But it is not like that everywhere. Some areas are very nice. We spent Sunday walking around the old part of town. We watched the crowds enjoying a Sunday stroll at Rizal park. We wandered around "Intramuros" (as the name suggests, it is the walled section of the city, where the wealthy Spanish used to live in colonial times). It seems that most of it has been destroyed in WWII, but we were able to get a sense of its history from the cobbled stone streets, magnificent churches (all very busy with one wedding after the other), grand colonial mansions (you can visit one that now is a museum called Casa Manila; I wouldn't have minded living there), and old Fort Santiago watching over the river.
At night it was a different story. See, we found ourselves in Manila on a Saturday night. We went to have dinner to a restaurant in Malate near our hotel. The adobo was tasty, but as I looked around I knew that this was not the place where my Filipino friends (that now live in the U.S.) would have been on a Saturday night. So I sent a message to my friend Tracy, who must have been waking up after a long Friday night in NYC, asking for the place to see the beautiful people of Manila. In a few minutes, I was receiving specific recommendations from her and her friends. So we obeyed and moved on to an area called the "Fort", and the following night we wandered around Makati, in particular the "Greenbelt" area. It was like being in a different country. Wonderful people watching. Locals speaking mostly English even among themselves. The latest music with heavy American pop influence. Loud (actually, I think I enjoy this more than Simon). Stylish outfits. Lots of energy. I got the feeling that Manila shows its best face on Saturday nights.
On Monday morning we took a flight south. We got out of the buzzing city to embrace nature up close in Camiguin Island.
Mercedes
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