Your random fan of books, art, kpop, and anime. I’m not that active here anymore, though I now review books on my downtime while making art in between. Still in a book coma, but I answer questions in my niche when I come around here.
Born and raised in The Philippines, here are some things some first time travelers here really need to adjust to.
Traffic is immensely worse as it sounds. If you plan to tour within the capital, or around metro manila, never expect to get anywhere in time if you don’t leave in advance.
We are most likely to be late. Yes, traffic sucks, but don’t expect many filipinos to come on time either. Most of my fellow countryman would give you valid reasons why they are late, from heavy traffic, to not getting onto public transportation sooner, to even having some home chores done first before heading out. When you set the time to meet up with a filipino, we have this term “Filipino Time” which means, set the meet up time an hour or two advance if you don’t want to be end up waiting for a long while.
Yes, we have so many nice natural tourist destinations, but I bet you that not many Filipinos have explored the whole country yet. At most, we only visited 5–10 out of the hundreds of islands and cities you’d google up on our country.
When in Manila, there is literally a 7/Eleven store at every corner street.
There is security bag checks whenever you enter a mall.
Yes, we are world-known for being nice, friendly and hospitable but don’t leave your stuff alone when eating in a restaurant or have your phone out when riding a jeepney or walking down busy sidewalks. Philippines isn’t 100% crime free, there are phone snatchers and thieves in the capital so be street smart.
We don’t actually use the term “Mabuhay” when greeting each other in public. Just say hello or hi like a normal person.
That’s all I remember so far, I will just add more when I remember something.
