By Manila time both Scott and I were running out of steam. I kept making plans for the last few days that involved getting out of town, finally realizing there were plenty of small adventures to pursue right there near our hotel after two months of Doing a Lot of Stuff! My favorite jaunt was to Chinatown, not sure why, maybe the weird sweets! Manila’s a tough city in many ways, and it’s difficult to find its heart; the old colonial area being somewhat bedraggled. It’s also a city of malls. Gigantic malls. Upscale malls. Regular people malls. Manila represents everything good, bad, and indifferent that centuries of Spanish rule (much of it managed by Catholic priests), then United States colonization (managed by the military and the capitalists), with a short Japanese interruption, can do to a country comprised of thousands of remote islands, and, in some ways overlooked by the major powers of Asia. But here it is. A Manila photo album. The last stop of my first big trip of 2025. The other big trips of 2025 being Grand Rapids, Minnesota and Austin, Texas. And Durango. But 2026, different story. Out of travel words now.