I went to the Mall on the bus (it was raining and I didn't feel like walking around the park, which was my original plan). The shuttle bus took us through downtown Manila to the mall, and left us at an entrance. I had been warned to pay attention to which entrance we came in, because the mall was so big that if you got confused, you may never find the shuttle back to the ship. When I got inside, I saw that the warning was valid. This mall is all indoors, but it is much, much bigger than any of the malls in the Washington area (even Potomac Mills), and it seems to be built in sections which snake their way around instead of being a straightforward right-left up-down geography. Gary told me that when he went, he carefully noted that there was a Krispy Kreme place near the entrance and when he wanted to get back, he asked for directions to the Krispy Kreme place. That’s when he found out there are two Krispy Kremes in the mall, because the people he asked sent him to the second one, not the one he wanted. Fortunately for him, the people at the second place were able to give him directions to the first one.

There was some sort of event involving hundreds of children and their parents going on at the mall with all kinds of characters in costumes running around. I thought about taking pictures, but shopping took precedence. I did get one picture in the mall just to give a feel for its size. This shows part of one wing, and I think there are at least six wings. I found a nice shirt and some toiletries, and came back to the ship. I bought a special tshirt with all the ports of call for our voyage on it. Of course, the list is now incorrect, but that is apparently a tradition of the Holland America Grand World Voyages (they have never yet had a tshirt without an error or two in the ports of call).

The afternoon was capped by a folkloric show given by children from a local institution much like the one Marty worked at in Clinton: an orphanage with school. All of the children are not necessarily orphans, but their parents cannot take care of them for one reason or another. The Mayor of Manila introduced the show; he is an alumnus of the school. The children were absolutely adorable; they ranged in age from three to seventeen, and they had been working for three weeks on the show. At the end of the show, Bruce (our cruise director) presented the sister in charge of the group with a check from Holland America for $10,000. The money had been raised by the passengers in the art classes auctioning off some of their works and a major donation from the company. The school did not know about the check beforehand, but were happy to get it; it was an emotional moment.

It had stopped raining and there was a band with drum majorettes, an honor guard, all the interns that had been working on the ship and excursions for the last day and a half, the families, and a cast of hundreds to see us off. It was really rather exciting, and one of the biggest send-offs we have gotten so far.