MANILA Sept 2009 II

Intramuros (World Heritage Site??)

The 'horseman' took us to some places in Intramuros. I felt a bit disappointed after the visit because Intramuros does not up to my expectation especially after the horseman told us that the walled city is rebuilt (many times) after typhoon hit.

The Japs killed their prisoner by drowning them in this well.

Faces of President of Philippines. One of them, Marcos, found a place in Guinness World of Record for corruption.

Roman Catholic church. Elegant. Many rich and famous Filipino tied their knot here.

Honestly, I don't see what made Intramuros one of the UN World Heritage.

The horseman (in green) explaining something to my hubby.

May be it was the history behind these rebuilt buildings and walled city that made it qualified to be declared as World Heritage site, but it really failed to meet my expectation. To me, World Heritage site is a place made you speechless for few minutes before you say "WOW!!"

to be continue...(III)

MANILA,PHILIPPINES

SEPT 2009

It was my first visit to Manila. As usual, I was very excited to see a new place expecially the UN World Heritage site (Intramuros). My flight from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah landed safely in the evening. My husband and I took a bus from Clark Airport to the city. We booked our room at Linden Suites. Clark is a nice place. Very green like a dairy farm, but just few meter passed the ex-army base, I saw a very different and unpleasant scenery. Slums every where.

As result of the bad traffic, we arrived at Megamall at night. It was raining. Since we doesn't know the Linden Suites location, we took a taxi. The driver ask for 100 piso. My hubby felt that the fare are very low. The taxi took less than 10 minutes to Linden Suites. Only then we realised that Megamall is just opposites our hotel. Funny thing is our fare became 1,000 piso because my hubby gave the wrong note to the taxi driver, and the taxi driver drove away before my hubby realize his mistake.

Linden Suites is wonderful! Really! The staff are helpful and friendly. There was two bedrooms in our suites. Lounge room is big and comfortable. Ah, I wish it is my house! I really it. That night we went to Korean Restaurant. Nice place! Nice food! After dinner we go back to our room. We don't dare to go anywhere. For safety purpose, we decided to spend our time watching televison.

Our very comfortable hotel in Manila

Second day, we had our breakfast at the 2nd floor cafe. Non-halal breakfast. We planned to visit Intramuros (walled city). Intramuros is one of the UN World Heritage site in Philippines. I was expecting a very impressing place such as Hang Long Bay in Vietnam and Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah. The doorman helped us to get a taxi. He recorded the taxi driver's driving license in a blue covered book before we leave the hotel.

Our journey took almost 2 hours. I really felt sick with the traffic! It was drizzling. Just after the taxi driver drop us, a short and dark skin guy approached us. He offered his tour service to take us around the walled city in his cart. My hubby negotiate the service fee with him. When my hubby told him that we are from Sabah, he look at us with a wide smile and said,"Oh, Sabah is Philippines too!"

My hubby (which is not Sabahan-Malaysian) look at him with his round eyes and gave a very good answer to him. "NO. Sabah is Malaysia."