

Thursday - November 29, 2007
In the early morning, I was in a queue at Manila's NAIA 2 airport for another necessary trip to Hong Kong.
The flight was expectedly late to depart - and arrived in HK just before lunch.
As I checked into a modest hotel room with wonderful goose down pillows, I started to link-up to the world by broadband ...
BREAKING NEWS ...
Omigoshhhhh - a military "rebellion" was taking place in Manila
The Peninsula Manila Hotel - whose lobby was one of my fave hang-outs , was under siege
Police and soldiers had the hotel surrounded
An ultimatum to a break-away "oppositionist" group led by a Senator, a 1-star general, and a former vice-president had been sent
This is the stuff of which Philippine political "tele-nobelas" are made
A few hours later the deadline had been breached
And ...
Wait, wait, wait - omigudnesss goshhhhhhhh
An armored personnel carrier (a tank to many of us) - started firing endless rounds into the lobby
Tear gas was fired in as well
And the "tank" started ramming into the doors and into the front wall of this pristine 5-star refuge in the middle of Metro Manila's financial district
Surreal ...
Within minutes, the rebels who had warned that they would die for their cause if need be, started complaining that the tear gas was hurting their eyes (huh??)
Then the "never surrender" heroes promptly surrendered ...
The tele-nobela was over - as quickly as it had started
And my favorite hotel?
It survived - but its wonderful lobby which had been converted into a war zone was ruined
The hotel was evacuated and closed for 3 days
By Monday it was ready to re-open
I arrived from HK the night before
As soon as I wrapped up the days work - I hied off to the Peninsula
In part for curiosity
In part to support my fave hotel's "re-opening"
I invited a few friends to the now "historic" lobby for a couple of drinks
The lobby had been restored with its 30+ foot Christmas tree as center piece
The glass doors were replaced temporarily by wooden board ups
Without the glass - there was an eerie feeling of confinement
Like walking into a giant cabinet and having the doors close behind you ...
Having overdosed on Chinese cuisine these past few weeks, I was hungry for anything Filipino
So it was good old "arroz caldo" for me ...
Hmmmmmmmm - arroz caldo, white wine and friends
In the lap of what was a firing range just a couple of days ago
In a historic hotel that once again made history !
Only in the Philippines .....
The Peninsula Manila Hotel
corner Ayala and Makati Avenues
City of Makati
Philippines 1200
(63-2) 887-2888