Tanghalang Pambansa (National Theater) of the CCP houses three major performing arts venues, a film theater, galleries, museum, and library.
10 March Manila
I managed to get up at an early enough hour, then went downstairs
to find a super breakfast cooked up by Vivian! The eggplant omelet and pancakes
filled me up, an especially nice meal because I wouldn’t be having any lunch and
only a late dinner today. Buses to Baguio have no scheduled arrival time here, so
I just had to wait until one came by and was willing to stop. Vivian insisted on
waiting with me, and a long hour and a half in the hot sun passed before a bus stopped.
Unlike the bus that brought me here, this one didn’t have air-conditioning but that
doesn’t matter here in the mountains. Again the ride was very scenic, taking a bit
under two hours. The bus dropped me off near the center, then got a taxi to the
Genesis bus station. A deluxe bus (500 pesos) to Manila would be leaving soon at
2 p.m. and would take five-six hours. This had 2x2 seating like the bus I took from
Manila to Baguio, but an even fancier bus with 1x2 seating would also be leaving
at the same time though all those seats had sold out. The trip went OK until out
in the plains where a grass fire, I think, closed the expressway for nearly an hour.
So the trip to Pasay (Manila) took closer to six hours and with an arrival after
dark. Taxi touts pestered me at the bus station, but I easily hailed a metered taxi
on my own for a ride north to the Airbnb, which coincidentally was in the same Victoria
de Manila high-rise as I had stayed at the mid-point of my trip last year, though
with a different host. The elevator ride up to the top 27th floor took a long time,
then I met my host who showed me to my tiny room. It was fine with a comfortable
bed and a clothes cabinet to store things. Although now after 9 p.m., I still hoped
for some dinner and crossed the street to a gaggle of fast-food places and went
with a decent veggie pizza at one, conveniently arriving just before a rain shower.
With summer now coming on, Manila faced a water shortage and my Airbnb host had
filled up large containers of water to wash with.
11 March Manila
Rains returned in the morning, though I stayed in the Airbnb to surf the internet
and work on this journal. In the afternoon I caught a taxi to the Cultural Center
of the Philippines (CCP), a place I’d never been, for a look at the art exhibits.
The main exhibition area is on the third-floor and had a major retrospective by
Filipina-French artist Ofilia Gelvezón Téqui with numerous and varied colored etchings
and acrylics. Although she has lived in France for many years, her heart is clearly
in the Philippines. Artworks by other artists lay scattered about in the corridors
and I found a very strange display of colored crystals on the fourth floor. The
museum here was closed. Hours are Tues.-Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., I think, and admission
is free. The CCP has a huge performance hall and I saw that a ballet performance
was scheduled on March 27th, my last night planned in the Philippines. I bought
the cheapest ticket (300 pesos) not knowing if coronavirus worries would shut down
the event. (As it turned out a presidential decree the following day ended the performances
and closed the exhibits.)
Tanghalang Pambansa (National Theater) of the CCP houses three major performing
arts venues, a film theater, galleries, museum, and library.
Natividad 4 (2004) by Ofilia Gelvezón Téqui
Exterminating Angel (1980; etching, viscosity color printing) by Ofilia Gelvezón
Téqui. (A pinball machine gets religion!)
Pietà (1998; acrylic on canvas) by Ofilia Gelvezón Téqui
Vision of a Bodhisattva (1999; acrylic on canvas) by Ofilia Gelvezón Téqui
The sun had come out by the time I left the CCP, so I strolled north along the
bay front walk, then turned inland to Robinson’s Mall, where I remembered the Indian
restaurant Old Bombay from a year ago, and had a kofta with both red and green sauces.
The chef had put in too much salt, though I appreciated the Indian cuisine as a
change of pace.
12 March Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island
My flight
to Palawan Island didn’t depart until late afternoon, so I spent the morning at
the Airbnb working on photos and the journal. A taxi took me through Manila’s thick
traffic to the airport where I easily checked in well before departure, then had
a mushroom soup and Greek salad at a Shakey’s Pizza, which also had the benefit
of an electrical outlet to charge my computer. Cebu Pacific Air Flight 5J 639 took
to the sunny skies at 4:20 p.m. for a 55-minute flight. I had paid a bit extra for
a window seat in the front on the left and enjoyed spectacular scenery all the way.
