Intramuros

It is sad that we have to have guests to see some of the historic and commercial sights in our own city. We really wanted to show my parents some things in Manila. After reading a tour guide, my dad suggested we go see the old colonial walled city. So, Saturday afternoon, we took my parents down to Intramuros- which means "within the walls". Intramuros is one of the oldest districts in Manila. It was the colonial city set up by the Spanish after conquering Maynilad in 1571. Intramuros became the political, cultural and religious center of Spain's "Empire in the East" until the Treaty of Paris gave the Philippines to the US in 1898. Intramuros was also occupied by US armed forces and then the Japanese during World War II. Much of it was bombed and destroyed during the liberation of Manila. In the 80's, former first Imelda Marcos directed a revitalization project and many of the ruins were restored somewhat.

We were excited to be able to go and visit Intramuros at this time. On Friday and Saturday nights in Nov and Dec, they are having "A Walk Back in Time" with a theater in the round play about the colonial history of Intramuros. We arrived early and walked around the old city. We didn't have nearly enough time to see things though. We spent so much time at Fort Santiago. Will especially loved climbing all over and through the old canons and barracks. He was disappointed that the dungeons were gated and he couldn’t go into them. We saw the cell where the Filipino national hero, Rizal was held before his execution. We also saw a memorial cross marking a mass grave of 600 Filipino and American prisoners of war who died at the end of WWII.



After walking through parts of the city and tromping around the fort for a while, we went to the ruins of the old San Ingelsia church. The streets were lit up with a Filipino Christmas lights called Parols. The evening was cool and breezy and we sat under some festive tents and lights to eat dinner. We had our choice from 4 restaurants from the countries that were influential during the colonial time-Spanish, Filipino, Chinese, and Indian. Allan and my dad decided to go with Spanish food. They had shrimp and sausage paella, calamari, and flan. Mimi, the kids and I decided to have a shawarma which is an India wrap similar to a Greek gyro. It was yummy! For dessert, we had Puto Bongbong--a Filipino sticky rice available only at Christmas. We were entertained during dinner by a group singing a kundiman which is a style of old traditional Tagalog love songs.

After dinner it was time for the theater presentation. The cast of the play came in a procession down the road to begin the play before moving us into the ruins of the church. It was a great presentation of the early history of the Philippines and gave us a new insight into the culture. It was very well done and we all enjoyed it. We also enjoyed seeing all the Christmas lights down by Manila Bay.