Manila City Tour

22 May

We started early in order to take a private city tour through the hotel. Typically I refuse to spend money on these types of tours mostly because they are overpriced. But we also didn’t have the luxury of shopping around for the best option. So promptly after breakfast we braved the Friday rush hour traffic to Makati courtesy of Frank, and yes that’s his real name. We got to escort his daughter and adorable grand daughter Chelsea to Makati where they were going shopping and we were picking up a German-French man who happens to be living in Atlanta. The first stop on our tour was the American cemetery which is shockingly more impressive than Arlington. The grounds are incredibly meticulous and the mosaic maps detail major WWII battles in south east Asia. I can’t wait to see what they do for Memorial Day.

Frank then drove us through the brand new and modern financial district and Forbes Park, home to the rich and famous, including the controversial Imelda Marcos who is now back in the country and a congress women to boot. After driving through the “reclaimed” land, home to the Mall of Asia, the third largest mall in the world and the largest mall in Asia, past the US embassy and the Manila hotel to Intramuros. This is the old Spanish capital and where the national hero Josè Rizal was tried and executed in 1896 for starting the philippine revolution against Spanish rule. Within Fort Santiago you can see Rizal’s last steps. Right outside of this fort there is a government store that will issue you a certificate with your pearls, which of course means they’re legit right? Apparently they are having a 60% off sale, but $650 usd for a pearl necklace, earrings and bracelet are not exactly a deal to me. I bought a couple of postcards and called it a day.

Earlier my coworker had been joking that if Frank got us a coconut off the street then we would right him a really good recommendation. This was all said as a joke, biro, in Tagalog, but all of a sudden frank pulled to the side of the road and got us a coconut! And not only the juice, but the meat too. What a guy! It was hard to go to work after a morning like that.