Intriguing Intramuros

Intramuros, which literally means "within walls" is a historic walled area within Manila City. It is also near to very important and historical buildings like the Manila City Hall, Post Office, National Museum and Colleges. 

 I always see Intramuros in a different way. The brick stone roads, the old churches, old buildings - that smell of history in every corner. Walking to Intramuros is like Maria Clara and Crisostomo Ibarra coming to life. It's history frozen in time.

When commuting to Intramuros from anywhere in the Metro, just find your way to the Manila Post Office then ride a jeep going to the Pier. Drop off at the Manila Cathedral and you can start your way exploring Intramuros.

📍 Manila Cathedral

Manila Cathedral with parked Bambikes.

Many couples wed here and usually you'll spot a bride when you visit the church especially on Saturdays and Sundays.

📍 Ayuntamiento De Manila

This was the seat of the Manila City Council, which consisted of two alcaldes (city leaders), eight oidores (judges), a clerk, and a chief constable.[2] Destroyed in World War II and reconstructed thereafter, the building now houses the offices of the Bureau of the Treasury.

📍 Palacio Del Gobernador

The site of the present building was where the former residence of the Governor-General during the Spanish Colonial Era was located until an earthquake destroyed it on June 3, 1863. The Malacañang Palace then became the Governor-General's official residence.

At present, the building houses the Intramuros Administration, the Commission on Elections and the Home Development Mutual Fund National Capital Region Office. It also previously housed the Bureau of the Treasury until it relocated across Plaza de Roma to the Ayuntamiento de Manila.

📍 Plaza De Sta. Isabel / Memorare Manila 1945 Monument

The monument commemorates the lives lost during the battle for the liberation of Manila, waged by Filipino and American forces against Imperial Japanese troops from February 3, 1945, to March 3, 1945.

Address: General Luna St, Intramuros, 658 Zone 70, Manila

📍 Baluarte de San Diego

Baluarte is one of the oldest stone fortifications in Intramuros. This was destroyed in the Battle of Manila in 1945, resstoration began in 1979  and was completed in 1992. 

    Address: Sta. Lucia St, Intramuros, Manila, 1002 Metro Manila

    Hours of Operation : Mon-Sun 8am - 5pm
    Entrance Fee: 75 Pesos

My winning photo (10th Place) in the Intramuros Balik Tanaw sa Kasaysayan Smartphone Contest

Baluarte en blanco y negro

We are never defined by just the blacks or whites of our past; we are the combination of both our triumphs and failures, penciled by the crevices of our roots. 

                                                Glimpse of the Past and the Present

The contrasting view of Baluarte over the urban Manila nightscape reminds us how the past still entertwines our present- who we were, who we are and who we will be.

Baluarte at night. Pic taken during the Intramuros Open house. 

📍 Intramuros Golf Course

📍 Silahis Center

 

This is the main showroom of the  Silahis Arts and Artifacts. They are engaged in designing, producing, wholesaling, retailing and exporting the finest of handmade Philippine products.This a great place to go shopping for locally-made products. It is also one of the best places to visit to look around and learn about the local culture. 

Address: 744 Gen Luna St Intramuros, 658 Zone 70, Manila, 1002

Hours of Operation : Mon-Sun 10AM-7PM

Entrance Fee: FREE

📍 Casa Manila 

Casa Manila is a museum in Intramuros depicting colonial lifestyle during Spanish colonization of the Philippines. The musem has 3 floors full of antiques. No taking of pictures allowed inside, but the guide allowed me one during the Intramuros Open House.

Address: Plaza San Luis Complex, General Luna St, Intramuros, Manila, 1002 Metro Manila

Hours of Operation : Tues-Sun 9am-6pm

Entrance Fee: 75 Pesos

The garden at Casa Manila. This is one of the fave spot for prenups and predebut shoots.

 

                                              Straight ahead is the San Agustin Church.

Isn't this cute?

📍 San Agustin Museum

The museum is housed in the Augustinians' former monastery, right beside the famed San Agustin Church. The display rooms are huge and some artifacts were found right at the ground of the area. 

