Travel Day 857 – Makati, Manila, PHILIPPINES
After exploring the local areas around Makati yesterday, today I felt ready to go a little bit beyond and see the former Spanish fortified city…
National Museum in Manila, Philippines
The fun thing about this little adventure was that I finally got to use the public transportation system and in this case my beloved Jeepneys. They only cost 8 pesos per ride which translates into 20 cents and they naturally provided me with an epic ride through the city. The Jeepneys were loud, rattling monsters and I had to sit squeezed in with seeming hundreds of locals cramped around me, but it was all good fun and I loved every single moment of the ride. Even if there were no actual glass windows and everyone constantly had to breathe in the diesel fumes of the street, I personally was more than happy about this part of the journey…
When I arrived at the big Gil Puyat intersection, I had to switch to an elevated subway line, called LRT, to finally reach the historic center. Actually I managed to get off the subway one stop too early and had to walk a fair bit before I reached Intramuros, the walled city, but at least it gave me the chance to see a bit more of the area and pass by some nice historic looking buildings like the National Museum…
Sentry Box of Intramuros, Manila, Philippines
Then again it was a bit strange to see a Spanish fortress here that reminded me of places like San Juan in Puerto Rico or Cartagena in Colombia. Only here it was in the middle of Asia and it seemed a bit out of context. On the other hand the Spanish colonial influence and later the US one were probably something that made the Philippines a very unique place within Asia. Nowhere else in Asia were so many Christians and nowhere else people spoke English as well as they did here in the Philippines…
Anyway, I personally enjoyed my walk around the walled city and I was excited to see all the fortifications, Fort Santiago and the sentry boxes again. For some reason I was considering those cantilevering corner sentry boxes as a unique symbol for Portuguese and later for Spanish colonial rule. But here in Intramuros, unfortunately almost none of the colonial buildings have survived WW II and so what was mainly left to admire were the walled fortifications itself…
Historic Building within Spanish Intramuros
For me it was overall a very nice change in scenery, a great walk around Intramuros and a welcome visit of some local history. This all came before we dived back into the rather posh world of bars to wish my friend well before his next big step in life… : )
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