The Airbus A320 swung southeast over the vast lake Laguna de Bay, then turned southwest
over Taal Lake where I got to see the recently erupted Taal Volcano—now quiet, but
brown colored from ash falls—in the middle of deep blue Taal Lake. Next came a view
of the port city of Batangas followed by mountainous Mindoro Island, which along
with the volcano, I had visited last year. Farther south the plane flew over numerous
islands of all shapes and sizes, including Busuanga from where I planned to fly
back to Manila in two weeks time. More islands, many with long white beaches, passed
below then came Palawan Island with its rugged jungle-clad mountains. Lastly the
plane curved north of the island’s main town, Puerto Princesa, before landing at
the adjacent little airport. No jet ways here—passengers walk to or from the planes.
Oddly during the flight one of the attendants gave me a sandwich and ice tea drink
even though I don’t recall having ordered the snack.
View north to Manila from above Ninoy Aquino International Airport
A crater lake within a crater lake!
This is Taal Volcano, now brown with
ash that drove out island residents.
I climbed it a year ago when things were
quiet. Taal Lake that surrounds the island sits in a volcanic cauldera.
Ridges form creases along Busuanga, the largest of the Calamian Islands.
Many of the countless tiny islands that surround it have white sand beaches.
The long curving island is Capsalay, off Port Barton on the the west coast of
Palawan Island.
The jungle-covered mountains of north-central Palawan
Another view of the rugged mountains in north-central Palawan
Beautiful jungle in the mountains of north-central Palawan
San Rafael, on east coast of Palawan Island
A low pass over the port area of Puerto Princesa
I had difficulty finding my Airbnb because it listed a false address and lacked
a sign, but with the help of a tricycle driver I found it and checked in, then asked
my driver to take me to the vegetarian Namaste Restaurant. Although I was hoping
for Indian cuisine, that wasn’t the case here, just an international menu. I went
with an eggplant-tofu-vegetable dish, egg rolls, and milk tea at a bargain price.
Back in my room I posted some of the day’s aerial photos on Facebook, then a friend
notified me that President Duterte had just issued a proclamation shutting down
Manila to all domestic flights, ferries, and buses in 48 hours for a duration of
a month or so. News reports on the internet confirmed this. Ouch! I needed to get
back to Bangkok at the end of the month and didn’t wish to be stranded in the Philippines.
Although Cebu Pacific Air had just sent an e-mail stating that flight dates could
be changed, that wasn’t possible. I bought new tickets, starting with the first
flight tomorrow to Manila, then on to Bangkok at five minutes past midnight. Hopefully
I can get credit for the two unusable tickets. (Both flights later got canceled,
as it turned out, and I received refunds.) The booking process went well, though
the airline annoyingly charged me for expensive insurance that I didn’t want; Air
Asia is known to slip in a charge for unwanted insurance too.
13 March
Manila
I stayed up all night getting the new tickets and researching the news.
The flight to Manila would depart at 6:25 a.m., so I needed time to reach the airport
and to be there at least a couple hours before boarding. I had no idea if any taxis
would be available in the wee hours, but I figured I could walk all the way in less
than an hour. As it turned out I had gone only a block on the main street when I
found a tricycle driver sitting in his rig waiting for a customer. So I reached
the airport early and had to wait outside with the crowd before the door opened
for a security check. A long line formed for check-in and a group of people gathered
around the standby desk. It’s a good thing I got the ticket last night as Flight
5J 636 was full. Just after sunrise at 6:25 a.m. the Airbus A320 took off, turned
across the sea, then flew over the jungle mountains of Palawan Island. Again I had
a window seat in the front on the left side, but after crossing Palawan the flight
path went far to the west and I saw little more than the vast South China Sea with
the odd ship. As we made the final approach over Manila Bay, Bataan Peninsula and
Corregidor Island came into view. Smog enveloped Manila in contrast to the clear
views just yesterday afternoon.
Morning sun on Palawan Island
The heights of north-central Palawan
Corregidor Island and Bataan Peninsula, sites of a tragic World War II defeat
of Allied forces by the Japanese
Cavite City, on a peninsula, juts into Manila Bay southwest of Manila.
