Got a Somber History Lesson Today at Corregidor.....

Despite the morning being rainy, the trip left as scheduled. The boat was a nice one, large and wide and very comfortable to ride in but the 1 1/2 hour trip wasn't all that smooth. I skipped breakfast this morning and was glad I did. Before we got to Corregidor, probably half the passengers were seriously seasick and throwing up. I really wasn't affected which is a good thing because when I do get seasick it tends to be violently sick.

Fortunately, as we docked in Corregidor the sun came out. From the boat we transferred into World War II trolleys for a day-tour around the island. There were seven trolley-loads of passengers on the boat and one trolley was filled with Japanese tourists. I was wondering on the boat how that was going to work out and they separate them from the rest of the tours unless they specifically request to go on the English-speaking trolleys. There is still a lot of bitterness and hatred toward the Japanese throughout Asia and the Filipinos don't seem quite ready to forgive and forget. On the boat trip over, they showed a video of Japanese soldiers shooting and bayoneting civilians just to set the mood. About five or six Japanese students chose to ride on our trolley and the Filipino tour guide, a woman, spent most of the rest of the tour lecturing them on Japanese atrocities during the war in the Philippines. When one of them claimed he didn't know about the Bataan Death March, she lectured him for at least ten minutes--to the point of making everybody feel a little uncomfortable.

Later, she lectured them on the Japanese use of and treatment of "comfort women" and their government's refusal to apologize for it. She also let it be known that the Japanese soldiers needlessly killed tens of thousands of innocent Filipino civilians during their occupation.

But not all was lecturing.....the tour started at the statue of General MacArthur--a historical figure I never really admired all that much.

We then continued on past a series of caves--some Japanese and some American.

Much of the island is off-limits because there are literally thousands of live rounds of ammunition all over the place. A couple of decades ago somebody discovered the bones of some Japanese soldiers and there is a cemetery dedicated to them--ironically the cemetery and memorial are located above a bluff where hundreds of the soldiers committed suicide by jumping.

One of the most interesting side trips was a walk through the Malinta Tunnel that had been carved out of the mountain prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor December 8, 1941 (it was the 8th in Manila because of the International Date Line. MacArthur, when notified of the attack on Pearl Harbor, commented "the Japanese must have been massacred," not knowing that the opposite was the case. Because he was afraid of saboteurs, he ordered all the American aircraft at Clark Field removed from their hangers and lined up on the runway were the Japanese air forces destroyed every single one of them the next day without losing an aircraft of their own.

MacArthur then moved his headquarters into the tunnel and the leader of the Philippines and his family joined him there during the initial attacks on Corregidor. Today there is a walking tour through the tunnel (which has over two miles of attached tunneling) and the tour includes stops at side tunnels for a light show explaining the events that took place inside there as the Japanese bombers were attacking the island. It was a very good program--very interesting.

After the U.S. took over the Philippines after the 1898 Spanish/American War, the army started reinforcing Corregidor since it geographically blocks the entrance to Manila Bay and the deep-water harbor facilities in Manila. By 1940 there were several large artillery batteries in place with numerous huge artillery pieces. Also, by 1940, however, air power had basically made those guns irrelevant and MacArthur had basically given the Japanese free reign in destroying our air corps. As a result, when the Japanese attacked Corregidor and Bataan, the island had been reduced to a defensive outpost and the Japanese relentlessly bombed the island. To them it was critically strategic because it would give them free access to the Manila ports. As many as 20,000 U.S. soldiers and sailors were stationed there prior to Pearl Harbor and much of the trolley tour was a trip through those bombed out ruins.

After the Malinta Tunnel tour and show we went to the hotel on the island and had lunch. One of the old colonial buildings that survived has been made into a hotel and restaurant--something I think I would like to do if I ever come back--and we had a lunch. The sun was out in full force but there was a nice breeze and the view of the bays and jungle was about as "Robinson Crusoe-like" as I've ever seen anywhere.

After lunch, we toured some of the gun batteries but it started raining which slowed down the exploring. We went by the "Mile-long Barracks," the largest military barracks in the world at that time. They weren't actually a mile long but they were a massive structure that today is just a concrete skeleton. The Japanese bombed them relentlessly but couldn't completely destroy them and when they occupied the island the soldiers stayed in what structures were remaining. When the Americans and Filipinos reoccupied Corregidor, the U.S. bombed the remaining structures into rubble. There is an old parade ground nearby and over 1,000 U.S. paratroopers landed there and fought in "D-Day like" conditions to clear the barracks of the Japanese. Probably because of my European ancestry, I've always found the World War battles in Europe to be interesting but the fighting in the Pacific was every bit as bad, if not more brutal, than the fighting at Normandy.

