On our final day together, Mark and I got the tour of Intramuros from Greg were were unable to get due to rain last time we were in Manila. We started at San Agustin Church, the oldest stone building remaining in the Philippines after war, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Unfortunately there was a ceremony going on that day and Mark never got to see the inside of it, but we learned so much from listening to Greg talk. We had lunch, I made Mark try more fruit he had never had, Guyabano as they call it there, or Guanabana or Soursop in the west. We saw where Douglas MacArthur had his office, talked about the oldest Chinatown in the world, saw the only steel church in the Philippines, learned about college kids fearing the ghosts of Intramuros, and much more in a short amount of time. Unfortunately with Manila being as crazy as it is, Mark wanted to get to the airport super duper early to not miss his flight, so we went back to Greg’s, Mark and I hugged hard, then he got into his mud covered rental vehicle and drove off.
Mark was gone and I went to the Robinsons mall with Greg and we had lunch, and I tried to get my phone battery replaced. Unfortunately the woman sleeping on the job caused a problem for me and after 4 hours of waiting I was informed they didn’t actually have my battery I needed, so I went back to Greg’s and we had a beautiful long talk until it was late in the night, for I had a plane ride to catch the next morning, New Year’s Eve.
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