Manila Shopping and Exploration

This past weekend I stayed in Manila – there was to be an Embassy bazaar, with artisan products from all over the country; that was postponed because of the flooding and the forecast of a severe storm, but my PCV friend Kate was already in town before they limited non-essential travel, so she came over. Friday night we went to the nearby supermarket (the one around the corner, which is small and has nothing fresh or refrigerated) and stocked up; we ended up eating a quart of ice cream as our dinner – after all, it wasn’t going to stay frozen in the freezer so we had no choice, really.

It’s all right that the Embassy bazaar was rescheduled because I experienced shopping overload anyway! We went to Greenhills, a nearby mall (well, not that near – about an hour’s walk, in the rain, but it seemed like a good idea at the time), which has a flea market on Saturdays. It’s known among PCVs and Lonely Planet readers as the place to get pearls – there are stands and stands of strands and strands (I came up with that one on my own). She had found a stand that she liked and trusted, and I was happy to have her show it to me before she COSes. They have pearls of all shapes, colors and sizes – as I said before, get your requests in! You pick them out and the owner makes jewelry to order – necklaces, bracelets, earrings. While she was making them we looked around at the other stalls – weavings, batik, carvings; I bought a coin from 1944 that had United States on one side and the Philippines on the other. It was fun but exhausting! I have already thought of more people for whom I could buy pearls (or more that I would like for myself), so I’ll go back, but probably not the same day as the Embassy bazaar.

We were troupers, though, and went on to see something she had wanted to see before she leaves – the Chinese cemetery. There are elaborate mausoleums there – some with air conditioning and toilets! I had read about it, but even so was surprised by the opulence. Quite a contrast to the evacuation center I had been to the day before – the dead with conditions much more plush than the living!

On Sunday, Julie and I went to Intramuros, the walled city of Old Manila – it took me a while to get there and it was worth the wait! If you’re ever traveling to the Philippines, you don’t have to spend more than a day in Manila, but this is where you should spend your day! This was where the Spanish lived, keeping the Filipinos (who they called Indios) and Chinese outside the walls (i.e, extramuros). It was all but destroyed in WWII; only the walls and a few other buildings remained. In the 1990s they rebuilt some and made it into a tourist district and did a nice job.

First, we went to Fort Santiago; the gate is one of the parts still standing and it is a grand entrance. Inside the fort is a shrine to Jose Rizal, the national hero – including the cell where he was imprisoned the night before his execution and where he wrote his farewell poem. The shrine had some other artifacts and the fort had warehouses and dungeons and ramparts – all good.

We went on to the Manila Cathedral – I lost track of how many churches were built on the same site and then destroyed in earthquakes and typhoons; the present structure is suitably impressive. From there, we went on to St. Augustin Church, one of the baroque churches that comprise the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built in the 1500s, it survived the war. It has a wonderful baroque interior and a very comprehensive museum, with religious articles, paintings, furniture, vestments, pottery, a crypt and more. We were there for a while and then took a lunch break – well-timed, as we missed the rain.

We went on to Casa Manila, a replica colonial house with real antiques, built by Imelda Marcos to showcase Spanish colonial life. First floor - salon and business area, with small bedrooms in which to rest or to house a bachelor uncle. Second floor - main salon for entertainment and then bedrooms, dining room, kitchen and bath. The antiques were local, European, Chinese, even some American, carved, elegant, tasteful. No photography allowed inside though!

We had the stamina for one last museum – the Bahay Tsinoy, which showcased the life of the Chinese in the early days and the contribution that Chinese-Filipinos have made in the history of the Philippines (which is substantial). Last but not least was a visit to the best Filipino crafts store I’ve seen here yet, and therefore an opportunity to augment the pearl purchases – with some placemats woven in the mountain provinces and some capiz-shell home décor (I knew it would grow on me…). Intramuros was great – now I wish I were having visitors so I could go back and show it to them! As we used to say on the See the World trips, thumbs up; a 10!