The gun battery in the attached photo was the last American gun to fall before the Japanese occupation. It was originally a naval battleship gun and there are famous photos of the victorious Japanese soldiers sitting on the barrel and celebrating.

We then stopped at the Pacific War Memorial--only one of two Pacific memorials the U.S. has built (the other is at Pearl Harbor). As you would expect, it is very somber and touching. In front is a large statue of an American soldier helping a Filipino soldier who has been wounded. There is a similar statue in Atlanta, Georgia only in the U.S. the Filipino soldier is helping the wounded American soldier. The memorial itself is simple but elegant--white marble with an eternal flame.

From the Memorial we stopped at the old Spanish lighthouse at the top of the island. Spain occupied, colonized and ran the Philippines for nearly 400 years and this lighthouse guided Spanish ships into Manila harbour from the early times of the old wooden sailing ships.

On the way back down to the harbor we visited the site where MacArthur raised the American flag upon his return at the end of the war. He did, in fact, return but I still think he was basically an egomaniac who dumped the deadly job of defending the island and the Philippines onto General Wainwright then claimed the eventual victory for himself.

Anyway, it was a really great day and a really informative trip. I'm really glad it didn't get rained out and I certainly came out of it with a new respect for what the American and Filipino soldiers went through here......

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I hope to do a canoe trip up the Pagsanjan River to the famous Magdapio Falls and then shoot the rapids back down the mountain.

A Jeepney Factory; A Bamboo Organ; Coffee Beans from a Cat’s Butt; and a Fogged-in Volcano……

Today was my first day off since I’ve been here and the Philippines is catching the tail end of a typhoon and we started getting really heavy rain yesterday and the trip to Corregidor Island was cancelled because of the high seas so I signed up for a trip to the southern town of Tagaytay and the Taal Volcano

It was still raining this morning when we left and the first stop was at a Jeepney factory south of the city. I’m really fascinated with these machines and even through the factory was closed on Saturday we got to walk around and look at how they build them. There are literally tens of thousands of them on Manila highways and they’re really cheap to ride—about 18 cents. They are limited to very short routes so they don’t compete with taxis and the destination is painted on the front of the vehicle. You just find the one going your way, flag the driver down, climb in the back, pass your 7 Pesos up to the driver, and hold on while he flies through Manila traffic. When you want to get off you just yell up to him and he stops—often in the middle of the street—and you jump off. You may have to take three or four of them to get to your destination but it costs almost nothing. They are open-air, however, and you have to deal with Manila’s heat, humidity and exhaustion pollution as well as sit shoulder to shoulder with twenty or thirty sweaty people you don’t know. Tomorrow afternoon I plan to attempt a short route on one of them. The factory was really interesting to me and I shot lots of pictures and intend to post a separate blog on just these amazing vehicles.

From the factory we continued further south to the town of Las Pinas and the very old church of San Jose which is famous for its bamboo organ. In 1821—because the church was so poor—the priest had an organ built of bamboo rather than metal and it is still around today. Earthquakes and time took their toll, however, and the organ quit working for several decades before a German tourist came across it in 1911 and repaired it. In the 1980s it was disassembled and sent to Germany and completely rebuilt then returned to the Philippines where it is now considered a national treasure. Today you can visit the old church and parishioners play the organ for donations. The kid we had today wasn’t all that good of a musician but he gave it a shot and I videotaped a clip which I’m trying to add to this post.

From there we continued to Tagaytay and Taal Volcano and the rain got much worse as we climbed the mountain. We ate at a restaurant overlooking the crater but the fog was so bad we never really saw the volcano or the lake down below which is a real shame because it’s supposed to be absolutely beautiful. The lunch was good, however, and I was in a group of four from Ohio and they were nice people. After lunch I had a double scoop of ice cream—the flavors were “yam” and “cheese,” a first for me but you know, it really wasn’t bad.

A real first for me, however, was when I had a cup of “Wild Cat Coffee” at a vendor on the way back down the mountain. There is a hard-shelled coffee bean here in the Philippines that has a sweet white blossom that cats just love to eat. Inside their stomachs, the intestinal acids soften the shell of the coffee bean before the cat expels the beans out their backside then the workers pick up the beans, clean them (or at least I really, really hope they clean them), and grind them up into what is considered a really gourmet coffee here. Naturally I had to try it and frankly I thought it tasted like S@#%. Not really, the Filipinos load their coffee with milk and sugar and I don't, so I thought it tasted kind of bitter but it wasn't bad at all.

