After a brief rest in the morning, I had originally planned to just do some exploring of the immediate area of Makati. However, when I requested a map from the front desk asking how to get to different parts of town, they suggested that I do a three-hour tour where I could see the highlights of Manila for about 56USD. So, I thought it was probably a better idea to spend the money than to try traipsing around on my own in the very warm and humid temps of a seemingly harmless yet busy large city.

Here are the pics:

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The first area we went to was the Rizal Park just outside of Intramuros. I didn’t feel like walking around the park much as it was quite warm, but it looked pretty and serves as a constant reminder of President Rizal who was held captive and killed – don’t ask me the detailed history, because I lost interest quickly…. 🙁 Anyway, Intramuros is the old Manila and is walled in. The sea used to go up to the walls of the city and Manila stood within, but a lot of land reclamation and spreading of the city has made it what it is today.

In Intramuros, we stopped at Fort Santiago which was heavily damaged by the Japanese in World War II and also the place where President Rizal was kept captive. From there, the Manila Cathedral stands close by, which was lovely inside. We drove a bit more within the city walls and then headed out towards Chinatown since I wanted to have a looksy.

It is quite amazing to me that anywhere you go in the world, all Chinatowns can look the same and they all look like Hong Kong, China (as I can’t say anything about mainland). So, we drove through and saw the stores, wares, etc.

The really amazing part of the whole trip was the traffic and crazy driving methods. Being mostly used to driving in Abu Dhabi, I wasn’t nearly as phased as I might have been otherwise, but it was still a crazy experience. The driver offered a tour for the next day to see the volcano and falls which are famous around here, but the thought of about 5 hours in the car facing any kind of traffic just doesn’t seem appealing….

The best news of the day was that R was meeting up sooner than we had planned. So, he got in evening-ish and then we went out for dinner and caught up. 😀

More to come…

-T