Manila, a place that is familiar and unfamiliar to me at the same time. I'm not foreign to the Filipino culture and the language (to a limited extent), but it's still my first time here in the country's capital.

The city is rather similar to the other cities of the Philippines where I've been to, but of course more developed, more complicated.

The city is still embracing the sacrificial spirit of Ninoy and Cory Aquino; yellow flags along the Roxas Boulevard are still standing tall, yellow ribbons are still tied everywhere. Every now and then, I see cars with yellow ribbons tied to the antennas drive pass.

The 1970s -1980s architecture leave traces of the Marcos' dictatorial reign. They are just like blocks of grey cement. Crude as it is, I think it's a rather apt description. Ha.

Traffic is horrible. They should implement the COE system here. Tonight's experience of being stuck in the traffic jam for 4 hours is one of my worsts so far.

Further away from the hustle of the city, Tagaytay offers the serenity that the city lacks. Its picturesque scenery is worth the travel (definitely that does not imply when there's a traffic jam).

If not for the rain, I could have explored more places and taken more photos. A pity the weather made the sky foggy that I couldn't capture a nice photo of the Taal volcano.


Lake Taal and Taal volcano

There's more explorations to come. Good to have my laptop with me. Haha. :)