The walk from Intramuros to Binondo should take about forty minutes. It took me two hours, because of one wrong turn and one very good lumpia.
You start inside the old walls, where the streets are quiet and the stones are warm by nine. You cross a bridge, and the city changes its mind about what it is: from garrison to shopfronts, from silence to noise.
The wrong turn
I took a left where I should have taken a right. The lane I found was barely wide enough for two people. A tailor worked in a doorway. A man repaired an umbrella with the patience of a surgeon. Above us, a laundry line carried a row of school uniforms across the lane like bunting.
I got lost for ten minutes and have thought about those ten minutes more than the rest of the day.
Arriving
Binondo announces itself with smell first: frying, steaming, roasting, all at once. The streets are narrow and full, and the best advice is to pick a stall with a line and join it. I did. The lumpia was worth the whole walk.
If you go
Wear shoes you can walk in, drink water and carry a map you do not trust too much. The wrong turn is optional, but I recommend it.