Manila 2012: Old Manila Walks

Seeing the sites and learning our country's history was one of the things on our checklist. While it was nice to visit museums and statues, my mom decided we should take a walking tour and walk through history. Research brought us to Old Manila Walks. They present cultural, historical, and culinary tours around Manila. Our tour concentrated on the old city center, Intramuros.


The tour began at the Manila Cathedral. Having been here for centuries, the church has seen many wars and was torn down and rebuilt many times.




The Cathedral's doors depict 8 important parts of it's history.


Our tour guide was Ivan. I freaked out when I spotted him because if you look closely you'll see, he was the wet market food tour guide for Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Philippines.


From the church we walked a few blocks and got to the wall. This security was built many years ago to protect the Intramuros from the outside. We were able to climb the shorter part of the wall.


On the other side of the wall was a moat, another way to keep Intramuros secure. When the Philippines gained independence and there was no need for a wall or moat, it was turned into a golf course.






Now walking on the wall is so serene. Could not image how it would be like during war times.




Now plants grow on the wall. It's a pretty vertical garden.




From the wall we walked some blocks to a church. Walking among the old buildings felt like walking in the past. Well, minus the cars.


Kalesa, aka horse drawn carriage, is a traditional form of transportation in the Philippines.


St. Augustine Church with massive carved wooden doors. There is an awesome museum inside with sculptures, golden objects, and a huge float with Santo Nino on top.








From the church, we entered an area of courtyards. One of the courtyards opened up to a traditional house turned museum. There were no photos allowed, which was unfortunate because the house was beautiful. Filled with dark, carved wooden decades old furniture, antique art, windows that opened up like doors, ingenious kitchen tools, and a funny bathroom (chair/bench with a hole as the toilet), it was interesting to see how Filipinos lived decades ago. It was also awesome and I would have purchased a lot of the interior design elements if I could. The photo above is my family and the house in the background.




There was a sense of calm and beauty in the courtyard. It was very hard to leave.




And a funny post with our tour guide. He was so friendly and full of great facts which made me really appreciate what the Philippines had gone through and see how the history still affects it's current day. I highly suggest this walking tour if you visit Manila. Can't wait to return and walk a different part of history.