During October there is a week-long Nation-wide public holiday in China (Golden Week). We decided to use this time to visit the Philippines, which is quite close to Shanghai (about a four hour flight). We started our trip in Manila.
These pictures are taken from our hotel room. They placed us on a very high floor. The people of Manila (at least the ones we came across) seemed very kind and warm. We also enjoyed the food. We did not enjoy the traffic of Manila. The 10km trip from the airport to our hotel took ~ one hour. David tells me this is normal.
Before we could get to Manila we had to make it through the Pudong airport during the start of the holiday. This was the line to get into the airport. Happily in this instance they had a guard who was stopping people from cutting in line - and we watched him stop multiple people. Check out David's face in the bottom left - loving the queue.
The pool at our hotel had a glass bottom that you could see through from the street. Pretty cool.
Looking down from above.
Erica reading a book, and everybody else going for a swim. Poor Erica wasn't allowed to swim yet due to her ear injury. It looked as though there were offices directly across from the pool. I wondered if having a glass-sided pool right in your line of sight all day would be distracting.
Outside Fort Santiago. This place was built in 1571 as a Spanish fortress. It was later used as headquarters by the US Army during World War II. Then it was captured by the Japanese and used as a prison.
Clara running along one of the walls of Fort Santiago. Fortunately she didn't trip over.
Outside Manila Cathedral.
And inside Manila Cathedral. There was a wedding occurring when we walked in. We (and many other tourists) were allowed to walk around the back of the chapel while the bride and groom were in the middle of their ceremony. I'm not sure how I would feel about that if I was the bride or groom. We were even invited to sit in the pews to watch.
San Agustin - the oldest Church in Manila. Construction began in 1587.
Plaza San Luis. It was so pretty. There are representations here of homes from different eras. Clara and I decided to climb to the top of a stairwell. David, Ethan and Erica decided to sit that one out. I don't blame them, it was pretty hot and humid.
Driving through Manila. We were on our way to the temple. When David mentioned our destination to the driver, he switched on some Christian pop music for us :)
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