Around 12 noon Wilson picked me up from my hostel. I had intended to have an early night and spend the morning exploring the sights; the opposite had occurred. Together we headed to his home in a gated secure community of small townhomes in the Makati district of Manila. I met his three nannies and his cook, then his wife and three children, then his mother and father. Somehow they all lived here in the same four bedroom townhouse - happily I might add. Though wealthy by Filipino standards, the family lived a comfortable lifestyle. The family got ready and then we all set off to the hotel where the family had reservations to spend New Years - the Shangri-La Makati, one of the finer hotels here in Manila, located in the heart of the best district in the city. As we turned into the hotel drop-off area we were stopped at a security check point where three uniformed guards inspected the underside of the car with mirrors, and a dog sniffed its way around the vehicle. After unloading the luggage and handing the keys to the valet we made our way through a dog patrolled security check at the door where metal detectors scanned our persons and guards inspected bags. Finally inside the veritable fortress Wilson began to check in. Tonight was to be the busiest night of the year, and the check-in process took an unfortunate hour or so. During this time I opted to head to the nearby mall to find rechargeable batteries for my digital camera, which had been acting up. I found some, discovered that they required charging, and returned to buy some regular alkaline batteries. Distressed because my camera still wouldn't power up I found a Starbucks and bought a peppermint mocha, relaxing to read the Time magazine featuring the "person of the year", Mr. Bush. I could have been back home in Vancouver; this area of Manila was really very beautiful, clean, friendly...rich. None of the lower caste in sight. Funny how it becomes so easy to ignore the extreme poverty of a city while in the comfortable isolation of the wealthy area. Surely the everpresent police force has something to do with the financial seggregation.
Harbouring a sense of bewilderment from having read about our hero, Bush, I headed back to the Hotel to join Wilson and his family for a luxurious swim in the pool and then a spa. After enduring such tedious travel conditions after leaving KK I welcomed the steam room, sauna, and jacuzzi, oh boy did I ever!
Later, after Wilson's insistance, Per would join us at the hotel just before we retrieved his SUV and we drove to the Emerald Garden - one of the better Chinese restaurants in the city, I am told. Here, with all of Wilson's family (except the kids) Per and I would enjoy a fantastic New Year's 12 course set meal, featuring Chinese delicacies and local foods.
After dinner, around 8:30pm, we graciously thanked the family for such an enjoyable and delicious evening and were deposited in the middle of the chaos of the Roxas Boulevard New Years party. The wide street on the waterfront of Manila Bay had been blocked off for kilometers and crowds of people were gathering. Near the popular Aristocrat restaurant a massive stage had been constructed overnight and was host to a series of dance groups moving in unison to both live and pre-recorded music. The waterfront area was bustling, and we soon found a table near a very good band to have a drink or two. As the night progressed we would walk up and down the boardwalk waterfront visiting the many restaurants there, including one featuring 'small people' as servers. Kind of odd. As the midnight hour approached I urged Per to join me in an effort to make our way into the centre of the massive crowd surrounding the main stage featuring the top acts in the Philippines. Being tall himself, the two of us stood out like sore thumbs, and it was pretty humourous to finally find ourselves in the middle of the biggest party in one of the biggest cities in Asia, standing about a foot higher than most everyone else. As the cameras of the top TV station here in Manila swept overhead, sometimes pointed in our direction, I'm almost certain we made it on the television. Feeling compassion for those behind us we left the dense crowd surrounding the stage about 15 minutes before midnight and joined the less packed crowd that filled Roxas Bvld. Not sure how many people were there, thousands and thousands. Finally the countdown, then a 15minute fireworks show set off of a barge not 20m from the shore. Overhead a reasonably good display, especially for such a poor country, wowed the massive crowd. Throughout the night firecrackers echoed in the streets, in the distance explosions of much bigger, perhaps homemade, virtual bombs. After the fireworks show areas of the streets cleared for the ignition of firecrackers. Trucks parked in the maelstrom threw packets of cheap cigarettes into the young crowd, elsewhere posters were given away. The intense celebratory mood dissipated surprisingly quickly and Per and I set off to find a happening venue to enjoy the rest of the evening - an evening that would involve horse buggies, bicycles, taxis, jeepnies and a lot of walking. Through the rougher districts of Ermite and Malate, even near into Makati and down to Pasay we travelled, at some point taking turns driving the Tricycle taxi downt he busy back streets, dodging explosions here and there. We found ourselves at the LA Cafe, where we were disappointed to find a crowd of aged westerners surrounded with Filipino girls. We moved on to a more authentic local bar. We would not return to the hostel until around 7am...