Intramuros Surprise

My father requested that we visit Intramuros last Sunday to view an art exhibit. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there are still a lot to see in the old city! Places of interest that I haven't been to before are still waiting to be discovered.

For example, the Silahis Art Center were the art exhibit was housed also has a lot of native products and artifacts inside. There are also books on Philippine history and culture. Some items are also on sale so any visitor can bring home a part of the Philippines.



A few steps away from there, one can find the "Casa Manila" Museum. It's an old house preserved from the Spanish era, which gives the visitors the chance to experience what it's like to live in a bygone era. Casa Manila contains exquisite art pieces and furniture. Photography is strictly forbidden and you cannot touch any of the displays, except in the kitchen area.

City Life

I was on my way to a mall yesterday when something straight out of a TV public affairs program happened to me.

While crossing a major roadway yesterday, through a pedestrian overpass, I felt a slight pull on my backpack on my right shoulder. I looked around and I saw a man behind me, holding on to one of the zippers of my bag's pocket. The pocket was already slightly open but the contents were still out of one's reach.

I was so surprised I could only say, "What are you doing, you fool!" The man raised his hand, with an innocent look on his face. I gave him a kick on his shin and he fell to the ground.

We stared at each other until he got up and ran away from the scene.

I've seen a report of this in one of those expose on TV. A gang of men and women opening backpacks of unsuspecting pedestrians, taking anything they could get their hands on. But that was in another part of the city, so I was surprised it happened to me.

But what really surprised me was that, it happened to me at 11 in the morning in a very busy pedestrian overpass. While the man was down, some people even passed him by. Nobody looked at him or at me.

It wasn't like that before. Had it happened a few years back, someone would have stopped and asked either me or the man what was happening. It made me think that this is part of a city's transformation. As a city gets big, people become callous and wouldn't want to get involved in situations like that.

Or may be a crime like this is so common, people are not surprised anymore. It was just another incident in their busy city life.