Tour With Chinese Teachers

The tour date was set on the 26th of March, 2010. The guests were Chinese teachers who were in Manila for a weekend and in between the official function they were to attend they decided to squeeze in a city tour.

I was at the appointed rendezvous at 7:00 a.m. The trip schedule was for 9:00 a.m.

I met with the Shroff repreresentative Jennyvi Platon at 8:00 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. By a quarter past 8:00 a.m. the guests were beginning to congregate at the lobby.

I didn't realize the guests were at the prime of their youth - early twenties to mid thirties. All of them were fluent in English and I was relieved. They are natives of Hong Kong.

I met the principal of the school and she was very cordial. Apparently she had been to Manila before and was amazed at the progress and the development. It took a while to assemble everyone and board them on the bus. We left a few minutes late from departure time.

First stop was the School Exchange Program to be held at the Depratment of Education office in Guadalupe, Makati City for the orientation, then to Pitogo Elementary School for the teaching demos.

The Driver found the right street to the location but was directed to detour because of the size of the bus. We had to go to the Fort which was a long route. So I gave my commentaries on the Area. The treat for them was that we passed through McKinley where they got a glimpse of the palatial homes of the rich and famous. We got that out of the way.

Interestingly enough, all 31 guests had their own digital cameras. You can't imagine how much time we took on photo ops. Finally we got to DepEd by half past nine. The Superintendent met with them and pleasantries were exchanged as well as an orientation on Pitogo Elementary School. They we convoyed to the site.

They were met like VIPS which was a total surprise for them. Children were dancing, the school was dressed up with hanging flowers. They teachers were divided into smaller groups and handled by Filipino counterparts. The whole morning was spent with the teaching demos.

Lunch was served at the school library. The guests were waiting for the other teachers to start. We had to orient them with the Filipino custom that guests be served the food first. I spent some time explaining some of the food items on the table. They loved the steamed fish salad with the fish burried under thousand island dressing and chopped vegies.

One of the guests had to leave for HK and we waited for the driver who would take her there. The bus was ready for their departure in the middle of a slight drizzle. Good thing we had the foresight to borrow some umbrellas from the conciere of Crowne Plaza. We then proceeded tManila to see the other sites.

MOA remained a top interst in the tourists, which was strange because they are form HK. A rolling tour of the CCP Complex was also of particular interest to them. I gave them time to have a photo op at the Rizal Monument. Some ladies took a washroom break. All 31 went crazy with their cameras. It got a bit difficult to control them. Some bought souvenirs from ambulant vendors while the rest were shutter crazy. Even policemen were not spared as visual pegs.

We then proceeded to Chinese Cemetery passing through Quiapo, Dangwa, North Cemetery and Chinese GEneral Hospital. The cemetery was of little interest. They wanted to go shopping.

We proceeded to Fort Santiago which was about to close by then. We proceeded to Casa Manila. There was a wedding reception at the patio. I had to project my voice to 30 pax while competing with the sound system of the wedding.

Some were enjoying watching the celebration which was a TVP in itself. It was nearly dusk when we ended the Casa Manila tour. There was no time to shop as we were heading to Mandarin Oriental for dinner at Cafe Uno by 6:30 p.m.

Traffic delayed us and we got to the hotel by 7:30. Three guests wanted to take dinner at Glorietta. We took them there and one of them developed a migraine. Even If I had exceeded my work hours I could not leave. We had dinner while the 3 guests looked for a restaurant they fancied and they settled for an Indian restaurant. There were other Filipinos who showed concern for my guest but she refused any help from first aid and from being brought to the clinic. I had to assure them that the guest had already taken her medication and was just awaiting the bus.

We were picked up from Gloreitta and whisked to the Mandarin Oriental to pick up the rest. We brought them back to Crowne Plaza at nearly 10:00 p.m. The shopping was scheduled for the next day.

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