Tara na, biyahe tayo! (with exerpts from Manila: Beneath the Structure)

A well known architect was invited to visit the Philippines to give advice, especially on the urban problems of the city of Manila. “Manila is a unique city. Like Paris, it has a river running through it. Like Naples, it has a bay. And like Venice, it has a lot of esteros or canals. Manila should be the Pearl of the Orient”. These were the words of the most celebrated American City Planner Daniel H. Burnham of Chicago, Illinois. He was commissioned to create a comprehensive plan of the city of Manila.

The Urban Principle used by Burnham and Anderson came out of the American “City Beautiful” Movement which can be regarded as an offshoot of imperial Baroque Planning. The theme of City Beautiful concentrated on public buildings as focal points with wide and grandiose avenues. With such an idea for Manila, his plans overlooked the problems of housing for city dwellers—social, economic, and cultural needs. He also wanted to imitate Pope Sixtus V’s design of the City of Rome where he intended to superimpose “a system of diagonals and rotundas over the basic rectangular grid street patterns of American City.”

Burnham’s plan was basically to preserve and restore the grandiose history of the Philippines as well as to create a road system that is practical and suitable for the Philippine geography and population.

-Manila: Beneath the Stucture. A study on Burnham'sp plan of the street system of Manila
hi166 paperunder sir madrona
Aguas Carlos Co Ferreria Marasigan Pablo Tioco.

panapanahon ang pagkakataon... maibabaalik ba ang kahapon...

Manila has always been a beauty. For one i have been exposed to manila sites ever since i was a kid. We'd call in "downtown". My mom used to wrok around the sta. cruz area and i can vividly remember picking her up at the office and seeing kalesas all around.

yesterday, i had a treat to peek at manila once again. We had a balikbayan to tour around. Tita Carol. it was she and her family that brought us to different places in belgium last month! it was great hving her here!

we started from the house and went to tutuban to start of our adventure!

this was the old train station of Manila. This is where one would go to get to baguio or to quezon. now it is turned into a mall. sad isn't it? it would have been like friends going to baguio via train! how cool can that be? but with our weird filipino culture, men and women have stolen railroad tracks to sell for their good use. now, it still goes to bicol but it's a train trash. with people living on the rail road tracks (home along the riles), they throw their trash when the train passes in front of them. the government tried to fix this by making their train roofs pointed. But the innovative filipino would tie thier plastic of trash with a long string. so when they throw it, with the long string now, the two trash bags are even on two sides of the train. sigh.

from tutuban we road the jeep!:D


we went to recto to do the mrt/lrt thing!:D to go where? back and forth!:D we wanted tita carol to see the new mega train how it can reach up to marikina and go all the way to recto! it wasnt much of an experience for me since i've done this with sina barbie but with my mom and lex it was!:D

when we got back in recto.w e took a jeep that would bring us to binondo area. we walked and checke dout those chinese boutiques and ate at president's tea house!:D

outside the binondo church.. very european!:D Romanesque!


this is inside binondo:D


san lorenzo statue at the plaza.

the fountain!:D this was the former nagtahan fountain when it was still a rotonda way back during my folks era. it is interesting to note that it is only int he philippines that there are stop lights in rotondas. been to eliptical road lately? have you seen these people jeoperdizing their lives to get to cross. we have to do somehting about this more than having MMDAs let pedestrians pass by halting them while at 60km/hr.

we went around the area and took photos of different interesting parts of binondo!:D

the south gate of binondo!:D lapit na ng president's tea house at salazar bakery!:D

ONGPIN! further down is president's tea house!:D


Yummy dimsum...:D


and of course a refreshing almond jelly!

after walking aroudn more and shopped at that-- walked around old divisoria--juan luna up to the good mornign bazaar area! walking this area made me think of muffin, xyn, and anya when we were all asking for discount for orsem materials ng sec! damn that was fun! hahahahaha. seeing those 35 per dozen pentel pens.. where else can you go wrong?
we passed of course 168 forever to check out the latest bazaars there. eventhough we've seen it sa streets.(reminds me to City 2 of belgium) street shopping!

after ld manila we went to older manila. Intramuros this time!

Since the Spaniards developed the northern part of the Pasig River, the Americans felt the need to leave their own imprint on the southern part. The Spaniards had left their imprint with Intramuros and since it was already congested, the Americans decided on leaving their imprint in a less crowded and less developed area such as Malate and Manila.

you can see the dungeons. what's missing is just sisa and we're back to the 1800s. but hoenstly when i go there, i try to imagine the clucking of the horse of 1800's and the prayles walking around. it's a nice feeling to see such rich history ingrained in manila. though with colonization we failto see the real pinoy. Because most of us think that philippine history started only 1521 when magellan "rediscovered" our land. (right mark?)

now these are my favorites!

quezon and mcarthur flirts with the Anj.

hanging out with the guwardya sibil!

NEW FRIENDS OF MINE!:D


i found this interesting wall in intramuros.

so that was my day going around manila. it is always fun to relive history. as ive said it on history papers, we are part of it and we are making it. it's all up to us to retain what we have or change what we ought to be.

Manila is still the pearl of the orient.





...::The world is full of passing faces.
Our hearts are bruised in many places::..