December 29, I rented a car to browse around metro manila..
I got lucky cause I was accompanied by the travel owner herself and her marketing officer, ben, they kept me abreast of everything about manila..
I made my own itinerary based on the book and map..
First stop is malacanang palace..
It’s the presidential palace located near manila bay..
It’s big and spacious from the outside, we didn’t get the chance to go inside because it needed be requested at least a week before..
So, we just looked around from behind the fence, there’s a museum within the complex, containing former first lady, imelda marcos’ left-over, including her shoes collection..
There’s also the house of GMA, the current president, bullet-proof and highly-secured and in front of it there’s a place for people to voice their critics in the past time, now it’s not allowed anymore..
I’m kind of seeing her almost everyday now on tv..
I like the way she talks, straight, loud and smiley..
There’s a campus nearby the palace but I forget the name..
Compare to merdeka palace back in jakarta, I think malacanang is less grand and the location is not as strategic as merdeka palace..
Next stop, we were about to go to fort santiago, but along the way, we crossed the rizal park, a big park in roxas boulevard, a place where people have their holiday recreation, costless, it’s also a place where dr rizal, one of the philippines heroes, was shot by the Spaniard army..
Roxas boulevard is located in front of manila bay, so we can see the see from the street, there are plenty of places to hang out along the boulevard..
At night, there are lots of cafes and live music playing alongside the street..
It’s also the location of us embassy and office of department of finance..
Another place that we passed through was katedral church and another church that I forget the name, two oldest churches in the philippines..
We had our lunch in spanish restaurant named ilustrato..
We ordered sea food because I said to them I only can eat either seafood or vegetarian food..
The food was not that special though I spent 1,600 pesos..
I asked some questions about tagalog and others to ben, it’s nice to gather much first information from the native himself..
Tagalog the original philippines supposed-to-be national language, now has been jumbled with english to become taglish..
The philippinos themselves, known as pinoy, hardly make a single pure tagalog sentence, they keep mixing tagalog with english..
It goes with the youngsters and students across the country..
What used in the class is english since the very first of elementary school..
Enough with the language, though I’m still very interested in mastered tagalog..
After lunch, went directly to fort santiago..
In front of the parking lot, there’s an souvenir shop that I didn’t get the chance check it inside..
I had to pay 40 pesos to enter fort santiago..
It’s an old fort built by the spaniard long time ago..
It’s located near manila harbor..
There’s a dungeon in the basement of the fort, ben said it’s where the spaniard locked the philipinos during the occupation period. During tide, the sea water could enter the dungeon, the prisoners died drowned, so much for cruelty..
In the fort, there’s rizal shrine, the place where dr rizal was kept imprisoned..
There’re lots of pictures of his and his writing, including his last letter, stating how he felt about leaving this world and his country..
There’re also some spots of gunshots..
After fort santiago, we headed to ccp complex..
Ccp complex is where the convention center is located, manila theatre building that look spooky, and the site of coconut palace..
We entered the coconut palace, that costed 100 pesos per person..
Coconut palace was built by the late president marcos for the pope who came to manila, but the pope refused to stay in that palace because he thought it was too luxurious for him..
Inside the coconut palace, there about 8 rooms (if I’m not mistaken), each represented philippines territory..
There were two biggest rooms, that were designed for the late president marcos and another for his wife, imelda, though husband and wife, they stay in separate rooms..
The other rooms were for the presidential guests, the palace faced right to the manila bay, a nice location for camera taken and sun set..
There’s a dinning room with a long dinning table that had only five legs..
In the dinning room, there’s a picture of rajah sulaiman, the national hero of the philippines people, he’s the one that fight against the occupying spanish, he’s a moslem..
In the ccp complex there’s also a hotel, built by imelda marcos for her friends, now owned by the government..
Form ccp complex, we went down to makati city..
Makati in the native language mean itchy, it’s what the then spaniard that heard from the locals when they asked about the place though what the locals meant was that they felt itchy not to answer the spaniard..
We crossed the RCBC building, where ateneo graduate school sited, very strategic, near indonesian embassy, bus lane, taxis pass by..
Then we entered makati red zone, it’s because there’re what so-called the girly clubs, a kind of places of entertainment involving woman in stripped..
We just passed them and went to rockwell complex, another ateneo mba campus, might becoming my future campus..
It’s quite secluded but there’s power plant, a mall where taxis stand..
From rockwell, we went to greenbelt shopping center, a nicest place to hang out, lots of cafes, and live music, cinemas, people, mall, etc..
I got the chance to ask for the nikon d70s, in aberson store, it costed about 68.000 pesos while in the other store, it costed for about 64.000 pesos, though it’s still out of stock..
From greenbelt, we went to forbes park, it’s an elite housing complex in manila, then we headed to american cemetery, where the american soldiers were burried during world war II, just passing through..
Then we stopped at another mall called market-market, a nice kind of mall because it has a large open area. This is the place that I found abc chili sauce and soy beans ketchup, at a stall of matahari, indonesian deli, how delightful..
Though, there’s sea food restaurant, we didn’t have dinner there because we left for another eating place called dampit ot libis..
It’s like muara karang, we buy the fish first and then have them cooked..
So, one fish for fry, one fish for sour and spicy cook, and a bunch of shrimp to be chowder..
The seafood sellers, most of them were half-man half-woman type..
The restaurant was in large open space, and it’s full, but we got there earlier..
After waiting for about 45 minutes, then came the food, uhm..hmm..yummy..that was the best meals I ever had since I got here in manila, maybe because I was starving or maybe because of the chilli sauce and ketchup, it’s worthwhile at last..
After astonishing dinner, we passed through the eastwood park, another nice hang out place in manila, lots of people, cafes, light, mall, we didn’t stop though because it’s almost 9 pm, time to get home..
Well, it’s a nice trip I thought, especially the dinner..
In the end I got the kiss from her..
thanks dear..and that’s a wrap