In 1999, my wife and I spent our last night in the Philippines in a Catholic run "Apartel" somewhere along Taft Ave. It cost 700 pesos then. The next morning since Luneta is just close to us and our flight was still in the afternoon, we decided to visit this Park.
I have lots of memories in this park because I visited Manila several times when I was a kid and Luneta has always been part of my itenerary. Then when I was in College ( Adamson University ) the park is just across the street from our school thru a small street that comes out between MBC (?) and JaiAlai.
In 1999, I saw huge changes compared to the Luneta of my youth. I brought along a film camera ( no digicams yet ) and I took the following shots. More shots will be featured tommorow because placing printed photos into the Internet is really a bitch. You have to scan the photos, save them as JPEGs and the process takes a lot of time when I am supposed to be roaming downtown checking the new DVD releases ( hey today's Tuesday, the day when the new titles are out on the shelves waiting for me to examine them ). Anyway, these are vintage photos. Luneta may appear different now since the time these shots were taken.---#
( more photos next time)
1 comment:
You should check out, in your next visit, the Quiapo underpass too. Its now clean, safe, with a guard 24 hours. The quiapo church itself has had a facelift. So unlike in the past when that Quiapo area is not a place to be roaming at night.
And the Avenida is cleaner too!
About Rizal Park aka Luneta, and its environs: The Old Jai Alai building is now gone, torn down despite howls of protests from conservationists. The new Jai Alai building is just beside Harrison Plaza, thats the mall, the first mall in manila area, near manila Zoo on one side, and the Central Bank on the other side.
However, since the Supreme Court struck down the legality of Jai Alai sometime 2001, mostly the building is now rented by review centers, seminars and conventions.
I enjoyed Jai Alai too, though Im not much of a bettor. I enjoy the cool rooms, the easy chairs, the food stalls, and the heckling of players! It seemed one had camaraderie with other aficionados when he joined in the shouting. Thus, I remember my lines there, targeting those Castilian pelotaris:" Ano ba yan Bilbao, laro na, nilalaro mo pa!" Hehe " Deretso, Santiago!" I mixed it with a Spanish accent, and bingo, I appeared to the other spectators as a seasoned Jai Alai follower!! Others might have suspected I was party to the insider game-fixing.
In one of the last games in Jai Alai before it was illegalized, there was an American Black player,who had huge fans mostly composed of our sisters in the flesh trade. I thought this black man must be 'galante', showering money to these 'Magdalenas', but I had to change my mind when I overheard one say" He's got the longest dick this side of town!"
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