The Fabulous Philippines

At first, my reason to go to Philippines was only to go to Boracay. When I searched for the ticket of Cebu Pacific Airlines we saw the promo price around Rp. 2,200,000 (around USD 220) from Jakarta to Manila. But unluckily we could not get cheap tickets to Boracay. The cost to Boracay was almost the same with the cost from Jakarta to Manila. We could go there by sea to Boracay too but it would take 12 hours ship journey. We did not have that much time.

We then decided to just explore Manila and its surroundings. I went to Philippines with two of my best friends. I also contacted my friend in Manila, Ian, who was very kindly became our guide for two days :)

We stayed in Makati area, the business district of Manila. Makati is the metropolitan city of Manila. You could see all the skyscrappers. And also you can see many malls too. In such a small area there are large numbers of malls. The famous malls there, are Ayala Malls, Greenbelt (1-5), Glorietta (1-5), The Landmark, and many more. Don’t be surprised because indeed each mall has five chains! I can estimate that the malls in Makati itself are the same numbers with the ones in Jakarta. I mean all parts of Jakarta. One more interesting fact is that Makati city bans the use of plastic bag. So, you won't find any plastic bag used whenever you shop there. I wish that we could implement such regulation as well in Jakarta. It's very environment-friendly.

Our first day in Makati was spent to figure out the buss route and train route. We were so confused with the jeepney route. And because we could not find the jeepney back to our hotel, we ended up walking around 5 kilometers from the center of Makati to our hotel. Crazy! But Makati is quite a small area. You can just walk around it in a day if you want (we didn’t want it but we had to).

The second day, we visited some of the attractions there, such as Ayala Museum, Marikina Shoe Museum, and Intramuros. At Ayala Museum, we were so amazed with oh-so modern architecture. You had to start the journey from the 4th floor. There you would be shown a documentary video about the spreads of gold in Philippines islands. We also could see the collections of some very precious gold dated back from few centuries ago. We were not allowed to take pictures on the fourth and third floor. We were imagining how if we planned to steal some of the golds there and then ran away and built our own empire somewhere. It’s just in our imagination, please Mr. Interpol don’t be suspicious on us :p The second floor was the diorama of the history of Philippines. It explained a lot about the first occupation of Chinese, Spanish, and American. I could say there were a lot of wars in the past history of Philippines, similar to our history too. It shows how barbaric people are in the past, and how grateful (or ungrateful) we live in today’s world.

The next visit was to Marikina Shoe Museum. It was quite far from Makati area. Unfortunately, it was closed. We were very disappointed because we were very curious to see the shoes collection of Imelda Marcos. Finally, we headed to Intramuros. Intramuros is like a giant fort in the center of Manila city. The buildings were so strongly built. And around the area there are churches, hotels, and also government offices as well. We toured around the Intramuros area by tricycle. The driver was very enthusiastic in explaining the history of each building. The cost for the tour for three hours was around 500 PHP (approximately USD 15). Places to see in Intramuros are Fort Santiago, Manila Cathedral, San Agustin Church, Casa Manila, Rizal Park (unfortunately it was closed already when we got there), and Palacio De Governador. I loved to see how old buildings were very well-kept there. It was very romantic to walk around the old buildings especially during the dusk. The most beautiful area is at the park in front of Manila Cathedral. The dim lightings and the quiet environment, and we heard the wedding bells too and my mind wandered. Wake up, Vita!

The third day we visited another province, which was Tagaytay. It took around 2 hours trip by bus from EDSA station. I experienced two train tragedies in Manila. The first one my ticket was lost. The second one my ticket was stuck inside the train barrier, but it wouldn’t open. So I had to go to the ticket officer, wrote my full name there and he allowed me out. Things like this sometimes happened in life....

Tagaytay is like Bogor version of Jakarta. It’s in mountainous area so the weather is rather chill. We went to the Sky Ranch. Sky Ranch is an amusement center of Tagaytay and from this place we can see the beautiful Taal Lake and mount from afar. It is said that Taal mount is the smallest mount in the world. Too bad we didn’t get the chance to trek down Taal crater. Again not much time. So, all we did was sightseeing. We got on the ferris wheels and tried the Viking. In Dunia Fantasi, Jakarta, it’s called Kora-Kora. It was fun and depressing at the same time!

The best thing about this trip was because I got the chance to meet some new friends from Philippines. In my previous travel abroad, I didn’t have anyone to meet in the destination country. So, it’s just like I am the stranger, visiting a strange country. However, it’s a new experience when you have friends, who are locals. You learn a lot about the Filipinos. Like the fact why every Philippines’ girl brings umbrella everywhere, because they don’t like the heat. You won’t see girls in Indonesia wear umbrella during the day, except on a rainy day. But there, umbrella is a must. Umbrella sellers must be happy living in Philippines.

On the last day we didn’t explore much we just hung out at malls and did shopping. I loved shopping at The Landmark. There a lot of cute stuffs there. I bought a glittery purse with the FABULOUS writing on it. It was my love at first sight and whenever I looked at it I could just yell fabulous! Just like The Philippines. PHILIPPINES IS FABULOUS!

Ninoy Aquino Airport

Makati area

Quite an architecture

The underground tunnel to cross the street

Ayala Museum

The entrance ticket

Miniatur of Phinisi boats

Diorama of Philippines' history

Green Belt, one of the malls in Makati

Single journey train ticket

Ayala station

Cubao station

Intramuros area

Tricycle that took us around

Casa Manila

San Agustin Church

Palacio De Governador

Manila Cathedral/ St Basilica Cathedral

Marikina Shoe Musem, too bad it was closed

Ticket Booth to the Sky Ranch

Marching Band

Ferris Wheels at Sky Ranch Tagaytay

Taken from above the ferries wheels

View of Taal Lake

The travelers

Fabulous! :D