There were three major destinations in the Philippines for visiting Australian Warships. Manila, Subic Bay and Cebu. Other lesser ports included Iloilo and Tacloban. These visits were most looked forward to, however they could be dangerous. Prior to Marcos introducing Martial Law throughout the country in September 1972 there was a murder taking place in Manila every 20 minutes. And no-one was sacred, including our own shore patrols. Leigh Dwyer, Tony Newlands and myself were lucky to escape with our lives after being drugged, coming to, and exiting a night club on Roxas Boulevard one evening in April 1970.

The Manager who decided he would like to relieve us of some 900 pesos set his over zealous body guards upon us who were very quick to shove us head first into a wall, pistol whip us and push the muzzles of their .45 Autos hard into our heads just behind our ears. There was much shouting and screaming, Tony and I both knew the sadistic heavies wanted to shoot us and we desperately tried to figure a way out. Meanwhile level headed Leigh managed to convince the manager we were broke and that killing us would not solve his problem. He finally settled for 300 pesos and let us go, much to the disappointment of the hired guns who seemed very eager to add a 'white man' to their no doubt long list of victims. Such was the Philippines in these crazy times.

Above: Amongst the first original Bars in what was to become the infamous Ermita District - Spider's Web, Eagles Nest and China Coast located in notorious M.H Del Pilar Street. Prior to the tourist boom of the mid to late 70's, Manila was in turmoil. Rioting and insurrection was commonplace and the major part of city was boarded up. The Sailors would be ferried ashore in USN LCHs, dropped at the USO Landing and then make their way to Pasay City (Peso City, as we called it) and up to the High Noon or Charlie's Bar. All bars and night clubs had a 'check in' room and large signs told us to check in all firearms and lethal weapons at the door. This wasn't some John Wayne 'Yippee' movie, this was for real. Marcos finally lifted Martial Law by Christmas 1977 after much of the rebellious population had been subjugated by the heavy hand of the military and Marcos thugs. Good for the tourists but not real flash for the ordinary Philippino. During Marshall Law a curfew was in place throughout the country which meant all bars stopped service at 23:30 and everyone had to be off the streets by midnight. Heavily armed military units patrolled the streets and to be caught out after midnight meant the risk of being gunned down, arrested or at the very least parting with a sizeable sum of money to be 'escorted' back to your hotel or place of accomodation.

Kings Cross Club - One of the 'foreign' owned bars of the late 70's. Although it was impossible to own property outright as a foreigner in the Philippines most Non-Philippino owners had local 'partners'. Above is one that specialised in partnering Aussies, Danny Gonzalo who took more Australians to the cleaners than you can poke a stick at. There was a mug got off the plane from Oz every minute and Danny was there to meet them. Danny started life in the early 70's as a young boy pimping and touting for New Norma's Inn, a ' Hospitality Bar' in Ermita. He is probably living in a mansion in the US today.

Good old San Mig! Once the only beer available in the Philippines and has spun many a sailor out! Prices for this varied considerably depending on where one chose to drink. In the usual sailors bars in Subic and Manila the price was one Peso, with the exchange rate of 7¾ pesos to one dollar Australian it wasn't hard to work out why this place was so popular. I have drunk it for as low as 25 Centavos a bottle in the back streets of Manila prior to marshall law being introduced in 1972. The Yanks would also make some strange concoctions with it such as the infamous MOJO consisting of a mixture of local spirits, pineapple juice and topped up with San Mig. Believe me it blasted you off the planet! or the time Steve Wisdom and myself got legless with a group of yanks who liked to mix half and half San Mig and Rose Wine from portugal. The biggest problem in the Philippines, like many other Sth East Aisan countries at the time, was you didn't have to move far from the city areas before you couldn't get a cold beer. It was usually poured into a jug full of ice or you had ice cubes thrown in your glass and the tepid beer poured over it. Yecccchhhh!

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