I have visited Manila,the capital city of the Philippines, some four times and I like the city very much.. More specifically I like the Filipinos who are warm and friendly,very hospitable and have a thoroughly infectious love of life. They have been described as the Latin Americans of South East Asia and certainly they are markedly different from Cambodians, Malays,Thais,Vietnamese or Indonesians.
Night life is certainly alive and well in Manila and it is comparatively cheap;much cheaper,for example,than Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong. Whatever the economic and political problems you cannot easily dim the Filipinos exuberance for life.
The favorite beer in town in San Miguel which is owned by a company based in the Philippines. Makati is a sophisticated district and here you
will find the stamping ground of the very well-heeled,rich,Fillipinos. Roxas Boulevard-the Orchard Road of Manila-is another very lively area,full of plush hotels,nightclubs, and good eateries.
A hot dance spot is reputed to be Beck's Bar at the Hotel Grand Boulevard; the hotel hosted the Playboy Club in the 1970's and has long enjoyed a good reputation for night life.Other districts famed for entertainment include the Ermita and Malate area of old Manila.
Of course Manila has its seedy areas with sex shows,low class bars and pick up joints and the income gap between rich and poor in this city is very wide.The booming red light district in Ermita was reputedly ''cleaned up'' in the early 90's but there are still some raunchy bars around.
Food wise I do not rank Manila as highly as I do Delhi,
Singapore,Kuala Lumpur,Bangkok or Hong Kong. The local dishes are rather bland,there is a lack of really fiery or spicy dishes, and the fast food is generally mediocre.
Having spent 500 years under the Spanish and a further 50 years as a US colony,not surprisingly there are a number of bodegas specializing in Spanish cuisine as well as US style fast food haunts.Manila also has some good Cuban-style eateries and gourmet coffee houses. There are also a number of French restaurants in town and seafood and cold beer is pretty good in the capital of the Philippines.
Some of the hotels have elegant,up market-style coffee houses and if you are prepared to pay you can get very good food in the Philippine capital. However, the middle range restaurants serving up very tasty food that are common in Singapore,KL, Bangkok or Hong Kong,are a bit thin on the ground.
Nominally the Fillipinos speak English,as well as the national language,Tagalog. There
is a high literacy rate of over 94% and a generally well educated population.However, be warned, they often have a rather strange accent-a sort of a cross between American and Spanish English.Sometimes too there is use of Taglish which is when English and Tagalog words are combined in the same sentence. Flamboyant expression also seems to be a distinct characteristic of this fun-loving people.
The artistic talents of the Filipinos are well known-not for nothing do a lot of the hotels in
Singapore,Kuala Lumpur,Penang and Hong Kong employ singers from the Philippines.Even Hollywood has
long recognized the local talent and Animation companies such as Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbara,
have a lot of stuff done by their subsidiaries in the Philippines.
If you have a social conscience there is still something a bit disturbing
about Manila. Whilst foreign visitors,especially those from the USA and Europe,will be regally welcomed and can have a whale of a time,it dosen't take long to realize there are a lot of poor people in this city.
The income differential between the rich and the poor is obscene.
That is why for me,Manila,is very much the city of contrasts.To be fair though there
are few more friendly and welcoming people than the citizens of Manila.!
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