Sunset over Manila Bay

The sunset over Manila Bay is rightly famous, matched only in my experience by the setting sun on. the Nile at Luxor. There the orange orb slides slowly below the horizon, making you remember that the ancient Egyptians held the sun to be a God and you realize why the Valley of the Kings is on the Nile’s west bank. In Manila Bay it is the effect of the light on the clouds and the sky that is most memorable.

I have sometimes watched this beautiful sunset from a simple floating restaurant near the Manila Hotel. I have an ice-cold glass in which to pour my chilled San Miguel beer and the thoughts of what Filipino dish to order to eat with the icy quenching ale. Maybe I will have Crispy Pata, a deep fried pork shank but then I think of the cholesterol and decide on fish. As the Philippine Islands form an archipelago the fishing industry is one of the country’s biggest. As the fish is always very fresh and not too expensive it is a delicious meal prepared in a variety of ways. I could have Inihaw na Pusit, (grilled squid) or Sinigang na Sugpo, (a tamarind soured broth with prawns and vegetables). I choose alimango (a crab) steamed and eaten with the fingers, great! There is often great debate here about whether the best crabs are male, female or bacla (gay), generally the opinion comes out in favour of bacla, but this is no reflection on the sexual preferences of the Filipino. It appears that the orange lumps of fat inside the shell are superior and this is highly prized. My crab is served with rice of course; there is always rice in the Philippines.

A little later I walk along Roxas Boulevard on the bay side. This area has been substantially renovated and now has many small casual restaurants and bars, which together with the strollers makes it a busy and fashionable hangout after dark.

Behind me are the remains of the walls erected by the Spanish, IntraMuros, used as the center of government in colonial days. It is now an interesting tourist area.

Living in the Philippines is challenging. The country is geologically, climatically and politically unstable.

Geologically, the country forms part of the Pacific Rim of Fire that extends from
Japan and arcs through the Philippines and Indonesia, around Australia to New Zealand. There are many dormant volcanoes it is believed but also several potentially live ones, which are constantly monitored for activity. The biggest eruption of recent times was in 1991 when the apparently dormant Mount Pinatubo in Pampanga awoke from a 600 years sleep and gushed forth huge amounts of lava and ash. Local residents say the ash fell like snow as far south as Manila. The eruption was immediately followed by a tropical storm adding large quantities of water to the ash and lava, which therefore engulfed the whole area. It is called lahar and there are towns near Pinatubo where the roads and streets are still covered with now solid lahar. Earthquakes occasionally occur but there has not been a big one since 1990, meaning that maybe another big one is due soon. The country is ringed by some of the deepest ocean trenches in the world making an underwater earthquake and the ensuing tsunami a real possibility.