I thought it safer to stay in the airport to wait for the nighttime flight to
Bangkok. Cebu Pacific Air has a ticketing office here in Terminal 3, and I went
over to find out about getting credit for the unusable flights, but the office was
packed and had a sizeable crowd milling around outside, so I didn’t bother taking
a number. I had plenty to do with writing the journal, sorting photos, and reading
the news. The terminal is pleasant and offers many places to eat at reasonable prices,
so I didn’t mind spending the day here. I had both lunch and dinner at Shakey’s
Pizza because of the handy outlets to charge phone and computer, then stayed on
to do some computer work as the restaurant had a lot of empty tables. Check-in for
Cebu Pacific Air Flight 5J 931 went easily. Nobody asked for an onward ticket, though
I did have one.
14 March Bangkok, Thailand
As usual I had a window
seat in the front, which paid off with wonderful nighttime views of Manila as the
Airbus A321 curved around the east and north sides of the city before heading off
into the darkness over the South China Sea. I got a little rest on the roughly 3½-hour
flight, landing well before sunrise at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
Normally one faces horrendously long waits at Thai Immigration, but tonight I got
to walk straight up to the agent and get stamped in for 30 days. I think I passed
a thermal scanner, the only sign of concern about the coronavirus. My Airbnb had
offered an early check-in, but not this early! Suvarnabhumi has the advantage of
an elevated train into town, fast and inexpensive, but the first trip wouldn’t go
until after 6 a.m., so I got breakfast snacks at a 7-11 and read the news on my
phone. As the sky became light I hopped on the train, 35 baht or a bit over one
US dollar, then got off at Makkasan Station to transfer to the MRT subway to Lumbini
Station, just a seven-minute walk from my Airbnb. The past couple of years I’ve
been staying at the great-value “Tropical Villa/Center/Sgl: Super Close-MRT Lumpini”
Airbnb, a house compound in a very central location and with nice owners. While
waiting for the room to be available, I took a shower, then made use of one of the
free washing machines. An afternoon nap was all it took to recover from two sleepless
nights, then I headed out to a branch of the restaurant chain Saravana Bhavan for
a wonderful South Indian thali. Afterward I took the Skytrain west to the Bangkok
Art & Culture Center to see several small exhibitions.
So what
comes next? In these super-uncertain times under the cloud of the coronavirus I
have no idea! My first priority is to get an operation for removal of a grown on
my left outer ear on March 30th. I have a ticket to Japan for April 8the and a return
from Korea three months later, but don’t know whether the planned cycling trip will
be practical. I will have to wait and see. Unlike the Philippines and many other
countries in Asia, Thailand had almost no restrictions for travelers when I arrived.
But that is changing, and several days later Bangkok’s movie theaters, bars, and
entertainment venues had to close. Most tourists have fled or stayed home, so people
in the formerly large tourism industry are having a difficult time with no light
at the end of the tunnel. I did get to see the movie “Call of the Wild,” not as
good as the book, of course, but entertaining; I think only two or three other people
were in the theater and seated far from me. Restaurants like the Saravana Bhavan
had mostly empty tables.
Some people have called for a lockdown of
Bangkok, which hasn’t happened, but is a possibility. A new law will require all
incoming foreigners to have medical insurance and a medical certificate that they
tested negative for the coronavirus, but such certificates can be difficult or impossible
to obtain because tests are often restricted to people with symptoms. I can always
return to the USA, but with all of the coronavirus problems there that’s not my
first choice. My flights to Fukuoka in Japan and back to Thailand from Seoul Incheon
are still listed as going, though the airlines made minor rescheduling changes.
Japan and South Korea are two of the few countries that still allow tourists to
come; most of the others have closed completely or require a 14-day quarantine.
This backpack loop of South India, Singapore, and the Philippines went very
well until it didn’t—I only got to stay in the Philippines for half of the intended
30 days. Now the trip is complete. When the virus bug gets squashed, I hope to return
to all three countries! Until then I will be cycling a series of rides in Thailand
beginning in August with one in the south from Hat Yai to Chumphon, followed by
scuba diving on Koh Tao, at
www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/SouthernThailand2020.
Back to beginning of “Backpacking 2020: India, Singapore, and Philippines”