Vignettes of the World
One thing that I have learned about the Philippines is that the information online is not always so reliable. I arrived at Mariveles finally and settled down in my hotel. I had lunch at Mang Inasal, which is a fast food chain. I had my …
In my first evening in the Peninsula, I learned that my phone was not equipped to install an eSIM, so I ran to the mall nearby to get a physical SIM set up. I had to catch an early bus to Bataan Province next morning …
Known endearingly as the Pen, the Peninsula Manila stands for much more than just a luxury hotel. Its history was inexplicably interwoven with that of Manila and the Philippines.
Here’s my confession: I was a squatter at the Pen in this Philippines trip. My friend was going to Manila for business, and she offered to take me in. But free accommodation was not the reason why I signed up for it. The reason was that my friend was going. I simply did not want to travel to the Philippines alone for the first time.
When she told me that we were staying at the Pen, my heart skipped a beat. The Peninsula!
The first impression of a hotel sets the tone for a traveler’s experience. My friend and I marched into the lobby in a grand entry fashion (perhaps a bit paler than Colin Powell’s entry in 2002). In my typical sarcasm, I muttered to myself, “here comes my bubble of luxury!”
Surely, the people that frequented the hotel lobby were presentable. Filipinos and foreigners alike were all well dressed. I observed no one that was out of place at the Pen. People moved about with a kind of grace that one would associate with a higher social echelon. The Pen is the kind of place where you run into characters of world fame.
“Nothing out of the (high class) ordinary here,” I thought. Realizing how I dressed myself between a backpacker and a budget traveler, “maybe I am the only exception here.”
The Peninsula Manila’s signature art piece, the Sunburst, is hung as the centerpiece on the ceiling since 1994. The sun rays in this art work extend 12 meters in its longest width. With 21 rays and 33 spears, Philippine National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon Abueva brings forth a creativity that infuses corporate branding with elegance and meaning. The décor of the dome above is the work of Hong Kong based artist, Paola Dindo. It stages the perfect accompaniment for this masterpiece, with silver leaf lining as its motif.
“It is a bit old,” my friend said when we checked in to our room. She was referencing the Shangri La, where she usually stayed. I thought the amenities and the fixtures were fine. They were indeed a bit aged, but it felt classy, as what the Peninsula brand is known for.
The Corregidor tour took me to Bataan for two days. When I returned, the Pen unveiled a two-board, petite exhibition celebrating its 50 years of history. I was intrigued. The original Peninsula, which was established in 1928 in Hong Kong, is steeped in history too. Amongst its decorated stories, the Hong Kong Peninsula was the venue where Britain surrendered Hong Kong to the Japanese on December 25th, 1941.
But what is the history of the Peninsula Manila?
Textile magnate P.L. Lim and industrialist Carlos Palanca were good friends. In 1974, Lim approached Horace Kadoorie, the Chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, asking simply that, “we need a Peninsula Hotel in Manila.” Although with some hesitation initially, Mr. Kadoorie was persuaded by Lim. Palanca would serve as the Chairman of the Board for the Peninsula Manila in its first chapter.
In 1976, Manila was buzzing with excitement, for the IMF and World Bank Convention was being held in the Philippines. The Peninsula Manila opened its doors in that year as the official host to the World Bank and IMF delegates for the 1976 Convention in the Philippines. It is also the second Peninsula Hotel in the world.
Over those 50 years, the Pen has made several traditions of its own. From food and catering to concerts and weddings, it was always the venue of choice for the most significant events within Manila. Its Christmas Tree lighting is the most celebrated in the city’s holidays calendar. In 2008, the much-loved Christmas Concert became a fundraising event for Make-a-Wish Philippines.
But in the Pen’s history, there are guns as they are roses.
It is no news that Philippines politics was unstable after the country gained independence post WWII. The political upheavals have had significant impact on the Pen in many occasions. For example, the most severe coup attempt against President Corazon Aquino in 1989 caused 600 hotel guests to be stranded at the Pen. Even the streets of Makati were not spared as the violence raged. The “bubble of luxury,” so to speak, is a created reality that depended on many, many dedicated staff that would make personal sacrifices to make sure that the hotel guests were safe and provided for, in good days and bad days.
