Manila layover tour: first glance of the Philippines 3. Intramuros
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- Taipei — Manila Philippine Airlines PR895 Flight Report
- Manila layover tour: first glance of the Philippines 1. Binondo
- Manila layover tour: first glance of the Philippines 2. Quiapo
Intramuros, with a series of Spanish colonial architecture, is arguably the most popular and touristy area in Manila. Manila rarely makes the list when it comes to traveling in the Philippines, (in fact, it’s one of the most notorious, polluted, overcrowded and unappealing cities in Southeast Asia, along with Jakarta), but when adventure-seeking tourists decide to add Manila as their final stop before boarding their flights, most of them come to Intramuros.
The Philippines, as a single political identity, was first created under Spanish colonization. Even its name today was derived from a Spanish monarch. In this regard, the center of colonization, Intramuros, is synonymous to the origin of this nation. I was dropped by the tuktuk driver in front of the Manila Cathedral, the center of Intramuros (he was desperately trying to sell me a tour around Intramuros, with no success). Built with black and gray bricks and cement (like many others I’ve seen so far, presumably due to proximity with volcanoes?), this Neo-romanesque cathedral is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese church of Manila. Its interior looks fancy, modern and not much different from many cathedrals in the US I’ve been to. Many tourists were seen walking around and checking out the souvenir store — a theme not seen at all at churches in Binondo and Quiapas where few tourists frequent.
To create a fitting historical vibe, there were also horse carriages available in Intramuros, something I am not a big fan with because they often generate an imagined and inaccurate sense of historical settings. I’ve also seen or heard about horse carriages elsewhere in the world that downright scam tourists or mistreat animals.
In the center of Plaza Roma, right in front of the cathedral, stands the statue of of Carlos the IV. I was unsure what this Spanish ring who ruled in late 18th century had to do with the Philippines (Manila fell to the Spanish crown in 1565). Some search on the internet suggests that it’s due to his contribution to initiate a global smallpox vaccination program (unsure about how accurate this is). The statue with Carlos IV waving a sword on its right hand, for some reason, reminded me of the statue of Lenin in Vladivostok, a stern political leader firmly leading its country to a certain direction, for better or worse. I am curious about how Filipinos today see this statue today as the decolonization movement in the Philippines seeing a rise (Duterte even wanted to rename the country with a pre-colonial Sanskrit name “Maharlika”)
Intramuros is organized and clean (to some extent). Little trash could be seen around the plaza, as there appears to be local initiatives who clean the streets on a regular basis. Police officers stood in the middle of the road to control the traffic, certainly not a norm in Manila. Crossing the road suddenly felt not so Southeast Asian at all. I walked to Fort Santiago, the most important site in Intramuros, which is located in the northern tip right along the river.
Fort Santiago used to be an important fortress defending the city. It has witnessed gunpowder from the Spanish, the British (yes Manila had once flied the Union Jack), the Americans and the Japanese. It also houses the shrine of Jose Rizal, the god-like figure in the Philippines independence movement and its nation-building.
As Wiew told me before, part of Fort Santiago had been adopted as a golf course, where a giant net was flanking the castles to protect the fortress from flying golf balls.
Entering Fort Santiago. While there were some foreigners around, I felt most visitors were local Filipinos. Many of them came to the park to wander around, picnic, chat, date, take selfies and record tiktok videos.
Rizal Shrine at Fort Santiago: the name already implied his nearly divine status. I first learned about Rizal’s story when I saw its bust in National City, California (a San Diego suburb where I lived for a while). But I knew little about his life until visiting this museum (or shrine, I should say).
Rizal was a Spanish-educated Filipino elite, a Filipino nationalist and hero, a prolific writer, an ophthalmologist, a versatile artist, an amateur talented scientist…..despite being martyred at the age of 35, he seemed to live 10, if not more lives, of an average person. He was talented enough to study both law and medicine, further pursue medical education in Spain and Germany, travel to multiple countries, demonstrate skills in sculpture, painting, architecture, cartography, wrote influential political novels and poems, converse in more than 20 languages, found a school when he was exiled to Dapitan (in today’s rural Mindanao) and discover and describe a number of new species there as well…… It’s almost easier to list which profession he didn’t dabble in, instead of the other way around.
Rizal is basically Leonardo da Vinci plus Simon Bolivar. Is it even physically possible to achieve this much within such short period of time?
All aspects of Rizal’s talent could be seen displayed in the shrine. His artwork, sculpture, paintings, poems, political comics he composed, species he discovered….even one segment of his vertebrae, where the bullet hit through during his execution, was displayed. I immediately thought this has to be related with relic worship in Catholicism. The way Rizal was portrayed in the famous symbolic painting was also at the moment of his execution, which really drew parallel with the image of Jesus Christ.
The shrine also has detailed description of the days before Rizal’s arrest and execution. He was on a ship sailing from Manila to Barcelona, Spain when the first shot of Philippine Revolution was fired. A friend of him suggested him to seek asylum in British Singapore an Egypt, but he refused and ended up being arrested in Barcelona, escorted back and executed in Manila. He was put in jail in this very place (Fort Santiago) before his execution in today’s Rizal Park, which I would visit shortly after. There was detailed description of every single day (some detailed to hours) leading to his execution.
