What do you know about the Philippines? Did you know it is the 12^th most populous country in the world, with a population of over 100 million people? Did you know that it was American colony for over 40 years, interrupted only by the Japanese occupation? Did you know that America had colonies? Did you know that the two brothers I crossed my fraternity with were Filipino? Did you know I was in a fraternity? Did you know it was a Hispanic fraternity? Do you know what a line is? This will all be on the exam.

After checking into the hostel and passing out for several hours we awaken to the first country of our trip. If you don’t count the layover in Japan. Or lunch at Planet Hollywood. It’s too late to visit any of the major attractions save one, the Manila Ocean Park. On the way there we pass through Rizal Park, a large park that sounds nice in the guidebook and is significantly less so in person. We arrive at Filipino seaworld and head to our first exhibit, a barn yard. Aquarium is a looser word in some parts of the world. After being accosted by birds attempting to eat my feet we watch a sea lion show and visit the aquarium proper. It has all the usual exhibits and Megan is at least beginning to learn here on her fourth aquarium that it may not be necessary to visit all of them. There isn’t anything wrong with aquarium, it just doesn’t offer anything that we haven’t see before and isn’t a particular large or novel example. The evening does end with a fairly interesting light and water show which features anthropomorphic sea creatures with unnervingly large lips dancing to all of your favorite songs such as My Heart Will Go On and Let it Go. It’s called culture I think.

Prior to our visit with the ocean and it’s show, we had lunch at one of Manila’s, and the Philippines’ more generally, ubiquitous malls. We did this because it held many options and had air conditioning, features rarely guaranteed as we would learn. Upon leaving the aquarium we decided to revisit this monument to consumerism. Numerous not at all pushy transport operators offered us rides but being young, healthy, confident people we decided to walk through the dark streets of Manila. After wandering in a zig zag pattern across highways and through alleys, one such zag took us through the single largest collection of homeless people I have ever seen. I won’t make any jokes about the plight of these people. Love your fellow humans. Near the end of this alley we did have an incident involving a beggar who got too aggressive and grabbed on to Megan. The incident, though in totality minor, was enough to shake us for the evening and make us consider increased caution on all future night wandering. We spent a few hours back at the hostel drinking beer and getting to know our fellow travelers, and interesting group that includes a Portuguese gentleman on his fifth month of travel, a Dutch kid on month two, and Swiss-Italian Woman who like us is just beginning. We compare former travel stories while waiting for the AC to bring the temperature below 80 before turning in.

The next day we head back into the streets of Manila with aspirations of visiting the National Museum and the old city. The capitol is hot, oppressively so, in the way that mega cities in warm climates are. And Manila is a mega city. It is a sprawling metropolis of around 20 million people, of which Manila serves as anchor, though not the largest city, which is Quezon city. Cities of this size have a way of trapping and amplifying heat combining it with the smog of industry and millions of cars, and creating an atmosphere that at best feels 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding country. Add in the nearby ocean which is able to contribute ungodly humidity, but unable to provide the customary cool ocean breeze through then unending skyscrapers, and you can understand why we stopped at the same mall everyday to eat. So having paid our tithe at the church of capitalism, we make our way to the National Museum of Anthropology. This museum, dedicated to the history and culture of the Filipino people, is nice, clean, has good exhibits, and is air conditioned, in other words everything one could ever want. The most interesting exhibit to my tastes was a room dedicated to individual people who were carrying on traditional Filipino artistic customs. A reminder that culture is the creation of a people, not the other way around.

From here we make our way to the old city of Manila, a neighborhood called Intramuros. The way is fraught with street crossings, which in this city are best executed one lane at a time whenever you see three feet of space between cars regardless of whether you are at a crosswalk or not. We are offered numerous rides, all of which we turn down because I am stubborn, but also because we are backpackers and backpackers walk. We are also told that we can be driven around on a tour and given an opportunity to get out and take a picture at each of the tourist spots in Itramuros, an idea that offends the nature of my soul. Finally having accomplished the impossible task of walking through Manila we arrive at Intramuros. It is the remnants of the original Spanish colonial town, surrounded by stone walls and featuring colonial era Spanish buildings, it is by far the prettiest part of Manila we would see in our time in the capital. But it is also very much a part of Manila, so while one street will feature a centuries old cathedral and cafe tucked inside an old Spanish manor, the next street features a mass of people plying their wares on the street while chickens and cats run in between your feet. It is a liveliness almost entirely absent from even the largest cities of middle America. We wander the streets aimlessly, exploring old churches, taking in sites, fending off would be tour guides until we reach Fort Santiago.

The fort is a shadow of its former self these days, the victim of numerous natural disasters and Japaneses bombs. It does however contain a museum dedicated to Jose Rizal, the man who’s martyrdom at the hands of the Spanish would inspire the Filipino people to overthrow their Spanish colonizers, only to have them replaced by Americans a year later. Rizal was the quintessential renaissance man; artist, writer, poet, doctor, soldier. His writings helped inspire armed resistance to the Spanish and he was the first person to refer to the “filipino people” as a nation. He was arrested and convicted as leader of the rebellious forces and executed by firing squad. He remains the most important national hero of the Philippines to this day. See how much you can learn if you read the plaques at the museum.

After exiting the museum I now brace Megan for one of the unfortunate drawbacks of traveling with Ronny. Having meandered about the city, stopping for lunch here, for a museum there, for a beer anywhere, we are now more than a couple miles from the hostel. We must now walk back, lest we have to admit to ever present would be tour guides that we do in fact need a ride. We start back earlier than the previous day in order to avoid any more dark alley encounters and after over an hour of walking arrive back at our mall, where we absorb AC and food and purchase beer to take back to hostel. At the hostel we discover the previous nights friends have all moved on and have been replaced with new travelers. The bittersweet tale of hostel life in microcosm.

Tune next week for tricycles, snorkling, and SUNBURNS!!