Shopping Malls in Metro Manila I’d learned a fair bit about Spanish colonialism in Intramuros, but hadn’t realised that the Philippines had been a US colony for so long. In spite of it being independent of the US since 1946, I found the American influence is still very obvious today. English is widely spoken, most signage is in English and US brand names and chains proliferate. And like Americans, Filipinos sure love their malls. I soon came to see the…
Visit to Intramuros and Rizal Park, Manila The Dynamic Duo finally managed to shake off their body guards and slip into Manila city centre. Their first port of call was Intramuros, the old walled city from the Spanish colonial era … only it was basically a reconstruction. The entire city was destroyed by shelling by the US forces as they fought the Japanese in World War II. I found this monument to the 100,000 innocent victims of the Battle of…
Pasig City, Metro Manila Our next stop was Manila. Well, if I’d expected it to be anything at all like Kuala Lumpur, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s different world! For a start, with a population of something in the region of 10 times that of Kuala Lumpur, there are surprisingly few high rise buildings. The skyscrapers I saw appeared to be concentrated in the downtown area. We were staying in Pasig City, one of the 16 cities that…
Visit to KL Bird Park, Kuala Lumpur The Oldies spent the next few days pottering around in the city centre. It’s quite a concrete jungle, but a pretty one at that, with some stylish modern skyscrapers and funky modern architecture. All dominated by those amazing Petronas Towers, of course. What I hadn’t realised at first was that there is plenty of greenery around the towers, in the shape of a lovely park with plenty of water features. There were even…
Outing to Batu Caves; Little India, Kuala Lumpur The Oldies certainly did their steps today. And these were the most colourful steps I’d ever seen. We were at the Batu Caves, a comfortable half-hour train ride from KL Central. Comfortable, as in air-conditioned. Cool! On arrival, I thought we had stumbled onto a movie set. The first thing I saw was a giant god. This statue of Hanuman, the monkey god, is 15m high. But Hanuman was dwarfed by the statue…