so i'm sitting here at a 7-eleven because the wifi is better than my hostel and i need to process what the actual hell just happened to me in the last 48 hours. december 24th, 2020. christmas eve in manila. i had maybe 2000 pesos left in my account which is like forty bucks and i was like "surely enough to survive two days in the capital right?" wrong. absolutely wrong. but also somehow right in ways i didn't expect.

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Q: Is this place worth visiting?
A: yes but only if you adjust expectations. manila isn't a pretty city, it's a real city. the chaos is the point. if you want pristine beaches go somewhere else. if you want to feel alive in a way that hurts, stay here.

Q: Is it expensive?
A: you can survive on 500 pesos a day if you eat local. jeepney rides are 8 pesos. street food is 20-50. hostels are 300-600. alcohol is cheap. everything else depends on your self control.

Q: Who would hate it here?
A: people who need order. people who need silence. people who think travel should look like a magazine. manila is loud, it's dirty, it's overwhelming. if you need calm, run.

Q: Best time to visit?
A: honestly december was fine. it's hot as hell (like 30 degrees but feels like 34 because humidity is 66%) but the christmas vibe is insane. everyone is outside. everything is lit up. just bring water everywhere.

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okay so quick context: i'm a budget student. i came here because flights were cheap and i had a friend who said "manila is underrated" and i trusted them which is either brave or stupid. the weather data said it was gonna be around 30 degrees and honestly that's what i expected because it's the philippines, it's always hot. what i didn't expect was the humidity hitting different when you're actually walking in it. my shirt was soaked within ten minutes of leaving the airport. i kept checking my phone and it said feels like 34 and i thought that was dramatic but my body agreed.

i landed at naia and immediately got scammed by a taxi driver who charged me 300 pesos to makati which is like... probably should have been 150. a local at the hostel later told me "never agree on a price, always ask for the meter" and i was like cool thanks for the tip AFTER i already got robbed. that's travel i guess. you learn by losing money.

the hostel i stayed at was in malate and it was 400 pesos a night which is like eight dollars and honestly the beds were fine, the ac worked, the wifi was decent. i met this guy from canada who had been here for three weeks and he told me "the trick is to eat where locals eat" and i thought that was obvious advice but then i actually did it and he was right. i found this little carinderia near the beach where i got rice and sinangag and some kind of pork for 35 pesos and it was better than any restaurant i went to that cost ten times more.

*the food situation is actually insane here. you can eat for under 100 pesos everywhere if you want to. the street food scene is wild - there's this thing called isaw which is chicken intestines on a stick and i was skeptical but i tried it and honestly? not bad. the texture is... chewy. but the flavor is good. i also had balut which is a fertilized duck egg and that was more of an experience than a meal. i cracked it open and there was a partially formed duck inside and i was like "okay i respect the cultural experience" and ate it in one bite. didn't die. still alive. would i do it again? probably not but i did it once and that's what matters.

one thing nobody told me about manila: it's actually multiple cities fused together. there's makati which is the business district where everything is shiny and expensive and then there's intramuros which is the old spanish walled city and it's like stepping back in time and then there's manila bay which has this sunset walk that everyone goes to and i thought it would be touristy and annoying but honestly the sunset was so good i forgave all the vendors trying to sell me stuff.

this one random filipino guy sitting next to me on the seawall told me "we don't have much but we have sunset every day" and i thought that was the most poetic thing anyone said to me the whole trip

i went to intramuros on christmas eve morning and it was surprisingly empty which was nice. i walked around the fort and read about the spanish colonial period and i was being a total history nerd about it but also i was alone so nobody could judge me. there's this museum inside where they have old maps and artifacts and i spent like an hour there which is more time than most people probably spend but i was genuinely interested. the guide told me about the battle of manila in 1945 and how the city was basically destroyed and rebuilt and i kept thinking about that while walking around - this whole place is built on top of so much stuff that happened.

the christmas decorations were everywhere. like, everywhere. even in the middle of poverty there's christmas lights and giant lanterns called parol and i asked someone about it and they said "christmas is the biggest thing here, it's like our national identity" and i thought that was really beautiful honestly. even when things are hard, people still make it festive. i saw a jeepney completely decked out with christmas ornaments and i wanted to take a picture but i didn't want to be that tourist so i just stared at it longingly.

