MacArthur's Former Crib

Today I was quite surprised to find that I had a tour for Shell Philippines. The tour was originally scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, 09 February 2012. After working up a good sweat, I got this call from the contact person who told me she expects to see me this particular afternoon and make sure that they  get sold on Manila as a proper venue for an event that would involve at least 2,500 kids.

Wow!

I had to rush to get to Manila Hotel. They were having a caucus at the Cafe Ylang-ylang. and I had to wait a while for them to finish. While waiting I met two young ladies from the Sales department of the hotel. Camille and Reena are both sales agents; the former a tourism graduate from UP, the latter a Filipina student from Singapore who's recently moved back to Manila with her entire family.

Their caucus over, the touring party and myself went around the hotel doing ocular inspection of the hotel's venues and the grand Mac Arthur suite. Naturally, I had the urge to whip out my cellphone so I could take shots at the suite. After all, I would never be able to afford to stay there even for a night. Oooh... too expensive and we all know a tour guide's fees won't cover it...

Id like to talk about my rolling tour on this blog entry but seeing the Suite was just a bonus I couldn't pass up on. Anyway, the Mac Arthur suite was where Douglas Mac Arthur stayed and called home for six years. Since then the complex of  interconnecting rooms have undergone some changes. But credit goes to the management of the hotel for staying true to the rooms' integrity.

In the living room, most of the furniture have been changed. Gen. Mac Arthur's portrait done by Fernando Amorsolo still hangs prominently on the wall. In the formal dining area the general's medals, albeit replica's hang on a glass showcase. The foyer had reproductions of the great general in conversation with President Manuel L. Quezon and an old blow-up of Manila Hotel sans the modern wing and American flags flying proudly forth from two of the hotel's gables.

While on the study are three of the original chairs and... the corn cob pipe shown on the picture above. What's really amusing was that some of my guests took turns with their photo ops sitting on the desk and posing with the corn cob pipe.

I'll talk about the tour tomorrow if I can...