World Pyro Olympics and Hua Mulan Acrobats

World Pyro Olympics and the Hua Mulan Acrobats

On December 26th, we had a special outing with our family and house staff. We took Ray, Tining, and Elena down to the Aliw Theatre to watch the Hua Mulan Chinese Acrobats put on a performance of magic and story telling. The show was very good, although not very well attended, but that was good as we got very good seats. This time, Ray B. did not repeat his "disappearing" act he performed into the orchestra pit in China, but he still made sure he took a picture of the group in their seats before the show.

After the show, we went over to the Esplanade on the Manila Bay waterfront to watch the World Pyro Olympics. The festivities went on for 5 days with two fireworks show each night. Each show was put on by a different country. The show we saw was put on by Australia. Although we had only heard about it a couple of days before, and had not heard or seen any advertisements, it was very crowded. Traffic was horrendous getting into the waterfront area, but Ray R. got us in close and talked his way into a new parking spot. Two and 3 lane roads ended up with only one lane passable as everyone parked on both sides of the only open lane. As a matter of fact, they delayed the fireworks by about 30 minutes to give more people a chance to get on the grounds.

The crowds seemed to overwhelm the facilities as very few vendors were actually on site, so the ones that were there were very crowded or out of food. There were 2 stages with live music, although there was no music choreographed to the fireworks.

We decided to leave after the first show, which was a good move. On the way to the car, a Filipino asked, "Where are you from, eh?" I said we were from Minnesota, and asked if he was now living in Canada, which he was. We had a nice conversation as we walked to the car. We beat the traffic and ended up stopping for a late diner on the way home and actually saw the second fireworks show from there.