Second, and last, day in Manila

Philippine Blog 06-02-23 Manila (Ola Hostel) 

My second, and last, day in Manila I spent on a bicycle tour of The Intramuros. When I signed up for the trip I didn’t realize this would be its locality. I enjoyed the event. My party included a young couple whose ethnicity I never learned, and a flight attendant from Emirates Airline. She was suitably pretty, thin, and blonde. She told me she lived in Doha owing to the fact that the airline was headquartered there. Our guide taught us the Reader’s Digest version of Philippine/Manila history. 


 After the tour I sauntered over to the Philippine Museum of Fine Arts. I spent two pleasant hours cruising through the exhibits. 
I noticed: 
A. There were busts of most of the Philippine presidents but not one mention of Marcos (junior or senior). 
B. The paintings were mostly confined to the 1970’s for some odd reason. 
C. One floor was devoted to Magellan and his voyage. It was very professionally done but completely devoid of controversy or historical disagreements. Thus it was slick but antiseptic. 
 D. This was graduation week for Filipino high schools and apparently the standard field trip was this museum. Hoards of uniformed kids surrounded me with their laughter and mischievous deeds. By 4 p.m. I was back at the hostel. I read for a couple hours then spent half a day sprawled in my bunk eager to get going to Palawan and its sandy beaches.






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