Village Squire, 1979-07, Page 20TRAVEL
Discovering
the exotic
Orient
BY MILDRED McADAM
We' were members of a group attending
the 61st International Lions Convention in
Tokyo, June 20-25, 1978. The convention
was preceeded by, a two-week tour of the
Far East, which included Manila in the
Phillipines, Singapore and Penang of
Malaya, Bangkok in Thailand, and Hong
Kong and Macaw.
Our group of 20 left Toronto at 2:15 pm
on June 3, and 30 hours later, after stops at
Chicago, San Fransisco, Hawaii and Guam,
and losing a day by crossing the
international date line, we arrived in
Manila at 7:30 am local time June 5. We
were about 10,000 miles and exactly 12
hours time difference from Toronto. It had
been a long flight in a Pan Am 747, and in
spite of flying with the sun we had 12 hours
of darkness.
On arrival in Manila we were greeted
with fragrant leis of jasmine. The
gathering of luggage and clearing customs
was a time consuming procedure to be
repeated in each country. By 9 am it was
95°F and 85% humidity and we welcomed
the air conditioned bus ride to the Silahis
(ray of sunshine) International Hotel.
Another routine that also became familiar,
was the group briefing re hotel facilities
and the optional tours available. The
Manila briefing was accompanied by the
serving of very tasty mai-tais. Even though
we were thirsty, we regarded the ice cubes
with suspicion. We were assured that
water provided in the dining rooms, bars
and thermoses in the rooms, was safe to
drink. However we did not even dip our
tooth brushes in tap water. In spite of
precautions, some of us had varying
degrees of digestive upsets.
Some of us had lunch at Josephines,
trying local dishes and in particular oysters
on the half shell at 90c a day. However this
excursion was most memorable for the taxi
rides. The traffic and drivers are
indescribable. The police move traffic by
bird -like chirps on whistles. We saw
several jitney taxis - a Manila trade mark.
They are colourful jazzed up American
style jeeps.
A sleep that afternoon helped us
overcome the long trip and_jet-lag. The
18 Village Squire, July 1979
cocktail hour in The Orient is known as
"happy, time". All hotels provided live
organ or piano music in the lobby and bar.
The Silahis coffee shop was lined with
aquariums of colourful fish and coral. Our
hotel overlooked Manila Bay and we
snapped pictures of its world famous
sunset. Manila means "pretty flower" and
indeed there are many flowering shrubs
and trees including frongipani and craton.
A 7 a.m. walk was shortened by the
debilitating heat, one reason why tours are
taken in the morning. Our bus tour of the
city was most informative. Manila was
founded by the Spanish in 1571 and is now
a city of three million. Old Manila was a
walled city surrounded by a moat filled
with poisonous snakes. Now the moat is a
golf course. The oldest church in The
Phillipines was built in the 1500's of stone,
with the foundation shaped like the hull of
a ship, enabling it to "float" during
earthquakes. It has also survived fire,
typhoon, humidity and war. We visited
Fort Santiago, built and used by the
Spaniards and used by the Japanese and
prisoners in the cells were drowned at high
tide. We saw the Manila Memorial War
Cemetery where over 17,000 Americans
are buried, with each name engraved on a
stone wall, opposite maps in mosaic,
showing the areas of action in the Pacific.
We learned about Dr. Rizal, a well
educated Phillipine nationalist, killed by
the Spanish, at the age of 35 in 1896. His
career paralleled the more familiar story of
Simon Balivar of South America.
Manila has new beautiful commercial
and residential areas. We also saw slum
areas where garbage is burned in the
streets and chickens run. The Phillipines
have been under martial law since 1972.
There is still news censorship, but
apparently many things have improved.
Education is not compulsory, but there arc
11 universities, including the oldest in the
east, founded by the Dominicans in 1611. A
worker's average wage is 2.75 a day. As in
all the eastern countries there is constant
reclaiming of land to create space. The
Phillipines have a unique program that
each citizen must plant and maintain one
tree a month for 5 years, (excluding the city
of Manila).
In the afternoon, three of us visited the,
Phillipine Village where six types of
villages and life styles were displayed.
including 'fishing', 'farming' and thf.
handwork of embroidery, weaving, wood-
carving and kappa shell work. It also had
the outside of a huge complex lined with.
aquariums. We could not stay long,
because of the tremendous heat.
By now we were initiated into several
facts general in the Orient. Sea food,
followed by chicken and pork are the most
available and cheapest meals. There is
very little dairy production, so we had
sweet butter from New Zealand. You were
given opportunities to use chop sticks, but
forks are provided. There are many
varieties of fresh fruit. The pineapple is
delicious. Tipping is not expected.
Customers must bargain for all purchases.
including taxi rides. In spite of the heat.
people have TV's before a refrigerator.
Laundry had to be sent out - as it took at
least two days for socks to dry in our
rooms. The English language is universal -
a second language.
The next afternoon, after a three hour
flight, we were in Singapore. staying at the
beautiful Mandarin Hotel. These hotel
rooms featured two telephones. five piece
bathrooms. door bells. mini refrigerators.
bedside consoles controlling lights. stereo,
TV and air conditioning. When room
service turned down the covers for the
night. they left a spray of orchids on the
pillow. A beautiful western style dinner
was served in the revolving dining room on
the 40th floor. This life certainly was
spoiling us.
Singapore (lion city) has two and a half
million people composed of Chinese.
Indian. Malaysian and Eurasian. mostly
Christian and Chinese the official
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