- May 12, 2012, Saturday.
- My friend Marga asked me if I would be available to tour around two Chinese nationals that have decided to come to the Philippines to get their college degrees. I immediately agreed tour around Marga and her friends, since I wanted to go around Manila again.
- I met Marga at the UN LRT Station at 10am, and met the Chinese students, Lina and Dominic, at the Times Plaza minimall. Both of them seemed nice, and I found out later on that they were two and three years younger than Marga and I.
- The four of us first went around the are to look for boarding houses or dorms for the two students. They wanted to transfer somewhere nearer to their near-future school, since they currently live in another dorm close to another university where they're currently learning English.
- After an hour of looking around, to no avail, we proceeded to the nearby Rizal Park. I was fortunate enough to catch the changing of guards, although I wasn't able to document it.
- We proceeded to Intramuros after, and had to make a big turn beside the Japanese Garden since the "shortcut gate" beside the Mass Communication Library was locked; it was the first time that I encountered it locked.
- On the way to Intramuros, I encountered a lost Korean who asked where the Rizal Park was. He asked us in English, but I saw his guidebook, written in Korean, and asked the guy if he was Korean just to be sure. After saying that he was, I replied to him in Korean, and told him that he was already at the Rizal Park, and just had to make a short turn (where we went out.)
- We arrived at the gate of Intramuros shortly, but had to walk through the whole walled city to eat lunch. Most restaurants were at the far end of Intramuros, at the Pasig River side.
- We a Filipino lunch at Max's, and it was also an excellent time to rest and cool off. Both Lina and Dominic seemed to have enjoyed our lunch, and were both up and kicking after eating. They seemed interested in exploring the place more.
- We went to Fort Santiago first, located a few blocks away from Max's. Since we stopped over for a potty break at the cafe near the entrance of the Fort, we were able to notice that there was some free attractions near beside the cafe. We watched a short clip about Intramuros and Fort Santiago inside a theater, and visited some small exhibits about the artifacts found in the area. It was the first time that I've seen these things, since I would normally go straight to "the real thing."
- We all went to the actual Fort Santiago after a few photos with the cannons lying around the garden. Lina and Dominic seemed to be more fascinated with the country's history after I explained some of the things inside the Rizal Shrine and the other places in the vicinity. They still couldn't believe that Jose Rizal had a lot of girl friends around the world. Haha.
- We visited the Manila Cathedral facade after the two-hour Fort Santiago visit, and later visited the San Agustin Church and its museum. Everything in the museum was new to both Lina and Dominic, since they're not too exposed with the Catholic culture; China isn't a Catholic country. They were also fortunate to witness a Catholic wedding, something Lina was too excited to watch. Even more fortunate was that we were able to catch the wedding procession at the second floor balcony.
- We visited the Casa Manila, a replica of a fully-furnished old Spanish house, located just beside the San Agustin Church. Photos cannot be taken inside the museum-house, and tourists are expected to STRICTLY stay within the red carpet path on the floor.
- The last part of the house to be seen was the kitchen, and was supervised by an amazingly talkative guard. He was knowledgeable about the things inside the kitchen, and was enthusiastic in explaining each one of the items to visitors. I even joked around a bit with the guard, and told him how wonderful "his" house was, and should invite us over if he was going to have a party. He laughed.
- We all took photos outside Casa Manila, which as also a good place to catch the old-Spanish ambiance of the place. After going down, we saw the White Horse Intramuros Hotel, and other function halls located beside and around Casa Manila.
- We all rode a taxi to Lina and Dominic's current dorm, and had our closing speeches inside the cab. After both were dropped off, Marga and I went to Robinson's Place to meet our friend Grace.
- Marga and I had some milk tea to cool us off after a late-morning-to-afternoon walk, and met Grace after she arrived at the mall. We went around, helping Grace look for a present, and hate a sushi-buffet dinner at Sakae Sushi.
- We went home at around 8:30pm, with Grace offering to give us a life home. Marga and I badly wanted to take a bath, and although each moment of being stuck in traffic made me itch to go to the shower more, it was an excellent time to give Marga and I more time to rest our legs.
- Each adventure is different, and sometimes new things can be discovered right under our noses. :) :) :) :)
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