere you turned there were shops and people selling things. It was quite fascinating. We wondered, "Who was buying all of this stuff?"

Ok you are saying, Bill, enough markets. Is that all there is? Well, almost. The main attractions in town are the Old Mosque Cemetery, The (new) Friday Mosque, the Presidential Palace, and a wall commemorating a failed coup. That's it folks and here they are. 

                                                                                             

That's it. Otherwise, it's people and street scene shots. I loved the place, but Kathy was tiring of it pretty quickly and we had a walking tour the next day going over the same things. So we retired to the roof top bar at the Trader's Hotel, enjoyed the breeze and the view and had a Mocktail. This being a Muslim country, no alcohol was served, but her White Mojito and my Basil/Ginger Cooler were both mighty good.

I could go on, but you've probably had enough of Male.  One really doesn't go to the Maldives to visit this city, but to sit on pristine beaches. Maybe next time.