Overall, the capital region is really just several cities merged together. Manila is just one of them.

Even in the very center, poverty sits right next to luxury. Right alongside the fancy pedestrian historic streets with museums and temples, there are slums with kids hanging around with nothing to do and piles of clothes drying after washing.

I was shocked to learn that during World War II, Manila was basically completely bombed out. The scale of destruction was comparable to Berlin and Warsaw. During the battle for the city, over 100,000 civilians were killed. Largely because of the massacre committed by the Japanese.

Today it's a city of malls and security guards. You see both at every turn. And you often see more than one guard at a time, especially around money changers and other banks. They're usually pretty heavily armed too.