Beauty right under my nose

I could not have imagined taking this trip 7yrs or even a year ago.

With Apo feeding this idea over coffee with Isabel 2 weeks ago, I started to get excited. Learning 3 days before the adventure that a date was finally set got me greatly excited.

So after much SMS-ing I finally met up with my newfound Travbuds Isabel and Apo after church school. I got up that morning funnily humming the local song in my head by the former Smoky Mountain group "Anak ng Pasig naman kayo, tapon doon, tapon dito (You are children of Pasig, throwing trash here and there)"

Glad that we decided to take an afternoon cruise since the weather was cooperative all throughout, cloudy yet just cool and clear enough to enjoy the breeze and take great pictures!

Thanks to Isabel's resourcefulness, we were able to locate the nearest ferry stop and reach it an hour before departure time.
As soon as we paid the cab, all 3 of us dashed off taking pictures around the area. Nope we weren't excited nor prepared for this trip at all.

Getting bored after finding out we were an hour early, we kept ourselves busy with chatting, singing to the local tunes played at the waiting area (go Apo!) and convincing Isabel to grab food at the nearest drugstore.

Taking off the port, none of us of course stayed inside the boat.

Being artistic people I would not be surprised to see the same shots in our cameras, with having the resolution being the only difference.

The ride was totally exhilarating. I LOVE water and boat rides! As Apo said, everything seemed surreal. It was a river I've been passing thru all my life and never even explored till now. I could not even begin to explain the beauty that was just right under my nose all this time. It was a river that I found even more beautiful than the ones I saw in Saigon and definitely a less developed version of the one in Singapore.

Sadly, the boat was less than half full on a weekend. A foreign looking family and a bunch of bored looking locals of sorts. I'd understand why you would take it for granted if you took it everyday, but the idea seemed uber cool to me, ' cept if it would be high noon. It was definitely a breezier way to avoid the heavy land traffic.

Left and right were the visible factories, culprits of the river's pollution.

With slum areas lining the rivershore and residents waving back or getting embarassed at us viewing and taking pictures of them.
Growing up I've seen these slums demolished and rebuilt over and over again, it's a cruel story.

Seeing all the Manila bridges from a different perspective as I passed them below was definitely eye opening.

Figuring out where we were at and where the land structures we knew were situated was fun.

A few minutes away from the Malacañang palace (the residence of our President) everyone was asked to go back inside the boat and forbidden to take pictures lest we get into trouble with the coast guards. We tried our best to sneak a shot but with all staff guarding the few passengers, the effort was futile. I've never even seen the palace till now!

You can also view the various old schools and universities such as the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Feati University and St. Jude Christian High School.

The two dissappointments though were, there was no tour guide for this trip, hence we ended up pestering the crew from time to time, and, the poor Intramuros ferry station was without electricity due to legalities.

At the end of the trip, having decided to get off at the last stop which was the Intramuros station, we explored yet another neglected but beautiful side of this walled city. With the drizzle starting Apo and I were pleased to find a Starbucks shop right around the corner, the places that you could find them in. They're really like mushrooms here in Manila but this was the branch that I adored, with the shop built into the city's concave structure, it was a nice fusion of old and new.

The day ended with Apo deserting us for a dinner date and Isabel and I enjoying another ferry ride back to Guadalupe, this time clicking away and taking in the night lights of the city.

Funny that when you continue to travel outside of the country, the more you appreciate what you were blessed with initially.

I would definitely recommend taking this 55 min trip whether you're a local or not, for a mere Php 45 (Guadalupe to Intramuros station) you can enjoy the metro from a different light.