The Siege of the Peninsula Manila goes down history as one of the most significant crises at the hotel. The Wikipedia summarizes the incident as follows:
The Manila Peninsula siege occurred on November 29, 2007, at The Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati, Philippines. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Brigadier General Danilo Lim, and 25 other Magdalo Group officers walked out of their trial for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny coup attempt and marched through the streets of Makati. The mutineers called for the ousting of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and seized the Rizal function room on the second floor of the Manila Peninsula Hotel along Ayala Avenue. Former Vice-president Teofisto Guingona, Jr. as well as some of the soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines joined the march to the hotel. After several hours, Trillanes and Lim surrendered to government forces after a military armored personnel carrier barged into the glass door of the hotel lobby and the hotel walls and windows sustained weapons damage. Trillanes and the mutineers were arrested while several journalists covering the event were detained. The journalists were subsequently released.
In one of the captions at the Pen’s exhibition, it is said that the hotel came up with a small volume of 30 stories, featuring some of its workers and their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. I went boldly to the concierge and requested a copy, to which the hotel so kindly agreed. I spent a couple hours reading those stories, and I enjoyed them very much.
If you ask the Peninsula Manila, they might tell you that COVID-19 presented a greater crisis than the 2007 Siege. The Pen was shuttered in four separate occasions during the pandemic, the longest stretch of which was nearly eight months. The 2007 Siege only shut down the hotel for four days.
The book speaks of ordinary heroism. From the head of the security office, who shuttered the hotel for the first lockdown, to the chef that oversaw the wildly popular “The Peninsula experience” takeout menu, which brought in 2 million pesos of revenue in the first month of launching, the tales of survival are powerful reminders that no one, rich or poor, was left untouched by a worldwide disaster.
In this collection of reflective stories, I saw a spirit of humility, ingenuity and faith that brings forth the inseverable strands of individual and collective success, of which the Pen is proud. This little book is the Peninsula Manila’s celebration of its people, and shows me that even in the prime bubble of luxury, the experience is as human, and as real, as it is anywhere else. Throughout the whole pandemic, the Peninsula has retained all its staff. Nobody was asked to leave.
The Pen is hands down the most amazing bubble of luxury I have ever experienced.
The Peninsula Manila’s Facebook page.
The View from the Peninsula Manila (2026).
The Wikipedia on the Manila Peninsula Siege.
I had a fabulous first trip to the Philippines. In fact, the experience was in the ranks of being miraculous, even as measured against my years of experience as a travel writer. “Hey, do you want to join me in Manila?” My friend was attending …
At the Skyline Hotel, there are a few staff that take turns doing different shifts in the day. The ladies bring their child with them to work sometimes. And I try to talk to the children, in whatever simple Vietnamese that I am able to …
Phu Quoc is a beautiful island with countless beaches. Its tourism revolves around the beach towns that it builds to attract foreign tourists. Of course, for the sake of a holiday I could just stay in the “nice” parts of Phu Quoc and be wilfully ignorant about the true conditions of the island. But I always appreciate the opportunity to see “what’s real.” In order to do that, however, I did have to make some effort.
When I went on the island-hopping tour, the coach took us to the pier at An Thoi and on our way I saw a vibrant scene of local street markets, where a lot of people went by their daily lives. I decided that I would visit that part of An Thoi when I had the opportunity.
It was certainly a decision that tested my resolve, but I insisted on walking from Stella’s for 20 minutes to get to the part of local An Thoi before one reaches the pier. In the early afternoon the temperature was climbing to its peak for the day. On my way, I walked on a major motorway, where there was no proper pavement. The whole 20-minute walk did not come with shades from trees or structures. But I did see some interesting venues, such as live poultry butchers, schools, goldsmith and such.