We got back to Manila and the rain let up so I decided to walk back to Intramoros, the old walled city, and visit Fort Santiago again. It was about a six-mile round-trip walk and felt good--I haven't been exercising like at home--but when I finally got back to the hotel I was literally saturated in sweat.

After showering and changing clothes I went up to the 21st floor of the hotel and ate supper at the lounge overlooking Manila Bay. The rain had stopped and I ate while watching the yachts in the bay and wondered how I ever got so lucky as to be able to do all this.

Tomorrow the Corregidor trip should make so I plan to do that and will post again later.....

I Go Half-Way Around the World to Experience Exotic Cultures and These Guys Want to Eat at Hooters.......

I'm almost done with the first week of work and it's gone well. Tomorrow is Friday and then I have a three-day weekend. Today we went north of Manila to get away from the traffic and ended up eating at an upscale mall-style oceanfront area that was really nice--especially when compared to the oceanfront in the downtown area. And yes, they wanted to eat at Hooters--here's a picture of the van with diplomatic plates sitting in front of the place.

Saturday I've signed up for a day-trip to Corregedor Island to view the site of the famous battle leading to McArthur's return to Manila near the end of World War II. It's supposed to be a nice outing with a tram that goes around the island stopping at various places.

Sunday I'm scheduled to take a day trip up to the Taal Volcano and the village of Tayaytay south of Manila. Almost everybody has told me it's a "must see"--it's a volcano with lake in the crater and the crater has an island in the lake that has a second volcano: A lake within an island within a lake within an island. It's supposed to be beautiful with visits to a pineapple and coconut plantations.

Monday is an Islamic holiday so I have it off too and it is the day I'm looking most forward to. I'm signed up for another day-trip to Pagsanjan Gorge and Falls--a canoe trip up the side of the mountain followed by shooting the rapids back down through jungle and folage--some of which was filmed in the movie "Apocaylyse Now."

But to this point it's been mostly work and back to the hotel. I'm sure I'll be posting some fantastic photos this weekend.

I Found the Embassy and the Job is Underway........

I finished Day 2 today and it looks to be a good job. I have five students from different embassies: two Filipinos, a student from Hanoi, Vietnam, a motor pool supervisor from Vientiane, Laos, and the ambassador’s driver from our embassy in Mongolia. Only the two Filipinos really speak English very well so we’re having a lot of fun communicating but they’re a good group. The Mongolian student is really suffering badly in this oppressive heat and humidity. Even for me, a Houstonian, the humidity is really tough to take and he comes from a basically frigid climate and it’s his first trip outside Mongolia.
As usual with these groups, we all seem to get along together and the Vietnamese, Laotian and Mongolian have been going out in the evenings—eating and sightseeing—despite their lack of a common language.

This morning at breakfast here in the hotel, the Vietnamese student joined me at the table and we were talking as best we could in English and I couldn’t help but think of the irony of it all. Forty years ago we were literally trying to bomb Hanoi back into the Stone Age and today I’m having breakfast with a person from Hanoi who now works for the American Embassy there. Kind of makes me wonder what that was really all about—all that money and lives lost.

I am really fascinated by the Jeepneys here—they are all handmade and are each a work of art. They don’t just have to be taxis, however, and there are a lot of personal hand-made cars running on the streets. I came across this one at the restaurant today at lunch and talked to the owner. Almost all of these are stainless steel which means they don’t rust and will last for probably a hundred years. It seems that when the U.S. Navy abandoned the huge shipyard in Subic Bay, they left behind tons of stainless steel and the Filipinos are using it to make these Jeepneys. This one is a two-seater and you notice the headlights, running lights, horn and everything else consists of cannibalized parts from other cars. The grill definitely looks Jeep but the stickers say Toyota and the engine is actually a Isuzu truck engine. A lot of these cars have Mercedes or even Cadillac hood ornaments but the hubcaps may say Buick. They’re really each works of art.

