1/26–Manila and the Bong Tour

Ah, Bong.  Our little tour guide stuffs us in his pedi-cab, and pedals off into the city.

He gives us a running monolog of the history and where we are located – but it is hard to hear since he is outside the canopy of the cab – and there is traffic we are negotiating.  But we get the jist – the war, the invasion, bombing, etc.  He pedals us off down the main drag of General Luna street, in the general direction of Plaza de Roma, but with a detour on the way past what he calls “USA” (United Squatters Area – or something like that!).  He says he lives there – that a lot of residents are there because they can’t afford real housing.  Hmmmmm…..really?…..I hate to be a cynic, but we are wondering…..

He makes a u-turn and takes us to the Manila Memorial – a small corner park with an iron sculpture representing the deaths of the many civilians during the Battle of Manila in 1945.  There is also a time capsule placed into side the memorial, to be opened 100 years after the battle. 

The history is pretty clear – at least spelled out on the Manila memorial plaque, and in Bong’s narrative – these folks really dislike the Japanese. 

After that little sobering memorial, we head off to the cathedral, where Bong lets us out to the Plaza de Roma to admire the structure.  He gives a little history (this is a recreation of the original because it was bombed to the ground during the battle of Manila) and instructs us to go inside – he will wait.  Of course he will!

Inside the cathedral is stunning for its simplicity.  We are so used to seeing the grandeur of the European cathedrals, that this is stark by comparison – but nonetheless breathtaking for its history.

When we emerge from the cool marble interior, Bong takes us around the plaza explaining various buildings and such – but also positioning us for the best pictures!  Our own personal photographer!

Our cycling tour continues, winding around the little old town streets with Bong giving us a streaming narrative the whole way.  We end up in front of Fort Santiago – which Bong insists we visit. It is the most important site in Intramuros he says.  It is the former military headquarters of the Spanish colonial government and surprisingly wasn’t annihilated during the Battle of Manila (mortally wounded –and since resuscitated – but not bombed out of existence).

The problem is it costs 75 pesos to get in and we don’t have any pesos.  Just US dollars.  No problem – Bong can manage that.  He takes us to a shop where we can exchange money. Of course it is the shop where all the tour buses go, so they think we are on a tour and give us a shell necklace (LOL) then we stand in line at the counter trying to get someone’s attention to change our dollars.   It turns out to be a semi-decent exchange rate (shocking) – and we’re now all set.

Into the Fort we go – passing through the entrance gate with it’s wooden relief of Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moor-slayer) who is the patron saint of Spain.

We wander around the interior courtyard, taking pictures of the fountain and the walls that surround the fortress.  It’s pretty cool in here – but it is also teeming with tours and tourists – and we are conscious of the fact that we are still paying Bong for every minute we are not in his little pedi-cab!

So, we pop back out of there pretty quickly and find Bong and his trusty cab and off we go.  This time we head to the wall – Muralla – that surrounds the city, we weave in and out of streets, past little shops and what look like abandoned buildings, then along the southern edge of the wall to the Puerta Sta. Lucia gate where we climb up on the wall and look over what was once the moat surrounding the walled city, but is now the golf course! But in the background, facing the city, you get some lovely views of the old buildings – some restored, some not. And Bong the papparazzi goes to work!

We walk down the wall a little ways to some steps that lead us down into the Garden of Presidents.  There are great iron plaquards with each Presidents’ face.  Really cool.  Bong comes to get us in the cab and we head to the next stop on the wall tour – the Baluartillo de San Jose – which is now commonly known as No. 1 Victoria street.  It is here that MacArthur made his headquarters, and according to Bong, where he voiced his famous “I shall return” line.  (I think he actually said it after he escaped from Manila, but, hey, who wants to argue?).  Bong goes to work here too – photo opp extravaganza!  first in the alleyway by the wall with all the bullet holes, then u[[ top on the walls in front of all the buildings (where Bong must think we are mountain goats when he makes us climb out onto this little ledge for photos)….

Safely off the ledge..phew..we head over to the edge of the wall to look out at the Reducto de San Pedro that was originally built to protect the fort. there you get a good look at the old structures, and the new highrises that are around Intramuros.

We continue on our wall tour, passing a little museum where they have stored war artifacts from the Japanese in these cool rooms inside the wall..

 

Then around the city we go – passing the walls and the schools and the little food stalls that all cater to the students…

…finally at the northern most end of the walls, we’re pretty much done with the city.  Bong wants to take us back to the ship.  No – it’s too early for that!  But we do want lunch – so he wheels us over to a neat looking little restaurant that has a buffet.  We part ways here – us paying him far too much since we’ve only used 70 minutes of time – and he wants money for the whole 90- oh well – what can you do? We totally enjoyed the tour and it got us everywhere in town without the walk!

He wheels off to find another fare (literally – he tells us this!) and we wander off to find the ATM so we can eat somewhere!  As it turns out, there are a couple of ATMs very close and once we have our funds, we also get some great shots of this really cool building that used to be the Aduana (Customs building), then the treasury.  It was destroyed during the war, rebuilt afterward, only to be destroyed by fire in 1979.  It was partially restored, but as you can see…only very partially!

Now on to our search for sustenance!