I was a little surprised when I arrived at the part of An Thoi that intrigued me. People appeared to be going by their usual business, but not in any sense bustling, unlike the scene I saw previously. It felt a little stagnated when I strolled on the main street. I was hoping for good street food, but the vendors were barely beginning to set up their stands for the day.
I sweated through the rising stillness of the heat. The main thoroughfare felt quite a bit more sluggish than I had hoped, perhaps because it was simply so hot.
Needless to say, that the vibes of the Khem Beach Resort Town and the local sections of An Thoi were a difference between heaven and earth. I packed some fruits and the lady smiled ear to ear at me.
Make no mistake, I am no Vietnamese and my presence there was awkward. People were not accustomed to seeing a non-Vietnamese in that area. They likely did not understand what about that market was interesting to a tourist.
I went into a grocer and saw a whole shelf packed with an innumerable variety of Vietnamese ground coffee. The two shopkeepers appeared to have made a decision to ignore me. They could be thinking that the foreigner should have no business there. They could also be thinking that serving me would take too much work for what it was worth, because there would not be an effective way to communicate with me. I sensed the cold shoulder there, but Vietnamese coffee was the only other thing that I wanted to bring home besides the Phu Quoc red pepper.
I took a bag of ground coffee, then I said, “how much” in Vietnamese, at the same time showing my phone to the lady in the calculator mode. At that point, I seemed to sense a disinct moment of icebreaking. The lady pulled a smile. She entered the price, I paid in exact change, transaction done within a minute and she did not have to struggle to say anything to me. But before I left, I uttered “thank you” in Vietnamese and the lady returned with a genuine, broad smile.
In a previous entry I talked about the really bad banh mi that I got from Grab takeout. It was the only terrible food I had in all of my visits in Vietnam. The banh mi is my soft spot in Vietnamese food. That was part of the reason why I wanted to visit a very local community — the best banh mi are the ones in the food stands.
There was just one vendor at work when I toured the local community of An Thoi. He was grilling leaf-wrapped sausages on charcoal fire. His banh mi was simple: he placed those leaf-wrapped sausages in a Vietnamese baguette roll with some pickled vegetables. That‘s it and it was heavenly!
In Vietnam, so much of the local communities is about food. In local street markets there are endless vendors selling all kinds of food. Where the vendor is not selling food, then it has to be some kind of household and daily goods. I felt with my own senses the kind of local action that took place outside the luxurious bubbles of resort towns. Not too bad really, the local Phu Quoc at An Thoi is the Vietnam that I so fondly remember.
I said goodbye to An Thoi and decided to visit a very cute coffee shop in Sunset Town. Sunset Town is the place to be for tourists looking for luxuries and gimmicky instagrammable photos. As its name suggests, it is also a popular location for viewing sunset.
The Juliet earns good reviews on Google Review. I thought I should have a nice time too, so I went to this coffee shop, which features a sweet and cosy teddy bear theme. The wooden décor exhibits a classy atmosphere as well.
Surely, I ordered my usual coffee of choice here, Vietnamese iced coffee with milk, for a much higher price than any local coffee stand or cafes, but you pay more for the sake of experience. There were a couple non Asian looking souls there. I took out my New Yorker and read maybe half a page. I did not plan on viewing sunset there at the shore. It was time to head back to the Khem Beach Resort for an early evening dip at the beach.
From the pizza lunch at Stella’s, to the visit at local An Thoi, then back in the luxurious Sunset Town, I spent the day shuttling between the dichotomies of intentional touristy setups and the genuine expressions of local life. There were takeaways in both. They certainly looked and felt worlds apart, but there were no antagonism, contradictions or rivalries between these two narratives of Phu Quoc. Both were equally authentic, even in the touristy resorts, as I could observe.
One reason why I love traveling to Vietnam is that I love Vietnamese food. Every region of Vietnam has its own uniqueness being part of the full repertoire of Vietnamese delicacy. In Phu Quoc, seafood is the star of the show and I had one …
I was waiting for the driver to pick me up at the Dinh Cau Temple. In the open area outside the Dinh Cau Temple, I saw some snack vendors and I was curious. Besides that they were apparently sweet snacks, I had no idea what …
It is no surprise that the Goddess of the Sea is the long-revered deity for the people of Phu Quoc. That is certainly the commonest worship in the coastal regions of southern China as well. I wanted to visit heritage and religious sites in the island, and decided that I would rather see the Dinh Cau Temple than the Ho Quoc Pagoda.
