The Philippines on two wheels - part one

I enjoy the view from the Hong Kong airport hotel where I've often overnighted between flights.  This time, I'm between Toronto and Manila. Opening the curtains, it's a humid, Far East day with some waterfront goings-on to keep me entertained.

Before breakfast, a jet lag-combating walk to the narrow channel through which I passed on a large container ship just two years ago. There's a vessel heading in the opposite direction.

I remember standing on the freighter's bridge, looking at the hotel. Here's a link to our passage from Chiwan on the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong:

http://trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.ca/2011/10/new-york-to-houston-long-way-part_11.html

With scrambled eggs and coffee, I read the South China Morning Post. As usual, the Chinese are front page sticking it to the Filipinos, demanding apology and compensation for a 2010 attack on Hong Kong tourists in Manila. Eight died. The Philippines, source of thousands of nannies in Hong Kong, doesn't get much respect here.

An alert at the airport advises of the 'severe threat' to visitors in the Philippines and to avoid all travel. Still, it's pushing it to lump the Philippines with Egypt and Syria.

Despite the warning, I press on. Not for the first time in my experience, Hong Kong ground staff give up on getting Filipinos to board by the usual, orderly row numbers. There's a mad, but cheerful, dash as nannies and seafarers on the way home cram through the departure gate. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that remittances by Filipino overseas workers amount to ten percent of Philippines GDP. Put another way, the Philippines can't provide enough employment, forcing people overseas to support a burgeoning population. More than ten million Filipinos toil - mostly in low wage jobs - outside the country. 

In Manila, my old Canadian friend, Gord, meets me at the airport. He whisks me, well, as much as local traffic allows whisking, to the hotel and, later, to a good Italian restaurant. 

Today, Sunday, we take a short walk by Manila Bay ...

... then an hour's flight to Dumaguete on the island of Negros.