Asia > Philippines > Luzon Islands > Manila > Articles > Manila - charming choas or chaotic charm?

After 20 years of being financially milked by the Marcos mob, and another decade of less than competent management, Manila is today the ugly toad of Southeast Asia. For first time visitors then, this ramshackle city can’t inspire instant awe in the way that San Francisco, Paris or Hong Kong can. Its infrastructure is still a semi-shambles, despite a cluster of new highways and a gleaming new business centre.

Traffic, in particular, can be a headache with all manner of transport in use, from ancient rust bucket trucks, and tinted-windowed Mercedes, to some 30,000 horn-blowing techni-coloured jeeps - all racing to beat the next light.

Yet, in spite of all its apparent poverty, for style, spirit, and sheer soul, Manila is far richer than many other more prosperous Asian capitals. One sees more smiles in a single sunny day in Manila than in Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong or London in a year.

Whether wildly wealthy or dreadfully poor, Filipinos smile often and easily, and their gentle, old fashioned concern for the traveller makes a holiday here a culturally enriching experience.

“Metro-Manila” is the catch-all term encompassing four separate cities and 13 smaller towns which have all merged into one city over the last two decades.

For holiday travellers, however, the most important district has always been the original Manila and the sweeping palm-lined avenue known as Roxas Boulevard which hugs the immense shoreline of Manila Bay like a brilliant barnacle glistening in the sun.

Here, in a scene reminiscent of a Third World version of Miami Beach, a score of hotels jostle each other for attention along the sweeping, traffic-clogged boulevard.

At the north end of Roxas, on the bay itself, is the imposing US Embassy (said to be the largest such American facility outside London) and the beautiful old Manila Hotel. Built in 1912 and the pre-war home of General Douglas MacArthur, the hotel recalls a once graceful era in Asia, now long gone and hardly remembered, where white linen and potted palms were more common than fast food restaurants and palm-sized computers.

Just opposite the hotel is Rizal Park. This is Manila’s cool green lung; the largest park in southeast Asia (and perhaps the only one not built by the British), it is also the final resting place for the national hero Dr Jose Rizal, executed here by the Spanish colonial government in 1896. His death marked the beginning of the end of Spanish rule in the islands. After the Spanish-American War in 1898 (over a conflict in faraway Cuba) the Philippines became a colony of the United States until 1946.

Just north of Rizal Park and Manila’s colorfully cluttered Chinatown, is the 65-hectares of Intramuros (‘within walls’). This ancient walled city was constructed of earth and coral stone by the Spanish conquistadors 340 years ago, as a base from which to conquer and rule the rest of the archipelago.

Although heavily bombed by the Japanese during World War II (and by the Americans upon their return), a surprisingly authentic medieval mood remains.

Due to a lack of funds, the walled city was largely left to crumble until the 1970s. Today, after a steady 20 year effort of rebuilding, virtually all of Intramuros’ massive four metre wide stone walls have been restored, and its cobbled streets have been cleaned and restored to their original Iberian beauty.

Old Spanish houses, warehouses, churches, lovely old water fountains, and flagstone plazas have been lovingly repaired. More importantly, the Philippine government is determined that the new Intramuros will not merely be a pretty museum, but an actual living city once again, and has helped bring in new restaurants, bookstores, cafes and shops to do business there.

One of Intramuros’ great gates has been converted into an open-air theatre and regular musical events are now scheduled throughout the year. For history buffs who’d like to overnight, the 25-room Spanish-style boutique hotel Casa Blanca is the first hotel to open inside Intramuros in nearly 400 years.

Inexpensive two-hour tours of the Walled City by horse-drawn carriages are available, and include visits to the lovely 480 year old San Agustin Church, lunch at a traditional Spanish cafe, and free time to explore the various back streets.

From the waterfront area of Roxas Boulevard, Rizal Park and the nightlife area of Malate, the city sprawls for miles inland, first to the modern business district of Makati, which resembles a cramped Los Angeles, and then onward to more distant satellite communities.

Just outside the business districts are the so-called villages, lush landscaped and walled compounds which house Manila’s super elite; one of them, Forbes Park, could easily rival the leafy splendour of Beverly Hills, with its mincing servants, manicured lawns, security gates and pukka tennis clubs.

Near Forbes Park is the American Cemetery and Memorial, the final resting place for 17,000 American GIs killed defending the Philippines against the Japanese forces in the Pacific War. The 61-hectare site has the imposing beauty and tranquility of Washington, DC’s Arlington National Cemetery.

Other attractions little more than an hour’s drive from Manila include Hidden Valley, a comfortable jungle hideaway nestled inside the forested crater of an ancient volcano, and Villa Escudero, a large working coconut plantation that welcomes overnight guests.

Although Manila shopping is no match for the vast marbled malls of Hong Kong and Singapore, there are plenty of little known bargains to be had, including excellent men’s tailoring for about half the Hong Kong price. Philippine South Sea pearls from the Sulu Sea - mainly exported to Japan (were they are sold as Mikimoto pearls) are well priced in Manila.

Elegant hand-carved furniture, using local mahogany and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, is also a superb buy, both for the reasonable prices, and because it is now virtually impossible to find such workmanship elsewhere.

Though Manila has its charms, and is home to a tenth of the nation’s 70 million Filipinos, the city is hardly representative of an alluring archipelago of over 7,000 islands. As any Filipino will readily tell you, the capital and its urban perimeter should only be used as a stop-over, en route to the south, the resort islands of Cebu, Bohol, Boracay and Palawan where beautiful Tahitian style resorts are the norm. Palawan, in particular, was a favourite of the famous oceanographer and fervent environmentalist Jacques Cousteau.

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