- March 17, 2012, Saturday.
- I was panicking last night since I didn't know what I'd be doing this Saturday, aside from my weekly piano lessons. My Saturday is always my leisure day, and it is a must for me to go out and "get lost," or at least meet someone over lunch/dinner/shopping.
- After many failed attempts to ask people, I asked my friend Cristina if she'd be able to accompany me. She didn't promise me anything, since she wasn't sure if she'd need to stay longer at work. If not, she'll come home after lunch, and accompany me to wherever.
- Cristina was my first travel buddy. She was the one who accompanied me to Little India four years and three days ago today. Because of this, we decided to go to Little India -- if Tina didn't need to go overtime.
- I was brought the good news after lunch, when Tina told me that she didn't have to stay overtime at work today. I waited for her to come home, and met her at her house. She asked if we could go somewhere nearer since she was a bit tired from work. I proposed to go to Quiapo, since I'd need to go there today anyway, with or without Little India. Cristina agreed.
- Tina and I arrived at Quiapo, semi-chaotic, went to purchase her cross-stitch materials and my accessory-making materials, before having the "adventure" itself.
- One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Quiapo was to make sure I still knew my way around the obscure streets without a map. The last "grand" adventure I had in Quiapo was during April last year, days before my grand trip to India-Nepal-Thailand.
- Tina and I first visited the Ocampo Pagod at Bilibid Viejo Street. The East-meets-West pagoda/mansion, now occupied by seamen waiting for their turn to leave Manila, still amazes me. As for Tina, she was still perplexed as to why she didn't know about this structure before, and why Manila did not restore the mansion's old glory.
- Since we had a lot of time to kill, Tina and I went around the corner to see if there were other ways to see the mansion up close. Instead, Tina and I were able to come across old stone statues that were once part of the mansion. I came across images these statues in this travel blog (http://traveleronfoot.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/ocampo-pagoda/) but it was by pure chance that Tina and I saw them. I was a happy little muffin.
- We both had a power snack at Jollibee Hidalgo, since Tina wanted to sit down, before having a short visit at the Bahay Nakpil and Boix House, two of the historical houses hidden in Quiapo.
- We then proceeded to Quiapo's Muslim town, and went around the area to see if there was something new. Apparently, a new building was built there, and I think it's going to be a small commercial center, possibly catered to Muslims there.
- Since both of us were insanely tired, we decided to go back to mainland Chinatown to grab some dimsum at Golden Fortune. Gladly, we still made it to the restaurant's afternoon-discounted-dimsum promo. Tina tried to learn Korean there, while we munched on some good old dimsum.
- We ended our travel-buddy anniversary day after buying some bread for Cristina's sister at Mandarin Square. Too bad our favorite milk-tea place is still under renovation; otherwise, we would've bought some milk-tea too!!
- We might not have gone back to our first adventure place, but we'll visit Little India soon, I just know it. After all, both of us will always have that craving for authentic Indian food, and talkative Indian businessmen!!
No comments:
Post a Comment