Address: General Luna St, Manila, 1002 Metro Manila

Hours of Operation : 8am-11.30am & 1-5pm

Entrance Fee: 200 Pesos (Adults) , 160 Pesos (Senior, Students and Kids)

📍 La Cathedral Cafe

Address: 398 Cabildo St, Intramuros, Manila, 1002 Metro Manila

Hour of Operation : Mon-Sun 8am-10pm

After the day strolling the Intramuros, head to La Cathedral Cafe for your dinner. Place is packed at night, so bring your patience with you especially on weekends. 

View of Manila Cathedral from the La Cathedral Cafe.

📍 Aduana Building

Address: Magallanes Dr, Intramuros, Manila, 1002 Metro Manila

📍 Plaza de España

It is a triangular "square" which features a monument to King Philip II of Spain after whom the Philippines was named. 

Address: Andrés Soriano Avenue, Muralla and Solana Streets, Intramuros

Manila, Philippines

📍 Fort Santiago

Fort Santiago is one of the main attractions in the walled city of Intramuros. It is a citadel built by Spanish navigator and governor Miguel López de Legazpi for the new established city of Manila in the Philippines. 

This is also where Dr. Jose Rizal, one of our national heroes was imprisoned before his execution.

Address: General Luna St, Manila, 1002 Metro Manila

Hours of Operation : Mon- Sun 8am-9pm 

Entrance Fee: 75 Pesos (Adults) , 50 Pesos (Senior, Students and Kids)

Fort Santiago at Night

The walls amidst Urban development. 

Depiction of Rizal's footsteps from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan (now called Rizal Park)

Getting lost in Intramuros is full of surprises. We made a wrong turn once and saw this building with Tomb Raider Feels.

Tanay Day Trip

Tanay is a 1st class province of Rizal known for its mountains, cool weather and a lot of outdoor activities to offer. Here you can take a dip in waterfalls, climb a mountain, go camping, spelunking and enjoy all of it in just a few hours ride. You don't even need to book a flight.

Getting there:

Getting to Tanay is easier than I thought. We took the UV express to Tanay from Shaw Starmall and paide 70 pesos. Because we want to make it early, we left Shaw at 6am and arrived in Tanay Public Market after 2 hours. Took our breakfast in the nearest fastfood and hired a tricycle.

At the fastfood chain, we were told by one of the crew to take the jeep going to Sampaloc and drop off at a point near the falls and there we can take the trike to the falls at a cheaper rate. But because the driver was persistent and has been following us since we alighted the van, we took the bait. The initial price was set to 700 and that he' ll take us to Daranak Falls, Batlag Falls, Calinawan Cave and Pililla Wind farm. It was a good find since we have no idea of the place and based on what I've read the price is around 1000-1200 pesos.

To tell you the truth, we have no idea on what to do prior to going there. It was an impulsive decision and we just had the list of the places we want to visit and that the gameplan is to hire a trike- which we eventually did.

    Daranak Falls

It was around past 9am when we arrived here. Entrance is 50 pesos and the walk to the falls is a breeze. I did not expect it to be like that. We passed by a hanging bridge with dogs that are annoying cause they kept on playing and running at the bridge. And they almost block our way, it feels like they don't want us to pass. lol

When we arrived at the falls, it was simply breathtaking. It was like the way I see it in pictures, or it was even way better. Surreal is the apt word for it. Simple and yet so amazing. 

Batlag Falls

A walk uphill would take you to another falls in Tanay, the Batlag Falls. This one has a different entrance fee of 100 pesos. The place is poorly managed given the big entrance fee (big because I have been to other falls in different regions and the entrance do not cost like this). Some are just 20pesos and you have a decent wash room or changing room. But in here, you find yourself in what seemed like an abandoned area. The falls offers you a different view, though. It is shallower and that you can go under the drop. I think we stayed here longer than Daranak simply because we enjoyed the water and we can get near to the falls itself. Daranak is deeper and you need to swim to get to the falls itself.

Calinawan Cave

A short ride from Daranak is the Calinawan cave. It was my first stab at Spelunking as well as my friends. A good activity when you are mending a broken heart as you will bump your head many times.  I probably am the most clumsy being the shortest in the group yet this cave gave me a lot of bumps. Good thing they have protective gears, they require visitors to wear a helmet. Entrance fee is 20pesos and a guide fee of 200pesos. We left our things in the tricycle as the spelunking would require us to crawl, geez I was not even aware it could get dirty.

