Many travelers would recommend skippingÂ
Manila when traveling to the Philippines, and head directly to the beach destinations. The city is known for being huge, crowded, chaotic, and probably also not very safe. But we decided to visit it anyways, since despite all the negative aspects, the capital cities are usually packed withÂ
history, culture, and most importantly: good food! :) Good morning everyone! Or better, good afternoon. We came to Manila, the Philippines, at night, we arrived at around 3 a.m. so we're still pretty tired. But we only have two days here in Manila, because tomorrow we'll fly to another place already, therefore, we want to give you the first impressions that we get of this enormous city of Manila, and you can already wait for 2 weeks of content of the Philippines! Very excited to be here, and now let's explore the city! So we wanted to get a SIM card at the 7-Eleven, that is right here, in our building. But they didn't have it, and also in the airport we couldn't get one. So now we're trying it in a... mini market that sells also rice! I like the feeling when you come to a new city, you always feel a little bit dumb, don't know what to do. The light rail system of Manila worked surprisingly well, it was fast, cheap, and convenient, we just loved it. But the road traffic was another story, it was chaotic as expected, especially near the Quinta market, where pedestrians could walk faster than the cars stuck in the congested streets. Coming from Kuala Lumpur, I would say Manila was definitely a small culture shock to us. The vibes here are very different from Malaysia, and somehow, it felt much more like a Latin American country. We had some nice street food in Chinatown, fried spring rolls, and fried buns, that was yummy! Then we explored a bit the city at night. It was very interesting to see the Spanish Colonial legacies here thousands of kilometers away from Spain. It never ceases to amaze me how Spain, nowadays is known for its siesta, sangria, and churros, with an super relaxed Mediterranean attitude of life of "just do it, tomorrow" Once managed to build such a massive maritime empire. we arrived yesterday very late at night, now we're in Manila, and I feel like we just travel around the world again, and we are back in South America, where both Lee and I lived for quite a long time. So yeah, it was a pretty big culture shock. Now we're going to go for dinner, so let's see how Filipino food is! Pretty nice! So this is our first dinner here in the Philippines, and we really always try to see if we can find really good local food, also here in the Philippines. Now Lee found this very nice little restaurant, with a garden. And we have ordered now a bulalo, which looks like a soup. Then we have one soup with coconut milk, and then we ordered an eggplant salad. I have no idea, I have never tried neither of these before, but I'm really excited to try it, and you know what is funny? They have brought us chili and lime. Again, it reminds you a little bit of? Mexico! So the Philippines and Mexico have been exchanging goods, food, culture, and people, since a long time ago. Thanks to the Manila - Acapulco Galleon trade, which was a very profitable shipping route of the Spanish Empire. Those two territories have been historically very well connected. The Philippines was governed by the Vice Royalty of New Spain, which was based in Mexico City, and not in Spain, which makes the Philippines much more connected to Mexico, than to Spain itself. I'm really doing it correctly here, eh? It looks very nice! She said we should only use a little bit of this, because it's shrimp paste, and it's very, very salty! Very easy taste, no crazy flavours, that's super nice! Comfort food! It's a bit spicy, very nice because of the coconut milk, it has a little bit of a Thai flavour. That one is really nice! It's really nice, lots of vegetables! And with the shrimp paste, it has a lot of flavour. I have to say, the food is really delicious, really nice! I'm surprised! Before coming to the Philippines, we heard that the country is ruled by big fast food chains, and it's not easy to find local good Filipino food on the streets, or in restaurants. This might be due to the Colonial history, and that the local food is staying at home, with the families. Therefore, there might be the impression for lots of tourists, that the Filipino food is not as good, but we were lucky, and we found this amazing restaurant. So we totally recommend it! Good morning from Manila! We have now two more people in our team, here! Hello! We're going to be traveling together for the next two weeks, almost. And... So yesterday we already went to see Manila on our own, but now we're going to go to Intramuros, which is the historic part, and the very Spanish part of Manila. Rizal Park is located right outside of the city walls, named after the Filipino national hero JosĂ© Rizal, who was executed in this place in 1896. He played a crucial role in establishing a Filipino national identity, and its fight for independence Intramuros literally means "within the walls" in Spanish. During the times of the Spanish empire, it was the entire city of Manila. Most of the walled city was destroyed during the World War II, but they were reconstructed afterwards. With one exception which is the Church of San AugustĂn, which has survived the battle of Manila intact, and it's still the oldest standing Church of the Philippines. Now we are in Makati city, which is the expat area, or the most fancy area of Manila, where you can find lots of nice restaurants, and cafĂ©s, and parks. And I think we understand why most of the tourists choose to have their accommodation here, and most of expats live in this area. But see for yourself! Okay, we're now in Makati City still, and as you can see, we're in the middle of a park, and it's called Green Belt, the whole complex of this buildings here is called Green Belt, and it's a complex of shopping centers, so it's pretty nice in here, and it's very, very calm, thanks to having the shopping centers around, and no traffic, no scooters, no tricycles are in here. So it's nice to walk around a little bit. Our stay here in Manila was short, but we enjoyed it a lot. The food was amazing, and the city is full of history and contrasts. From the chaos of the Quinta Market to the modernity and luxury of Makati City. It was definitely worth to come here, and it was a nice first touch with this amazing country. In the next episode, we'll bring you with us to one of the most visited places of the Philippines. Can you guess where it will be? Stay tuned, and thanks a lot for watching. See you next week! And if you liked our video, please subscribe to our channel, that will help us more than you know! :)
