Day 60, Monday, March 5, 2018 Manila Philippines 🇵🇭

  Weather, 95 F partly cloudy, that was the forecast and it lived up to it, although I will say, in the shade, when the breeze blew it was pleasant. .  

This was our welcome group. 

So we met our group of seven, and off we went to meet our guides, yes guides, we had a driver, that I assumed was the owner of the nice air conditioned van, and two guides, I think this was a language thing, the one guide could speak the language of the driver and the one guide was the contact for Bonnie, who organized the tour,,,,,, are you confused, I am. LOL

We found our seats in the van, or I should say we crawled in, but nevertheless we were off to Clark AFB, or what was left of it, there is a lot out there but very little is left of the old AFB, some burned out buildings like the old hospital, which was brand new in 1973, that was sad to see. And there is a lot of ash, when you scratched the ground you could see it. 

 

There were two guards sitting inside the lower area of the hospital, you weren’t allowed to go inside, not that we wanted too anyway. Our guides said there were ghosts in there and at night you could hear them screaming. 

So we moved on to the K9 sematery, this was the place for the dogs that served in Vietnam. 

 

Then we went to the Museum, but it was closed, that was a disappointment, but saw some of the housing still, standing. 

 

After that we went to lunch 

Lunch as in a mall, seems that is where the best restaurants are, and we met a very nice Philippine woman who helped us with the food and gave us some wonderful watermelon that she brought for her friends from California.  And have I told you there are guards at every entrance and every store entrance, and at the mall parking area, you have to get a parking ticket, and when you go in the mall entrance your bags are checked. It is all very secure, I guess. 

Then we had the two hour drive back, on the way we passed the largest stadium in the world! It can hold 5% of the population of Manila! 

The drive back was a hair raising experience in its self, we defied death one more time, as my dad used to say. 

When we returned, we showered, and went up to the Crows Nest for happy hour. And the ship had let on many family members of some of the crew. So they were getting tours of the ship, and we met the family of our Sommelier, two little boys his mother and father and wife. What fun they were having. And the captain was up there too. 

On a sad note we found out that our dance instructor Martha, was hurt, badly on the tour to Coreggador, when she fell, and really broke her arm, a compound fracture and tour up the skin,,,,,,, anyway she was air evacted to Manila by helicopter, and is now in the hospital with an IV to prevent infections, then she will have surgery, she is 70, there, but for the grace of God goes any of us. 

Quote: “TRAVEL is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age.”

Dr. Jose Rizal, “Los Viajes”