Inside and Outside the walls of Manila (Binondo and Intramuros Tours)

My travel buddy and I agreed to explore one place around the Metro at least once a month. So for our first stop I gave him the chance to pick our destination. And because he’s in the mood to see and have a taste of different culture, Binondo we went!

My buddy was a little too excited to go Chinese, but I guess a whole day will be too much to spend just around China Town. So to make things more exciting, I included Intramuros to make our trip a great mix of Spanish and Chinese Culture, inside and outside the walls of Manila.

We met in LRT2 Recto Station since it is more accessible for both us, he coming from Rizal and I coming from Cavite. It’s the station where LRT1 from Baclaran and LRT2 from Santolan meets. Then, we walked a little until we saw a jeepney with a Sta. Cruz sign board on it and the driver dropped us just in front of Sta. Cruz church, across the Arch of Goodwill.

 “Welcome to Ongpin!”

 Since I am the one who’s a little familiar with the place but with so little gift in telling left from right, we darted from street to street, walking aimlessly in the middle of the good morning sun. Forgive me for the lack of street names in this entry, even landmarks seemed to blur when you’re just having so much fun being… lost.

Chinese businessmen and traders were already settled in our country even before Magellan set foot on our islands. After the Spaniards discovered the Philippines, they saw how wonderful Maynila was. They then decided to make it the center of their political, military and religious activities and built a wall to protect it. During that time, Chinese were kept outside the walled city or Intramuros, and was forced to settle across the Pasig River in what is now commonly known as Binondo.

Today, everything in Binondo is still so Chinese, so Chinoy. The surroundings are mostly red, as Chinese consider this color lucky. There were a lot of stores for lucky charms,gold and silver rings, and there are lots of Chinese grocery stores along the streets.

One of our aims in our trip is to eat my favorite SIOPAO. Yes, just Siopao and I’ll be more than happy! So we strained our eyes looking for different restaurants that offered Chinese foods, but definitely got no idea where to go. We ended up in David’s Tea House.

As I was looking at the menu, I wonder how those beautifully colored food would taste like, but because I’m not really adventurous when it comes to food so I went for the default - Beef Wanton Noodles, Shrimp Siomai and Siopao Asado. Save the food trip for some other time!

After a satisfying meal, we went on search again. This time, for Hopiang Ube as a pasalubong for my partner’s mom. There were a lot of Eng Bee Tin, the store famous for Hopiang Ube in Binondo but it seems out of sight that day, or was it just me? We asked around where to find Eng Bee Tin and thankfully found our way. We also saw kiamoi, shing a ling, different variety of hopia, ube siopao and what do you call that again? That thing covered in banana leaves? You asked the storekeeper right?! Oh well…

Rexona Adventure Hub 2011

When my officemate told me about the REXONA Adventure Hub, asked me if I would like to go Wall Climbing, try Free Fall, and go crazy while Bunjee Jumping, I said.. “Why not!”

So just a day before the Runrio Rexona Run 2011, we went to SM Mall of Asia Concert Ground to try the coolest adventures brought to us by none other than Rexona Men and RUNRIO, Run for love!

Everyone who went there was given a passport which will entitle you to try 6 different adventures. If you were a runner for Rexona Run, it’s for free, but since I wasn’t able to register for this event I still got the chance to try their adventures by simply buying Rexona Men Products.

And up the wall I went!

I immediately went to try wall climbing, and being there so early we were the first ones to try the fun. The staffs who put all the harness on me was very friendly, and they really cheered me on.

When I started climbing, I suddenly realized that WALL CLIMBING is not really a joke. You have to put up with the rough and not to mention HOT stones to be able to advance one step at a time. You have to be careful with your every step, but at some point you’ll be distracted because you are only given 2minutes to finish the climb and you have to be mindful of everything!

Amazing Zorb Maze!

Helmet: Check! Shoes off: Check!
All set for the zorb maze. Yeah, that thing that have will get you inside a big rubber-like ball, and will have you bouncing and rolling inside! It was fun feeling like a hamster for a while, crazy! :))

Then I tried Free fall.

Luckily, it’s not that high. It’s just like free falling from our roof. haha. It wasn’t really scary but challenging given that it was also my first time. I eagerly asked the guy who assisted me at the top about the things I should do, of course I don’t want to be naive if I’m going to fall face down. “just, don’t hold the rope!”, he said. It was the longest yet the fastest seconds of my adventure, but the energy rush was great!

Good Time Zipline!

I already tried Ziplining when I went to Tagaytay, and that was for sure, waaaay scarier than this. So all I really did was enjoy ziplining, I even spread my arms and allowed my self to rotate and enjoy the vicinity. Sweet!

Scary Bunjee!

HAHA! I said I’d try to flip, and rotate 360 degrees up there. But behold! When I was there flying 20 meters up and down and up and down again, I CAN’T. I just can’t! haha. I was all wide eyed going up, and eyes closed going down. Thank God I survived the two minute ride, way scarier than Space Shuttle in Enchanted Kingdom, and ten times the rush than the Free Fall!

Come and Meet New Friends!

While we were waiting for the Adventure Hub to open, we were greeted by a bubbly woman who was also waiting outside the hub. Shella, as we later learned, was waiting for her friend, but while she was alone, we decided to just enjoy the adventure together. She was really nice and energetic, and really cheered me on. This is really one of the perks of doing extra ordinary things, you know.. meeting different kinds of interesting people, plus getting a hotdog treat after! Yeah.. Thank you miss Shella! :D

I completed all the challenges in more than two hours, and was utterly exhausted after. But of course we still managed to abuse the photo booths, and the pose like crazy.




CHeers to Rio and Rexona for a job well done!

Bibong Pinoy Clean Up Drive at Mt. Romelo, Famy Laguna

Different people from all walks of life, pursuing different careers, coming from different parts of the country, and living separate lives once again joined hands in making one small and yet significant activity to help alleviate awareness and promote the care for our mother nature. An activity that didn't only gave us an opportunity to climb yet another mountain, but also made us appreciate the beauty and greatness of our country.

It was a clean up drive with Bibong Pinoy, a yahoo group I joined when I was in second year college. It was originally BobOng Pinoy, a group inspired and started by the author Bob Ong, which served as a platform of opinions, nationalism, and social awareness. It's a Ten year old commitment of expressing our stand while doing little steps to achieve change.

People there share this one desire to make little steps that can make a difference. It’s a virtual group that not only shares perspectives and opinions, but also join hands in doing little but definitely significant things. This time it was a clean up drive in the highlands, where tourists, mountaineers, and even locals forget how to take care of our mother nature. It took us hours to fill some sacks of garbage, we even turn some stones in the river, or dig some buried bottles and plastics to serve our purpose.

In the end, it’s just few sacks, but it served as a mighty bond that held together 40 enthusiastic, optimistic and hopeful people from highschool and college students, to yuppies, to young family men and women. These people are some of those people who dared to say, “bulong lang kami noon, sigaw na kami bukas.”

(photo courtesy of Manong Denz Valdez of BibongPinoy)