The Unauthorized Tour of Old Manila

My colleague and I finally had some free time on Saturday to take in some of Manila. After a week of three 7:00 a.m. meetings and late nights, we were able to sleep in, relax a bit and actually get out of our hotel! We opted to take a tour of Old Manila- Intramuros (literally meaning inside the walls). It's a walled area of Old Manila where the Spanish lived when they first colonized the Philippines. Unfortunately not much is left of Intramuros as a lot of it was destroyed during WWII (from Amercians trying to bomb out the Japanese). But we got a lovely taste of it through the eyes and words of Carlos Celdran, our dynamic, dramatic, and cheeky tour guide.

Intramuros is about 2 miles from our hotel, but it took me and Suzy nearly an hour in a cab in traffic at 2 p.m. on a Saturday to get there! People weren't kidding when they told us that the traffic in Manila is horrible!! We arrived just in time and were greeted by a very gregarious, short Filipino man named Carlos who was to be our tour guide for the day. A group of about 30 of us (a mixture of filipinos and other tourists) followed Carlos around for about 2.5 hours learning about the history of the Philippines and the city of Manila.


We visited Fort Santiago, heard about the Basilica-Cathedral (the center of Manila), rode a traditional old horse carriage, and took in the sites of the San Agustin church (we even kind of crashed a wedding!). Carlos gives a very vivid and brutally honest picture of his country, but no matter as his humor, wit and genuine passion for his people and culture left all of us feeling happy and a bit more informed about this amazing culture.

A very very brief history (and if you want a better history definitely read a book or at least look up the Philippines on Wikipedia). Essentially, the Spanish colonized the Philippines starting in 1565 and ruled here (mainly via the Catholic Church) until 1898 when the Philippines was purchased by the U.S. for $20 million USD. The Americans brought with them teachers and established free public schooling for all Filipinos (which has resulted in a 96% literacy rate in the Philippines and has established the Philippines as the 3rd largest English speaking country in the world). The Americans also brought with them many other aspects of American lifestyle including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Frigidaires, and Hollywood movies. The Philippines was a Commonwealth of the U.S. and had plans for independence but then WWII happened. The Japanese invaded and took over the Philippines the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed in Dec 1941. The Americans bombed much of Manila in an attempt to defeat the Japanese, but nearly 120,000 civilians perished in that battle. With the end of the war, the Philippines finally gained independence in 1946. That's my take anyway!

Known as the "Pearl of the Orient," Filipino culture truly is a melting pot. Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and American cultures all mixed together- in food, in first and last names, in traditions, and languages. Our tour ended with a treat- a typical Filipino dessert called Halo-Halo. Like Filipinos a mixture of things! Halo-halo is a mixture of shaved ice and milk (usually condensed) which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits and bits of gelatin, and served cold in a tall glass or bowl. Sounds totally odd, but it's actually quite good! This picture has all of the bells and whistles- ours was just served in a small glass. :)

By the time we finished our hot, humid tour, the halo-halo hit the spot. And then the rain started (perfect timing!) and we got in a cab to head back to the hotel- another hour long cab ride, but at least on the way home we had so much to talk about from our day!