One thing I noticed was how Rizal was portrayed in this storyline. He undoubtedly inspired the revolution to some extent, but was not the leading figure himself. Controversy still exists over his real attitude toward the revolution (some argue that even though he supports a nation of the Philippines, he thought it wasn’t ready yet). A whole section in the museum showed the kangaroo court that sentence him to death, and his attempt to defend his “innocence”— not playing a role in the rebellion. It also mentioned that the day he was executed, ironically, coincided with a Catholic holiday commemorating “innocence”. I feel such description is atypical for a national hero. Instead of a typical revolution leader who (at least is portrayed as such) give impassioned speeches and lead the crowds to overthrow an evil regime, Rizal was portrayed as an “innocent” figure who did not directly participate in the revolution, and was executed by mistake. He seemed to always have the image of a harmless, elegant and non-confronting gentleman, instead of a determined and persevere revolutionist.
There are countless places in the Philippines named after Rizal, including a province. In fact, even the country itself was proposed to be named after him as well at some point— Rizalia, named after the national hero, just like Bolivia named after Simon Bolivar (which is another long story I will share with you after my visit there in ~2 years).
I’ve read somewhere that Rizal’s achievement continued to “accumulate” after his death, indicating some are merely myths instead of facts(otherwise how could any person achieve this much in such a short life?). I also read about how Rizal was made national hero by American colonists and other Philippine politicians for their political goals respectively, just like how American people romanticized Paul Revere’s midnight ride a century after their independence. I wasn’t knowledgeable enough about this topic to give my personal opinion.
In Rizal’s shrine, I met with two friendly Filipino men speaking Mandarin with me. One of them had even learned Mandarin in Taiwan for several months. They were amused that I came visit the museum during such a short layover. We briefly chatted about our lives, their experiences learning Mandarin, and the divide between evolution or creationism. “In the Philippines we believe in creationism, but the schools always taught evolution”. Upon hearing that I live in the US, they kindly handed me their name cards with contact info of their church in California, in case I am interested.
Leaving the shrine of Rizal. Statue of Rizal holding a book stood in the middle of the plaza, in a completely different posture from that of Carlos IV.
Some kids were seen rowing boats near by, asking money from each passing visitor.
There are some more in Fort Santiago to see. This place was used by Japanese imperial army as a prison. Hundreds of American and Filipino died in such an absolutely horrendous environment.
I finished the tour in Fort Santiago with a coke. A number of fancy restaurants and souvenir stores were at the entrance of the fort.
I then walked all the way south, through Intramuros, to Rizal Park. A wedding was taking place inside when I passed by St Augustin Cathedral. I didn’t realize then that it was the only church in Manila that survived all the earthquakes and wars, a symbol of Philippine’s resilience. There was also a museum on site which I didn’t visit (as I didn’t realize its historical importance). When I took photos of this magnificent cathedral, a little girl came to me begging for money, and left promptly after I rejected, with an even smaller girl, presumably her younger sister, looking disappointed but unsurprised. I imagined such a scene may have happened to her hundreds of times in a week.
It’s hard to see, but I couldn’t solve the nation’s poverty. Continuing walking south, road quality drastically deteriorated to typical Manila standard. This part of Intramuros seemed to be not as well maintained.
Leaving Intramuros, I walked over some confusing intersections. Rizal Park is the center of Philippine’s identity: huge national flags, the national hero’s statue, and numerous statues of Philippines’ pre-colonial rulers. It also appears to be a center for local people to hang out and date. Pop music was playing by the fountain, as some street vendors selling food and toys. In retrospect, I could clearly see the heavy clouds on top of my head that I didn’t notice then.
As I went to check a corner featuring Chinese arches and a Confucius statue, rain started to pour relentlessly. Suddenly, the cheerful music by the fountain came to an end. All the people chatting, dating there a minute ago were nowhere to be found. I soon found myself hiding under a tree with several other stranded people.
Into the rain I sprinted, to reach Rizal’s execution site to get photo. I made it in front of the crowds, without applause however.
I retreated to the road, trying to call a grab back to my hotel, but only to find that my phone had lost internet access again. How could it work superbly earlier in Intramuros, and died again when I was most in need!
I took shelter under a kind street vendor’s stall, desperately trying to connect to internet with 4% battery left on my phone, with no luck. Fortunately, a tuktuk passed by, which I quickly waved to it and moved my entirely wet body onto it.
The tuktuk driver was a friendly young man, approximately 20 years old, who didn’t speak much English other than the word “boss”. He looked like someone from the provinces who was trying very hard to make a living in Manila. He wasn’t even wearing shoes, which was unclear to me if he couldn’t afford one, or if he felt it more comfortable barefoot.
As we made our way back to my hotel in Binondo (with mostly body languages to communicate), I asked him to come with me to the 7–11 store. I planned to break my bills into smaller ones, and also buy him a drink while we were there. Perhaps due to his lack of shoes, though, he chose to wait outside. I ended up paying him more than what we agreed on, as gratitude for saving me from the sudden storm.
Thus, my layover tour in Manila ended with me picking up my backpack, charging my phone, regrouping myself on a sofa and telling Wiew what kind of stupid situation I got myself into again in the hotel lobby. Afterwards, time to head to the airport and back to reality.
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