Day 55 – March 11, 2011 – At sea on the way to Manila, Philippines

After a nice day at sea, we arrived in the Philippines about 10:00am.  Shuttles were not scheduled to start until 3:00pm but the ship arranged them to start earlier, around 11:00AM.  We got off right away and ended up taking a cab to the Mall of Asia with another passenger and his daughter rather than wait for the shuttle to start.  We were anxious to get to the mall, because Fred’s glasses broke the afternoon before and we needed to get him a new pair.

We stopped at the first eyeglass store and after searching through most of their frames, they found one that the lenses from Fred’s old glasses could be transferred into.  They needed some time to do that so we paid for the glasses and went out into the Mall.  This is the largest Mall I think I have ever seen.  There is a main mall that is huge and then surrounding the Main Mall are outlying buildings on all sides, one having a large supermarket, one being an entertainment center and the other more restaurants.

We found a shop that had goods just from the Philippines and found a couple of things we like and purchased.  Then we made it back to the glasses shop but they were not ready yet.   We went to one of the surrounding buildings where there were many small restaurants serving almost any kind of food you wanted.  We decided on tempura and had a nice bento box with shrimp tempura, a pork or chicken dish, rice and various condiments.   When we went back, Fred’s glasses were ready and we were ready to get back to the ship.

Today was the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  The Captain told us that we were under a tsunami warning but that it was expected to be no more than 1 meter in Manila Bay where we are docked.  In fact, later he told us that a one meter (3 feet) wave did pass under the ship about 6:30pm. 

The ship they had the group, Bayanihan, from the National Philippine Dance Company come aboard for a show that was very, very good.  Jamie said that we were lucky to see them and it was only because we made it to the Philippines in the evening for an overnight instead of a single day.

The crew of course was very happy to have the extra night to see their families.  They had to leave the ship before midnight because the authorities don’t allow anyone to leave the ship after midnight and before 6:00am, but you can come back on board if you are off.

Dinner was at Prime 7 for just the two us of a change.  I had the veal chop and Fred the prime rib and both were excellent.