speaking of jeepneys - i took one for the first time on my second day and i was so confused. you just get in and sit and then someone comes around collecting money and you tell them where you're going and they tell you how much and you pay. there's no system. it's chaos. but it's also only 8 pesos so i can't complain. i went from malate to binondo which is the chinatown area and i had the best dumplings of my life at this tiny place that didn't have a name. i don't even know what it was called. i just followed a line of people and pointed at what they were ordering. 10/10 would recommend this method.

the safety thing is complicated. i read a lot of stuff online before coming that said manila is dangerous and i was nervous but honestly i felt fine most of the time. i stayed in tourist areas, i didn't go out at night alone much, i kept my phone in my pocket not in my hand. a local told me "just use common sense, it's like any big city" and that felt accurate. i saw police everywhere and there were checkpoints sometimes but nobody bothered me. i did get approached by a few people trying to sell me stuff but that's just... being a tourist anywhere.

i met this girl at the hostel who was a freelance photographer and she had been here for a month and she told me the best thing to do is "just walk and get lost" and i thought that was annoying advice but then i did it and i found this random church in the middle of nowhere that had the most incredible architecture and no other tourists there. i sat inside for like twenty minutes just looking at the ceiling and thinking about stuff. it was the most peaceful moment of the whole trip.

the heat is no joke. i checked the weather app constantly because i kept being like "is it really 30 degrees? it feels like 34" and it turns out the "feels like" was accurate. the humidity makes everything worse. i was sweating constantly. i bought a fan from a convenience store and carried it around like my life depended on it. i drank so much water. i peed so little because i was sweating it all out. i lost like two pounds in water weight which is probably not healthy but i felt kind of accomplished? anyway.

on christmas day i went to the beach at manila bay and it was... not a great beach. the water was brown. there was trash. but there were also families having picnics and kids playing and old people doing tai chi and it felt very alive in a way that didn't match the actual quality of the beach. i think that's manila in a nutshell: it's not pretty but it's real.

i ran out of money on my second to last day and had to ask my mom to transfer me some which was embarrassing but she said "at least you're having an adventure" and i was like "mom i am eating street food and sweating to death, this is not the adventure i promised you." but also it kind of was.

if you're thinking about coming here, come with low expectations and an open mind. the city will surprise you in ways you don't expect. the food will be better than you think. the heat will be worse than you think. the people will be nicer than you think. i met so many random locals who helped me with directions or recommended food or just talked to me about random stuff. one guy walked me to the jeepney stop when i looked lost and i thought he was gonna scam me but he just wanted to help. i felt so bad for assuming.

i found out later that the number i was given at the beginning (1694403) was apparently some kind of reference number for my hostel booking and the other number (1608832412) was apparently the unix timestamp for when i booked the flight which is december 24 2020 and honestly that tracks because i remember booking it at 2am being like "yes i will go to manila for christmas, very spontaneous, very cool" and then regretting it for about 12 hours until i landed and the humidity hit me and i was like "okay this is happening."

the tourist vs local divide is real but permeable. if you stay in makati and eat at malls, you'll have a very different experience than if you go to Quiapo and eat at carinderias and take jeepneys. i tried to do both and i think that made it better. the malls are air conditioned and safe and clean and the street food is chaotic and cheap and delicious. you need both.

i left on december 26th and i was exhausted and broke and my clothes were stained with sweat and various food items and i had gained nothing except maybe some intestinal bacteria and a slight tan. but i also had this weird feeling in my chest that i couldn't explain. i think manila gets under your skin in a way you don't expect. it's not beautiful. it's not easy. but it's real. and sometimes that's enough.

i'll probably go back someday. maybe. probably. definitely.

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links for anyone who cares:*

- tripadvisor has some good hostel reviews: https://www.tripadvisor.com
- yelp helped me find the chinatown dumplings: https://www.yelp.com
- reddit threads about manila on a budget: https://www.reddit.com
- this one blog post that actually helped me prepare: https://www.nomadicmatt.com
- filipino food guide that i wish i found earlier: https://www.lovefood.com
- intramuros official site for history stuff: https://intramuros.gov.ph

Christmas Eve in Manila Broke My Brain (In a Good Way)

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