On our last day in the Philippines, Mr. Selfish and I spent some quality time with our friends in Manila. We went to Intramuros, which is the historic portion of Manila. We attempted to go into the Manila Cathedral, but it was closed for renovations. However, nearby we enjoyed the 1945 monument, which was dedicated to the victims of WWII. Then, we walked to the Church of St. Agustin, which had a wedding going on. It was interesting to see Asian designs incorporated into a Catholic church (after being in Europe and seeing so many cathedrals there).

Then, we walked to the Baluarte de San Andres, which is the wall that was built in 1603 to protect the old city. On the other side of the wall was a golf course, and there were warning signs for incoming golf balls. We enjoyed the sunset (sans flying golf balls), and Dek was quite hyper due to the coconut water he had just devoured.

For our last meal, we ate at Max’s – “the house that fried chicken built.” Dek insisted on ordering our meal, and it was quite adorable. We had pancit luglug solo (Filipino noodles), lumpia (eggrolls), fish soup, tofu with water spinach, the Bicol Express (lechon with coconut cream), and sisig. Unfortunately, the sisig was drenched in mayo. Mr. Selfish and I couldn’t stomach it, and we were sad that this was our last sisig.

M

Thanks to Mike, Uyen-Minh, and Dek for showing us a wonderful time in the Philippines! We can’t wait until they accumulate some frequent flyer miles and we can meet up somewhere else.