Odynovo Tours 11/4 to 11/18/24
Groome Transport from home, to Orlando Airport, to San Francisco Airport, meet Tom, 15-hour flight to Manila. The reverse home (dodging a typhoon the day before) Total of 31 hours!
Tom Eng
Tour Guides Ace, Ian, Bong, Enz, Lish, Stella
Mid 15-hour flight, while I was sleeping, bent forward, with my head on the food tray, the pilot awakened me with an announcement of “Flight Attendants take your seats in 3 minutes.” I thought “That doesn’t sound too bad because he’s giving them three minutes.” Well! We then fell from the sky. I grabbed my tray so hard that after a couple seconds I realized my arms were numb. My first thought was that Tom was going to die too! Business Class saves no one! Then I heard the engines roar and decided the pilot was moving up or down swiftly and had it under control and then fell asleep. Later under darkness when everyone was sleeping – including, apparently, the flight attendants — I snuck into Business Class to see Tom. Tom watched the entire storm, with lightning and heavy rain hitting his two windows. I had no idea there was a storm because I chose a seat in the middle four section and had no way of seeing outside. Note to self — don’t do that again. While I had stealthed myself to Business Class, I took their special cookies and used they Business Class bathroom.
On the way home from the trip, on a flight SFO to Orlando, there was turbulence and again I thought Tom will die too. Wrong, I left him at his home in San Francisco and I was alone. I lived
Our first view of Philippines from airport to the hotel.
Jitneys. Hop on, pay, ride, hop off. You have to know what you’re doing though.
Found North Park across the street. Crab fried rice for 6 bucks. And LOTS of it.
In front of Tom was a mango tapioca, iced dessert.
Mangos are everywhere here and they are DELICIOUS!
Manila from 28th floor.
Huge China Town.
Wires seem to be a problem in every city to which I’ve ever been.
Dragons — still in China Town.
Called tricycles, cheap, and for ease of transportation.
The country is 85% Catholic. This is the first of many beautiful and amazing churches.
Lit a candle in memory of my Grandma who lit a candle very Saturday all her life. I sure hope it got her into Heaven.
I almost caught myself on fire lighting this sucker. I was wearing a thin scarf to cover my bare arms in deference to the modesty required in churches and it was a close call.
A purple volunteer fire truck. They are ALL OVER their purple ube plant. It’s a purple yam and they put it in everything.
Chicken feet — for those that love them…..
A sweet bun with purple ube paste inside. (Not worth the calories). The huge cookie was made for a Chinese festival that month. The store is completely full of Chinese stuff.
There’s the scarf that almost caught on fire.
Supposedly the 85% Catholics accept the 15% Muslims, as seen here meshing the rosary and the incense.
This is a treat – of which I declined. Out of one bucket, he dips a fermented yogurt, and then dips fruit and a sweet syrup from another can. It costs about 60 U.S cents.
Our jitney ride. Know which one you need, jump in, grab a seat, send coins up to the driver. He takes the money, makes change, sends back the money and drives — all at the same time! You rap on the roof when you want to get off. Note how low the roof is. As a people, they are short and their vehicles show it.
This was intramuros, the oldest part of the city. All but one large wall remains intact. Apparently we bombed the hell out of the city. But apparently they were happier to have the U.S. own them than they were having Spain control them. Part has been made into a golf course. And these are some of the bombs dug up after the war.
The small door opens into a cave found after the war, with 600 bodies of Filipinos that had been tortured by the Japanese during the war. The remains were removed and buried under the cross. Our tour guide Ian explained to us that his grandfather told him what he had done to revenge the atrocities the Japanese had done to his people, especially the women. It was gruesome!! And included sharpened sticks up the maurader’s penises.
This is a statue to remember the thousands of innocent women and children that died during the war. A special festive is had each year to remember.
We visited an intact old house in Manila. So interesting!
This fan hangs over each end of the dinner table, hooked up to ropes that servants pull back and forth to cool the dinner guests and keep black flies away.
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The country starts decorating for Christmas on September 1st and takes it all down on the celebration of the Three Kings (I think January 8)!
We hit almost every type of transportation known to man on this trip. Van, plane, car, jitney, calesa (horse drawn), tricycle, paddleboat, ferry!
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The Museum of fine arts houses this huge painting lost to the city for years until it was returned by Spain in 3 pieces.
The year was 1884, a glorious one for the Filipino intellectuals living in Madrid. Painters Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo both bagged major prizes at the renowned Madrid Art Expansion and their countrymen were jumping with joy. Hidalgo won a silver medal for his work Christian Virgins Exposed to the Populace where Juan Luna bagged the gold for Spoliarium, his colossal masterpiece named after the area in Roman amphitheatres where fallen gladiators named were stripped of their armour and weapons and then prepared for burial.
To the Filipinos in Madrid at that time, the twin victories were enough cause to celebrate; and more so because a Filipino had won a top prize in the grand exposition. Noted Spanish artists Antonio Muñoz Degrain and Jose Moreno Cabonero ranked second and third, respectively. Many suspected that the reason why the Prize of Honor was not given was because it would have automatically put an Indio above two well-known Spanish artists. At that time, the idea of a colonial subject beating its colonizer was unheard of. And so Spain kept his huge painting until it was finally rightfully returned in 1958.
The unfinished painting was discovered in this museum by the friends of the woman in the painting. The subject had died, but when her friends noticed the painting, they got in touch with her daughter to verify to the museum it was actually her. Cool!
I love museums and I can never provide enough pictures to show you how great they are!
The museum floors and artwork were huge and fabulous. The last photo is a picture of the staircase from above.