To some people they had a fantastic day, shopping in the third biggest mall in the world, The Mall of Asia.
To the crew it was fantastic. Over 400 of the crew are from the Philippines. Holland America put on a great spread for them on the dock. A humungous Crew Tent was set up with tables and chairs. Music and food entertained them as the crew took their families aboard all day long at staggered intervals. They were all a very happy lot. In the afternoon we sat on the balcony with Moe and listened and watched to the music below as the crew and their families held a great reunion. An excellent military band gave us sail-away music, but it was sad to see the parents and kids waving goodbye to their moms and dads. Too sad.
To our neighbour next door, Bill from Savannah, it was also a great day. He spent the morning in the hospital having and an EKG and an MRI. He had had a serious 'heart situation' while we were crossing from NZ to Australia. The ships doctor said it was all under control and there was no damage or whatever. Of course they wanted to be sure and the only way was for some tests that he could not arrange in Australia, Bali or Brunei. He got a clean bill of health. The small amount that he had to pay for these tests staggered him and his wife. He has a copy of the MRI so he can have it verified at home.
To Moe, it was a good day as well. She ventured pretty far afield yesterday. She took an eight hour bus trip out into the country. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative and the viewing was less than expected. The fun part of it was that their three bus convoy had a police motorcycle escort there and back. Moe said they were hot-shots, but added to the fun.
The Cutlers and Robins explored Old Manila on foot for some time, getting our fill of Cathedrals and old town. A $3 cab ride to the Mall of Asia for some domestic shopping and a delicious Italian lunch was the extent of our Manila. We have been here before and I for one did not have the Philippine day on the top of my hit parade.
An interesting observation yesterday in one huge department store was the amount of staff they employed. We could not believe them, they were everywhere, usually in groups of two or more. At one time when Jim and I stopped to observe them there were 14 of them in an area the size of our living room. All young, trim, sharply dressed in the stores conservative uniform.
Dough of course had to know what was going on. Here is the answer from one very petite pretty well-spoken young lady. "Sir, the Philippines is very poor and they offer a lot of employment" Dough, again brazen, asked what the salary was. She said 362 Pesos or about $9.00 per day. Stop complaining folks.
Next is Honk Kong for two days. The big news is that we all, and that means all, have to report between 8 and 9 AM tomorrow morning to have our temperature checked! SARS you know!
Fellette said "isn't that where it started, shouldn't we be asking them to check their temperature?"
Not our best day, but there is no such thing as a bad day on a world cruise is there?
It was however the crew's best day of the voyage, so I guess for us as well, it was a good day in Manila.
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