The Magic of Manila (Part 1)
My First Solo Foray into this Beautiful Vibrant City
I had never been to the Philippines but had met a few Filipinos during my time in the middle east, where they are the next most prodigious workforce to Indians. My first encounter with one was when I was newly exposed to working in the desert of Saudia Arabia. I had to do a quality inspection of some newly delivered fittings which the client had requested. These were in crates in an exposed storage area, some of which had been broken in transit from the USA. There I was fully exposed to the 50-degree Celsius heat, wearing full safety PPE, and was gradually becoming weaker by the minute. I hadn’t noticed the gradual change in me, but a Filipino Storeman whose ‘office’ was a table and workbench under a large marquee some fifty meters away had seen my gradual tiredness and beckoned me to come in under the tented area. He shared his sandwich lunch with me and made me drink plenty of water, his kindness had taught me a lesson about dehydration in hot countries.
Over the years since, I had met a few females, Filipinas as they are known, and they had always been polite, friendly, and diligent workers. I had only dated one for a very short while; again, they couldn’t have been nicer. Before Facebook was the social media phenomenon, I used to chat with fellow travelers on a platform called WAYN, which stood for Where Are You Now. It was a great forum to meet nice people with a love of traveling and working internationally, with many pictures of exotic places.
When my boss in Australia asked me to go to the Philippines and start up two companies there, one for training locals to send to our subsidiary companies worldwide and the other as a local contracting company, he gave me no introductions apart from an accountant’s report on the legalities, so I was to go in blind, and with no knowledge of the language, Tagalog. While most spoke English I knew it would not be too much of a problem, but I decided that I’d need a temporary secretary. That was where WAYN came in handy as I sought out a friendly local who would know their way around and could book me into a hotel in the right area of Manila.
I met Rachel on WAYN. She fitted the bill entirely, a part-time teacher in her early fifties, with a cousin at the Dept. of Trade & Industry. She initially agreed to a 2-week assignment and would meet me at the airport and book a hotel close to the Ministry. She stated that she would be available for the whole of my visit. We chatted online regularly leading up to the proposed trip and got on quite well.
I flew into Manila late afternoon and Rachel was true to her word; she met me with her Daughter-in-law and grandson, probably to check me out and that she was safe in my company. Where most of the local women had long black hair, Rachel had a striking short bob style with a smart fitted blue dress. I was formally introduced to them and the daughter-in-law drove to the hotel. I hadn’t dictated what level of the hotel, only where it should be, and we pulled into the layby entrance of a motel. She had chosen a reasonably priced place, clean and nondescript, not the 4–5 star that the company would have selected, but I was happy with her wisdom in the choice. I was still sort of testing her out, I guess.
Rachel followed as the bellhop took my bag up a narrow staircase to my room she checked that everything was in order and said, “Excuse me a moment.” She went out with the bellboy, and I pottered around hanging up my jacket and unlocking my luggage when she knocked on the door and I let her in. She asked if I was ok with the room, and I confirmed; then she shut the door, turned the lock, and put the chain on the door. I must have looked surprised and quizzical then as she answered with a smile, “I said I’d be with you the whole time, 24/7.” I shrugged, smiled back and we carried on unpacking my bag together before I was instructed to shower. That was it, so nice, but so matter of fact, I was seduced, and we spent a beautiful couple of weeks together playing boss and secretary, and true to her word, we met the cousin at the DTI and gathered enough information for my company start-up.
During that trip, we visited many people and places that assisted my business proposals. I also met more of her family and moved up to a better standard hotel where I could entertain local lawyers and other business-related guests. We attended a formal reception where Rachel accompanied me dressed in a smart, black business skirt suit. She played out the secretary role perfectly.
We traveled to Batangas together on another visit of mine and established the training company, we have kept in touch to this day fifteen years later. An adult no-strings relationship that would fit any modern dating site. WAYN has sadly ceased to exist in that old format, they got into some financial difficulties and were bought out by LastMinute.com but it played a part in my other later adventures in Manila of which I’ll write in part 2.