Tip: Visit the cave before going to the falls as you will get dirty after. A plunge in the falls ain't bad than having to clean up again after all the mud crawl (ooops!!spoiler alert)

Waiting for him to complete my heart..Chos!

Crawl ala Tyra Banks.. this is not the part where we crawled. The real crawl was like literally kissing the mud if you are not that cautious.

I now see the light.

                                                                 

Getting out and about.

Finally done with Calinawan Cave and excuse the muds on our legs.

Last stop, Pililla Windmill Farm. This is the farthest and the last stop in our itinerary. As my blouse was already with mud, I changed to spaghetti strap blouse and Kuya Driver told me "Malamig po dun Maam sa Windmill."  This he said while he was putting on his sweatshirt. And I had no idea it was going to be freaking cold. 

Hotwheels Theme Birthday Party

My son is turning 7 and guess where he wants to celebrate it.. Shakey's!  I love Shakey's especially their Carbonara but later did i know their birthday theme is going to be a headache. First, when you go to Divisoria and ask for Hotwheels stuff in any party store, you will not be able to find one. The salesladies are not even aware what " Hotwheels" is.

So here's a run down of what I did. Googled here and then to look for race theme party and headout to Divisoria to find any checkered black and white ribbons, tapes or loot bags. It was chaos but my time were spent in Tabora Street. I decided to check 168 Mall but decided to go back to Tabora to search for more as I find 168 big. At least in Tabora, I can map out where I've been through.

When I inquired in Shakey's and reserved the date for Dec 4, they have a full slot already so I opted to move it to December 3. They allowed me to setup a candy table for free. Here's how it went:

No checkered banner available anywhere..so I decided to use the vertical black and white stripes and cut out the PIT STOP letters. See that stoplight at the back? I made it from a shoebox, covered it in black and put the 3 circles on it.

The Pitstop Food:

                               Meiji (28 pesos) and Pocky (36 pesos). Peppero is at 50 pesos.

These race cars are actually Hershey's Nuggets but covered in Hotwheels theme.

Trolli gummy racers! These are so cute that it got me ecstatic upon seeing them.

I asked this from my sister so I don't know where they got this. Maybe in SNR or Lander's.

Jelly beans!

The one above is actually a wheel ashtray I bought especially for this occassion. It was so cute that I could not resist buying it simply because I broke the top part (hahaha.clumsy!). The rocks and boulders are actually chocolate. I had to demo to the guests that these were edible as they thought they are really rocks.. lol

Oreo cookies as spare tires.

My cupcake ferriswheel comes to life after I added some stuff I bought in Divisoria. I think they are called lollies. I intended to use them as backdrop but when I saw how dull the ferris wheel was.. I used them to perk it up and set the party mood. And the ribbons that I bought for no purpose and no plan yet has found it's way. I never actually planned this but it just happened..

The cupcake liners were just an old stock from previous year's halloween.. So don't think I buy them all. I put some old stuff to good use.  My cupcake stand seem stained from all the events it went through so I covered it with a Hotwheels gift wrapper I bought from expressions. The blue column in the middle is it's original color. Then printed some hotwheels cupcake topper and spiced up my red velvet and chocolate cupcakes.

That safety cone you see at the back is bought from Japan Home for 88 pesos. It has smaller version which you can buy for 2 for 66 pesos but I opted for the bigger one. The checkered tablecloth is bought at 120/yard. I took a yard and a half just to cover 3 tables in Shakey's for pitstop.

The party favors from Shakey's, hers and his.

My party favors for the kids.. I opted to give them something they can use this Christmas!

The checkered lootbags were found by accident in 168. I was about to go home when I caught a store selling all kinds of cellophane bags. I got them cheaper than the lootbags I bought in the party store. And they were so perfect.

Because I want this special, I decorated the guests tables with the road and this centerpiece. Pardon the leaning race flags..the kids have their hands on it already. All DIY,

Here's what a friend of mine did for the invitation. The second page is actually a racer profile where my son put in his favorites..