I spent most of my childhood in our old school and neighbourhood and so my impressions of Manila going into the final leg of our trip to Manila were a lot different than what I actually saw.
In Manila, you see the very best and the very worst. The very best being some of the most amazing homes and neighbourhoods where the wealthy lived and the very worst, which makes Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods feel like luxury.
Andrew and I thought that the slums (above) were the worst, but my mom told me during our dinner last night that the slums weren't even the worst. There's an area called Smokey Mountain (aka the mountainous garbage dumps in Central Manila), where the poorest of the poor lived off the garbage. My mom said that when she used to organize school outreach to this area after the devastating typhoons, some families would happily tell her that they loved the typhoon, because it meant that people brought them food donations aftwards. Sobering, isn't it?
Thanks to my uncle's family, Andrew and I got to experience some of "new" Manila, including beautiful malls filled with great stores and restaurants.
The one that made the biggest impression on me was the Green Belt area, which we visited on Saturday night. The area is best described as Toronto's Yorkville area, but much bigger and better. Green Belt has an amazing balance of luxury and chic, while remaining accessible enough to attract much of Manila's young people, tourists and ex pats. A newly built mall in the area was impressive. It makes Toronto malls seem so lame.
And just let me emphasize that the shopping in Manila is great!
No comments:
Post a Comment