What to do in Manila, Philippines?

[lastlid]

A visit to Intramuros should be on the list - Fort Santiago at least, and may I recommend lunch at Illustrado?

I do have a favourite place in Manila, which I alwasy visit - the Solidaridad Bookshop, in Padre Faura, in Malate, quite near to Intramuros. It's a real bookshop, with an eccentric owner - the very distinguished novelist F Sionil Jose - and it specialises in Filipiniana and Philipine History in English.

If you happen to be C of E, and have nothing to do on a Sunday morning, try going to church at the Anglican Holy Trinity Church in Forbes Park. Seriously. You will meet a lot of rather nice English and American people who are long term residents of the Philippines, and more Filipinos than you might be expecting. And you get to see Forbes Park..

I wonder if he and Johnnie Johnson have met?

[CBM]

I wonder if he and Johnnie Johnson have met?

More than likely.

I know that Frankie Jose is a close friend of the British writer James Hamilton Patterson, ("Ghosts of Manila", "America's Boy" etc) whom I also know slightly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hamilton-Paterson

I'd incidentally recommend both those books to anyone wanting to understand the Philippines better.