Part 2
Food:
People in the past have said the food here sucks, but I strongly disagree. I think there are a lot of great places to eat in Metro Manila, including fine dining restaurants. Anyhow,
here's a list of my favorite places to eat. I should also add that the Korean food here is excellent, the Philippines is probably the best place for Korean food outside of Korea due to all the Koreans here.
I know Alex disagrees with this but imo the late-night delivery options here (and delivery in general) are excellent. I can think of ~8 places that deliver 24/7 and that's like ~8 more places than I had back home.
I'd say my biggest gripe with the food here is that there's no decent pizza. Then again, I am from NYC and have been spoiled by excellent pizza all my life.
Other than that, I've been able to find everything that I want: burgers, steaks, sushi, Korean food, Chinese, Vietnamese, degustation, etc. As an added bonus, there are tropical fruits here that are hard to get back in the US: lychee, rambutan, custard apple, and my personal favorite..
Mangosteen
English:
I'd say, in all of Manila, about
:
~95% speak and understand beginner English
~50% speak and understand intermediate English
~15% speak and understand advanced English
More or less depending on the area. English is taught from elementary school through college, and while the level of English here is nothing like in America, it's definitely higher than every other country in Asia (I would put money on it too). This should be a given but sometimes it's necessary to "baby talk" (use simple words and speak slowly), which after a while is a breeze.
Tagalog:
The main language in Manila. Not necessary to learn due to Filipinos being able to speak English but I've learned a bit and I can say it's been worth it. It's helped me in every way, from getting discounts to getting girls. I would 100% recommend learning at least the very basics for anyone who plans to live here. For English speakers it's very easy to read and write since it uses the roman alphabet, and a lot of English words are used in Tagalog.
Slightly off topic, there are some English phrases that Filipinos use that I find amusing. For example, the term "nosebleed" describes when someone is having difficulty with something, usually with English.
"Pogi points" is another one that I like.
Girls:
Probably my favorite part about living here. I like Asians almost exclusively and basically everyone is Asian here.
To get straight to the point, since I've been here, I've been with more girls than I could have imagined. I haven't counted exactly how many but I would have to imagine it's approaching 100, although many (probably around 30-40) I paid for their companionship and not all have been here in the Philippines. With a couple of exceptions, it's been awesome so far.
Slightly off topic again, I think the best looking girls here are the ones who have or look like they have mixed blood (half Filipino mixed with Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, etc.)
Some examples of I'm talking about
:
Filipino but I would guess she has some Spanish blood in her.
1/2 Filipino, 1/4 Korean, 1/4 Chinese = hawt imo.
Anyhow, pretty tired of writing. Part 3 to come soon.