Our last day in the Philippines was another full day but not nearly as much walking (which is ironic since we did two walking tours). We had to pack up and leave our suitcases at our hotel because our flight home wasn't until 10pm and we had to check out of the hotel by 11am. We had paid for two different walking tours and the first one started at 9am and was several miles from the hotel, so we had to be ready early and find a taxi.
Our first tour was the Big Binondo Food Wok - a food tour of Manila's version of Chinatown. The group was good sized, around 16 people, and there were locals and tourists who joined the walk. We started at a Lumpia house for some fresh lumpia.
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| Chinese-Filipino Friendship Arch |
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| Binondo Church - meeting place for the walk |
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| Fountain across from church |
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| Monument across church |
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| Inside Binondo Church |
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| Inside church |
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| Inside the Lumpia House |
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| Our guide Ivan |
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| Carlton adding chili sauce to his lumpia |
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| One of the many alleyways of produce |
After our lumpia we headed to our next destination. When we weren't walking along the street, we would cut through the various alleyways and each one was full of people selling various produce, pastries, meats, etc.
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| Ivan describing the food before it's served |
Our next place was Amah's Kitchen where we had a meat pastry, some really good tofu, and some noodles. All of it was very tasty!!
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| Amah's story about how she started. |
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| Meat pastry and noodles |
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| Tofu - SO good!! |
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| One of the women working on dumplings |
The next stop on the tour was Dong Bei Dumplings. This was a tiny little shop where we crammed into the upstairs area to eat their handmade dumplings. I think Carlton and I could have stayed and tried more variations of these dumplings if we didn't have more places on the tour!! They were SO good!!! Nothing beats handmade!
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| The menu for patrons |
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| DUMPLINGS!!! |
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| Another meat pastry which was also tasty! |
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| The Grand Poo bah (if you will) |
To give our stomachs a little bit of a break, we walked around a little. Ivan took us to this building which housed a large room used by a family. I believe it was used by the same family for generations and they might have parties there or meetings for business. Pictures of various patriarchs were all over the walls.
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| More of the decor |
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| Next stop! |
The President Tea House was our next eating establishment. This was kind of our dessert stop. We had steamed buns filled with mung beans...very tasty and just a hint of sweetness. Then we also had some hot tea and mango soup (cold soup) with tapioca balls. Very tasty but we were getting full!!
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| Steamed bun |
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| Mung bean filling |
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| Mango soup |
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| Mango soup with tapioca balls |
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| Ivan describing the ginger |
Our last two stops were for snack-like items rather than real food. Ivan took us to a store where they have dozens of drawers filled with various items and he pulled out a few for us to try without knowing what we were trying. The first picture shows him holding a spoon with red ginger on it. I had never seen red ginger before but I do like ginger, so we tried it and it was very good! It was not as strong as the regular ginger.
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| Red Ginger |
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| Salted plum |
The next item I tried was horrible. It was super sour and salty tasting...not a pleasant surprise at all!! It turned out to be a salted plum. I do not recommend it!!
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| Before I knew what I was eating... |
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| Lots of drawers of various treats |
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| Other items on the shelves |
This last one was actually good. Again we did not know what we were tasting beforehand but it was a blueberry flavored plum. The blueberry flavor was very strong but it was still good!
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| More items for sale |
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| Fresh produce |
The last stop on our food tour was more of a bakery shop where you can purchase packaged goods. Ivan had the liberty of opening up various treats on the shelves and handing them out for people to taste. There were a few things we enjoyed like the purple yam cake and a shortbread cookie with pineapple bits in it. We bought a couple things to take home with us.
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| More shopping opportunities |
Once our tour was over, we decided to head back to look at the produce and see if there was anything we wanted to try. We had about two hours before our next tour and definitely felt the need to walk around more after eating so much!
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| Pickled eggs - we skipped those |
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| Longans |
We did purchase some Longans to taste. One of the women in our group recommended them to us and mentioned that they taste similar to Lychee. They were definitely interesting. The skin is thin and hard but peels off easily. There is a big black seed in the middle you do not eat and the flesh is opaque. I didn't think it had much flavor but I don't know if they were under-ripe or over-ripe. Either way, they were different!
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| Manila Central Post Office |
Since we had some time to kill, we wandered back through Rizal Park and took more pictures. We also took an underground tunnel to cross a very busy street...it was a much more efficient way to get to our destination.
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| Underground tunnel |
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| One of many architecturally interesting buildings |
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| Memorial to the innocent victims of war |
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| Horse drawn carriage |
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| Governor's Palace |
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| Church |
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| Statue |
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| Manila Cathedral |
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| Carlos Celdran - our tour guide |
Our second walking tour was to cover Fort Santiago and other areas inside the walled city of Intramuros. This was much larger with about 60-70 people in the group. It also did not have a whole lot of walking during the tour...the distance we covered was probably less than a mile. But it was very interesting and entertaining. Our guide, Carlos Celdran, is a performer and was working in the entertainment industry before he started his own business doing these walking tours. Now he is one of the most popular walking tours available in Manila. Here's more information about him if you are interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Celdran
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| Heading into Fort Santiago |
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| Wall of Fort Santiago |
Fort Santiago had a moat of sorts (seen in picture) and the ground had gold footprints to show which way you were supposed to go (not that there was any other way).
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| Wall of Fort Santiago |
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| Inside the Fort...not a whole lot to see. |
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| Part of downtown reflected in the moat |
There isn't much inside the Fort but I guess they have festivals and different cultural events that take place inside the Fort.
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| Decorative fountain |
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| Theater time |
Our tour guide literally wore many hats during his performance and had different music selections to play during different parts. Part of the tour was a short movie about the history of Manila.
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| Our horse drawn carriage |
Towards the end of the tour, you had a choice of riding in a horse drawn carriage or a tricycle. We chose the carriage for fun!
The carriage ride took us back to Manila Cathedral where Carlos gave us more historical information. Carlton got a great shot of the inside here where a wedding was taking place.
At the very end of the tour, we all got to sit down and enjoy a container of Halo-halo.
It was ...interesting. Ingredients include boiled sweetened kidney beans, sweetened garbanzos, sugar palm fruit (kaong), coconut sport (macapuno), and plantains sweetened with sugar, jackfruit (langkâ),gulaman, tapioca, nata de coco, sweet potato (kamote), cheese, pounded crushed young rice (pinipig). Most of the ingredients (fruits, beans, and other sweets) are first placed inside the tall glass, followed by the shaved ice. This is then sprinkled with sugar, and topped with either (or a combination of) leche flan, purple yam (ubeng pula), or ice cream. Evaporated milk is poured into the mixture upon serving.
Once we finished our tour, we decided to head back to the Bayleaf hotel in Intramuros for some dinner and to see the sunset from their rooftop restaurant. We had some time to kill before we had to head to the airport, so we walked back through Rizal park and watched some of the light show at the dancing fountain. We also got this last selfie in front of the decorations inside the park.
It was a wonderful vacation and we had a great time exploring the Philippines! Now we have to decide where we want to explore next!!
