Groove is in the heartland
If you want to get to the heart of the Philippines, explore Manila’s karaoke bars and the mountains beyond, says Collette Lyons
PHOTOGRAPHY: PAOLO PICONES
Usually, if a plane landing provokes a reaction, it’s a gentle round of applause. Touch down in Manila Ninoy Aquino though, and it’s singing. Not in unison, mind you – imagine 300 passengers, all quietly crooning happily to their own tune.
It’s a pretty good metaphor for the city itself, albeit with 1.7 million people instead of a planeload. “Singing is a stress release here. Everyone does it, all the time,” explains a chatty taxi driver, on the road from the airport. “The Chinese and Japanese think they invented karaoke. Ha! It was us!”
He’s not joking – in 1993, Filipino inventor Roberto del Rosario contested that his sing-along tape system, invented in 1975, was the original. He won – at least in the local courts.
Its descendant, the coin-operated videoke machine, sits in pretty much every bar, petrol station forecourt and public swimming baths in the country. Even in remote rural areas, you’re as likely to wake up to Christina Aguilera as you are to a cock’s crow.
“People aren’t embarrassed to sing here,” explains Victor Valderrama, a tour guide. “It’s the biggest leisure activity in the country. Just don’t ever do My Way badly.” This is not an idle warning – My Way- related affray is a noted phenomenon in the Philippines.
For culture of the less-kitsch variety, there is Salcedo Village, the epicentre of modern art and home to respected galleries Blanc and Art Cabinet. “It’s also got a beautiful park that hosts classical concerts, and affordable art fair Art in the Park each February – Manila is a mall culture, so people relish the chance to be outdoors. Adventurous collectors go to the warehouse art spaces in the bohemian Pasong Tamo district to buy,” explains Ramon Lerma, Director of the Ateneo Gallery, the only public modern art museum in Manila.
He’s something of a modern art kingmaker. “Our retrospectives have a huge effect on the reputation of artists. Prices for young Filipino artists’ work are skyrocketing abroad,” he explains.
A recent winner of the annual Ateneo Art Awards, Ronald Ventura, recently hit the million-dollar mark at auction in the USA. Understandably for an artist who grew up in a country subject to so many occupying powers over the years, Ventura’s multi-layered work is all about national identity, incorporating European Old Master paintings, Japanese woodcut prints and American cartoons.
These mixed cultural influences are also obvious at Manila’s heart – the 16th-century, Spanish-built walled city of Intramuros. On a walk around the quiet streets (the honking, brightly-painted jeepneys – public buses originally made from WWII US military jeeps – aren’t allowed here), guide Ivan Man Dy points out Manila Cathedral.
“It’s beautiful! And 430 years old this year! Of course, it has been rebuilt eight times… But San Agustin Church has been standing since 1607 – it even survived the 1880 earthquakes,” he says, proudly. Astonishingly, San Agustin also escaped being reduced to rubble in the 1945 Battle of Manila. Most of the ‘walled city’ is actually post- war reconstruction.
Huge efforts are being made to return buildings to their former glory, with long-term plans to turn it into a living ‘historical village’. Five replica Spanish colonial houses have already been reconstructed from surviving photographs. One, the Casa Manila, has been furnished as it would have been in the 18th century and opened to a curious public.
Huge and open-plan, with large gaps above walls between bedrooms for air to circulate, it’s a welcome respite from the heat. “Listen!” whispers Ivan, from the bedroom next door. “A huge Catholic family would have lived here. But you can hear everything! I don’t know how they ever made any more children!”
Said family would have approved of the city’s most singular restaurant, which opened last year just downstairs, in front of San Agustin Church. Bringing a whole new meaning to the term soul food, Ristorante delle Mitre is the world’s first Catholic canteen, staffed by nuns cooking Philippine dishes that are named aft er beloved bishops.
Entertainment comes in the form of hymns played on an upright piano. Elvira Go, its co-founder, explains, “We want people to eat and feel blessed. Apart from Fridays, when we traditionally fast. We close then, to avoid temptation.”
If you prefer your food without a side-order of saints, the markets are the places to go, says Sonny Almandres, executive sous chef at the Shangri-La. “Filipinos are serious about their food – every barangay (village), no matter how small, will have its own palengke (market). Organic and artisan markets are increasingly popular in Manila too.”
As a former Spanish colony, the cuisine shows strong Hispanic influences. “We love our pork! Lechon, whole roasted pig, is a signature. Each region has its own version – Cebu does crispy skin, Batangas even makes a lechon paella.”
Said pigs can be seen turning above huge charcoal pits behind street-side vendors all over the country. More unusual is the Philippines’ most startling snack, balut. These boiled fertilised duck eggs, doused in salt or spiced vinegar, are only for the very strong of stomach.
