Greta report.
We have a good idea re Thailand, but can you fill us in regarding Philippines?
Ease of entry - I gather easier than Thailand - plus the overall airport experience inbound, how busy you found Metro Manila, did you see lots of closed restaurants like in Bangkok, which hotel and how the experience was, and did you travel to any other Filipino cities or provinces?
It appears in Philippines that the local governments away from Manila (bless their bureaucratic hearts) have imposed some additional entry requirements. What I don't know is if these are being enforced.
Did you see other (obvious) tourists in Philippines or was it 'dead' like you suggested popular Thai localities were?
Philippines is interesting. I've been there twice this year so far, and back again in 4 weeks. My first trip (at the time of this post), things were quiet and still felt restricted in Manila, but out of Manila things were fairly normal. On my last trip, 4 weeks ago, things had loosened up, but still 100% masks everywhere in Manila, in the provinces, far less common.
I travelled a lot across Mindanao and Luzon and the only issues I had was that in some places in Mindanao they expected me to have an app to show vaccination etc, but the app doesn't work for internationals, so that caused some delays getting in to the odd restaurant, but rare. Certainly no issue in Manila or greater Luzon.