17 Hours in Manila

So I think this is how you blog. I write about what we did, or Cole writes about what we did, and then probably only our moms are reading this. In that case, we have been eating really healthy, getting a lot of sleep, and wearing sunscreen. 

So I guess I will tell you about our trip so far. After a whirlwind of a week in Vancouver, catching up with friends and drinking lots of beer, we ended the first week of our fifteen week trip the same way we started it: at the YVR airport. I got more excited than anyone should be to see our flight to Manila on the departure board, and we checked in with a super nice lady that moved our seats so we had a whole row of four to ourselves. This thankfully facilitated sleeping, so after 15 hours, 3 movies, and one questionable sandwich later, we arrived in Manila feeling - if not well rested, at least not exhausted. Even at 4:00am,  Manila was the most humid place I had ever been. We hid in the air conditioned airport for a few more hours, until the sun came up and we decided to venture out.

We caught a taxi and headed for Rizal Park, which turned out to be reminiscent of the National Mall in Washington, DC. Imposing National Museum at one end, impressive Rizal Monument at the other, we checked out the site of Jose Rizal's execution before meandering past large statues, a beautiful fountain and pond type thing, and a lot of skinny cats. Satisfied that we had seen the park - which was interestingly playing very loud soft rock over what appeared to be permanent speakers - we headed north into the walled city of Intramuros. 

We checked out Fort Santiago and the Rizal Shrine first. We spent two and a half hours exploring the crumbling fortress and learning a bit about Manila and Rizal.

At this point, even though it was only 10:30, we were starving and went to find lunch before we went to the San Agustin Church, the oldest in the city and a lucky survivor of the Battle of Manila. We were told the only way to see the church was through a tour by paying 100 pesos (about $2.50) each to see the attached museum. However because we are super awesome, we got there right as they closed for lunch. The security guard gestured towards the church doors, which were just being opened for mass! So we sat quietly at the very back, admiring the incredible paint job on the ceiling and pillars and listened to the service. Towards the end, a bus load full of tourists marched in and rather rudely started snapping photos of the beautiful building while people were praying still. We chose that moment to leave, and opted not to do the museum tour having seen the church in action already.

Instead we spent our pesos at Casa Manila, a restored Spanish colonial mansion full of incredible antique furniture, history, and really cool old maps. It was probably our favourite part of the day, and it was the place we almost didn't go! Extremely sweaty, smelly, and tired, we continued south back to Rizal Park. After a failed attempt at going to the National Museum - we couldn't find the entrance and the gates at the most obvious choice were locked - and being told off by a policeman for looking like hobos reading our books in the park, we headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Sydney.