I slept all night last night and am basically over my jet lag. My appetite is normal again and I’m not falling asleep at 3:00 pm. This evening I walked three blocks down to Manila Bay and took some pictures. Despite the hotel being in an upscale section of Manila, those three blocks involved running a gauntlet of beggars, crippled homeless sleeping on the sidewalk and naked children. I really like the Philippines so far but compared to Thailand it is much dirtier and impoverished. There is a bay front walk but the crowds there are really aggressive in begging and selling stuff and the odor was overwhelming. I did shoot some pictures of Manila Bay and it is impressive: It is the deepest natural seawater bay in Asia and as a result, has been fought over for centuries. The power that controlled this bay usually controlled all sea trade to the Far East. The Japanese kicked us out of here during World War II and when we returned, we nearly bombed the city back to the Stone Age—something we seem to be determined to do in a lot of places throughout history.
Anyway…..despite the poverty and dirty streets, I really like the Philippines so far and am really happy I got this job. I’ve got a three day weekend coming up and have day trips planned into the countryside for all three days so there should be a lot more photos coming here……..

It took 22 1/2 hours, but made it to Manila......

After 22 ½ hours either sitting in an airplane or at an airport, I made it to Manila and checked into my hotel around Midnight. Got about five hours sleep and woke up around 6:00 this morning, ate a good breakfast at the hotel and headed out on foot this morning to try and wear myself out so I can sleep tonight and overcome jetlag as soon as possible.

The hotel is really five-star and about two blocks from Manila Bay—in fact, this is the sight that I got out my window first thing this morning. Actually the walk along the sidewalk facing the bay looks a lot nicer on the maps than it really is. I did walk along the coast past the U.S. Embassy where I’ll be working tomorrow and crossed over into the Rizal Park—the central landmark and recreational area in Manila. The name “Rizal” is etched literally everywhere in this city. Dr. Jose Rizal was a medical doctor who was executed by the Spanish in 1896 for leading a movement to overthrow the Spanish colonial government and establish an independent Philippines. He was imprisoned in the old Fort Santiago near here and marched to this park and shot by a firing squad. He is a national martyr here—even the path he walked to this site is memorialized with brass footprints. The execution site and memorial is pretty amazing—larger than life figures play out the scenes leading to and including his execution. I am posting a couple of similar photos to show the size of these figurines.

I spent some time walking around the park—the humidity was oppressive even by Houston standards as early as 9:00 this morning and my clothes were literally saturated with sweat. I checked out some Chinese and Japanese gardens and some of the hundreds of statues and memorials around the park.

I then continued on to Intramoros, which is the old walled city inside Manila. The Spanish started building it in 1571 and originally it was a walled fortress protecting Spanish citizens and the interests of the king of Spain. Inside were a number of colonial mercantile offices, churches, convents, schools and housing for the privileged Spanish—all, of course, to the exclusion of the Chinese, Muslims, and Filipinos. Over the years it was invaded by Chinese pirates, threatened by Dutch forces, and held by the British, Americans and Japanese at various times and survived until the closing days of World War II when the U.S. basically bombed it out of existence during the Battle of Manila. I took a thirty-minute horse and buggy tour around what is left of the walls—not that great of tour—and then spent considerable time inside the old Fort Santiago, which is part of Intramoros and protected the coast overlooking Manila Bay and the entrance to the Pasig river. Today the fort is a shrine to Dr. Rizal who was kept here as a prisoner before being marched out to his execution site in the park nearby. Some of the others weren’t so lucky, they were kept in underground torture chambers. The brass footprints embedded into the street mark his final march to be killed. The Spanish torture pits were especially gruesome—an underground tunnel leads to the various “rooms” which were exposed to the elements and covered with iron bars. The political prisoners were chained at the bottom of the pits and left exposed to the elements and starved. During the monsoon seasons, water would collect and seep through the walls and the chained men would slowly drown. Reportedly the Spanish guards would hold a “lottery” trying to guess when each prisoner would finally drown.

Walked back to the hotel and am really exhausted—the jet lag is getting to me. I’m going to spend the afternoon at the hotel and try not to nap so I can get back on regular schedule before I start work tomorrow. So far all is going well and I like it here. It is very similar to Thailand but so far not as open and clean.

The photo at the bottom of this post is a picture of the famous, or infamous, Filipino "Jeepneys." They were originally built after World War II as taxis made from old U.S. army jeeps and have evolved into a art form. They are very cheap forms of public busses and are still today basically fashioned from old auto parts. They have "Mercedes" and "Toyota" and everything else painted on them but they are basically custom built taxis.

I'm Heading to the Philippines at the End of August......and Pachuca, Mexico in Mid-September.....

Thank goodness the international work may be picking back up again. I'm doing a two-week job for the U.S. State Department in Manila, Philippines in early September. I'll be staying at a hotel right on Manila Bay and working at the U.S. Embassy . It will be my first trip to the Philippines and I've heard good things about it so I'm looking forward to the trip. I'll have a three-day layover in the middle of the job and plan to get in some day trips probably including a trip to Corregidor Island. I'll be posting as I can while over there.

