Manila, Philippines

 Mit kurzen Zwischenstopp in Darwin landen wir frueh morgens in unserem Hotel in Intramuros - Manila.

Wir  assen es langsam angehen und geniessen erst einmal die Aussicht auf Stadt und Sturm von unserem Hoteldach.

On June 24, 1571, Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi exercised rule of the Spanish city of Manila with the establishment of a city council in what today is the district of Intramuros.^[11] Manila was made the capital of the Spanish East Indies and of the Philippine Islands, which the empire would control for the next three centuries, from 1565 to 1898.

 Zu Fuss und mit dem Tricycle erkunden wir das aelteste Stadtviertel Intramuros.

Due to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, American soldiers were ordered to withdraw from the city and all military installations were removed on December 24, 1941. General Douglas MacArthur declared Manila as an open city to prevent it from death and destruction, but despite this, the Japanese warplanes continued to bomb the city. Manila was occupied by the Japanese forces on January 2, 1942. Manila was also the site of the bloodiest battle in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. After falling to the Empire of Japan on January 2, 1942, it was recaptured by joint American and Filipino troops from February 3 to March 3, 1945. Some 100,000 civilians were killed in Manila in February 1945.^[17] It was the second most devastated city in the world after Warsaw during the Second World War. At the end of World War II, almost all of the structures in the city, especially Intramuros, were destroyed but after the war, reconstruction took place.

 Seitdem die Altstadt zum Weltkulturerbe ernannt wurde, finden überall Renovierungsarbeiten statt und da man sich sonst ohne Taxi nicht von der Stelle bewegen kann, erkunden wir Shopping Malls und den hiesigen Fischmarkt. Beides fanden wir nicht sehr beindruckend und freuen uns daher bald auf die Insel fliegen zu dürfen.