Eric's 2nd Big Adventure - Part 7: Catching Up With Old Friends

The best part about returning to Manila was the chance to see many great people that I know but seldom get to see. In addition to being colleagues I consider myself to be friends with many people in the Manila office. Saturday night I was greeted by two of them (Hegs and JM) and Sunday we added Miggy to the mix. Since Sunday was the only day to get out and see the city we made plans to get together around noon time.

For additional perspectives on our trip be sure to keep up with Alex's blog at http://topdownviews.blogspot.com/

After a hearty breakfast at Circles Cafe Alex and I met up with Miggy, Hegs and JM. We agreed to do some historic sightseeing, which is something that Alex did not get the chance to do on his previous visit to Manila. The destination was Intramuros, located along the southern bank of the Pasig River, and was built by the Spaniards in the 16th century and is the oldest district of the city of Manila. Its name, in Spanish, intramuros, literally "within the walls", meaning within the wall enclosure of the city/fortress, also describes its structure as it is surrounded by thick, high walls and moats. During the Spanish colonial period, Intramuros was considered Manila itself. If that description above sounds very textbook-like it was. You can check out more information on Intramuros at the following Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intramuros.

Since Intramuros is such a large area so we picked a few destinations within the boundary and went exploring. The first stop was St. Agustin Church where our timing was impecable because a big wedding was just about to start. Filipino weddings are elaborate affairs and all of the ladies were dressed in beautiful gowns. The church itself has a long history and is the oldest stone church in all of the Philippines. It was built in 1599 and has survived many natural disasters whereas another church in the nearby area was destroyed and rebuilt six times. yikes ! Click on the picture to the right to enlarge the image because it details the history of the church. The tour of the church was very interesting because there are many artifacts and other items to look at. In addition, there is a large collection of artwork and scupltures, most of which are several hundred years old at a minimum. It took a while just to view the first floor so in the interest of time we skipped touring the second. I guess that gives us something to look at upon our return. After heading out of the church we walked down the street to our next destination. Along the way we saw another famous church called Manila Cathedral (pictured left) although this one was not as fortunate. It is the one I mentioned above about being rebuilt six times. At least if anything happens to it again they've had plenty of practice putting it back together again. Let's hope they still have the blue-prints. Believe it or not but another wedding was in progress at this church. Apparantly these two churches are very popular and are like wedding factories on the week-end. One is usually in progress while another waits their turn. Continuing on our tour we crossed an intersection where we saw something other than historic buildings. Looks like a little accident took place but the good news was that nobody appeared to be injured. After seeing more finger-pointing than bleeding bodies we decided it was time to move on to our final destination in Intramuros called Fort Santiago. This fort is one of the oldest Spanish stone fortresses in the country and is located in the northern part of the walled city. It is located at the mouth of the Pasig River and it was once the premier defense fortress of the Spanish Government in the Philippines. During World War II it was captured by the Japanese, and sustained heavy damage from American & Filipino bombs during the Battle of Manila in February 1945. It was later restored by the Intramuros Administration during the 1980s. Today the fort serves as a museum which houses well-preserved legacies of the Spanish government, José Rizal (which is called the Plaza de Armas), Rizal Shrine, and the prison dungeons for criminals used by the Spanish officials. We enjoyed the walk and seeing all of the artifacts. It was a beautiful day so just being outside was great but to top it off with all of this history made it that much better.

After a great afternoon of touring the Intramuros area we needed some nurishment so we agreed to go to another historic site in Manila for some food ......

We enjoyed eating traditional Filipino dishes such as hot wings & shrimp, french fries and onion rings. Of course we had to wash it down with a cold, draft beer. It was a perfect way to end a great day. By the way, in case you know JM's girlfriend Cecile, please be sure to tell her that we were visiting sick children in the hospital instead of being with all of the pretty girls at Hooters.