After Iloilo, we flew back to Manila and checked into another airbnb in BGC for the remainder of our trip. The Uptown Parksuites was a great location with 3 malls, shops, restaurants, and markets within walking distance. The room had a great view which is pictured below at night and during daylight hours.
Alex works as a salesman for Tesla in BGC near our airbnb.
He is the son of Cynthia's friend, Cristina.
Ron's birthday celebration in the Philippines at Cabalen Restaurant, surrounded by family at the restaurant and later back at the airbnb there was a birthday cake.
There were 3 malls within walking distance of our airbnb: Mega mall, Mitsukoshi, and Market Market. Almost all the malls in Asia have a supermarket in the lower level.
Our group took a day trip to Batangas, a province south of Manila. We stopped at Montemaria along the coast. It is the site of the Mother of All Asia – Tower of Peace, the tallest statue of the Virgin Mary in the world.
Exploring Manila-Intramuros
Cynthia and I spent the day in Intramuros, the historic walled area of Manila. For hundreds of years, the walled city of Intramuros was Manila: the nerve center of the Spanish occupation in the Philippines, home to several thousand Spanish colonists, their families, and their Filipino servants.
We started our exploration of Intramuros in Fort Santiago(underscored in red below) located on Manila Bay.
Fort Santiago served as a fortress against marauding Chinese pirates, a prison for Spanish-era political prisoners, and a Japanese torture chamber in World War II.
Durian is a fruit of Southeast Asia known for its mild sweet taste and pungent odor. It has an exterior spiky shell and soft creamy flesh on the inside. Many public places ban the fruit because of the unpleasant smell.