The Mandarin & the storeys of our lives

Before the autumn months recede, the Mandarin Oriental Manila will end a season in its life. After 38 years as a marble citadel at the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Makati Ave., the Mandarin will close its doors for six long years.

In 2020, in a high-rise at the Roxas Triangle, a stone’s throw away from its present location, the Mandarin Oriental Manila will experience a new spring. Till then, it will be missed, and will be missed some more.

***

The Mandarin is a repository of good memories. It has been part of my life, not just as a journalist because of all the press events that it hosted, but also because of the personal milestones it was mute witness to.

My father Frank Mayor, who died on July 6 four years ago, was an executive of Philippine Geothermal, Inc. (PGI) and held office at the Metrobank building across the Mandarin. So you could say that almost from Day One of the hotel, the Carousel Bar  (where the Paseo Uno now is) was his watering hole. If he had no other appointments, that was where he would hie off to unwind, meet his cronies and listen to good music. When any of us, his four daughters, had parties, it was his excuse to stay longer at the Carousel Bar till it was time for him to dutifully pick us up at the stroke of midnight.

Often times, it was simply just our meeting place. So the scent of the Mandarin Oriental lobby — clean, fresh, but not heavily perfumed — has a special chamber in my safe deposit box of memories. It still triggers a fresh wave of happy thoughts whenever I step into the Mandarin’s lobby. It’s as if my dad were just on a bar stool to the right, waiting for his daughters to pass for him on their way home.

The Mandarin is also memorable because it’s where I first tasted the bitter gourd of rejection. Right after graduation, I applied for a job in many places, including the Mandarin’s PR Department (you weren’t there yet, Charisse!) I was such in awe of the Mandarin and the glamour of working there (at 21, you only see the glamour and the glitz). But despite my feeling that I did well in the written exam, I didn’t bag my dream job. That’s why I think the Mandarin brought me good luck — because losing out on that PR job led me to where I truly belonged and still belong — journalism. I can’t imagine any other life, or living.

But my sister Mae’s first job after graduating with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration at UP Diliman was at the Mandarin.  With my dad a Mandarin habitué and my sister a sales executive of the Mandarin, I didn’t have a hard time deciding where I would hold my wedding reception in 1985 — the Mandarin Ballroom, where else?  Aside from the memories and the photographs, I kept the luggage tag with the number of the room where Ed and I spent our first night as man and wife — room 1026!

My sister Valerie also celebrated her 18th birthday party at the Mandarin Ballroom. So, you see, the hotel is really a favorite pit stop in the journeys of our lives.

Every storey has a story to tell — proposals and honeymoons, birthdays and anniversaries, lunches and launches.

***

Last Monday, Mandarin GM Torsten van Dullemen and communications director Charisse Chuidian led Mandarin executives in a farewell party for the press at the Tin Hau.

“Tonight’s event is certainly not yet a final goodbye, as I hope that you will return one or a few more times for the memories, until we close,” said Van Dullemen. He wouldn’t say when exactly the hotel would cease operations, but he was sure it would be already closed by November.

He revealed that with the closure of Mandarin Oriental Manila, the hotel’s outlets will close on a staggered schedule.  With the theme “Memories: Best of the Best,” the hotel will strive to bring back the best that its customers have liked about its restaurants, and at the same time provide the opportunity for our guests to experience the restaurants one last time and “reminisce the good times.”

For starters, Tin Hau will bid adieu on July 13 with the “Best of the Best in Tin Hau,” which will offer the best of chef Hann Furn Chen’s specialties. Feng shui master Joseph Chau will meet and greet diners for one last time, “as he re-energizes lucky charms to foster luck in the remaining half of the year.”

Van Dullemen announced further that after Tin Hau, it will be The Tivoli that will close, followed by Martinis, the Deli, and up till the very last day of operations, Paseo Uno and the MO Lounge.

Monday’s farewell cocktails ended with a “re-energizing” ceremony by Joseph Chau. Guests were asked to put their valuables on a table, and most laid down their cell phones, wallets and jewelry. After a few chants and the burning of incense, Chau sprinkled water on the valuables by dipping pomelo leaves in a bowl of water and shaking them over the table. He later asked us to put our palms over our possessions to feel the “energy.”

I figured I had nothing to lose by taking part in the ceremony, and knowing the power of the mind in making prophecies come true, willed myself to be like the Energizer Bunny.

***

Goodbye for now, Mandarin Oriental Manila.

One more time, with feeling, perhaps Ed and I will check in at room 1026 — the place that marked the beginning of almost 29 years (and around 10,000 nights, give or take a few) together.

The scene of iconic Chinese New Year celebrations, the Mandarin Oriental is said to be standing on one very lucky spot in the metropolis. For my husband and I, it is our lucky hotel and we join the countdown to 2020!

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)

Oriental Brushstrokes

Chef Jessie Rockwell Club presents Oriental Brushstrokes, a one-man exhibit by Caesar Cheng. The exhibit runs from July 1 to 31 at Chef Jessie Rockwell Club, Amorsolo Square, Rockwell Center, Makati City.

There will be opening cocktails for guests on July 4, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

(For more information, call 890-6543 or 890-7630.)