Manila,
Philippines
Thursday, February 15, 2007
We took an overnight bus back to Manila and altho we were sad to leave the Philippines, we couldn't wait to get out of Manila. we arrived at 6am and after sitting on a few cups of coffee we made our way to the Coconut Palace. This was built by Imelda Marcos for a visit from Pope John Paul, a lavish palace showcasing the Filopino crafts and matierals (ie lots of coconuts were used in the decor). It cost $37 million and when the Pope found out he said that the money should have been spent on feeding and housing the poor and he refused to stay there. Imelda instead got Brooke Shields to open the palace! Apparently tho the building of the palace was begun in june and the Popes visit was not announced until October so it was really just a posh palace for her to entertain in. It has now been reclaimed by the government and is used as a wedding venue and museum. I really wanted to see it so we missioned it there for 9am only to be turned away because about 500 schoolchildren were visiting, we were told to come back after 10 so we went to change some flight dates in town and came back only to be told they were too busy and we'd have to come back later, after we explained that we had to leave to get a flight they let us in, hooray! This is so typical of the Philippines, it takes ages to get anything done, even visit a museum! It was a beautiful palace tho and the presidents bathroom was bigger than our old flat!
Next it was a long journey out to Clark airport with me stressing that we would be stuck in traffic and miss the plane, it was all fine and at 16.45 we waved goodbye to the Philippines.