As soon as I get back, Devin and I are headed to Mexico City by plane and Pachuca by bus to see the Houston Dynamo play the legendary Club de Fútbol Pachuca--the oldest and most successful professional soccer club in Mexico. Pachuca is listed as the highest and coldest city in Mexico--high in the mountains and established over a century ago by Welch miners who also created the soccer club there. This trip does promise to be an exciting one!!!

Cancun--Day One......

There were about fifty Dynamo supporters that went down for the match, but we had five in our particular group. We arrived Tuesday, the day of the game, and checked into our hotel then wandered around in amazement at the beautiful blue and green waters. The photo of Devin was taken from my hotel balcony window. We promptly hung the flags, photographed them, and were told to take them down. We walked over to an open-air restaurant and ate on the water and again, the colors of the water are just amazing.

































In the evening we took a taxi to a park near the stadium in the center of the town and met up with the other supporters for a rally and then we marched about a mile to the stadium through the traffic—basically creating a spectacle of ourselves. I think the local Atlante fans were surprised to see such a large group of Houston supporters come down for the game and the fact most of our chants were in Spanish especially surprised them. Security is always tight for Mexican soccer games and we were met outside the stadium by security, searched, and escorted into a special section fenced off from the other seats by chain-link fence and were isolated from the rest of the crowd. As a result, we didn’t have any incidents but they did have two groups of riot police on the field with the black helmets with face shields and the clear plastic riot shields (something I think they do for all matches). Devin managed to score a TV interview before the game and during the game itself, the vendors circulated through us selling food and drinks including $2.00 Coronas which, with this group, were a big hit. The game itself was a disappointment, we lost, but I think our group all had a good time and overall the reception by the Mexicans was cordial.

Cancun--Day Two.....

Day 2 was basically a laid-back, enjoy-the-sun type of day. We arranged trips for the next two days and ate out again that night. This photo is the swimming area in front of our hotel.

Cancun--Day Three.....

On Day 3 we went to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza—one of the places on my “to do” list. On the way, we stopped at a sinkhole and went swimming. The Yucatan Peninsula is limestone and since the water soaks through the rocks, there are no surface rivers and all the water is underground. Over the years, sinkholes have developed, exposing the water down below. The trees around the top sends the root systems down into the hole looking for water which creates a surrealistic vine system but also very neat. We went down, jumped into the water a few times, shot photos and then ate lunch before going to the ruins.

The ruins themselves were amazing. They are a UNESCO heritage site and I believe they are also part of the “new” Seven Wonders of the World. We took the guided tour then wandered around a while on our own. The place was pretty crowded and a couple of the other tours had some Dynamo fans so we met up and took a group photo before getting told to disperse by the guide. The place really is amazing and the astronomical aspects are everywhere—the buildings and monuments are all aligned with sun to mark certain days of the calendar and are still accurate today.

Cancun--Day Four.....

On Day 4 we did a tour of the Mayan ruins at Tulum. This site was vastly different than Chichen Itza in that Tulum was a seaport and didn’t have the towering pyramid or the religious buildings but I think most of us thought it was more impressive. We did the guided tour thing again and got some really spectacular views of the beaches and ocean—if anything, the water is even more beautiful here than Cancun. We had chartered a van so it was just us five on this trip and we ate lunch at a cantina in the current city of Tulum. I’m pretty sure there were no FDA or OSHA standards in the kitchen but we all agreed it was one of the best meals we had on this trip. On the way back, we stopped at a cave and did the tour there and visited the animal exhibit where I got this photo of a true monkey’s uncle.

On Day Five I flew back to Texas…..All in all, an excellent trip and a vacation I needed more than I realized.

Dynamo Fans Gone Wild!!!.......

.....in Cancun, no less!!!

The Houston Dynamo are playing Mexico's FC Atlante on the second stage of the knockout round for the Champion's Cup tournament and about fifty of us are headed down there to support the team. It's all about soccer.....and it's only coincidential that it's also during Spring Break but there may also be some tourism stuff going on too.

We arrive Tuesday, March 3 and the game is that night so we'll know the results by the second day then we have tentative trips planned to Chichen Itza, the ruins at Tulum and some of the other typical tourist stuff. I think I'll skip the bullfights--been there and done that before. Our hotel is right on the beach and we supposedly have ocean-front rooms. I'm heading back on Saturday so it should be five days of sun, surf and soccer.

Should be a nice break from a particularly harsh Texas winter this year--the temperatures have dropped well below 60 degrees several times this season.