"The Bubble"
When discussing the three most popular SE Asia cities on RVF Bangkok, Jakarta, and Manila there are some major differences in how each city is set up.
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Bangkok is surprisingly nice to most people on their first trip. Other than the power lines that feel like they are about to fall on your head at any minute the city is comparatively clean and safe to other SE Asian cities (excluding Singapore). I have been all over BKK driving my sweet ride Honda Scoopi
Never did I feel like I was in an area that was unsafe or that I was threatened. Dirty and smelly at times but not unsafe.
You can live and hangout almost anywhere in Bangkok as a farang. This is unique to Bangkok. Not all cities in this area are like that.
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Jakarta has pockets of really nice areas surrounded by poverty. Traffic is always going to be the #1 complaint about this city. But #2 is that everything is located far apart. You have some really nice areas with malls, hotels, bars, clubs, and restaurants but then it is a long ways away from the next nice area. With the traffic it can take ages to get there. So you have to decide early on where you are going to hang out.
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"The Bubble"
Manila is unique in how it is set up. You will often hear people call Manila a shit hole. Dirty, Smelly, surrounded by poverty and very unsafe. Well that is sort of true. The vast majority of Manila is not that nice and extreme poverty is much more obvious compared with BKK. Parts are certainly unsafe for foreigners to be hanging out. But not if you live in the bubble.
Makati and Fort Bonifacio sit right next to each other with the EDSA highway splitting them. If you live within these two cities (Fort Bonifacio was declared by the courts very recently to be a part of Makati and not Taguig so really it is one city) you will have a whole other reality when living here. It can feel as nice as a city in North America at times. Skyscrapers, malls, wide boulevards lined with palm trees,and Parks give it a true cosmopolitan feel.
It is though someone has taken all the wealth of Manila and put it all only in this area. Many foreigners will spend 90% of their time here. It provides you with a level of comfort. Most of the best hotels, condos, restaurants, malls, clubs, and bars are located in the bubble. So most foreigners never leave it.
Problems with the bubble...
-It is the most expensive area.
-The most foreigners so you are not unique.
-Can keep you from experiencing some of the real realities most filipinos face.
I would suggest anyone starting out in Manila to stay in the bubble. It is the easy thing to do. Then as you get experience you can move elsewhere if you want. There are plenty of places in Manila that are safe and worth checking out that are outside of the bubble. Don't let it keep you from exploring the city as I have met a couple expats that almost never leave the bubble.
I live in Fort Bonifacio well within the bubble and it was the right decision for me.