Tour guide Victor Valderrama carefully unpeels one, and it’s gone in one bite. “It’s beer food here – at night, vendors cycle around villages shouting ‘Baluuut!’ It’s best to eat it in the dark, so you can’t see it.”
Not all street food is quite so scary, says Sonny. “Every Friday night, people flock to Banchetto in Ortigas Center – several streets are blocked off for food stalls, selling everything from sushi to mango shakes to barbecued pig intestine! If you want to do a culinary tour of the Philippines in one night, that’s the place.”
Just a three-hour drive from the frenetic city, the geography completely changes, as traffic-choked roads and high-rise buildings give way to lush farmland and single-storey houses. Among these sits the occasional candy-coloured mini mansion, with elaborate picket fences and manicured gardens, towering over its neighbours.
These are the most obvious signs of the OFW – the overseas Filipino worker, “Our most famous export!” laughs tour guide Ivan. “School is taught in English, not Tagalog, so we can work pretty much anywhere.” Returning to their villages aft er stints in Europe or the Middle East, OFWs often set about building their dream house with their savings. And then, it appears, they paint it pink.
Driving towards volcanic Mount Pinatubo, these villages eventually thin out until the view transforms into a barren moonscape, punctuated by a few very basic huts built by Aeta tribespeople, believed to be the original inhabitants of the Philippines.
“When Pinatubo erupted in 1991, eight thousand homes were destroyed in the area,” explains trek leader Marilyn De Guzman Corpuz. “We were given lots of warning so managed to evacuate in time, but rocks hailed down and ash mixed with rain to make a horrible sludge. The Aeta suffered very badly, as they lived closest to the mountain.”
Twenty years later though, the most obvious aft er-effect of the disaster is a beautiful, turquoise crater lake where 300m was blown off Pinatubo’s summit. “If you row over to the far side, the water is so warm you can cook an egg in it.” Or, you can just swim and picnic on its tranquil shores after the two-hour trek to get there.
A day’s drive up winding mountain roads, still on Luzon, the Philippines’ largest island (the archipelago is made up of over 7,000 in total), is the country’s own ‘eighth wonder of the world’ – the 2,000 year-old Banaue Rice Terraces, built by the Ifugao people.
These giant’s steps up the hillside have been passed down through generations, and tribes people still live in isolated villages dotted throughout, in raised wooden huts. “Although some young people want to go and work abroad, so the terraces get abandoned,” says guide Johnson Ambojnon, sadly.
Canny farmers have developed a sideline selling the wooden carvings and colourful weavings the Ifugao are famous for, but many are happy just to invite trekkers into their homes. One 70-something man offered to introduce us to his elders. “Want to see my dad?” he asked, as he brought out a carefully wrapped cloth containing his father.
In Ifugao culture, the dead are left in a cave for three years until the bones are picked clean, after which they are taken back home, as the spirit dwells where the bones lie.
The dead are also the main attraction in Sagada, most famous for its macabre Hanging Coffins, just a short walk from the mountain village’s centre. Carved by the deceased before they pass away, these wooden caskets with names crudely painted to the side are balanced on pegs hammered into the limestone cliffs. Eventually, the coffins disintegrate and their contents tumble into the depths below.
But even here, life is celebrated with song, and what better way to end a hard day’s trekking than a burst of karaoke in Sagada’s busiest bar – decorated, inexplicably, with broken keyboards and pelvis X-rays, and boasting the ubiquitous videoke machine. But do they have My Way? “Oh no ma’am,” says the proprietor solemnly. “We don’t want any trouble here.”
Manila fact file
GETTING THERE
KLM operates six direct flights per week to Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
WHERE TO STAY
Edsa Shangri-La (www.shangri-la.com). In the manicured Makati district, this wood-and-white- marble hotel has a stunning spa and pool, and is walkable from luxury boutiques and the business district. The Peninsula (www.peninsula.com). The grand waterfall at the entrance gives a good idea of the opulence inside, from the newly-refurbished rooms to the 1930s-themed nightclub.
WHERE TO EAT
The Aristocrat (+63 2 524 7671). In bustling Malate, this Phillipine diner is permanently packed with locals tucking into traditional dishes including sinigang, adobo and their special-recipe barbecued chicken, washed down with ice-cold mango shakes. Ilustrado (www.ilustradorestaurant.com.ph). In historic Intramuros, set in a pretty tiled courtyard, Ilustrado has fed Spanish royalty with a mix of Spanish staples and Phillppine specialities.
GETTING AROUND
A guide and driver can be a huge help. Intrepid Travel offers 15-day small group tours departing from Manila. Visit www.intrepidtravel.com.
