Day 10 Manila
Around 7am we docked in Manila. As a significant percentage of our crew are from here, Cunard had arranged a function on the wharf for crew members’ families and our cabin steward, Richard, was very excited to be seeing his wife and children for the first time in 4 months.
As I am still spending most of the time stuck with my leg up in the air, Jeanette went solo on our planned walking tour of the city so I will get her to tell you about it.
With our guide, the bus dropped us near to the very large Quiapo church. Being Sunday, a Mass was in progress. It was incredibly hot and very humid but there were people crowded all around the outside of the church, under hats and umbrellas, listening to the service being broadcast to the surrounding area. On Sundays they run Masses from 6am to 8pm and up to 5,000 people attend. The Philippines has a population of 119 million people spread around the in excess of 7,600 islands. They are 85% Christian (Roman Catholic) and are devout observers of their faith. But they also observe many of the Chinese beliefs and superstitions from their many centuries of a large Chinese population.
We were supposed to go into the church but it was impossibly full so we continued around to the back of the church through little crowded market lanes to the entry behind the altar, all the while listening to the priest conduct the service, and the magnificent organ playing, as we shuffled along in the heat. It was a relief to enter the cool of the underground passages of the church. We shuffled past the replicas of the Black Nazarene – a statue of a black Christ, lavishly dressed and weighed down by His cross. The real one is in the church, high up above the altar, where people file past to touch his foot. Before Covid came along they used to kiss it.
Then we were back in the crowded laneways and streets where out guide showed us some local delicacies – boiled fertilised duck eggs (yuk!) and a scone like pastry called Hopias. They have strange bus-like vehicles called Jeepneys which the Filipinos developed from all the US military Jeeps left behind after WW II.
We entered the Santa Cruz church where a baptism was in progress, then walked the length of Chinatown – the oldest in Asia. Then we went into the Binondo church which was beautiful inside. We then made our way to our bus, dripping with the heat and desperate for the air conditioning, passing a lovely nod to the Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse.
On our bus journey back to the ship we drove through the old town of Intramuros, the old walled Spanish city, past the Manila Cathedral and the university which is almost as old as Harvard.
Hardys’ Travels 