And there is a reason for that. The Dinh Cau Temple dates back to the 17th century. Properly considered, it is a historical site of religion. The small temple stands upon a natural rock crop by the Duong Dong River, facing the waves that have rushed back and forth on its foundation endlessly for hundreds of years.
At the mouth of the Duong Dong River, the Dinh Cau Temple features a shrine and a lighthouse. It has witnessed countless fishermen coming and going at sea, perhaps for as long as Phu Quoc remembers its history.
In the shrine, the resident deity, Thien Hau (the Goddess of the Sea), sits at the main altar. The top beam displays the wording, “rock hill temple” in Chinese. A couplet adorns the sides with auspicious wordings wishing for wellness, safety and success at sea. It is a small sanctuary of worship but well kept. The profusion of fragrance from incense burning suggests that this temple has many followers.
Indeed, the Dinh Cau Temple remains a frequented venue of spirituality for the locals. While I saw a number of tourists there, there were also the faithful worshippers that brought incense and tributes for the Goddess.
The lighthouse is well-maintained at the Dinh Cau Temple. Painted in broad stripes of white and blue, it is still a working lighthouse now. This cheerful color of the lighthouse presents a distinct contrast to the temple, which features a bright red roof with golden flying eaves with wood-sculpted dragons.
Together, the two structures are the light for both spiritual and practical purposes. The Duong Dong commune, right by the Duong Dong River, has long been a fishermen’s community.
At this area of Phu Quoc, one can see a wide-open view of the coastline, especially from the higher vantage point of the Dinh Cau Temple — and that entails climbing 29 stone steps up to the temple. It feels urban and developed at this area of Phu Quoc, remarkably different from the untouched environ of the Starfish Beach.
From the elevated point of the Dinh Cau Temple, I observed a face of Phu Quoc that was hitherto unimaginable because I nested myself in all the touristy, natural spots of the island. This part of Phu Quoc was (and still is) the economic lifeline for the island. Long before the rise of modern transportation, the riverway and ocean were the only means of transporting goods to the mainland of Vietnam from Phu Quoc. The Duong Dong River, which flows 15 km from the Ham Ninh massif in the east, is the largest river of Phu Quoc and the key river esturary in the island’s western coast.
Afar on the north lies the modern infrastructure of the Duong Dong Port. Looking south, the Phu Quoc Beach features a row of beachfront property. I felt a welcoming breeze there and then. The waves of the sea brushed against the urban landscape with a lively touch of movement, looping the motions of nature that evince a sense of perennial hope. In the early mornings, the fishermen still gather in the Duong Dong Seafood Market to sell the catch of the day. The bustles of the trade begin at the riverbank here.
The Cho Dem Phu Quoc Market is just a stone’s throw away from the Dinh Cau Temple. Surely, the famous seafood served at the night market is the fruit of the labor of the Duong Dong fishermen.
Roughly meaning, “the Sacred Mother of the Water Dragon,” this temple stands close by and it clearly is also a revered deity for the fishermen. This temple is much larger, well-decorated and kept. But it pales in comparison to the Dinh Cau Temple in its character. There were a number of worshippers there in the afternoon, and I came away having the feeling that the people of Phu Quoc hold on to their traditional faiths strongly.
Localvietnam.com, Dinh Cau Temple & Lighthouse: Complete Visitor Guide.
www.vietnam.vn, Morning in the Fishing Village in the Center of Phu Quoc.
Travel in Vietnam, Duong Dong River, the Largest River in Phu Quoc Island.
There is never enough ocean time for me and I was very excited about the visit at the Starfish Beach. I was done at the Pepper Farm and Rach Vem was next. At around noon hour, my driver took me to the Rach Vem Fishing …