One scorching sunny afternoon, my brother Jalal and I played tourists in the metro! Our destination: Intramuros, Manila or better known as The Walled City. Back in the Spanish era, (ahem! ako na ang may nalalamang history!), this used to be the capital and the seat of Spanish sovereignty in the Orient for over three hundred years. The walls of Intramuros were built to prevent threats of invasion by Chinese, Japanese, Dutch and Portuguese pirates. (naks, parang The Great Wall of China ang peg!) The walls stretched to 4.5 kilometers in length, enclosing a pentagonal area of approximately 64 hectares. Before you proceed, I shall warn you of the amount of photos in this entry! It's overloaded! I lack time putting them into collage!
First Stop: Silahis souvenir shop packed with Philippine made crafts and artistries, we even found some vanishing Maranao cultural goodies such as the kulintang, kubing, dubakan (musical instruments) and a replica of the Sarimanok.
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| That huge drum behind Jalal is a Maranao palace drum that is used when the Sultan wants to convene his people. |
Next stop: The Papier Tole Shop. It's a souvenir shop where items are mostly made of paper. They claim to have started their business since 1668!!
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| A batallion of them!! Cute!! |
I love the adobe stone walls and pavements in this portion of The Walled City. It's magnificent how the place was restored to it's original structure after it was ruined during The World War II.
Next: Casa Manila. It is a "colonial lifestyle" museum where the Spanish way of living and their influence in our culture is being highlighted. Too bad taking pictures inside was prohibited so we just took photos in the zaguan (corridor) and patio.
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| Guess what I wished for? :p |
Next: The sentry wall top. We climbed the top of the sentry wall beside the ECJ building where we got a nice view outside Intramuros: The Manila Golf Course.
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| The sun seemed to roast my skin I couldn't bear to face it and smile!! I, instead, pose for a side view. |
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| There you go, rabbit!!! Nyahehehehehehe... |
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| Jalal trying to replicate my pose!! Awkward!! Eeepp!! |
This is now called the ECJ building housing some government offices. This used to be a palace where Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, that conquistador former Governor-General of the Philippines was residing.
In our journey back to the Spanish era, we found a "futuristic" graffiti wall where them punks express themselves by painting stuff on it. It's called freedom, men. Freedom. Emo. Whatever.
We wandered around until we realized the sun was almost setting and we haven't reached Fort Santiago yet. Thank God there we sikads around which transported us to our main destination. Haha!
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| This is The Walk Way to Martyrdom. They "traced" the footsteps of our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, from his prison cell to Bagumbayan (now, Luneta) where he was executed. |
Guess who was there to give us a FREE historical lecture!!! Ta daa... Carlos Celdran in the flesh!
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| We sat behind the REAL Tourists..feeling touristy all along. :p |
When they left, we continued exploring the place. Look what we found!!!
O, nasa Intramuros pa rin tayo ha? Pasig River lang yang nasa likod ko. Nice, right? You see, Philippines is a beautiful country with rich history and culture. It's always a great idea to go back to our history and find out the transitions that happened culminating into what we we all are now. :)
The question is, have we been any better?
To cap it all off, I wouldn't leave without a photo with my crush Dr. Jose Rizal. Yes, I'm a fan and I don't care when they say that he doesn't deserve hero-hood because he didn't really fought a war in it's literal sense. Whatever, haters. He's still my hero. \m/
My brother and I wandered for roughly 3 hours but it was a fulfilling day for me! Alhamdulillah. Visiting Intramuros is one of my pre-review plans and, thank God, my brother visited me and willingly accompanied me in another one of my insane fits! :)
I still have some unfulfilled pre-review plans but I guess, they won't materialize due to my Pedia Ward sched. ;'(
2 comments:
Casa manila looks familiar, I had a photo on the staircase, I think. Jan kinasal pinsan ko sa Intramuros and it was my first trip to the big Metro, sadly I was not able to tour it the way you did. I wanna go to that papier tole shop!!! hehehe...
God bless, doc :) Cool kuya mo! I wish I had one to goof around with...
It's probably the same place Ate Bee coz St. Augustine church is located right in front of Casa Manila and there's a hotel beside the place. :)
There are tons of cute things at Paper Toie shop you'll surely love. :)
BTW, he's my younger sibling. Wahahahah!! I took it as a compliment. :))
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