Manila, the queen of the Orient

Manila, the queen of the Orient or the city of our affections, is a vibrant city which remains energetic even in the wee hours of the night. The most densely populated city also has many dimensions to its character which can easily be experienced by the travellers after spending only a few days in Manila. In a first glance, Manila would look like any other Asian metropolis full of everything: people, vehicles, buildings, markets and anything you can imagine in a large city like this. But when you start experiencing Manila from close quarters, you will get to know many layers in its lifestyle. There are people coming out from flights to manila with only business in mind while on the other hand there are people exiting the airport with a thought of exploring the rich heritage of the Filipino culture and history.

When I landed on this amazing place called Manila I was sure to get an amazing experience in the city. I had a couple of meetings lined up in the city and I was highly optimistic to close the deal but what I was really looking forward during my four days stay here was an encounter with the city monuments and to explore Filipino history. Despite being an engineer, I have always been a loyal enthusiast of history and whenever I get some free time I love to give a visit to historical monuments, or places associated with the glorious past of a city, country or a civilization as a whole.

I decided to finish both my meetings on the first two days and planned to keep the last two days aside for wandering on the roads of the Filipino capital. I came out of the airport and the watch was showing 12:30 in the noon. I had a long day ahead of me so I decided to go to my hotel, take a bath and treat myself with a nice lunch before heading to the Manila City Business Centre, located in the South of the city, where I had a meeting scheduled at 4. To be honest, I was least concerned about the fate of the meeting and I was more desperate to move around the city.

I got free around 5:30 and checked out the local Chinatown. To be honest, this was the first time I had seen a Chinatown-es-que street and to say the least, I was amazed at the dual characteristics of chaos and order at the same time. The chaos was because of the people thronging the stalls and the order was because of the meticulous planning which saw these stalls lined in order and around corners of a street so as not to disturb the ongoing traffic.rnIn the next article, I would talk about Intramuros and how it changed my perspective about Filipino history. Till then, make sure that you include Chinatown in your itinerary before you board one of the many flights to Manila.