As the plane began its descent through the partially clouded sky over Manila, it was fascinating to watch scores of tiny green islands down below in the West Pacific Ocean. My first-ever visit to any archipelago, I knew the Philippines, with over 7,000 islands, would be quite an absorbing place to visit.

The country had recently braved a severe typhoon, named Haiyan, which killed as many as 6,000 people. I was visiting Manila as a development worker to provide some support in the relief operations.

Manila International Airport is not huge but it was not congested at the time I landed. It was decently decorated in the run-up to Christmas and New Year. I could feel festivity in the air and it was, indeed, a pleasant distraction for the people of the Philippines from the recent tragic events that had triggered massive relief and rehabilitation operations in the country.

On my way to the hotel, I did not find it easy to differentiate Manila from other urban centres of the world -- as tall buildings, concrete structures, traffic and a little disorganised city sprawl characterises the city. It is a mix of up and low-scale localities. Main roads were relatively clean.

Pleasantly, communication is not a problem as people speak and understand English reasonably well. My taxi-driver knew the language enough to put his thoughts across. This is unlike Bangkok, Thailand where communication is a big issue. Perhaps, because Filipino and English are official languages in the country.

Manila City is the capital of the Philippines and is part of Metro Manila (or Metropolitan Manila), a metropolis of 15 cities besides the City of Manila. There are as many as 12 metropolitan areas in the country. Metro Manila has over 12 million inhabitants out of the 100 million that reside in the country.

The first and only opportunity that most of my colleagues and I got to explore Manila out of our busy work routine was on the Christmas day when not many were working. We had heard a lot about the Walled City or the Old City in Manila, so we did not take long to decide on visiting the place. We hired taxis which were not in bad condition but we soon realised they did not represent the state of the transport in Manila. The local transport in general was not in good shape and looked ramshackle.

A small bus-cum-jeep call ‘Jeepney’ attracted our attention. It was used as a means of public transport. Its front resembled a jeep whereas the rest of the body looked like a small bus. It is said to have evolved from the jeeps that were left behind by the US military after the World War II. As much as we wanted to board this transport, we could not, due to lack of time.

The Walled City, also called ‘Intramuros’ which in Spanish literally means ‘inside the wall’, was not far from our hotel. We could see an old but solid long wall separating two parts of the city -- a kind of a meeting point where the old meets the modern.

The wall was built in the 16th century during the time when the Spanish had colonised this part of the world. Its purpose was to defend the city against foreign invaders.

We walked for a couple of hours through the area and along the wall. The old architecture was strikingly reminiscent of the colonisation days and hardly had any similarity with the world that existed on the other side of the wall. The authorities had done well to preserve this impressive heritage which, as we witnessed, brings a lot of tourism to the city.

While still within Intramuros, we saw another example of beautiful Spanish architecture in San Agustin Church. There was quite a lot of hustle in the compound of the church as people were out celebrating Christmas. The banner splashed across one of the walls of the church pointed toward the arrival of the first missionaries in the Philippines some 450 years ago. This 16th century church -- the oldest in Philippines -- survived many battles in the history of the city, particularly the Battle of Manila in 1945 fought between the US, Philippine, and Japanese forces that devastated the city; resulting eventually in the Japanese occupation of the city.

It also houses the graves of some Spanish Conquistadors (conquerors), such as Legaspi and Salcedo. It was no surprise then why we came across Legaspi and Salcedo streets in Manila. We also saw Spanish-inspired horse-drawn carriages called Calesa, available for tourists who wanted a quicker tour of the Intramuros. The carriages were beautiful, not different from the tonga in South Asia, so we did not show any interest in taking a ride.

Manila Bay is another spot that is indeed a natural beauty if we compare it with various other bays around the world. This harbour serves as the port of Manila and is important for trade and commerce of the country.

Irrespective of its strategic importance for the Philippines, it provides a lot of recreation opportunities for tourists and locals alike. They enjoy the blue waters while walking along the coast or having delicious food in a peaceful environment while watching ships and ferries in the distance.

We ended up in a restaurant called Harbour View which was almost packed to capacity. It had an extended ramp over part of the bay waters where food was served. The ramp had a roof while the sides had large windows providing an excellent view of the bay.

There were plenty of food options but mostly centered on seafood. I am sure others enjoyed their food too but I really enjoyed my sumptuous baked salmon for lunch with fresh pineapple juice to boot.

While working in Manila, our evenings were relatively free. We would go out for shopping and dinner. We were based in Makati city in Metro Manila which is one of the key financial centres in the country. While it boasts the presence of a large number of key public and private offices and institutions, it also prides itself on medium-to-upscale big shopping malls.

Greenbelt represents a famous series of five shopping malls that offer diverse shopping opportunities. The malls were busy around Christmas and New Year time and, it seemed money was flowing for the Filipinos or other visitors.

Glorietta is another big shopping mall but I remember it more for food than anything else. It had a food court on one of its floors that offered a range of Japanese, Mongolian, Indian and local food varieties. Though, different varieties of seafood and chicken were most popular among the locals, South Asians stuck to their biryani and curry to feel at home. I was no exception.

The Philippines is a predominantly a Christian country with Christians constituting over 90 per cent of the population. This is quite evident in the presence of a large number of churches and cathedrals that dot Manila. Well-decorated and illuminated streets of the city for Christmas and attendance of people at various churches on the holy day was another manifestation of the religious drift in the lives of the Filipinos.

Muslims form around five per cent of the total population mostly in the southern region of the country, called Mindanao. Despite the presence of several mosques in Manila, we could not locate one our area. We ventured out one Friday and offered our prayers at the Indonesian Embassy. It was good to see so many people from different nationalities under one roof.

All in all, this relatively short but a memorable visit to Manila ended on a satisfying note. Not only did we contribute to alleviating the sufferings of the people affected by Typhoon Haiyan, we had an opportunity to make new friends and explore an interesting metropolis.