My notion of the 'real' Manila

Remember, my dear Ink Shotters, that in another life I am an urbanist. Thus cities are of great interest to me, and right now the city I am immersed in is Manila.

This photo was taken in Chinatown on a Sunday afternoon, Palm Sunday in fact - hence it looks kind of quiet. Before I came here, this is what I thought Manila would be like everywhere. The reality is somewhat different, although there is still plenty of this kind of urban density to be found in the city. Not surprising that there is a lot of variety in a city of roughly 20 million people (greater metropolitan area). ​

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​Quiet back street, Chinatown Manila, on Palm Sunday

This afternoon I am going down to Intramuros, the old walled city. Rebuilt now after being nearly obliterated in the culmination of World War II, when it was besieged and pounded with artillery. ​

I stand corrected

I have been corrected - there is no traditional culture of tea in the Philippines outside of the Chinese community. The excellent cumquat tea I sampled the other night was in a Chinese restaurant, and the tea shop I visited is nothing more than a recent luxury import, so the proximity to China and the trade routes has not traditionally brought tea to the islands despite my romantic notion that it had. My host has to import black leaf tea from Australia in order to make a pot, and the tea bags you find in supermarkets here are all imports from England or occasionally China. 

​A little piggy in the market

Interestingly, this is also true of spices - the rich mix of spices I would have thought were a staple part of trade for the last five centuries or more essentially bypassed the Philippines. While there are local spices available in the markets, you don't get the rich mix of Indian and Chinese spices I had thought would be ubiquitous throughout Asia.

Well, I guess I am here to learn something new. Objective achieved!​

Coffee and tea and other nice things in Manila

Manila is a wonderful place, if you aren't in a hurry. I am finding that the café in Manila is an excellent spot to web surf, and most importantly, to feel the icy chill of some air conditioning when out and about. Unfortunately, most of the cafés I have been to have been big American chains like The Coffee Bean and the dreaded Starbucks, but by the time I pass through the glass door I am usually far too grateful for the cold air to worry too much about the quality of the coffee on offer. Not that Starbucks coffee is really that dreadful - it's just not what I know as coffee. Coffee to me is espresso or cappuccino, without frills and bits and bobs added to complicate it and fuss it up. And for some reason they seem to want to add cinnamon to every hot beverage.

Tea, on the other hand, is another matter entirely. The proximity to China and the Philippine islands' location right in the heart of the great East Asian trade routes means that tea has been here for a very long time, and I have sampled some great western and eastern brews. Of particular note was a cumquat iced tea I had last night; a little too much sugar syrup, but otherwise delicious if you didn't stir it up too much.​

Then there is this tea shop I found. I didn't even get the name of it - it was an acronym that you can see on the tins here in this photo - but it was rather fabulous.​ I got off three photos before they asked me to refrain from taking photos - in that incredibly polite, gentle and gracious Philippino way.

Below is another shot of the tea caddies up close, beautiful packaging and colour.This ​tea was very expensive! The small round tins were about $35USD, or 1400 pesos in the local currency. That's four times the minimum daily Philippino wage for a small tin of tea. Kind of puts things in perspective. I refrained from purchasing in this shop, which was shoehorned in amongst Prada and Hermes. 

In addition to coffee and tea, I have visited two markets and seen some fabulous local produce being sold out under canvas canopies, in regularly held street markets.​ I have to confess, though - the markets I have been to so far are the expat markets, where the quality is guaranteed and the sights, smells and sounds are far less confrontational than the more gritty street markets outside of the rather upmarket district of Makati, where I am spending much of my time amongst the diplomats and other expats. More to discover, and perhaps tomorrow, when my friend is at the Embassy and I am free to roam, I might find a quiet café, sit down and do some writing.