Here are the week's highlights. For the day and a bit of Week 0, see here.

1. Joining the Chinatown food walk offered by Old Manila Walks. So worth doing. A little history, lots of atmosphere, and loads and loads of food. Fresh lumpia. Tsinoy fusion food (empanadas, pancit, deep-fried tofu). Lovingly crafted dumplings from northeastern China. Desserts (yellow steamed buns filled with salted duck egg custard, plus a tangy and refreshing mango tapioca). "Preserves" (ginger, salty plum, pork floss, pili nuts, and chicharon). And finally hopia (very reminiscent of Yogya's bakpia), with fillings of plain mung bean, purple sweet potato, coconut custard, and even pork floss.

















2. Observing changing neighbourhoods -- Escolta Street. The Escolta Street Museum, housed in the Calvo Building, is well worth seeing. Before the destruction of World War II, this was the West End of Manila, chock-a-block with theatres and department stores. It is a somewhat ghostly experience to see the photographs of former Miss Philippines entrants, and the confident advertising for consumer products. All blown away... Movie flyers and sheet music testify to post-war entertainment. But the guts had obviously gone out of the street. It's pretty tumbledown now. But efforts are under way to salvage some of its heritage and/or create something new.

















3. Observing changing neighbourhoods -- Quiapo. The Bahay Nakpit-Bautista is another example of change. This old house, built in 1914, is airy, simple, and elegant. Originally situated in what was a prosperous, uncluttered middle-class area, the house would have been swept by clean breezes, and backed by a limpid river. Now the breezes are blocked by the urban sprawl, and the river is trash-filled. But this was a "tahanan ng mga katipunero", or home of revolutionaries (in this case, of a whole family of politically involved and immensely talented artists, musicians, and writers). Maybe the urban poor now need a peaceful revolution of their own.













4. Walking. One of our favourite pastimes. You have to avoid the stinking, thundering big roads (and I must admit we missed all the stuff at the Quezon Memorial Circle, because we'd hated the traffic-impacted walk so much that we didn't press on far enough to find the pedestrian underpass). But it's pleasant to stroll the Scouts; and you can easily walk via food-filled streets to the Ali Mall and the tiny Sining Kamalig art gallery.















5. Eating. Another of our favourite pastimes. There have been new cakes, such as ensaymada (fluffy, sweet, and cheesy) and peanut sylvanas (chewy, crunchy, and creamy). We've done our first Jollibee of the trip. (I don't talk about Jollibee in my 2012 food run-down, but it featured in several road-trips, and so its appearance in our current neighbourhood was like that of a long-lost friend.) New were Greens Vegetarian Restaurant, which does great veggie sticks (vegetables wrapped in nori, dipped in batter, and deep fried) and wonderfully smoky grilled mushroom and tofu kebabs (featuring gluten that tasted just like barbecued beef), and Max's, a long-standing diner that serves (along with loads of other things) a very tasty chicken sisig ricebowl.