Binondo

YAY it's FINALLY summer and I can finally get back to blogging! I've missed this so much. There's so much I want to write about right now, but I'll get started with this: my first visit to Binondo.

About two weeks ago, my Philosophy professor, Dr. Antonette Angeles, invited her students on a trip to Binondo. We had planned for this trip to happen ever since June, but it never actually materialized until two weeks ago (or was it three?). Because it was scheduled in between two hell weeks, a lot of classmates couldn't make it. I myself had a thesis deadline to meet that morning, and I was seriously considering skipping the trip altogether. Thankfully a short conversation with Jean convinced me to go.

On the day itself, the class attendance ended up being just Elise, Migs, Nathan, and me. But we still turned out to be a big crowd, since Ma'am Angeles brought her family with her, along with two Japanese professors.

Going there, the "young ones" rode in Migs's car. It was about an hour's drive from Ateneo.

There's a pretty distinct boundary between Binondo and the parts of Manila that surround it. You can just tell that you're in the place when you come across an entrance like this:

I enjoyed the drive. This was a part of Manila I had never seen before.

Lots of the buildings looked old and abandoned. They added a certain air of mystery to the whole place for me.

Our first stop in Binondo was the Binondo Church (I'm not sure what it's officially called, but everybody seems to refer to it as that).

I found it really interesting that the church had these fake windows painted on its roof. (Or maybe they're not actually supposed to look like windows. Maybe they're wreaths, or something.)

We began a walking tour afterwards. We didn't have an expert tour guide around to tell us where to go, so we just walked to wherever looked interesting. 

Our second stop was at Eng Bee Tin, famous for its hopia and tikoy. You can actually buy a lot of their products in supermarkets and groceries, but the store we went to was well-stocked. It sold things like machang (below), champoy, and hopia in a huge variety of flavors that you won't find elsewhere. 

I wanted to try the leche flan hopia but it was kept chilled in a refrigerator, and I thought that it would melt or something if I kept it with me while I walked around Binondo.

When the group had finished shopping, we continued on our walking tour. A few shops later, we found another Eng Bee Tin exactly like the first, where the lines were much shorter -_-

Anyway, on with the tour:

Rap actually brought me some chocolate tablea from here once. I make hot chocolate out of it sometimes. Two tablets gives you a nice, thick gooey chocolatey mixture. Mmmmmm.

We planned to eat at this famous little xiao long bao place (the name of which I did not note down, sorry!) that Ma'am Angeles liked. For those who don't know, xiao long bao is like a dumpling, but with soup inside. The xiao long bao is made by a guy at a window, so you can see the whole process.

^ That lovely woman in the picture is Ma'am Angeles. Here's one of her lovely daughters:

The man she's talking to is one of the Japanse professors. He's a really nice man who spoke good English. We had a small conversation near the church. He asked me what I was majoring in, and I told him Health Sciences. Then I asked him what he taught. He replied, "Linguistics. You're studying how to help people. I'm not."

It's so interesting to see how Christianity and Buddhism blend with each other in Binondo. The picture above is of a public altar thing that anybody can pray in. This mini-temple has a cross and sticks of incense. And it's just right beside a road.

According to Nathan, Salazar and Ongpin are the two most famous streets in Binondo. They were so famous that they were given dragons where they intersected. (Oh, and did you notice that the first N in Ongpin is backwards?)

Ma'am Angeles's grandson is so adorable! He was looking for a Jollibee when we went to eat lunch at Presidents Grand Palace Restaurant.

The food was a lot, and it was fantastic. I didn't bother taking pictures because I was too busy enjoying the fare. Frog was one of the dishes (I don't know which variant of frog), and it tasted like chicken. It wasn't my first time eating frog though. Once there was a random event in Ateneo that was giving free samples of frogs legs!

After lunch, we walked a bit more and ended up at this place that was simply called "Mandarin Supermarket," where Nathan bought Chinese candy to his heart's delight. My sole purchase was a pack of Haw Flakes, which I never really liked; they were a souvenir for Rap.

We spent the remaining time in a Cafe France. I don't really know why we did this.

And that's Binondo for you! Next post: Batangas :)