We spent a day touring the historic part of Manila. We visited Intramuros, which is the oldest district of the Philippines. Way back when the Spanish ruled the Philippines they built a wall to protect the city. Within those walls they built houses, churches, schools, and everything else they needed to sustain life. The Philippines played an important strategic part of World War II, so most of the buildings were destroyed. Intramuros was then declared a historical monument and the buildings were rebuilt.
During World War II, much of the gate to Fort Santiago was destroyed. I saw a picture on Wikipedia of a tank driving through it.
The Japanese once filled this dungeon with 300 Filipinos and left them there to die, it made the visit kind of dreary.
The San Augustin church is the oldest church in the entire country. We took pictures in of the Manila Cathedral thinking that it was the San Augustin church. We saw the actual one but didn’t take pictures because we didn’t know what it was.
A lot of the buildings were colonial Spanish style because when they were built the Spanish occupied the country.
If you learn any one piece of history of the Philippines, it has to be about José Rizal. He lived in the late 1800s and is the national hero and a Renaissance man. He held several degrees, spoke 22 different languages, wrote several famous books, and was skilled at art. However most importantly he was known for his influence in helping the country gain freedom. In almost every city you go to in the Philippines you’ll find a monument, street, or town center dedicated to him. He was eventually imprisoned and executed, charged of rebellion. Intramuros had the path that he walked to his final execution place.
In Rizal Park there was a gated off area where you had to pay 40 pesos ($1) per person to go in. We were so curious since couldn’t see at all what was in the back. I asked the attendant what was in the back. He said, “just a bunch of statues.” As we gave him the money he had a look on his face like “Really? Nobody’s forcing you to go there?” We went in and it really was just a couple statues. It turns out the place is called Diorama of Rizal’s Martyrdom. Aptly named.
When I was on my mission lots of girls would catcall me saying, “Cholo!” Cholo is a character in a Korean drama that’s popular there. While we were at Rizal Park, some girls behind me shouted “Cholo!” thinking that I didn’t know what they were talking about. I turned around and looked at them and they just giggled and got embarrassed. Here’s a picture of him (and one of me for comparison). I’m the one on the right if you couldn’t tell.
My goal for this vacation was to take as many pictures as possible. As we were walking back to our hotel, I kept taking pictures of interesting things like these two Starbucks that were about 15 feet away from each other. Angela kept telling me to stop taking random pictures because it was attracting the attention of vendors and the horse cart drivers that cater to tourists. Whenever I would take a picture it was quickly apparent we were potential customers and the drivers and vendors would come towards us and try to get us to buy things.
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