Exploring Manila

When we arrived in Manila at 10:30 p.m., we went straight to the Golden Phoenix Hotel for a long, deserved night’s rest.  I chose the Golden Phoenix because of its proximity to the Mall of Asia.  I was traveling with my teenage son, so a mall was a must see on his list.  I have to admit the Mall of Asia is the biggest mall I have ever seen. At over 4 million square feet, I see why it’s one of the largest malls in the world.

From the Mall of Asia, we set out to Manila’s historic area.  I snapped pictures of some of the modes of transport we saw along the way.

Our first stop was Fort Santiago.  There are great views of the city from the back of the fort.

We hired a rickshaw to explore the Intramuros area for the day.  Beware of these guys.  He kept trying to upsell the original tour once we started.  He rode us out to the highway at rush-hour when it was nearly impossible to find a taxi then demanded more money to take us back to the historic area.  At that point, I had enough.  We grabbed our carryons and set out on our own to find a taxi.  We had to be at the bus stop in order to catch our bus to the rice terraces.  We walked a good few miles before we were back to the historic area.  We went straight to a hotel and found a taxi.

Various shots of the Intramuros area.

Our next stop was the rice terraces…

~Bella