Manila's Old Quarter

last week, i went to the old quarter of manila, and walked around binondo, ongpin, recto... but not yet intramuros. quite dangeruos places but i enjoyed it, i think i'm going back there again soon, one visit is not enough. i can tell that it must have been a beautiful city centuries ago under the spaniards and the americans. i even remarked that if they maintained the beautiful buildings and monuments, we would have looked like madrid in the middle of asia. but the japanese occupation destroyed most of manila, it was one of the most heavily damaged cities. and it was not repaired properly after being destroyed. so now, you only see bits of its former beauty. you see a beautiful building occasionally, and then next to it is a smelly and dirty river. I walked along the chinatown of manila too, but nothing to see there. i will have to spare some time so that i can visit intramuros properly.