Upon arriving at chaotic Manila, even the most seasoned travellers might not be able to avoid some shock, while those without experience with Asian cities would probably wish to escape from Manila after spending the first five minutes there.
Manila is the kingdom of cars, buses and jeepneys with the population of 14 million. Manila is chaotic, noisy, corrupted and violent. When in Manila, you are choked by the heat, humidity, traffic jams and smog. Manila is not a pedestrian-friendly city. You can start hating Manila immediately upon your arrival and leave, or take a deep breath, stay a few days and try to discover what's in it for you. Chances are that after you get familiar with the city, you will not want to leave so quickly. Under the rough surface, Manila is hiding a few travellers' gems, such as pleasant colonial streets and buildings, peaceful parks, colourful markets, modern shopping malls, good restaurants, various types of bars, boisterous nightlife and wonderful people. We were very surprised by the latter as people in big cities usually tend to be cold and keep to themselves. Not in Manila though, where we were continuously approached by the locals, asking if we need help. A word of caution: while some of these people genuinely wanted to help, there were others who just wanted to scam us or extract money from us in one way or another. Do not fully trust anyone in Manila, do not let them take you anywhere, watch your belongings, do not disclose where you are staying etc. Manila is not an innocent city.
Depending on your experience with big cities, looking at the map of Manila gives you a mild to severe headache. Manila is not big, it is enormous. To make your life easier, imagine Manila as a bunch of separate towns and neighbourhoods, such as Malate, Makati, Intramuros, Quiapo, Quezon City etc. There are not many important tourist attractions in Manila, but they are far away from each other and travelling in Manila, owing to continuous traffic jams, takes a very long time. It is best to limit your exploration of Manila to one small part of Manila a day.
Intramuros is the oldest part of Manila with the cathedral, fort Santiago and many old colonial buildings.
Quiapo and Chinatown are some of the most exotic, chaotic and noisy parts of Manila, which in fact makes them very interesting.
Malate, a former centre of modern Manila which is rather neglected today, is becoming increasingly chaotic too. Malate is located by Manila Bay. It is nice to have a stroll along the shore at sunset, albeit the busy road running parallel to it. Malate has a great choice of restaurants, good nightlife and a few nice hotels too.
Makati is the most modern part of Manila with glass and steel skyscrapers housing banks, international corporations and luxury hotels. Makati is also an area of Manila with the greatest concentration of luxury shopping malls and nightlife. Makati hotels are more expensive than hotels elsewhere in Manila, but their quality is on a higher level too. Additionally, the streets of Makati are (almost) orderly, thus Makati is certainly the most pleasant part of Manila.