Quote Originally Posted by Englishman2010 View Post
After seeing Malaysia, it made me realise just how dity and poluted the Phil's is. Don't get me wrong, I love the Phil's, but it really struck me this time at just how little pride the people take in keeping their country clean. Everywhere is full of litter, people peeing in shop doorways, sleeping rough, pimps touts and pushers trying to sell viagra, sun glasses and hookers and everybody basically out to rip you off for as much as they can. I don't look at other places with rose tinted specs and realise that every country has its bad parts, but walking around Manila I realised it has some stunning colonial architecture and great road infrastructure and with a bit of pride and money spending on it, it really could be one of the worlds great cities and deserve its name of the Pearl of the Orient. They've cleaned Makati up and it really is like a mini Singapore or HK so why can't they clean Manila up?

Great write up - I've only been to peninsular Malaysia (10 plus years ago) and always thought it was a bit mucky/tatty - sounds like they've got their act together