Saturday afternoon at the park

Here are those long-promised photos of our Saturday afternoon in Rizal Park, in downtown Manila.

Armed with parking advice from Bobby, we somehow managed to find free parking directly next to the park. (Of course, this led to, at the end of the day, an enterprising young man "helping" me back the car out of the spot and telling me it was "pay parking.")

Rizal Park, named for turn-of-the-20th-century Filipino revolutionary Jose Rizal, is a favorite spot for families to spend a lazy weekend day. The centerpiece of the park is a monument honoring Rizal.

On a trip past Rizal Park earlier in the week, Bobby and I were talking about the monument's specifics.

"There are three gold stars at the top of the monument," Bobby told me. "And two guards at the base."

"They're there to honor Rizal? Like an honor guard?" I asked.

"No, I think they're there to protect the gold," Bobby said. "So it doesn't get stolen."

The gold stars, hard to see, are marked with the black arrow, and one of the guards is marked with the white arrow. You can see a larger version of this (or any photo on this blog) by clicking on the photo.

After strolling around the monument, we stopped by the Chinese and Japanese parks, established by the China-Philippines and Japan-Philippines Friendship Associations. Admission: 5 pesos, or about 10 cents. Can't beat that! None of my photos came out particularly well, but I think that's more a reflection on the general unphotoworthiness of the two parks than on my photography skills. After all, with a 5 peso admission charge, there's not much money to spend on beautification...

Which left us to wander over to the "Orchidarium" which, complete with a 100 peso admission charge and corporate sponsorship, was a far better place to take photos. For example, do you know what young bananas look like?

The banana flowers are gorgeous. I tried to get a shot with flower, bees and bananas, but settled for two different pictures, either one of which is better than the flower-bees-bananas shots I took.

Another great shot came in the Orchidarium's butterfly pavillion. I posted that photo last week.

After our strenous touring, we stopped at a small refreshment stand to fortify ourselves before moving on to the National Museum, which is full of history -- including a ton of Philippine headhunter regalia -- that was all off-limits to photography. (Although, photography could, perhaps, be arranged for the payment of a "photography fee.") Shelly decided to cool off with a cup of nice, natural, from-the-Philippines coconut juice, while I decided that a cold bottle of man-made, full-0f-chemicals Pepsi would be a better choice.

And, as it turned out, it was a better choice, because it led to this photo:

I'd never had Pepsi from a bag before. Many of the bottled softdrinks here are in reusable glass bottles, much like we had in Iowa when I was growing up. And, just like we had when I was growing up, there's a hefty deposit on those bottles. The refreshment stand's owner opened my Pepsi, poured it into the plastic bag, offered me a straw and sent us on our way. (This photo also shows off my thinning hair quite nicely, I think.)

After the National Museum, we headed to Intramuros to an apparently non-existent restaurant that Shelly remembers visiting once-upon-a-time, before finally ending up eating lunch at the Manila Hotel. I like to think that I ate lunch in the very seat that Gen. Douglas MacArthur ate his lunch in. Shelly points out this isn't possibly true, that the hotel must have been much more of the dark wood interior decorating style than the chairs-upholstered-with-bright-green-fabric style present in the Cafe Ilang-Ilang today. However, you could rent the MacArthur suite -- which comes complete with 24-hour butler service -- for about $275. Surprisingly, this is actually one of the cheapest suites the hotel offers.

(MacArthur, it should be noted, made the Manila Hotel his home in Manila before and during World War II. Apparently, the MacArthur suite has been re-created to look much like it did while he lived there, but I have not been able to find any photos of the suite to link to.)