Greetings to you all
This is getting to be a bit of a habit, but I am up in the Philippines again,
this time for the third time. I am planning to be here for a total of four
weeks. Janet is planning to join me for the final week and then we are going off
for a weeks holiday out of Singapore.
I decided to have my statuary holiday this time and flew up last Monday
evening leaving at just on midnight with Singapore Airlines to Singapore. I ha a
wait of about three hours then flew to Manila.
I had no time to rest as I went straight into a meeting with the DPWH on the
way from the airport to give a briefing to the Director on progress on the
project (bit of a challenge as I had not really had a chance to get a briefing
from others up here on what had happened in the month I had been away)
The push is on to get the Geotechnical Investigation underway as it is on the
critical path for the project. Just got to make sure it gets done properly.
The highlight for this week was a chance to get out to Taal
Volcano. A group
of UK people (who I first met last time I was up here) were planning a trip on
Saturday and I was able to tag along. I mentioned Taal on one of my earlier
letters.
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The active volcano is on an island (Taal Island) in the middle of a large
caldera which holds Lake Taal. So we have a volcano containing a lake that
contains an island which holds a lake which holds a (small) island.
Taal Volcano is nasty little volcano that has erupted over thirty time since
europeans have been in the Philippines. The last big eruption was in 1965 when
it created the crater you can see now and wiped out everything on the island
with a base surge eruption. The surge even crossed the lake killing people on
the far shore. The last recorded eruption was in 1977 and it has shown some
increasing restlessness since the early 90's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taal_Volcano
Some of the past eruptions have covered Manila in thick layers of ash
To get out to the island you travel out in an outrigger motorboat. You then
get to ride horses (ponies) up to the crater rim. I rode up but decided to walk
back as there was more to see that way.
The central crater contains a lake and there is abundant thermal activity
around the shore including geysers. We headed back and had a meal at a nice
restaurant before heading back into the traffic of Manila and arriving back at
the hotel around eight.
The group I went with are out here training call centre staff in Manila who
operate for one of the UK telephone companies. They have a couple of English
people a Welshman and a Scotsman. (Sounds like a start of a joke). I think the
idea is to teach the Filipinos to understand the various dialects.
THe political situation here has quietened down with just the usual
corruption scandals. There are continuing reports of ambushes and fights with
separatist groups along with attendant causalities which you never hear of back
in NZ.
Bob
Greetings to you all
Well no live volcanoes this week so I thought I would concentrate on Manila
As I highlighted in earlier EMails I am living in the Discovery Hotel in
Ortigas which is sort of in the south central part of Manila. It is a commercial
area that has built up around the establishment of the Asian Development Bank.
THe world Bank headquarters are around the corner and there is a good collection
of High rise building of banks etc. The Headquarters of the San Miguel
Corporation are near by. San Miguel are best known for their beer, but they have
their fingers in almost every pie that involves food production.
Our office is located in Makati which is the real commercial centre of Manila
and is located about 8km south of Ortigas on the way out towards the airport.
THe area has grown up rapidly over the last 15 years or so and is in every way
the modern city of high rises and major corporations and hotels. It is
surrounded by a number of gated residential compounds where the permanent expat
population and well off locals live.
Old Manila proper is to the west of us on the coast. To a great extent it has
been left behind in the rampant commercial development that has occurred
elsewhere. It is a mixture of the old spanish city, sprawling barrios and the
older style streets filled with vendors of all description. A lot of the
government offices are located in and around Manila.
Between Ortigas and Makati there is a traditional Philippine city of
Mandualong, that we often cut through on to avoid the chaos along the EDSA
Highway.
I have included some photos of life in Mandualong with this letter. The
photos illustrate the way that most of the citizens in Manila actually live.
While Manila is filled with Malls, a lot of the locals buy their needs from the
small street stalls that line the streets. The photo titled meters shows the
meters for the residents that are located at the top of poles to discourage
interference. The meter reader reads them through a telescope. Rice is a staple
food and escalation of prices with the current food crisis is casing major
concern.
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I have also included some photos showing the contrast between the barrios and
the high rise buildings of Makati. THe Pasig river flows between Mandualong and
Makati and drains out of the large lake, Laguna that forms the eastern boundary
of metropolitan Manila. I would certainly not attempt to drink or eat any fish
caught in the river, nor even attempt to even dip my hand in the water. Manila
has a population of 13 million but only about 10% of it has a reticulated sewage
system so everything goes into Laguna the river or Manila Bay.
