What A Difference A Day Makes

One of the gates to the walled city

Today I returned to my traveling roots: walking. And, in this case, walking and sweating. And lots of both. I've always felt that the best way to learn about a place is to hoof it - to see it, hear it, smell it, experience it from street level. And that I did.

It's been quite a shock to go right from modern, clean, organized Seoul to chaotic, dirty, run-down Manila. Not to mention going from cold weather to tropical heat and humidity in the blink of an eye. As Manila came up pretty last minute (as almost everything does for me), I didn't really have any set expectations of it. But I somehow didn't expect it to be what it is. It was a day full of surprises.

The first thing I noticed was how much people smile here. Having read up on Manila, I'd read much about the crime here and how cautious foreigners need to be so on my first outing I was, admittedly (and prudently), proceeding with caution. So many times I find when in a third world country that I struggle to find a balance between wanting to get involved with the locals, to trust them and talk to them, while at the same time wanting to remain leery and careful of not being taken advantage of. So when I started walking down the street and person after person after person was calling out to me ("Hello, Mama!"), I assumed they were just trying to sell me something. But then I noticed that all of the calls were accompanied by the most genuine smiles and enthusiastic waves. No way to resist that. The rest of the day the better part of my time was spent responding to them all with an equally genuine smile and a wave. The most amusing call of the day was "Hello, White Lady!".

The famous Manila Cathedral... closed, grrr.

It's been a while since I've been somewhere that I stand out SO much (yep, I'm super white... and blonde, to boot) and it took an hour or two until I got back in that groove and got used to being blatantly stared at all the time, remembering that there's nothing I can do without being watched. But I quickly got the feeling that it was like back in India, where for the most part it was completely harmless and just genuine curiosity. And while I could recognize that it was harmless, I was also quickly reminded of the downsides to standing out as an oh-so-obvious foreigner: nearly every cab driver and/or carriage driver stopped and tried to get me to take a ride. And while they're pleasant about it, they can be relentless, following slowly alongside me as I walked for a block or two. Yeah, that gets a tad awkward.

Just about the time I really started to let my guard down and decided the people were open and friendly and helpful and curious about the stranger among them, a guy started following me and asking me if I would give him my necklace. It was the only part of the day I felt at all uncomfortable. A reminder to maintain that balance of openness versus caution. Always such a struggle for me.

I made my way to Intramuros, the oldest and most historic part of the city, a "city within a city", a walled citadel built by the Spanish in 1571. Inside the ancient walls are plazas, monuments, public buildings, museums, ruins and, of course, famous churches. My primary destination and first stop was the Manila Cathedral... which was closed for renovations. Awesome. My second was Fort Santiago which is, you guessed it, an ancient fort. Since this part of the city was ruled by the Spanish for so many years, many of the Spanish names remain, which made me feel right at home. Truth be told, many times throughout the day, I actually had to remind myself that I was in Asia and not South America. Bizarro.

Fort Santiago's main gate

By this point in the day, I was sweating buckets and had to sit and chill over some fruit juice. While sitting there I was surrounded by tinny Christmas music and, once again, realized that when you grow up in a cold climate, it just does NOT add up to think about anything related to Christmas while sitting in a hot, steamy climate. Especially when actively dripping sweat. I also realized that there is no point at all in showering at the beginning of my day while here.

At the end of the day I decided I had just enough energy to walk to the bay and watch the sun go down. I found the one spot where no one else was around and plunked myself down for the show. Within 30 seconds a guy comes up to me and opens the conversation by asking "Why are you alone?". In the US, his question may have irked me; here it made me laugh as it was instantly obvious that he asked out of genuine curiosity as, really, why would a white girl be sitting there watching the sunset alone? We chatted for a few and then his son came over... and then some other people came over... and then some other people came over.... soon it was a regular old Filipino gathering.

Christopher and Diana. I swear they smiled the whole time
were talking!

It was the most unexpected part of my day and yet the most enjoyable, the purest and most true. The two who sat the longest were Christopher and Diana, a down-on-their-luck couple who live on the streets (in fact, while I was there, I saw some members of a local church come around and give out sandwiches to them and the other homeless people in the area) but who couldn't have been nicer and, in true Filipino form, couldn't have had kinder or more ready smiles.

They told me a bit about their life, asked me a bit about mine and sat and watched the sunset with me. They couldn't get over my "bravery" in traveling by myself as a woman but also offered up their services to be my guides/bodyguards on any future trips I took in the area (they didn't want to be paid for it, just for me to buy their meals). They also told me about some scams to watch out for and told me to not trust anyone, even them. They said there are good people and bad people in the Philippines and that they themselves were a mix of good and bad, but that any bad they do is just for survival. It was both a heartbreaking conversation and an uplifting one. They didn't ask for anything from me, they didn't try to get me to give them money, they just shared a moment of their lives with me out of genuine kindness. It was the best moment of my whole trip so far.

Inside Fort Santiago

Wait, which continent am I on again?



This picture made me sad as on one side of the fence is an
executive golf course while the whole other side is lined
with homeless people and their children.



It was, indeed, pulpy.





Sunset over Manila Bay