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Manila - safety

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  1. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by GlennBond:
    LOL! Agree. In the eleven years I lived there I hardly ever ate Filipino food. I don’t like it. Their diet is one of the worst diets I have ever seen people eat. It’s mostly fried food, food with lots of mayo!, and Pork! Talk about bad walking cases of cholesterol! No wonder I kept seeing all these Filipinos walking around with strokes! There are even TV commercials I saw where they show an entire happy Filipino family sitting around a big bowl of mayo with each family member dipping a veggie or whatever into the vast bowl of mayo and eating it! With huge smiles on their faces! I just ate Italian, American, etc.
    Not what most would eat at home. Lots of pork but also chicken. LOTS of veg (it is cheap). Of course insane amounts of rice. A jar of mayo is a few hours wages for most. Think adobo and lots of similar dishes. Lots of soups, stews. One pan cooking. I would say it is healthier than typical UK, US food. Not including Jollibee of course
    Kowloon Goon likes this.

  2. #22

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    Gross things too. Like pigs blood over rice. Pigs intestine with rice, lots of fat in almost everything. Their diet is not the most nutritious. What you describe is rare. I hardly ever saw that. The street food had all this greasy this and greasy that. Reused grease over and over again. You would hardly ever ever see any restaurants that serve nothing but healthy. No way.

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  3. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Plutark:
    When it comes to the Philippines it's better not to listen to locals. Even Wanchai is a war zone for them. I remember first I said I was going to the Philippines my colleagues were like, wow it's so dangerous why you go there.
    Like most developing countries just don't be stupid and flash your valuables. Other than that Manila is a nice place, some cool stuff to do there but traffic is bad. It is getting better. Makati is super safe and has many nice restaurant ( in the green belt mall).
    My landlady once told me Chungking mansions is a dangerous place

  4. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by Plutark:
    When it comes to the Philippines it's better not to listen to locals. Even Wanchai is a war zone for them. I remember first I said I was going to the Philippines my colleagues were like, wow it's so dangerous why you go there.
    Like most developing countries just don't be stupid and flash your valuables. Other than that Manila is a nice place, some cool stuff to do there but traffic is bad. It is getting better. Makati is super safe and has many nice restaurant ( in the green belt mall).
    Locals are scarred by the ex-police officer who took a bus load of HK tourists hostage a few years back.

    I went there not long after and everyone was telling me it was unsafe. I asked if they realised it was just one psychopath, a one-off incident?!

    but yeah, similar advice to the others. I had no problems there. Same as with other development urban cities, stay in tourist and/or well lit areas.

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by GlennBond:
    Gross things too. Like pigs blood over rice. Pigs intestine with rice, lots of fat in almost everything. Their diet is not the most nutritious. What you describe is rare. I hardly ever saw that. The street food had all this greasy this and greasy that. Reused grease over and over again. You would hardly ever ever see any restaurants that serve nothing but healthy. No way.
    Well every house I've been to and that's a lot so not rare at all. Yes pigs intestines in pigs blood. I would imagine that is nutritious. My kids love it. You can't equate street food with what people normally at home. People in the UK don't live on fish and chips.

    Today I had fresh strawberries straight from the mountains, fresh mango, pork and watercress soup, dinner will be chicken stew.

  6. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by UK/HKboy:
    Locals are scarred by the ex-police officer who took a bus load of HK tourists hostage a few years back.

    I went there not long after and everyone was telling me it was unsafe. I asked if they realised it was just one psychopath, a one-off incident?!

    but yeah, similar advice to the others. I had no problems there. Same as with other development urban cities, stay in tourist and/or well lit areas.
    I completely forgot about that. That's what, 10 years ago? Are people still scared of that one incidence?

    I once had to accompany a girl into a Chungking Mansion to check out a store on ground or 1st floor because she didn't want to go in there alone by herself. I think some locals just live very sheltered lives, travel abroad only in groups, unused to being confronted by strangers on the street, and tends to freak themselves out when that person has a darker skin tone.
    HK_Katherine likes this.

  7. #27

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    funny nobody mentioned this yet, but i would not take a public taxi from manila airport. i would always arrange a limousine from the hotel you stay at.


  8. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by cookie09:
    funny nobody mentioned this yet, but i would not take a public taxi from manila airport. i would always arrange a limousine from the hotel you stay at.
    Probably not mentioned because it's TERRIBLE advice. Seriously. The yellow cabs are regulated and cost approx 1/10 the price of a hotel car. Or less.

  9. #29

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    I was there in Manila when that happened. The stupid so called inexperienced SWAT type team stormed the bus in a very unplanned way. It literally looked like a bunch of “Keystone cops” had done the job.
    One of the men had a sledge hammer and was banging on the metal outside the bus! Like Duh!!!! How is that supposed to stop the guy?! You’re going to scare him into surrendering by doing that?! Their equipment looked like it was dated back in the 1970’s! No wonder it got so screwed up. I didn’t blame the Chinese at all for getting so angry at the Filipinos. The general atmosphere in Manila and everywhere is that it’s laid back. Things move slow there. Always been that way.


  10. #30

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    Don’t ever try to walk into an elevator inside Chungking Mansions. When it’s almost full. You should be good at holding your breathe for the duration of your ride! Hopefully you won’t have to travel far.