It was my second time to attend the annual photowalk held throughout the whole world by Scott Kelby.

Last year, I joined up with photographers from the Camanava area, shooting the streets and port of Navotas.  I was hoping to trek the Makiling Mountain this year, but since the walk for Makiling did not materialize, I decided to join on another walk instead. I was not able to get a slot for the Philippine National Railway walk and was almost unable to get on the Pasig leg of the photowalk, snagging the last slot of the fifty allowed per location.

The meeting place was held at the Pasig Museum, 6:00am sharp. Pasig City is no way near our place in Malabon; I have to take a pedicab, a jeepney, a bus, a train, and finally another jeepney ride to reach the place. I estimated the travel time to be about one and a half hour at least.

Imagine my panic when I woke up on the day of the walk at exactly 5:15am.

Five minutes to take a shower, another five to get dressed, and a final five to prep up my camera, lenses and tripod. I raced down our street and hailed the first cab that passed down the road. I never knew that the travel time from Malabon to Pasig could take less than half an hour. I arrived at the museum with a few minutes to spare.

I signed up for a route, grabbed a McDonald’s hamburger and was ready to go.
 
First stop was the Immaculate Conception Cathedral or the Pasig Simbahan as the locals refer to it. The church was built in 1573 and is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pasig. Unfortunately, it was closed that time and we had to resort to shooting the kids and people across its yard instead.

We headed next to the Pasig Public Catholic Cemetery which was just a few meters from the cathedral. There were some really nice mausoleums in the area. Unfortunately the time we spent there was a bit short and we have to move on to our next itinerary, the Pasig City Hall.
To get there, we passed an elevated covered walkway similar to those found at the Ayala business district. It was really nice and convenient for the pedestrians as it snakes through the main thoroughfare of the city.

Our cameras found an army of policemen at the massive City Hall having their daily workouts and a crying child off its side. After filling our memory cards with images of police officers it was again time to move on. 

Next on the list was the Pasig Public Market and I was not prepared for it. Having only five minutes to gather my gear, I forgot to pack up my flash and prime lens for low light photography. I ended up bumping my ISO to high heavens just to get a decent shot of all the fruits, fishes and wares being sold inside. Since the walk fell on a Saturday, the place was filled with to the rafters with marketgoers which made it doubly hard for us.

Across the market is Pasig’s abandoned Rotating Restaurant, which was supposed to be our next destination; unfortunately the place was locked off and the keyholder was nowhere to be found. The lower portion of the building now serves as the market’s admin office, while the upper tower remains abandoned.

The sun was already high up when we reached our final shoot location, the park at the back of Pasig City Hall. The place looks nice with ponds, bridges and greeneries. There were hardly any shades to be found to protect us from the blistering heat though. After a few photos we finally called it a day and went back to the museum for lunch the final meeting.

Half a day was definitely not enough to tour Pasig, what I got from the walk though was some sort of a cross section of the city’s central part, heck I didn’t even get to see the Pasig river.  I look forward to having a more thorough exploration of the city someday.