Alright, so here's our experience with Carlos Celdran.
Feeling blog.. hehe
We took the "If these walls could talk" tour in intramuros.
The tour will start in Fort Santiago and will end in San Agustin. I decided to tell my hubs to just park in Fort Santiago thinking we're running late. We came from Bulacan pa kasi. But yesterday, was a holiday so we got there 50 minutes in advance. Hehe So we roamed around the gardens of Fort Santiago while waiting nalang. By the way, it was on our way to intramuros that made my husband realize we're doing Celdran's tour. You can see the excitement there. Haha! (Told you, he will like it!) We can do it anytime naman but he's just so busy busy busy busy all the time. His birthday was just the perfect excuse.
Anyway, 3 o'clock ticked in... And here comes an eccentric looking man in his barong, puruntong and the new york hat. You can tell from meters away that it was him. Oh well, the hat gave him away. Hehe
He has this mic that beyonce would use during a song and dance number. (ano bang tawag dun?
) And the speaker was attached to his belt. Very good! Everybody can hear him.
There ware a lot of foreigners. Kinda like DIY tour of their own. I didn't see an organizer with them. They came in in small groups. Like groups of 5, 3, even a soloista. Half of the tourist were pinoys. Great! So Carlos made us sing the National Anthem.
Then he asked one pinay what was it's title and she said "Bayang Magiliw??" Hilarious!
And so, Carlos ushered us around the Fort and discussed what Philippines was then in the 1800s to Rizal's execution. I don't wanna go to specifics cause you really should go to one of his tours. Its like you're riding a historic capsule of the Philippines. Politics is everywhere!
Out of the Fort then the kalesa ride! Our horse "rambo" took a sh*t first before walking. To the horror/disgust/excitement of our foreign kalesa-mate. Awesome....
We were supposed to Plaza San Agustin but we did not. Simply because there was a shooting of one of GMA's show. Too bad. So he just took us to this area in intramuros where the old world meets the new. It's an area for hippiedihop kids who does skateboards, in kicks, in hiphop jeans.. Then there was a corner where some teens are practicing a modern hiphop dance. Kinda like what you see in, New York? I don't know.. I haven't been to NY.
Surrounding them was a mural of graffiti. He made us settle under a huge mango tree then discussed the Spanish-American time. Cool background, eh? Hehe
Then off to the ruins of Ateneo de Manila. This part I most like.. I did laughed, smirked and rolled my eyes to the craziness if old pinoys but in this point of the tour that I wanna burst into serious weeping. Manila. After WWII. In 1945. I wanna write it down but I can't. I want you guys to experience it on your own. That "us" eh.
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Oh well, anyway, the tour ended in San Agustin. It was kinda fast kasi the church bell kept on ringing and it was hard for Carlos to speak so he just ushered us to this area where we ate halohalo. More discussions and it's all done.
And then I'm back to the present time......
At the end, he said.... "if you can't change how Manila looks, change the way you look at Manila instead."
3 hours is bitin! So next plan is to take the Imelda tour. I can't wait!
