Manila

Thought we were on for a long time, until we met passengers some from Elder Hostel(now known as Exploritas) who are on the ship for 4 months!
Lecturers have been excellent with lots of destination detail and some talks on history, art, etc. We're already up to date on Borneo and Brunei, our next stops.

Today we are in Manila (first of two days.). The ship has been very kind to their 175 Filipino crew on board. It is the first visit of the ship and each crew member is allowed to host 5 guests with tours of the ship including a meal. In total 600 guests will be visiting! The crew was crazy with anticipation. The morning as we hopped off, girlfriends, wives, children etc were gathering to board. We talked to a grandmother who was standing with two little kids; soon to visit their parents who are both working on board.

We took a horse drawn carriage for one hour around the old enclosed city. Much damage from WW2 still and a lot of recognition of what the Americans (General MacArthur) did to recapture the country from the Japanese. Dropped off in the market area and walked through 50+ plus blocks of packed street activity, the palace (although they wouldn't let us in) China town, etc. No tourists at all! Very busy dusty bustling smokey city with horse drawn buggies, bicycle taxis, jeepneys, etc. People are incredibly nice, smiley and friendly and English is spoken everywhere.

We stopped at a mobile sidewalk school and feeding center for street kids run by the Virlanie Foundation (virlanie.org). Each day they care for about 70 little kids picking them up from a nearby shopping center where they spend nights on the sidewalk. So darling. Gave them the equivalent of $8, for which they were grateful; apparently half of what is needed to feed the 70 kids their main meal daily.