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On Saturday I went back into old Manila and had a more relaxed look around the old walled Spanish City Intramuros and parts of old Manila. I had the company of MIchaela one of the English group I travelled down to Taal with. She jumped at the chance as the group have not ventured very far from the hotel and around Ortigas. I have included a photo of the interior of the Manila Cathedral. There was a wedding going on at the time but they allow visitors in all the same. the balance of the photos are taken around Fort Santiago which is the inner citadel of Intramuros which dates back to establishment of Spanish control in 1570. The oldest building date back to this era. The brick ruins are the oldest. With various battles the fort has taken a pounding, work being during the Battle of Manila at the end of the Second World War, when the Americans heavily shelled Intramuros and the fort. One of the photos illustrates the scars from ordinance let loose during the battle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila
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Within Fort Santiago the shrine to Jose Rizal is located. Rizal is THE
national hero and Martyr for the Philippines having been put before the firing
squad at time of the fight for independence from the Spanish. A talented
individual Rizal was a medical Doctor, artist and author. The museum contains
memorabilia from him with pride of place given to a small glass vial containing
one of his vertebrae complete with bullet damage retrieved when he was
reinterred.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal
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We ate at a fish restaurant out in Manila Bay and travelled back to the Hotel
via San Juan, another very traditional Philippines city.
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Apart for all of this life continues on as normal here. The story of the week
has been the kidnapping of local news crew, complete with the local News Anchor
Ces Drillon in Mindanao, by the Moro National Liberation Front. Elsewhere the
newspapers report battles with the New Peoples Army with vicory being claimed as
they believe they have reduced them from 7,000 down to 5,000. (Still seems a lot
out there to me)
Work continues on and we finally think (hope) we can get the geotechnical
investigation for Panguil Bay underway in some form in the coming week. It may
mean trip for me down to Mindanao towards the end of the week. There may also be
a return trip down to Masbate next weekend to view progress on the mine
development there.
Bob
Greetings to you all
Its been an eventful couple of weeks.
A couple of weekend back we had Typhoon Fengshen (Frank) go through the
Philippines including a direct hit here in Manila. I was due to fly down to
Masbate in the central Philippines on Saturday the 21st but thought I should
check at lunch time on the Friday on a Typhoon that we had been tracking that
appeared to be travelling north and missing the Philippines. The latest track
showed it changing direction and heading straight across the central Philippines
close to where I had been planning to go. As a result I cancelled my trip and
hunkered down in my hotel over the weekend. As Typhoons go it was not the most
intense to hit the Philippines. It had dropped from category 3 to category 1
when it hit Manila, but it could have not picked a worse track to impart maximum
damage on the rest of the Philippines. The highest winds here in Manila were at
3am in the morning and it was uncanny when the eye passed over Manila with the
wind dropping to a calm. As you are probably aware it sunk a ship with over 800
casualties and elsewhere in the Philippines 100's more were killed
Janet arrived on Wednesday and has been getting her cultural experience in a crash course. Here are her observations
"Life is quite different here, very colourful to say the least. In Old Manila there are stalls that sell budgies, flowers, car tyres, food, clothes and all sorts of things, lining the street edges. Powerlines hang everywhere - apparently the locals "jump lead" the electricity wires to get a bit of power for their houses. All the new power meters are now mounted on high poles and are read by telescopes, to try and prevent some of these very dangerous practices. In the week I have been here I have been around the greater area of Manila, down to Lake Taal at Targaytay, seen the Chinese cemetery and been to the old Spanish Santiago walled city fortress built in 1500. While the Americans blasted this in the war, almost completely destroying it, there are still some solid remains left, with the moat that prevented invaders from coming into the fortress. The Chinese cemetery is a bizarre place - they have huge mausoleums that include the tombs of rich deceased Chinese families and come complete with their own toilets, kitchens and dining areas, coke machines and some have air-conditioning. The architecture is everything from older style pagoda type construction to modern church, bank, and Hollywood style construction complete with balconies and two or three stories high. Some are lined with stainless steel, marble, terrazzo and tiles. One had a large rubber tree growing though the middle of it. The families rent the burial sites for 25 years, and have the option of removing the remains and cremating them or re renting for a further term. Each Sunday families come to the graves and on 1st November (all saints day) they celebrate at the tombs.
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There is also a mix of religions in the tombs - Buddhist, catholic, protestant ,
shinto and some others. Some of the remains are cremated and ashes sit in a
Buddhist style fireplace so that the remains get access to sun and rain. As you
can see from the photos these tombs are very elaborate.
We met up with Ruth Kerr and her husband Justin, and they came with us to Lake
Taal. Here we had the opportunity to ride in a Jeepney up the hill to see the
remains of Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos palace built in the 1970s. It is now
just a ruin.
There are very young kids who dodge between cars on major roadways, trying to
sell things to people. The kids just stare with their noses on the car windows,
saying please madam. According to Jasper our driver, there are a few fatalities
that happen as the tots try to dodge through the traffic. Driving here is quite
an experience. Elmer our driver to Lake Tahl drove most of the way on the wrong
side of the road - pushing back in to traffic, when an oncoming vehicle came
towards him."
We leave on Wednesday for a weeks holiday out of Singapore before we fly back
to New Zealand
Greeting to all till next episode
Bob and Janet McKelvey
