JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE...
Interesting day. While going along my regular route in Intramuros, an older Italian man and his Filipina wife listened in and decided to tag along. After the tour, I chatted with them for a bit and found out that the man was Stefano Piroli, former design head for luggage at the luxury brand, Gucci from 1971 until 1991 (the year when Gucci would have a major creative revamp top to bottom thanks to Tom Ford) . When asked about what he thought of Tom Ford and the new direction of the fashion house, Stefano only replied "Yes, I know Tom Ford but I don't see him anymore." Um. Ok. Fine. The most interesting tale was about the time in 1973 when Imelda Marcos ordered a set of personalized luggage and jewelry cases ("Of all sizes and plenty of them...and with all of these little tiny drawers", he said.) Apparently, all suitcases, trunks, and cases had to be done in the colors of blue and red with gold details ("The colors of the Philippine flag she wanted.") and the orders flown by charted Philippine Airlines jet ("arranged for personally by that nice "Mr. Toda"). Sigh, I know this anecdote isn't something that should make me wax nostalgic but nevertheless, it's nice to remember that Philippine Airlines was once one of Asia's leading airlines and that they actually had regular flight service between Manila and Europe.
posted by carlosceldran @ 1:37 PM
7 Comments:
Well, it's a good thing you changed your bag in time !
Right. Could you imagine?
Does your nostalgia extend to the cancelled flights as planes were diverted to meet the charter requirements which that nice man deemed more important than sticking to the published schedule?
Hold on. Lemme think. Hmmm.
Nah. Nope. It doesn't. Besides, I think PAL was not being abused then by Madame as it was in later years.
I remember once taking a PAL flight from Manila to Amsterdam (post Toda days). Imelda boarded the flight in Manila with us to seem like she was flying on a regular commercial flight. She kicked out everyone from the First Class cabin and brought along orchids, a manicurist and tipped the flight attendants U$100.00 each (exchange rate Php7.00 to U$1.00 - a fortune at the time). Naturally, once out of Philippine media glare, she switched in Bangkok to another PAL jet that was waiting for her on the tarmac.
I don't wax nostalgic for that at all. I do miss the beds in PAL though, and the Van Cleef and Arpels amenities, and the Chaine de Rotisseurs cuisine. Their food ain't that great now. Not even in First Class.
What I miss most is the peace of mind and the relatively hassle-free check-ins that were enjoyed before 9-11 and the latest terror alarm.
At the rate things are going, flying is turning out to be such a pain.
Hey there! My wife and I took your tour once in March of 2002. We did Escolta (I think). At the time I was also one of the internet journalists castigating Lito Atienza for the remaking Manila in his own, incurably gauche image. It doesn't seem like things are getting any better on that front, with that bloody Park 'n' Ride eyesore. At least Mehan Garden's been cleaned up a bit, though.
I wish you all the best and hope to join one of your tours again someday when I find the time! Maybe my wife, kids and I will do Intramuros this time!
In response to the comment about Toda - he had no choice but to bend to the whims of the conjugal dictatorship. Mr Toda would go to Malacanang and personally presented an invoice to FM for the expenses and unearned profits racked up by Madam by using PAL's fleet to do her Euro shopping to detriment of paying passengers. Thats when FM decided it was time to take PAL away from Toda and it went downhill ever since.
Madam's "plane grabbing" sprees are legendary. We were traveling to Tokyo which typically would be a 4 hour flight. But since our assigned plane was taken by Madam, we traveled from MNL-TPE-OSA-TYO, a total flying time of 17 whopping hours including the waits and transfers!
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