Manila Walkabouts

Last october, out of boredom and the itch to "test drive" my new camera, me and yoko decided to have a "walkabout" in manila.I think Manila is a spectacular place for photowalk and general wandering.With my Dslr ready to shoot away, we embark our first walkabout in the glorious city.Our first stop, the central park of manila, The Luneta Park. Not much has changed really, it is still the same luneta that i have know for all those years, with the exception of the newly renovated Philippine map.

The sun was shining "oh-so" brightly that day. The sceneries were fantastic. The Tourism building and the National museum were pieces of infrastractural gems in the center of the city. There were also little food stands along the street leading to the Rizal Monument.After taking a few shots of  people and the Rizal monument , it's time to visit Intramuros.

It was a nice,bright, shiny day as i've said before. The walls of Intramuros were very welcoming . People were unusually few, and that's a good thing for us. We can have Intramuros for ourselves. We walked all the way from PLM to the sensational Manila Cathedral, which is along with Paoay church, is one of my favorite church. I think the architecture and size is really top notch. The building around the place were amazing.

The overall experience felt very Spanish. We took a shot inside and outside the Cathedral.I didn't even know that it was a aloud to have cameras inside the church. I took the oppurtunity to capture the amazing trappings of the cathedral.

Outside the church we saw two national geographic people. I think they are doing some piece about Intramuros. They were very plain looking , yet very eye catching to local on lookers in the place.True enough ,they were later approached by a policemen. I didn't know exactly why, but i think he was preventing them from filming the cathedral. It was weird and questionable the way the police acted ,but hey...we gotta move on!

Fort Bonifacio, is must see when visiting Intramuros. Not much has been changed although i was surprise that they were charging almost a hundred pesos per person to enter. Well, the price was actually worth it but a little price down wouldn't hurt much either.Fort Bonifacio is pretty much the same since my last visit about three to four years ago. The ruins were still amazing and as haunting as ever.In the latter part of the place you can have a great view of the Pasig river. In the other side, you can see the high rise infrastructure in downtown Manila and a poverty stricken community on the other.

It's almost 4pm and our feet is killing us, but before we go, we decided to see the post office. I was kinda always been a fan of this architecture, it is signature manila.It is closed at that time so we didn't get the chance to observe closely. We took some pictures of it and decided to leave. Because of our exhaustion we forgot to include the Manila City Hall on our list. I think it's the defining image of Manila living. Manila is my personal New York City.I love this city to bits.Nowhere on earth that you can buy a computer software at midnight for 20pesos(less than a dollar) or a good copy dvd for 10 pesos. This has been a great walkabout. I have learn to appreciate Manila more!!!If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!!!