Manila - Intramuros and shopping

The next day Doug walked around Intramuros seeing the typical tourist sites. Intramuros, or the ‘Walled City’, is one of the oldest districts of Manila, built around 1571 by the Spaniards – and is bound on all sides by moats and thick, high walls, with some over 6 meters high. Only the elite Spaniards and Mestizos were allowed accommodations in Intramuros. Intramuros repelled numerous attacks throughout history as the Dutch, the Portuguese and the Chinese all failed. During World War II, Intramuros was used as a garrison and prison facility by the Japanese, but Allied bombings resulted in it, and other parts of Manila, being severely damaged.

Today, there is a mix of historic monuments such as the Cathedral and Fort, many lovely colonial buildings and lively local residential and market streets. Pedestrians, cars, motorcycles, and rickshaws and horse and buggies for the tourists all crowd the streets and lanes. Also dropped in on a small exhibit on the Filipino diaspora.

During the day, Nancy spent time picking up a few things at a local antique, art and craft store called Silahis which was very good.

In the afternoon we went to the SM Mall of Asia which is huge and Nancy bought a new gym bag to bring home her purchases.En savoir plus