Photos et lettres des Philippines, de France et d'ailleurs

At the beginning of May 1980 my friend Françoise and I left for the Philippines with four weeks holidays ahead of us. After a memorable journey via Amsterdam, we finally arrived at destination. In fact our Philippines Airlines flight had been delayed 24 hours then cancelled. Finally we were booked on a KLM flight bond to Singapore and from there on another flight to Manila.

A first night spent in a lousy hotel, we transferred to Las Palmas hotel in the tourist district of Mabini. At that time the traffic and pollution had not yet reached the actual levels and the city was far from being unpleasant.

After having visited Manila during a few days, it was time to leave to Baguio, 250km ito the north and approximately six hours of bus ride.  At an altitude of 1500 meters the city was then the summer capital of the Marcos. One could even light the fireplace during the winter's evenings. It is amusing and you will see why later, Baguio was also the preferred destination of the newly-weds. Years later devastated by an earthquake and landslides, it lost its statute of summer capital to the profit of Tagatai much nearer to Manila.

Two days later and a few hours of bus towards the north and may I say some fears along the mountain road passing along many precipices, we arrived in Banaue. What a spectacle! Finally under our eyes were the famous rice terraces fields carved in the mountain at an altitude of 1500 meters. Old of 2 to 6000 years and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Once back in Manila, we met at our hotel, a guy who is still one of my best friends, Jacques P. and only witness of a great part of my history because later I never saw Françoise anymore.

While Jacques was occupied with his business, Françoise and I took then the plane for Zamboanga City in the west of Mindanao and one hour and half flight of the capital. Although this part of the Philippines is splendid we remained downtown for security reasons. Even in 1980 the Moslim rebels were already very active there. A car exploded not far from our hotel during our stay.

I discovered then how this city could be dangerous for not informed foreigners. One evening I toured the local bars with an Australian and to our surprise we were searched everywhere and passed to the metal detector. Later 2 Americans owners of a restaurant and a movie theater explained the situation. Themselves after closing the restaurant they returned home with two cars and armed with guns.

A few days later, I am again in Manila with Françoise now introduced to people as my sister. It was too difficult in the Philippines to explain why we shared the same room without having sex with her.

Jacques who even spoke a worst English than mine asked me one morning to accompany him to a lawyer to be more informed of the laws regarding the buying of real estates. On the last floor of a building of Makati, the 2 secretaries of the lawyer made us wait while chatting with us. It is true that over there curiosity towards the foreigners is normal and far from being impolite.

Getting out the attorney's office we invited the 2 secretaries for diner and they accepted. After a pleasant meal, I exchanged my address with the youngest of the 2 girls, Dhana and then it was the beginning of another story but now it was time to leave the country and to return towards the skyscrapers of Paris-La Defense.