Cities are filled with history. Whether it is a brief history, or one that spans thousands of years, the great thing about traveling is that history is revealed.  Manila is no exception.  Just as an older person has better stories to tell than a younger person, Manila has many stories and they are illustrated in the many historical sites of interest and in the museums that are located all throughout the town.  There are religious monuments and sites of historical and architectural importance and there are a few that should just not be missed when you head out for exploring from your hotel.  Manila, Philippines’ capital city is located on the east side of the Manila Bay. More here…

More than twenty million people, creating one of the most densely populated areas in the world, live and work in the city that is quickly becoming one of the central metropolitan hubs in the country.  Manila is currently ranked as the 11th largest of the world’s cities, and the 5th largest area in terms of population.  When you visit the city you will feel that energy.  One of the reasons for the economic growth is the proximity to a few other major Asian cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

Of the attractions, those of historical and entertainment value Rizal Park is located on the site where the hero of the country was executed.  The Spaniards charged José Rizal with subversive activities, and now in the park there is a statue place in his honor, surrounded by gardens and fountains.  The park is a beautiful place for contemplation, and for getting away from the crowds and the hustle and bustle of city life.  There are Japanese and Chinese gardens to walk through, as well as the Planetarium, the Butterfly Park, a small plaza for chess, the National Museum of the Philippines, an open air concert hall, and Manila Ocean Park…just to name a few.  In one park all the beauty and the history of not only the city can be found, but of the entire country.

There is a train from Bhuj that travels to Mumbai. It leaves at 8pm and arrives noon the next day. I been having pretty excellent luck with purchasing train tickets only a couple of days before departure. The train to Mumbai was the only ticket I bought well in advance, two weeks to be precise, so I didn’t have to travel down to the station in advance. I did have to keep checking my ticket on line though, there was a waiting list for a berth, I’m number three on the list. When I checked this morning I was number 88! India, I can’t figure it out.

I did manage to get a seat on a berth, which I felt pretty lucky to do so, or so I thought, it was a folding seat that was a back to back type of set-up, needless to say this leaves an uncomfortable bump. For the first few hours I was the only one occupying the two seater, so I decided to go to sleep in the upper seat, it was the more comfortable of the two, even though I wasn’t assigned it. About an hour later, the man to who the seat did belong to kicked me out. I moved myself to sleeping on the bumpy bottom berth. Around midnight, this woman came over to me and shook me awake. She had a train official with her who informed me the we were both R.A.C. tickets and would have to share the one berth! Naturally, I didn’t get any sleep for the whole twelve hour trip. All I could do was sit in my corner and listen to her snore like Darth Vader. For the first time of my journey, I realized that I’d be pretty privileged in my travels, I remember the multitude times where I’ve been served first, because I was a tourist, so this put me in my place and I managed to fall asleep for the rest of the trip.

When I arrived, I immediately checked into one of the luxury Mumbai hotels and hit the bed like a ton of bricks.

Graffiti Art.  Is it art or is it vandalism?  Cities have different views of this and in Melbourne the consideration for heritage protection of the murals in the city has created somewhat of a heated debate.  Two of the cities organizations, the Heritage Victoria and the National Trust of Australia are both in support of protecting the graffiti, but some of the Government’s council members, and a few curators of galleries downtown are against this protection.  This has been a debate for the last ten years.  When graffiti was becoming recognized as an art form in and of itself, the National Trust started to become involved and that was when the protection of the art was first introduced.

Many cities of the world have recognized it as public art.  The United States city of Chicago has been funding the Hubbard Street Mural Project since the 1970′s.  And not only that, but corporations located downtown in Loop, regularly commission artists for works on the sides of their buildings.  Differing from Melbourne, luxury hotel walls and the walls of many of the building throughout the city, a covered in murals.  The business owners have found that murals, graffiti art, tend to protect their buildings from the random forms of tagging and vandalism, as there is something about defiling a mural that keeps those people from doing that.  Bansky,the well known British graffiti artist is in support of the protection, stating that it gives regular people a voice in which to express themselves.

One of the curators of a gallery who against the protection is an artist as well, Andrew Mac.  Mac’s reasoning is that it is the nature of graffiti and murals to fade with time, that it is one of the characteristics of this form of art.  Other gallery curators may be against the protection because they cannot sell it, and some of the work is worth money now.  Banksy regularly has people chipping the walls where his work is, off the sides of the buildings and selling the pieces to art collectors.  Actress Angelina Jolie reportedly paid more than two hundred thousand pounds for a Banksy work that had been chipped from a wall.  The debate continues today, and neither side has come up with any answers, so for now, the murals are remaining on the walls in Melbourne, and are well worth taking walking tours in this outdoor, urban gallery.