Manila, the Capital of the Philippines with over 14 million people. Its blend of fascinating colonial history and the thrilling pace of a modern city. But I’m here to speak about the unspoken Manila, only the things you will here from the locals themselves, the things that travel influencers fail to mention. We spent a total of 6 days in Manila. Here is the raw unspoken truth!
Yes, there is poverty and crime in every country but safety is what’s most important when traveling especially when this will be the first place you see as its the main starter point to your travels and the heart of the Philippines.
We arrived on our first day and stayed in the area of Makati at St Giles Hotel which is recommended by a lot of travel influencers. We needed cash and food so we headed to the nearest 7 Eleven, immediately we were approached by children in dirty cloths, no shoes begging for money, across the road were women selling themselves. This did not make me feel unsafe but it made me weary about my surroundings.
So as a vlogger we take our cameras everywhere and that’s what we did to start of with, as we through it would be the same like when we travelled Thailand and Vietnam. We managed to capture part of the day where we were venturing out to a very big market, one the locals call crazy, officially know as Divasoria. Its normal for people to stare when there is a camera but when many people start to tell you to put the camera away, not because they don’t want to be filmed but because they are more scared that you will get robbed, that’s the point where you know its not a safe place.
So we listened and packed the camera away and went on about our day where we were told by many other shop keepers to wear our bags at the front to prevent someone from stealing our money as the crime rate was very high due to it being the festive season.
If you know anything about the Philippines you will know that they are the most friendly people you will ever meet. Always willing to help you and the security guards are simply the most polite people you will encounter. We decided to move hotel because there were a lot of women coming into the hotel with multiple different men and simply did not want to be in that environment. So we were now staying at the Privato Hotel which was a 10 minute drive, so we were still in Makati but this part seemed more rural.
We were also a 10 minute walk from the Metro and we decided to get the train home as there were no Grabs available, as we waited in the train station we were approached by a man telling us to be careful traveling around as it could be dangerous. He decided to sit with us and make sure we got of at the right stop. At this point I did not feel safe getting off the train late in the evening knowing there are many homeless people under the metro and was warned that there are a lot of robbery’s happening.
I must say getting grabs and taxis I felt safe but even then the taxi driver will make sure to drop us at the safer part of the malls where there is security and at one point gave us their number incase we had any trouble.
Manila is a city that I had mixed feelings about. The people, culture and the respect they have is very welcoming. I just wasn’t expecting to see the amount of poverty I did and that was heart-breaking, especially how many children were begging for food. I did what I could for some but its impossible to help everyone.
Compared to other Southeast-Asian cities this was the least safe I’ve felt to take my camera out and vlog or be out at night. Although I must say that we didn’t encounter any real danger, just nice people willing to help us find our destinations. As a female I felt safe having someone to travel with, if I was solo traveling I would probably just use Manila as a stopover before heading to the islands. That being said it is not the case for the entire Philippines or the north part of Manila as a lot of locals advised us to visit the north next time we are back.
