Welcome to Manila Philippines

Welcome to Manila, Philippines! Our travel luck continues, and everything from the flight to the rideshare to our condo went smoothly. As we descended into the city of Manila you could really see just how massive and crowded it is. Manila is the world’s most densely populated city with roughly 111,000 people per square mile. To put that in perspective the city of Denver, Colorado has about 3,900 people per square mile. This place is crowded!

Through Manila’s Streets

The drive to our condo took almost an hour even though we are only about 9 miles from the airport. The traffic here is horrendous! As we drove through the city of Manila, the signs of poverty were evident and hard to see. The stark economic inequality within this country is easily spotted. 57% of households occupy multifamily homes, so high rises are everywhere. However, a huge number of people (roughly 4.5 million) are homeless or live in informal settlements. These are cobbled together from plywood, corrugated tin, bamboo, and salvaged materials.

The streets are packed with vehicles and motorcycles in what appears to be complete chaos.  Alexis commented that this feels like the exact opposite of our neighborhood in Colorado, and quickly followed up with “I love it!”. This country feels like it has so much life in it! We are not going to the typical tourist areas of the Philippines. Although the Philippines is a group of islands, we likely will never visit the beach here. After beach destinations in Costa Rica and Guam (with more to come later this year), we wanted the Philippines to offer something different.

Our New Home Away From Home

The condo where we are staying is in a massive complex. There are 22 identical buildings that are 17 stories high, with a total of over 19,000 units within the complex. In the center of all the buildings is a huge amenity park. There’s an open space, two basketball courts, a koi fish pond, and a playground and workout area. There’s a coffee shop and convenience store as well!

Our condo is on the 17th floor and in a word is TINY! We knew it would feel small compared to our spacious place in Guam, but we were grossly unprepared for the size or lack thereof. It’s a 2 bed/1bath condo that is 329 square feet. Dave can almost touch both walls when standing in the living room. When we first got here, we were all extremely shell shocked. We were going on about 3 hours of sleep from our early flight and everything felt overwhelming. The stress of travel and taking in the surroundings of a foreign country pushed us to our limits. We unpacked our stuff, got something to eat at the convenience store, and everyone took a nap. We all felt a little better when we woke up.

Finding the Positive

Although our condo is small, it has some unique features that are great. It has a loft bed that allows the kids to have nice separated sleeping spaces. There is ambient lighting throughout the condo that Dave loves. It has a washer/dryer combo that saves space. If I had to hang our laundry to dry around this little condo I might really lose my mind. It’s tiny, but cozy!

What I imagine will quickly become our favorite part of this condo, is the outdoor space! They have extremely festive Christmas decorations and Braxton has already found kids to play with. Within 10 minutes of us being outside he was engrossed in a soccer game and made plans to play again the next day.

New Foods and Extremely Friendly Locals

There is a food bazaar that happens within the condo complex every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9am – 10pm. We didn’t know what that meant exactly but were excited to check it out. There was mostly food stalls, but a few jewelry and clothing stands as well. After talking to a few people, it appears to be locals that live in the complex selling food they make. The people were unbelievably friendly! Everyone we have encountered has spoken at least broken English, so communicating has been a non-issue.

One woman asked where we were from and was so excited to hear that we had only been in the Philippines for less than a day. She quickly asked if we wanted to try her Puto Bumbong. When I asked what that was, she smiled and said “Will you please try?” You could see her pride in sharing this traditional dish with us. Puto Bumbong is a Filipino dessert made of purple rice cake steamed in bamboo tubes, and is traditionally sold during the Christmas season. The rice cakes are served atop a banana leaf, generously slathered with butter and topped with a mix of freshly-grated coconut and cheese. The kids weren’t fans but Dave and I devoured it!

We decided to get dinner here as well. We got a couple pizzas to share (the sauce was weirdly sweet), as well as another local dish called Isaw (pronounced ee-saw). This is a very popular street food in the Philippines. It’s chicken intestines that are cleaned several times, then boiled and grilled on sticks. The kids had had enough adventure for the day and chose not to try it. Dave and I agreed that it tasted pretty good, but we couldn’t quite get past the thought of what we were eating. I have no plans to try this again.

Making Connections and Finding Our Footing

We enjoyed chatting with some of the other vendors and I exchanged numbers with someone who used to live in California. She offered to help with any questions we may have, and I’ve already asked her several things. The Filipinos we meet seem overwhelmingly friendly and receptive to us. We definitely do stand out here, so I’m glad that’s the case. The lady from California said she knew right away we weren’t from here, and thought maybe we were German.

Right now this country feels overwhelming, but I keep reminding myself we can do hard things. The kids have had great attitudes and I’m so proud of them! We will slowly start to explore this city, but for now we are going to squish together in our tiny condo and enjoy the open space outside our complex.