Unwrapping The Philippines, Where Spain Meets The Orient

Our first week in the Philippines has given us an introduction to the customs and culture of the country and, whilst we have been surprised by the huge volume of American food outlets here (never mind the ubiquitous McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC etc, there’s even Denny’s and Dairy Queen), there’s one clash of cultures which is really piquing our interest: the fusion of Spanish and Chinese – or should we say Oriental. Unlikely as it seems, these two wholly disparate cultures are melded together here in ways which are surprising and unmissable.

Tagalog, the most widely spoken language of the Philippines, is laced with Spanish words, both written and spoken. “Parar” shout bus passengers as they approach their stop, “hola!” shout friends across the street. There exists such a thing as Filipino tapas, paella is regularly on the menu next to indigenous foods such as sisig and tocino, but the whole thing goes to another level when I order for lunch…..wait for it……noodles with chorizo and olives. And all this is before we hit Barbara’s. More of Barbara’s in a minute. Before Barbara, there’s Allan, our driver and guide for our first trip out of metro Manila.

Allan is driving us out of the city towards today’s destination, the renowned Taal volcano, in the darkness of the early hours – we leave at 5:30am but the notorious Manila traffic is already starting to clog the streets. We have to leave early, Allan explains, otherwise it will take hours to be free of the city. The sheer size and density of Manila becomes more and more evident as we make our way out, independently named cities forming part of the overall metropolis.

San Sebastian church built entirely from steel

As we drive Allan imparts interesting detail about his city. Manila people have a difficult choice, he says, in terms of choosing where to live: pay higher rent to live in the polluted air of the city, or pay significantly less to be on the fringes but face a minimum 2-hour commute in and out, every day. What’s more, the city’s working hours have become pretty much 24/7, a result of a number of major global call centres relocating to here from India and working American or European office hours.

When we make our first stop, at a roadside Starbucks for morning coffee, it becomes obvious just how poor the quality of the air inside the city is – it feels measurably more breathable already, like we’ve emerged from a dirty cloud. Maybe it’s helped by the light but refreshing rain which is drifting across the parking lot in feathery drops. Some time later we pull into the town of Tagaytay, high on a hillside overlooking the lake which is home to the Taal volcano – an island volcano which sits menacingly out in the middle.

Taal is a moody one. Some tour websites will tell you that can take a boat out to the island, and even hike to the main crater once there, but in reality it is not currently possible to do any of this, volcanic activity of recent times having rendered the situation far too dangerous and volatile to allow anyone to enter the exclusion zone. Some of Taal’s statistics make for startling reading: 38 known eruptions causing over 6,000 deaths; 49 active craters on the small island; major eruptions and earthquakes in the last few years since 2020 making Taal one of the most active volcanoes on Earth.

Ash falls from recent eruptions have coated Manila and brought life to a virtual standstill; the major 2022 eruption left a knee-deep ash fall across the lakeside towns and, according to Allan as he points across the lush terrain, absolutely nothing green was visible from this Tagaytay vantage point, everything buried under a sea of volcanic ash. The most recent, though not major, eruption, was on December 3rd, just eight weeks ago. Taal is one serious beast and one which both means business and demands respect.

Incredibly, the island has a population of farming and fishing families, who return home to the volcano whenever permission is granted by Government. These families are currently operating on a strict curfew and with a licence, only able to visit their farms during daylight hours whilst volcanic activity is monitored on a daily basis. It’s a pretty volatile place to live, to say the least.

As if the volcanoes of the Philippines aren’t enough – there are, by the way, over 300 altogether, 24 of which are active – these islands are hit regularly by earthquakes and typhoons. As we walk along the lake shore at Ambulong just outside the current exclusion zone, the lake wall and walkway lay battered and broken by a particularly strong typhoon which hit just a few weeks ago, generating enough power to the lake’s waters to smash the concrete and send flood water into the village. As for the earthquakes, Allan reckons they are so commonplace that “when the house starts to shake, we just carry on drinking coffee”. 

From Tagaytay and Ambulong we head to the riverside town of Pagsanjan and take a ride in a manned canoe through the lush gorge on the Bumbungan River. Our two boatmen, Gregory and Ferdinand, manfully row the boat upstream against the strong current, through white water and, occasionally, haul the boat by hand up over the most difficult rocks. With us in it. It’s tough, energy sapping work: work which Gregory has been doing since he was 18. He’s 60 this year.

Journey through the gorge

To end this unusual journey we are invited to climb on to a bamboo raft and get hauled across the river until we’re directly underneath one of the crashing waterfalls way up the gorge. We’re soaked. We’re laughing. It’s fun. The journey back downstream is easier on the two guys, but by the time we’re back, they are shattered, and grateful for the tip which we feel they definitely deserve.

Bamboo raft to the waterfall

On most evenings here we have ventured down to the restaurants around Remedios Circle for our evening meal, a walk which is a bit of an assault course of street hawkers, broken pavements, the stench of stale urine, and, hardest of all, the many outstretched hands of skinny street kids. We’ve discovered at least three pleasing restaurants at Remedios, one of which (see earlier notes) is a tapas bar serving decent Tempranillo. But, on Friday night, instead of Remedios, we head to Barbara’s in Intramuros.

Barbara’s promotional blurb informs us that it is a “Manila institution which has been serving and entertaining locals and visitors alike since 1982”. What it actually is though is your typical tourist evening of buffet food, dancers in traditional costume and local musicians playing Filipino folk songs. For all its unashamed touristic nature, it’s good: the food is varied and tasty and the floor show is entertaining. But…..

But. If we were already a bit stunned by the Spanish/Oriental thing, the crossover of influences comes pouring out here at Barbara’s. Traditional Filipino costumes bear more than a passing resemblance to flamenco dresses; dancers flick Chinese style fans while their colleagues stamp flamenco style on the floorboards – then the zhongquin (Chinese glockenspiel) and banjo-like Chinese string instruments, making archetypal Chinese music, are suddenly accompanied by…..castanets. 

And so we near the end of our time in Manila. For one reason and another we didn’t get to ride a jeepney, unfortunately, but that’s not to say we didn’t make some unusual moves around the city. We’ve ridden the city’s metro trains. We’ve been carried by tuktuk and by an electric version of the same which is half tuktuk half golf trolley – but the most ridiculous, most bone shaking and probably the most dangerous of all is the motorbike sidecar. We must have been a sight, the two of us squashed inside a little aluminium cage being whisked along next to a clapped out old motorbike steered by a guy who thinks traffic rules don’t apply to him, only to others.

Stylish Manila transport

The thing is though – these journeys are not just cheap, they’re a lot quicker than being in a conventional taxi stuck in the relentless traffic jams of the city, so you just have to get over it, drop any fear and join in the fun. And get there quicker and cheaper.

Manila may not go into our all time top ten of destinations, but it’s certainly given us some experiences. Northwards next.