The last place we visited in Manila before heading back to China was a place called Intramuros. This was the main tourist attraction of the city and is exactly what the Spanish name implies - an area "within walls." Intramuros is the old walled city which was the heart of Manila during the Spanish colonial period in the 16th century. Although a lot of the original buildings were destroyed during WWII there are still quite a few left to tour.
The whole area of Intramuros is beautiful and once you step inside you are walking on wide, cobblestone streets with plenty of plazas and old colonial houses with gardens. To add to the atmosphere there are plenty of horse-drawn carriages who will take you on a tour of the little city and show you all the interesting parts of the wall.
The coolest place to tour is Fort Santiago which was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp by the Japanese. Inside there is some gruesome evidence of torture and imprisonment along with the cells next to the river which had pipes to direct water in if a mass drowning of prisoners was called for. There is also the Rizal Shrine which houses the original cell where the national hero José Rizal was incarcerated.
Another interesting building to tour is the church and the monastery of San Agustin as well as the huge Romanesque Manila Cathedral. We also toured Casa Manila which is a restored Spanish colonial mansion filled with a lot of antiques.
You can easily spend an entire day just walking around Intramuros and checking out the fort. After we had seen all of the sights I really wanted to take a carriage tour but Sean wasn't so sure. After some convincing (he is really allergic to horses - big bummer) he finally relented and
After sending out some post cards at the national post office right outside of Intramuros it was time to head back to the hostel and pack for the long trip home. All in all we had a great time traveling around Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines and we feel very blessed that we had a safe trip with no major problems. Unfortunately, as with any trip, it only serves to whet the appetite for more backpacking and brings more impossible decisions like, where should we go next?
Post a Comment