22/01/11

The enigma that is Manila…

On Saturday morning Matt and I did a walking tour with Carlos Celdran (he is somewhat of a celebrity over here) through Intramuros, the 'wall city' built by the Spanish in the 16th century. The tour is a one-man show. Carlos combines humour, music, costumes and theatre with history to create an unforgettable experience that gives you a much better understanding of what makes Filipinos what they are today-an enigma!

Carlos had the huge group of about 80 people, including tourists from Australia, Spain, America, England, France and even local Filipinos, entertained with his well scripted three-hour performance until he took us into the church that housed the bodies of Filipino soldiers killed in World War II. What he told us next shocked me, not because of the brutality (even though it was) but because I had no idea it had ever occurred.

In WW2 when the world had all eyes on Germany, over 120,000 thousand Filipinos were being brutally wiped out by a bomb dropped, not by the enemy but by American soldiers. The Philippines suffered the second largest number of civilian casualties, behind Warsaw.

Just 10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour Japanese soldiers invaded Manila and began, what is now known as the Manila Massacre. They found Filipino women, men and children and began systematically slaughtering them. Carlos told a dramatic story of Japanese soldiers entering Manila hospitals to find the newborn babies, throwing them into the air and catching them with their bayonets.

In an attempt to regain control American commanders ordered the bombing of Manila in a move that saw many civilians killed, the US defended it as 'collateral damage'. The Philippines suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical destruction by the time the war was over. An estimated one million Filipinos had been killed; a large proportion during the final months of the war, and Manila was extensively damaged.

There is a brutal and interesting part of history I never knew, but the tour wasn't all war and death. Carlos also explained the Filipinos love for everything American! We got to ride a horse and carriage and eat the traditional Filipino desert 'halo-halo.'

Saturday was a jam-packed day for us! After the tour we caught a two-hour taxi ride out of Manila (and the pollution) to Tagaytay a province in the south that is home to the beautiful Taal Volcano. When we arrived at our hotel we were told we had been upgraded to the deluxe suite (nothing but the best!). The view was amazing. The hotel was situated on a mountain over looking the volcano.

From Manila (and Tagaytay) lots of love,

Stace

xxx