Manila

Yesterday we visited Manila in the Philippines. By the end of the day we were very tired but we enjoyed the experience. Manila is a very interesting but "challenging" Asian city, with a unique character. I guess that in some ways, all of the larger Asian cities could be called this - but perhaps Manila has some characteristics that others don't. It is somewhat chaotic and I was told that it's traffic was a little like that of Bangkok (which of course does not have the famous "Jeepneys") - but Beijing has it's bicycles and Ho Chi Minh City has it's motorcycles.  We noticed a level of poverty in the streets with persistent vendors vainly trying to sell us trinkets and some begging by children - but when we visited a very large shopping Mall in the city in the afternoon, we noticed the very many prosperous looking people, young and old, enjoying themselves there. I would not call them "rich" by our standards - they looked just like the people we see in our own shopping malls in Australia, but they would have been much richer relatively speaking than the street vendors and the beggars.

We finally did our first official shore tour on this cruise - in fact, the first on any cruise. It was called "Charms of Old Manila". It was a little rushed as it covered a lot - but It was worth it as I don't believe we could have seen what we did by ourselves with just one day available. I did not know before this trip that there is a 16th Century walled Spanish city in Manila (called Intramuros) - we found it to be fascinating. We visited "Casa Manila" - a typical Spanish/Asian house of the period, the church of San Augustin (which was like visiting a major church in Europe - except it was also going back in time and visiting it 500 years ago) and Fort Santiago (which was basically the beginnings of Manilla - after the Spanish invaded). We also had quick visits to Rizal Park (named after the Philippine's National hero) and the Catholic Cathedral. All in all we felt that the shore tour was good value and we look forward to others in places like Ho Chi Monh city and Mumbai - which we feel are a little too "challenging" for us do do alone

You can view a Youtube video about our visit to Manila here