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The small town of CALAMBA , built in Spanish colonial style, with a pleasant square in front of a town hall and a church, is at the end of the South Luzon Expressway, about an hour from the southern outskirts of Manila. Its main attraction - in fact its only attraction - is that it was the birthplace on 19 June 1861 of national hero Jose Rizal . The house he was born in is a typical nineteenth-century Philippine family home, with floors of narra wood and windows made from capiz shell. It has now been turned into a memorial and museum (Tues-Sun 8am-noon & 1-5pm; P20). Many of Rizal's old belongings are here, including the clothes he was christened in and a suit he wore as a young man. It's incredible to see from his clothes how diminutive he was: a little over five feet. To get to Calamba from Manila catch a BLTB bus in Pasay marked for Santa Cruz. From Batangas City some buses going back to Manila pass through Calamba. From Pagsanjan, Manila-bound buses take an hour to reach Calamba.
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