On hearing Manila was to be graced with a Papal visit, Imelda Marcos, always a little out of touch with reality, decided the city needed a suitable residence to accommodate him. At a cost of USD 37m, the 'Coconut Palace' came into existence.
This was one sight I had to see.
True to its name much of the place is built with, or decked-out in, the palm's by-products and it showcases the nation's crafts.
Expecting frills and kitsch aplenty, I instead found a rather dour and soulless place on reclaimed land overlooking breezy Manila Bay. A healthy dose of irony and some campness would have gone some way to livening it up a bit.
The guide for my group (of one!) proudly showed me the bedroom in which Brooke Shields, "a good friend of the Marcos's " (but clearly not such a great judge of character) stayed, complete with banana fibre sheets; a banqueting table, the mosaic surface of which was made-up of 47,000 pieces and put together by children of 9-13 years "because their small fingers could work the pieces" (thank God for child labour); and various rooms or furniture items were pointed out as "Mr or Mrs Marcos's favourites", like the above mother-of-pearl seat and table.
Overall, I was a bit unimpressed and in the end so was JPII - although for different reasons. In a country where many people then still had no access to clean water, dismayed at the building's cost, he took his business elsewhere and stayed instead at a convent in the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment