City of Contrast

For seven months I've been meaning to write a post about Manila being a city of contrasts, but I never knew quite how to say it. So I won't. I'll just share these videos with you.

The first video is of a typical "real" Manila neighborhood. This one happens to be close to my housing community, although my apartment is inside a wall with barbed wire and a serious guard gate.

 

This video is from a neighborhood called Rockwell, where wealthy people live, and where I can go grocery shopping without wanting to tear my hair out--most of the time.

 

In Manila, depending on where you live, your daily travels will take you in and out of neighborhoods just like these, and you get to see the extremes of the socioeconomic structure here. After seven months I am still struck by the differences.