Manila, The Philippines March 4-5, 2011

Click on picture for full size.

We have entered a new aspect of our trip.  The lands of markets; Night Markets, India Markets, Chinese Markets and mega shopping malls.  You’ll start to see a lot of market shots as we progress toward the Mediterranean.   And no one can top Noreen in dealing with markets.  She’s already dealt with the best from the Grand Bazar in Istanbul to road side shacks in the Caribbean.  Let the dealing begin.

Before we talk about Manila there is an aspect of the ship I’d like to show you.  We are in the South China Seas pirate area so the ship has rolled out our protection.  These are pictures of sound weapons stationed on either side of the ship.  If you watch “Whale Wars” on the Discovery channel you saw them in action.  You can see the danger area (or effective deterrent area) on the back.  These and our speed are the main defenses.

 

We docked right next to the Headquarters of the Philippian Coast Guard.  I’ll give them some Blog space since we rely on them to come to our aid in this part of the world.  Any of the Coast Guard organizations deserve our thanks.

The Philippines consists of 7,107 islands.  They need a good transportation system to get around.  Thus we have the Super Ferry.

About 40% of the crew is Filipino and the ships arrival is cause for great celebration.  The ship sets up a large tent and the families travel from all over to visit their crewmember and the ship.  This is a shot of the setup area with the welcoming tents. (For accuracy this is actually when we were getting ready to sail but I didn’t get a shot on arrival.)

Now here is where the story gets a little complicated.   Noreen is looking for some specific items and had a lead in the local Filipino Market.  When she showed the address to the welcome folks (in one o f the tents above) to get directions they got the head of local security to come over (Nothing new about that.).   It seems that the address she had was in an area that he felt was unsafe for us (or anyone it seems).  However being a gracious people he assigned two young girls to accompany us, show us the way and try to get us back alive.  We were glad they were along when as we approached the area the taxi driver asked us to lock our door (He was also a little surprised at our destination).  Anyway, the shots below are of the very local market in Manila.  We actually found the people very friendly and helpful.

Note the local security on the right side of the picture.

Rabbit for sale

One of the famous Jeepneys.  They are actually part of the public transportation system.

Another form of transportation are these three wheelers.  Some a pedal powered and some have small engines.  They get a lot of people in the cab area.

A watermelon vendor.

Of course, the open air was only the beginning. Noreen’s quest took us into the underground market.

And deeper still. (I’m shooting without a flash so as not to attract to much attention.)

Until finally we were in the produce and meat departments as we weaved through the underground.  If it hadn’t been of our guides we would still be down there.

No luck on Noreen’s quest.  So it was back to daylight.  It took us 10 minutes to walk to where we could find a cab.  I saw these roosters tied along the fence.  No idea why.

Here is a picture I put in for the electricians who may be reading this.

Where we finally got a cab.  Notice all the Jeepneys and three-wheelers.

Finally back to the ship.  Noreen with our two escorts.  They weren’t big but they were tough.

An interesting anti-corruption sign.

An interesting food shopping picture in a large supermarket.  They buy all their items individually.  All kinds of foods were set out to take as many as needed.  This was the sausage section.

I have to show you one Manila landmark but our real adventure was the market trip.

With that we bid farewell to Manila and head for Vietnam.