believe me good will come

[23-24/1/06] On Monday, 23 January, Andy and I set off for the hellhole of Clark, a few hours north of Manila.

Clark is where you need to stay if you want to climb Mount Pinatubo (see next post). We also had to go to Clark as the rest of our travel group were landing at the airport there (the rest of the group were Spencer, Patty, Derek and Cristina. Cristina is from Chile, the others from the USA. All of them taught English in, or close to, Changzhou).

Andy and I arrived in Clark first, and we went to the hotel where the others would meet us. We sat in a cafe out the back, by the hotel pool. A particularly large, middle-aged, white male lay next to the pool. He was shouting at a young, scantily-clad, Filipino woman who lay next to him. An older white man sat at the bar. Another young Filipino woman was resting her head in his lap. Andy and I were feeling a bit grossed out. We went for a walk down the main road. The main road consisted of brothel after brothel, occasionally interspersed with bars and sleazy hotels. Groups of girls called out to us as we walked past. Some girls grabbed Andy and tried to pull him into their building (all I got was a “Hello, handsome” from two ladyboys…). We went back to the sleazy hotel to wait for the others. They arrived, checked in, and we all set off to find some food. Having two girls in our group definitely helped the situation. We were the only foreigners under thirty, and Patty and Cristina were the only foreign women in the whole town. Clark was full of young Filipino women and old, fat, ugly foreign men (and they were old - the hawkers tried to sell us condoms and…Viagra).

 

Clark exists because of the USA. The USA had a military air base at Clark until 1992. American military bases always seem to attract two things - brothels and bars. Clark was no exception. Angeles City is right next to Clark. There were an estimated 16,000 women and children engaged in the sex business in Angeles City, before the Americans left. The same number worked in nearby Olongapo City (I came across that statistic in this book. The book has several chapters on child prostitution in the Philippines - engaged in firstly by American soldiers and later by dirty British and Australian tour companies. Most of the foreigners I heard talking in Clark had Australian accents). Hopefully the prostitution trade has at least shrunk a little since the US left, but Angeles, Olongapo and Clark still have large red light districts.

We weren’t the only ones disgusted by what we saw in Clark. A group of young Evangelists on Clark’s main street. They are holding a banner that says: “Where will you spend eternity - with God or Satan?” and there’s a verse from Revelation about people being thrown into a fiery lake.

I couldn’t think of any really effective way of expressing my disgust. But I did tape this sign to my pack on the day that we left Clark. As we walked down the main street I made sure I turned my pack to face any approaching dirty old men…

[22/1/06] Andy, Natalie and I took a day-trip to the island of Corregidor, which lies 48 kilometres west of Manila, at the entrance to Manila Bay. Corregidor was of great strategic importance during World War Two.

General Douglas MacArthur used the island as the Allied headquarters in the Philippines until March 1942. The Japanese conquered Corregidor in May 1942. In 1945 USA and Filipino forces took it back. Most of the military installations and other infrastructures have been left untouched since the end of the war.

 

The remains of American military barracks (left) and a gun-emplacement (right).

 

The Malinta Tunnel was the last stronghold of the Philippine/USA military forces before the Japanese takeover. It is now home to an audio-visual presentation detailing the events that took place on Corregidor during the war.

  

A statue of MacAruthur; a monument to the fallen in the Japanese garden; a Buddhist statue in the Japanese garden.

[20-22/1/06] Here are some photos of the nightlife along Manila Bay. There must have been thousands of people stretched along the waterfront. Every twenty metres of so there was a different bar, usually with a live band. It was a great atmosphere, with whole families out having fun.

  

The beggars and hawkers were out in force at night. Most of the beggars were street kids who were as happy to receive offers of food as they were to receive money. The hawkers would try to sell things such as peanuts, crafts, or fake watches.

Joe, one of Manila’s hawkers. We bumped into him so many times that he stopped trying to sell us a fake Rolex and stopped for a chat. He was from Mindanao, the predominantly Muslim island in the south of the Philippines. Mindanao is very poor and has been treated badly throughout the Philippines’ history. Joe came to Manila hoping to make money to send back to his family. However, at every interview he would be asked what his religion was and, when people heard he was Muslim, they wouldn’t hire him. So, instead, Joe tried to sell fake Rolexes to stupid tourists.