*This Post originally appeared on my old lifestyle blog Style and Chocolates, a couple of years ago. This blog post has a few modifications to the text and is being transferred here permanently.
I can safely say that I have been to at least 40+ countries in my lifetime but I am ashamed to say that I have not traveled around my own country as much as that. There are so many places all over the Philippines that I have yet to explore and discover. I mean, I've already known all along that my country has the most amazing beaches and magnificent nature spots. I always used to think that it is only known for just these kinds of spots and that we don't really have any old buildings and palaces and monasteries like other countries do. Last Weekend, my sisters and I decided to hire a car and a driver and tour Old Manila, which is the oldest part of our capital. I was pretty surprised to see that we also had our own kind of old cultural spots that had nothing to do with beaches!
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The Manila Catheral |
The very first place we visited was China town,
Binondo as it's called here. We drove down Ongpin, one of the well known
streets. I didn't really take any pictures as we just drove through and only
got out of the car once to purchase Hopia, a kind of mongo bean pastry and cake. Anyway,
driving down this road I was already amazed. I mean, I felt like I was in Hong
Kong or something! It was so fascinating to watch the daily lives of everyone
who lived in this part of town! We also drove past several old streets and
churches. We then had lunch at Ambos Mundos, one of the oldest restaurants in
Manila. They had a huge, pet pig right outside their door! It was really cute!
Apparently, it was for good luck.
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Pet Pig for goodluck right outside the Ambos Mundos Restaurant |
Finally we drove to Intramuros and spent most of
our tour here. Intramuros is a walled city that is the oldest district of
Manila. We visited the Manila Cathedral which is a beautiful big church. We
also visited San Agustin Church, one of the most beautiful churches in the
country. The streets along it were all cobbled and they just looked so quaint
and pretty. Along those cobbled streets was Casa Manila which was a big old
house. We went inside and checked out the house to see how the people (who were
probably extremely wealthy in their time) used to live before.
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The Manila Cathedral inside the walled city of Intramuros. |
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Another view of the Manila Cathedral |
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Manila Cathedral |
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Inside the beautiful San Agustin Church |
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San Agustin Church. |
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San Agustin Church |
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Right outside Casa Manila |
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Cobbled Streets inside Intramuros |
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Casa Manila |
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Beautiful Courtyard of Casa Manila |
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Inside the courtyard of Casa Manila |
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Details. |
After Intramuros, we visited the National Musuem
of Manila. The place was humongous and pretty amazing. I know I sound so
ignorant and so not nationalistic when I keep saying this, but seriously all
the places we visited kept surprising me and I always had this thought in my
head : I can't believe we have something like this in our country! The National
Musuem had a very European vibe, was very old fashioned inside with huge rooms
and had art deco style architecture. We saw the Spolarium which is the most
famous painting in the country by our national artist, Juan Luna.
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The Spolarium by Juan Luna |
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Close-up of the Spolarium |
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A bust of our national hero, Jose Rizal |
After the musuem we decided to stop by Paco Park.
It is a small chapel that is located inside a park. it looked so pretty and
whimsical with all the plants and trellised stone walls! Did you know this
place used to be a graveyard? This
place also happens to be where my sister
is getting married this December.
I am so, so glad that I did this tour of Old Manila. Never again will I underestimate my own country. I can't wait to discover more places around our archipelago and become a local tourist again!
All photos in this post are personal photos of nofiltertravel.blogspot.com. If you want to use them or borrow them in any way, please contact me first! My email add: nofiltertravel@gmail.com. If you can't be bothered to send me an email and still want to use my photos, then please do credit them and link back to this blog. Thanks!
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