Manila and Rizal Park

Today we took out our Philippines guide book and decided to check out Rizal Park in Intramuros not far from the Manila Bay. Rizal Park is Manila's Central Park (only a bad version). I was mostly excited about the Orchidarium and Butterfly House as well as the National Museum open to the public. On the way to Rizal Park I snapped some pictures of Manila. I've been wanting to capture more of what Manila is really like. Much of where we go and what we do as expatriates is a bad representation of what the majority of Manila looks like. So you can see some of the things we experience on a daily basis. This is still not a great representation of the Manila that most Filipinos know.

Rizal Park turned out to be fairly crowded and chintzy. There were nice park benches and ponds but the music blaring on the loud speakers and the beggars and peddlers kind of ruined the mood. Unfortunately the Orchidarium and Butterfly House was closed. We did make it to the National Museum where we spent most of our time wandering through exhibits of ancient treasures found in archaeological sites from shipwrecks. The museum was fairly well done and we really enjoyed it.