Date: April 24th, 2011

Sunday, the concluding seventh day of my first week in Philippines. Today’s itinerary involved meeting my friend Aimee, and then letting her show me around Manila’s famous landmarks.

After meeting her at a nearby 7-11, we stocked up on fluids and Aimee told me why its named U.N. Avenue.

Aimee first took me to Rizal Park, one of Manila’s largest public parks.

Intramuros literally means “walled city” and was created during Spanish colonial rule. It’s the oldest district in Manila and one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions. It was built to keep invaders away, although, it eventually failed to do so as years progressed).

Walking out of the cathedral and past some of the ‘No to RH Bill’ banners around, I couldn’t help but turn the conversation about the controversial RH bill. Aimee told me how, even to this day, the Catholic church has such an influence over the people and policies in Philippines. The RH bill is basically aiming to promote the use of contraceptives and family planning in a bid to control population growth.

But what was even more shocking news to me was when Aimee told me divorce is yet to be legalized in Philippines! I mean, I considered a predominantly Christian country to be far more progressive in many regards, besides being educated. Clearly that wasn’t the case in Philippines. Now all the single pregnant women I saw across Philippines made sense. It’s like men abuse the law (or the lack of it) because they know there is little the woman can do.

Anyway, back to Fort Santiago.

We walked back to San Agustin church hoping the wedding would have been over by now…

Aimee decided it was enough of walking. She and I got into a jeepney and we thought of watching the sunset at Manila Bay.

We sat on the ledge and gave our feet a break.

Except for a tiny incident which abruptly disappointed me… but I promised Aimee I wouldn’t mention it in the blog. So anyway, time to leave.

We walked back to Malate.

We eventually left the mall as it was getting late for Aimee. We said our goodbyes and she told me which jeepney to get into to head back to Pasay, where I was staying at the Kabayan Hotel.

So that was my Sunday in Manila. Lots of photos, I know! Tomorrow, I begin the second leg of my journey across the Philippines and for the next seven days, it’s all islands. So here come the blue waters!

Previous posts in this series:

Philippines 2011: Day 7 – Leaving Angeles City for Manila, Mall of Asia

Philippines 2011: Day 6 – Good Friday in San Fernando, San Pedro Cutud Lenten Rites

Philippines 2011: Leaving Sagada for Baguio, and arriving in Angeles city (Days 4 & 5)

Philippines 2011: Day 3 – Sagada’s Lumiang burial cave, Sumaguing cave, Hanging Coffins of Echo valley

Philippines 2011: Day 3 – Banaue town; heading to Sagada via Bontoc

Philippines 2011: Day 2 – Banaue rice terraces; trekking to Batad village

Philippines 2011: Day 1 — Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Fort Bonifacio

Philippines 2011: Flying over South China Sea for the first time

Other posts in this series:

Philippines 2011: Day 9 – Cebu: Fort San Pedro, Basilica of Santo Niño, Taoist Temple

Philippines 2011: Day 10 – Bohol tour: Chocolate Hills, Loboc river cruise, Tarsiers, churches

Philippines 2011: Day 11 – Arriving in Puerto Princesa, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Day 12 – Puerto Princesa Underground River tour, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Day 13 – Puerto Princesa to El Nido by bus

Philippines 2011: Day 14 – El Nido island hopping tour A and sunset at Las Cabanas beach, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Back to Manila, shopping, and my final thoughts about the country (Last post)