Philippines Day #1

After weeks of delay, our computer has finally cleared customs over here so I am ready to finally give you guys a trip report of the Philippines. I was only there for 3 days, so I tried to pack in as much exploring as possible, and hopefully I can take you through a picture journal of my adventure.

I arrived at around 4am at the "international" airport. One thing that became real apparent was that this was one of the worst international airports I had ever been to. What I later found out is that they have had a brand new international terminal for the airport completely built since around 2000, but it has never opened due to corruption in the government. I actually got to see the building and it looks pretty darn nice, too bad no one is using it.

After breakfast and freshening up, my friend Erwin and I headed out for our journey through Manila. We started by going to the EDSA park area where hundreds of thousands of people gathered during the EDSA People's Power Revolution. Here is erected many religious symbols that include the Mary our Lady of EDSA and bronze plated scenes from the Bible.

Next we headed to Makati, which is seen as the financial district of Manila. We visited the Grant Thornton office there. Upon entering the office the car was inspected for bombs and we were scanned before going into the building. This overly done security became a pretty big theme throughout the trip. When I looked out of the window in the office, this part of Manila reminded me of Houston with the greenery popping up in between the sprawl of buildings, but maybe that is just me. Note that there was a fire in one of the hotels as I was taking this picture, you can probably notice the smoke if you look close enough (sorry about the window glare and my reflection).

We then moved onto the Intramuros. Just briefly, the Spanish were one of the first (of many) to colonize the Philippines. In doing so they built a city within a city, that would be the Intramuros. The Spanish built this huge compound to bring a part of Spain for its people in Manila and built a huge wall around it only allowing the Spanish to be inside the walls. This place was built in the 16th century and is full of neat buildings and a huge amount of churches. The Philippines has seen its share of battles from various different wars, so much of this place has been bombed and either had to be restored or you can still see the effects of the bombing. Anyway, it was a really neat place, with lots of history, right in the middle of Manila.

We ended our day with one of the best meals I have ever had. Basically you go and pick out your fish and your seafood that you want them to cook and they grill it up how you want it to be grilled. It was awesome. We topped the meal off with mango. I think it was the combination of the food that we had for our meal, the slightly spiciness from the meal and the heat outside that made the mangos taste so good, but it was also because they were so fresh that made them the best mangos I have ever had. No pictures from this meal so you will have to just imagine. And that about wraps up my tour through Manila.