Cruise The World With Us 2026

Monday – March 16, 2026 – Manila

Featured photo is the front of a pipe organ with over 900 pipes made from bamboo.

Today is Saturday, March 28th. I didn’t realize how far behind I was in posting information about our days since and including Manila! I’ll try to get caught up today, but we will be busy today preparing to leave for our overland in China tomorrow. So here goes.

After our nice dinner on Sunday, we slept well and woke to a beautiful Monday. Our excursion today would take us to a church with a pipe organ made with bamboo pipes (for the most part), a Jeepney factory and a view of the smallest active volcano in the Philippines. Early this morning the Philippine Coast Guard put 2 of their ships out for maneuvers near us – so I included a photo of one of them. I noticed that we were taking on fuel so also included a photo of the fuel barge alongside Magnifica. Our dock location was very close to the departure flight path from the Manila airport, and I saw many unfamiliar planes (the painting on the planes – not the planes themselves) go by. I also included a couple photos of airlines you don’t see in Iowa – Philippines Airlines and Air Asia.

Around 8:30 am we boarded our excursion bus and headed to Saint Joseph Parish Church – the site of the bamboo pipe organ we were to view. There are other churches with pipe organs using bamboo, but this one has been restored and is used on a regular basis. The church itself is not large as you can see from the photos in the gallery. I wasn’t expecting it but we were able to listen while several well-known songs were played. I included a video clip in the gallery of a song from the Sound of Music that I believe you will recognize.

Our next stop was to be an auto factory fairly close to Saint Joseph’s. I must confess, I had a pre-conceived notion of what we would be seeing at our next stop – a Jeepney factory. The Jeepney has its roots in the Willis Jeep that was used during World War II in the Philippines. I thought we would see an assembly line something like Henry Ford set up. I was totally wrong on that notion. We arrived at Sarao Motors Inc and began our tour by walking through the “assembly line”. As you’ll see from the gallery, there is no assembly line. Each vehicle is unique although they do share similar chassis. The interior of the Jeepney has 2 long bench seats facing each other that, when full, can carry up to 20 passengers (and we saw lots filled like that when we drove around Manila yesterday). Sarao isn’t producing Jeepneys as they did in the past when the daily output was up to 15 units. Sarao now seems to be a place where you can bring your Jeepney for tune-ups and remodels. We saw several examples of finished units, one with the hood up and engine running and others in various states of assembly/repair. We were told that Sarao is now working on a modern version of the Jeepney that is similar to the 15 passenger vans you can buy from other auto companies like Toyota, Ford and Mercedes. However, the new versions just don’t have the “charm” of the Jeepneys we have seen all over Manila.

The Philippines have 380 volcanoes and are located in the Pacific Ring of Fire. We left Sarao Motors to drive to the smallest of what are considered the active volcanoes in the Philippines – Taal Volcano. This volcano is located near the town of Tagaytay City. As we arrived at Tagaytay City we stopped to look at the city markets for fruits/vegetables and flowers. Both markets were very colorful and we even found that stinky fruit I mentioned in the post of March 7th titled “Cracked Nuts”. There is a photo of the Durian fruit in today’s gallery. This species did not exhibit the bad smell we expected – and is present in the Malaysian variety. You’ll find several photos from the markets and an unexpected store next to them – 7-Eleven (with a Jeepney parked outside).

After a few minutes at the markets, we boarded the bus and drove to the location for our buffet lunch – Taal Vista Hotel. This property is impressive – I wouldn’t mind returning here to spend a vacation. The buffet was excellent – plenty of choices of foods we know and like and lots of options for food to explore. I didn’t partake of the dessert portion of the buffet but Jan and Kelsey seemed to like what they chose. The service was good, the seating was comfortable and the 3 of us were able to sit together – something that doesn’t always happen on these “included lunches”. You’ll find a photo of the buffet area in the gallery.

As I was reviewing the photos from today, I noticed that I forgot to mention something that was unusual about today’s excursion. I said something yesterday about the traffic in Manila – it is heavy and there are times when it just plain stops moving. Today we had a police escort of 4 motorcycles. It reminded me of the police escort shown in the movie “Clear and Present Danger” as Harrison Ford’s motorcade moves through the streets of Bogata, Colombia (but without the tragic ending). To drive to and from Tagaytay without traffic delays would take 4 hours. Without the police escort there is no way the tour company could have guaranteed we would be back in time before Magnifica sailed from Manila. In the gallery you’ll see a couple photos of the 4 policemen relaxing as we had lunch and working on the road as we drove.

The hotel is on the hill overlooking the crater of Taal Volcano. We walked from the buffet to the terrace and had a great view. There were rectangular “things” in the water. I asked one of the staff at the hotel if they knew what those were. He said that they raise fish in the water surrounding the volcano. Those rectangular “things” were fish cages that are used for tilapia. Here is a link for any of you who wish to begin a business raising fish using cages. In case you’re interested, the last eruption of Taal Volcano was in May 2025 and didn’t last long.

While Jan was waiting to board the bus for the trip back to the ship, she struck up a conversation with a woman she had seen on board. This woman (Fiona) was traveling with her daughter (Sylvie) and son (Shaun). During the conversation, Jan asked about her husband and Fiona said he worked on the ship and didn’t always have the ability to join them on excursions. Further conversation revealed he is the Chief Engineer on MSC Magnifica! We mentioned meeting him in the post titled “No Photos” from March 11th.

Thanks to our escort, we returned to the dock before the “All aboard” so the ship didn’t need to wait for our excursion. As we sailed from Manila on our way to Japan, we were able to view the American embassy, which is located on the waterfront, a shanty area also on the waterfront, the breakwaters protecting the harbor and the expansive development along the harbor as far as could be seen left and right. We also had a great view of the sun setting over the mountains. There was plenty to see at this port for a return trip.

You may view the gallery for today here.