Philippines - Manila - Intramuros

Monday we had a chance to sleep in and we took full advantage of it. We didn’t have anything until 11am. The best part was that I arranged a surprise tour for Matt and he had no idea what it was. All I told him was to have an open mind and be ready for some silliness. As we are walking to our tour, Matt is guessing a million different things, somehow all centering around bungee jumping… We were not bungee jumping. Matt didn’t even guess anything remotely close until he saw it… we were going on our very own Segway tour!

Matt has always talked about going on a Segway tour (pretty sure sarcastically) but you think he would’ve learned by now not to plant ideas in my head (i.e. requesting being covered head to tow in fleece with prompt me to buy you a hoodie fleece onesie with footies for Christmas.) Anyways, we both couldn’t stop laughing and hopped on board! Turns out we nailed the technical portion pretty quickly and we were out to see the town. Our guides were hilarious, loved America, sang American tunes (including our national anthem) and taught us some ballet Segway moves along the way. Oh, we also learned more about the Intramuros area and of the history of Manila. Turns out I knew very little about the Philippines! I blame Danielle (jk, love you!)

Basically, the Philippines has had a war torn past being constantly conquered by various nations in the attempt to control a powerful gateway to the Asian trade markets. There’s British rule, Spanish rule (which is the most prevalent), Japanese occupation (which involved tragic slaughtering of the local population) and then American occupation with the intent to set the Filipino people free to their own land. Our guide said he was incredibly grateful for the American presence and couldn’t wait to be able to travel to the US. (By the end of our tour Matt & I were so close to buying him a ticket to our home!) Even today the government continues through some different states of turmoil as multiple presidents in recent history have been impeached, imprisoned, etc.

Regardless, of the tumultuous past, the government is attempting to preserve and restore the Intramuros area of the city. Here we found some beautiful streets and especially beautiful churches. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion of the Philippines and is represented by churches throughout the cities and countryside.

Welcome to our Segway Tour!

You may ask, how we got pics while we were Segwaying? That's because our 2nd guide just walked next to us. Haha. We were obviously going super fast.

our guide was in the paper on his ATV tour! 

San Diego Gardens, where many people come to get married.

 Hanging with some roosters

Manila Cathedral - pre-Instragram

Manila Cathedral - post-Instragram (I've been playing around with Instagram with the luxury of no censorship restrictions!) Under construction so we couldn't go in.

St Augustine Church, Oldest church in Philippines 

You'll notice the Chinese influences in the statues guarding the church doors.

The extravagant interior

View of the interior courtyard

 Beautiful gravestone

Courtyard of St Augustine

The walls of Intramuros

Oh, and there's a golf course where the moat used to be...

Manila sunset from the skydeck of our hotel

... a few other Manila silliness pieces...

We never got to ride a Jeepney, but there were awesome. These are a local transit/ commuter option. It's like a bud, but each one is a bit smaller and has a theme. Many were completely decked out. I didn't get a great picture. They were also completely lit up a night. Would make for an awesome party bus. ;)

  This is the only smoking area in Manila. Please stay inside the white line. Ha!