"Ha, Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, Ho, and
a couple of La, La, La's" - The Munchkins"Ha, Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, Ho, and
a couple of La, La, La's" - The Munchkins
After ditching the mad Italian, My chauffeur shows up, and
takes me to my hotel, the Hyatt Regency Manilla, nestled amongst
the strip clubs that were the haunt of the half million US
servicemen stationed in the Philippines until a couple of years
ago.
As Eric has abandoned me, and Benjamin wasn't going to show up
until the following evening, and our business partner in the
Philippines never RSVP'd (third world countries typically work on
third world time), I was unsure of what the f^&% I was
supposed to do the next morning. I left messages for Benjamin,
and Eric, then crashed for the evening.
At 08:00 the next morning the phone rings. It's our business
partner. Benjamin called him at home the evening before to remind
him that I was in Manilla. We have our work cut out for us. We
visit 3 companies in the morning, and have a users group meeting
that afternoon. It's a very productive day. No one would ask any
questions, I eventually had to chide them into asking what they
needed to know. Apparently, confidence is not a common virtue in
the Philippines, and my audience needed me to make them feel
comfortable before they would loosen up enough to ask questions.
If there is anything that I am good at, it's getting people to
loosen up. The only other non-Asian there was this French guy on
a contract job. We joked about Asian attitudes for a while during
a cigarette break. (Asians are big smokers)
After the users group, I was asked to hang around for the next 4
hours until dinner time. No way Ray! I was sick of sitting in
offices, and ours were very cramped. I borrowed 50,000 Piso's
from one of the guys that worked there and took a cab back to my
hotel. The cab ride was a modest 100 Piso's ($1.75US) but took
FOREVER! At least I could see the city as we headed back to the
hotel. Manilla traffic jams are just about the best people
watching spots I have ever seen! Crowded streets with people
doing everything imaginable; naked children playing in the mud,
hookers, naked Children playing catch with hookers, people
butchering animals, a group of schoolgirls doing "La
Macarena" on a street corner, businessmen on their way home,
businessmen playing with children, businessmen doing business
with hookers, you name it.
That evening, the whole office showed up at my hotel for
dinner. We went to dinner at a fairly nice restaurant not too far
away from my hotel. Philippino food is very similar to
Indonesian; except that it's bland. There were several Japanese
businessmen in the restaurant dining with prostitutes. The
prostitutes kept eyeing me for some reason.
After dinner, the women who worked at our business partner all
disappeared, and Paul said "Now you will see what Manilla is
famous for" and we headed for "Miss Universe"; a
strip bar in the center of Pasay city.
There was one stripper per customer at this bar, making it
entertaining indeed. During the dance of one particular darling,
Paul asks me if I think she's pretty. Well, yes, of course I do.
He disappears for a short time, and once this young lady (I mean
young; she turned out to be 16) finishes her dance, she stops by
our table and sits on my lap! One of the sales guys leans over,
and whispers "this is how we do business here in the
Philippines".
She remained there all night,and when it came time to leave, she
follows me out. I mention to one of the guys "What do we do
with her?" He replies "That's up to you; she's yours
until you leave Manilla if you like"
Whoa! That's a little too much even for me.
That next morning, I had free. I decided to use it to wander
around Manila. I was also almost out of Copenhagen, having
rationed what I had left until I arrived in the Philippines. I
figured that I should be able to find some here, due to the
recent presence of all the American soldiers. No dice. I didn't
find any until I arrived at the airport. I was also looking for a
Philippino flag for my backpack. I did find one of those.
The only historical district in Manilla is called Intramuros.
There is not much to it, as MacArthur decided that he didn't like
the narrow streets, and demolished almost everything that WWII
did not. Ft. Santiago is at the end of this section, and is
really quite interesting. It started it's life as a Chinese fort,
but was then destroyed in 1574 by a Sumatran pirate named
Limahong. The Spanish rebuilt it, and then the Americans used it
for their HQ during the occupation. Later, the Japanese used it
as a concentration camp, slaughtering over 6000 people at the
site. It's now a museum dedicated to Rizal, who is the national
hero. Well worth seeing if you find yourself in Manila. it
I decided to walk back to Malate where my hotel was and wait
in air conditioned comfort for my flight. It was quite a long
walk. On the way, I stopped at the Sheraton where I saw this
young woman giving a cigar rolling demonstration. I just had to
buy a box. I loved the way she rolled them on her thighs. She was
confused about the price, and ended up selling me the whole box
(20 cigars) for only 150 Pisos! What a deal. I was also accosted
by a man who claimed that he wanted me to meet his sister who was
moving to America. Not being a fool, I declined his invitation to
go down the back streets of his slum and meet his sister.
We're
not in Kansas any more! (Part I) |