On April first Liz and I flew to Manila. Liz hadn't been there in sixteen years, and for me it was the first time.

Getting There
The Steaming Masses
Military History
Natural Splendor
Visitors
Aviation Exploits
A Day At The Market

Getting There

That's half the fun, right? We took NorthWest Airlines from Los Angeles to Tokyo (eleven hours) and then after a three-hour layover from Tokyo to Manila (about four hours). Philipine Airlines has a direct flight but we wanted to avoid them due to recent labor unrest there.

The terminal at Narita was not a model of organization -- some chaos was evident as they allowed everyone to board in random order. A full 747 worth.

Arriving at the airport, the baggage carousel was brimming with Balikbayan, or expatriate boxes. Passengers can have a box with up to seventy pounds of duty-free goods. In a delightful cultural twist, these boxes are often filled with Spam, Vienna Sausage, Pringles, and soap. Later research shows that these items are available in Manila for the same price as Los Angeles, but they are welcome gifts nonetheless.

We were able to get through customs and immigration in a flash, and walked outside to be met by the steamy heat of southeast Asia and an equally warm welcome from Liz's cousins.

Goats keep the brush under control in front of Rene's mansion in Pasig

Liz unpacks Pringles from a Balikbayan box

Rene and Carolyn's mansion features three eighteen year-old maids. Here you can see two of them cooking in the " outdoor" kitchen, used for messy or stinky tasks. The local newspaper states that the typical wage for maids is $50 a month when room and board are provided.

Breakfast is served!

Liz and Carolyn chat in the living room

The house has all kinds of interesting architectural details, including this inlaid wood staircase

The Steaming Masses

A local entrepenuer offers a pay phone for eight cents a call.

A pig goes to market on a moto-tricyle.

I noticed that most retail establishments were protected by gun-toting guards, and this McDonald's was no exception. The guy on left has a revolver and the man in blue seated just outside he door has a shotgun on his lap. As you can see the customers don't seem to mind -- the place was packed! At the MegaMall, Manila's largest shopping center, well over half of the stores had armed guards. The most popular armaments were .357 magnums and pistol-grip pump shotguns. Oddly, I saw few semi-auto pistols but did witness an occasional Colt assault rifle. Later I was able to visit the combination Mcdonald's / gas station / Starbucks again and counted five armed guards protecting it all. They weren't all bluster -- indeed they were quite helpful. In all of our travels, the armed guys would help us find a parking spot or a table, stopped traffic as we were pulling out, and assisted with double parking problems. Double parking seems to be the norm in crowded places, and if the owners of a blocked car want to leave the guards happily try to locate the offending party. You'd never see that in the U.S....

There must be a lot of concealed carriers, because I saw plenty of this.