Philippines is now growing (especially its economy, but also to a lesser extent in population) fast. Economic growth is six to seven per cent. This compares to Thailand, where the economy is in recession (albeit from a larger base).
Manila is safe if you stick to Makati, Fort Bonifacio Global City (Taguig), Ortigas Center, Ermita/ Malate, Greenhills, Pasay, the new Entertainment City, Quezon City, and much of Paranaque and Mandaluyong. In short, most of the large metropolis. Try to carry small money as it makes it easier with the taxi drivers. If you don't like the first taxi driver, get out and swap to another. It isn't like major Australian cities where taxis can be rare beasts in the suburbs. In Manila (as with much of Asia) taxis are ubiquitous.
Carrying a map of your hotel is helpful as some taxi drivers lack good knowledge of every suburb (or city/ barangay as they're called there).
There are a few major hotels starting to be built. One hotspot is in Fort Bonifacio, which is arranged in a grid of streets like Melbourne and Adelaide. Parts of Makati are more beautiful than any Australian capital city's inner CBD (Greenbelt has to be seen to be believed: a terrific mix of restaurants and shopping, with a Catholic chapel and ponds in the middle, with plenty of greenery as the name suggests).
No one has mentioned how easy it is to escape to one of the beautiful Visayan or Mindanoan islands for a couple of days. There are several airlines competing for business, and good flight frequencies on many routes. There's also a ferry company called 2Go, along with smaller ones such as TransAsia (that one around Cebu) that are usually well run. Avoid longer ferry trips between June and early December, particularly ex or to Manila as that's the typhoon season.
MOA would be one of the well worshiped ones.
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