Introduction:
Flying to Manila, the capital city of Philippines, I was unsure of the things I would encounter. I did not get much time to research anything about the country so I am going to feel lost, but that’s the whole idea.
I had never seen so many Filipinos at a given time, but then I had just arrived at the busy Manila airport, what else did I expect? “Enjoy your stay in our country!”, the lady at the immigration desk wished me as she handed back my stamped passport. Baggage collection was a bit messy since I did not know where my belt was and the indicators didn’t seem to work. Manila airport is large and can get confusing at times. I was looking outside through the glass walls and I couldn’t wait to get out.
Generally, there are few things about Philippines that Indians know, possibly because there haven’t been many historical exchanges. However I do know that the country’s name is often mis-pronounced as फिलीपाईन्स while the actual pronunciation is फिलीपीन्स. I also remembered reading a BBC survey back in 2006 – of the 32 countries surveyed, Philippines was the country that disliked India the most. I don’t know why.
Manila city
A street near my hostel.
I stepped outside the airport and got a whiff of humid-salty sea breeze. It was quite windy, sunny and fresh, resulting into an immediate broad smile on my face despite the 22 hour long flight. I immediately located the taxi driver that my hostel had sent – a young guy who spoke only Tagalog (the national language of Philippines) and Spanish. The ride from the airport to the city center was great. Roads were broad, wide and the traffic was chaotic – how real!
Some place that was famous for electronics stuff.
The only thing I planned in advance was my accommodation – a cheap hostel but located in prime downtown. It was quite clean and I was assigned to a male dorm room with 4 other guys, but maybe they were out touring. I set down my stuff and crashed on the bed within minutes only to be woken up an hour later by some loud honking sounds from the street. I peeped from my window, it was some kind of traffic jam with buses, cars, tricycles, bicycles and people.
A downtown street.
Since I woke up it was prudent to go out for a walk. It was early evening and I guess people were hurrying back home. The area seemed very European to me for some reason, probably the effect of Spanish colonization. There was a huge shopping mall nearby and I like to visit shopping malls because they tell you a lot about a country’s contemporary urban culture. Most of the things were made in China, and you can pretty much get them anywhere in the world, so I didn’t buy anything except a coffee. I also booked a city tour for tomorrow, since that would be an ideal way to explore the city given my time and research limitations.
I was also surprised by the strong presence of religion (Christianity) and people really like to wear it on their sleeve – many people wore a necklace with a cross. There were many young people in the malls too, sort of a hangout place. I liked the overall sense of fashion, it was very colorful, funky and non-conformist. For some reason everyone loved dark sunglasses. Wearing sandals or flipflops is not among my greatest taste, but given the heat I guess it’s essential.
Mall of Asia is the second largest shopping mall in Philippines
After walking around for a couple of hours, I returned to my hostel for an early night. The hostel owner prepared some soup (complimentary!) and that was exactly what I needed. I had it with some pieces of bread. The hostel had a good communal area where you could meet fellow travelers and exchange stories. I heard great things about the beaches and its a pity I didn’t have enough time to go there.
Sinigang na baboy: Pork-Tamarind soup with lots of Tofu
So that was my day 1 of 2 in Manila, pretty relaxed and enjoyable. Did you know that approximately 10% of the country’s population works abroad? Amazing! Oh I learnt how to say Yes (Opo) and No (Hindi) in Tagalog. I have a city tour tomorrow and I depart the country tomorrow after the tour. I am excited about touring the city.
Photo Credits: Stefan dangelle1 express000
Disclaimer: I haven’t been to Philippines so I don’t know anything about the country first hand. All the social commentaries are based on information, stereotypes and hypothetical situations.
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This is incredibly creative stuff…hats off!
Thanks Mahendra, its Anil’s idea, I like it too!
Come and visit Malaysia instead!
I will I will, someday.!
Funny that Filipinos disliked India the most, I wonder why. The relationship seems so distant.
Ah, we must word that carefully. India is disliked the most by Filipinos among the 32 countries in the survey. We don’t know if Filipinos dislike India the most – there might be other countries they dislike more. Tricky interpretation, eh?
This is lame, but maybe there is a psychological reason? The word ‘Hindi’ means ‘No’ in Tagalog, does that give a negative connotation to India? I don’t know.
Also, India is an economic competitor to Philippines in several areas, call centers is probably the biggest one. But I am curious to know the reasons too!
Competition could be it and call centers are a very important part of the Philippine economy.
Btw, ‘Hindi’ means ‘turkey’ (the bird) in Turkish, so there is a turkey in Turkey
Haha, yes I have heard of that.
Turkey the bird is called Indian chicken in many languages. The irony is that the bird is actually a native of North America, so calling it ‘Indian’ makes more sense than calling it Turkey.! I also read somewhere that the Portuguese call it ‘Peru’ while the Malaysians call it ‘Dutch chicken’… lol how chaotic! btw, do you know why the bird is called Turkey in English?
Indian chicken, but American Indian chicken?
haha, I guess the word ‘turkey’ is just the name of another country in every other language!
Not sure why turkey is called what it is in English??
well.. I don’t think we Filipinos disliked India.. maybe some would dislike some Indians as they do with probably other race but not specific to Indians… so I guess it’s unfair to generalize Filipinos to dislike Indians, actually there are a lot of Indian people living in the country, some even had families with locals…
The connotation on that may come due to most Filipinos prefer caucasians that Asians or non-whites as many Filipinos like the idea of meeting a first world citizen..
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the comment and welcome to my blog!
I am in complete opposition to generalizing too, but I was simply quoting from that specific survey. I’m sure there are good and bad opinions as you said.
Wow..cool. You on official visit?
LOL, Oh comeon Ajeya, you did not read my post, did you?
Its about imaginary travel!
This is very unique!
Thanks Amit!
Heh! This is certainly creative. Good way to prepare for a trip, I guess.
Yeah atleast it gives something to dream about.
Sort of reminds me of Total Recall. Seen that movie?
Yes, Arnold goes to Mars or something,… but what reminds you of that movie?
Hahaha. This is hilarious. Not that I dislike India, but there are stereotypes that Filipinos have regarding India and Indians. I am surprised that even here in Buffalo, Filipino students carry these and I hear about them all the time (given the fact that there is a significant Indian student population here).
One of these stereotypes are aimed at children. One can see Indian loansharks walking the streets of Manila, and mothers tell their children to behave, otherwise the “Bumbay” (aka turban-wearing Indian-looking guy) will kidnap them (pronounced as BOOM-BYE, note the alarming similarity with “Bombay”). In fact, the mothers scare their children into behaving, because see that huge turban? That’s where they hide infants who do not behave!
Another stereotype has something to do with body odor. It seems that Filipinos think that it is a given that Indians have strong body odor. Again, here’s the “amoy-Bumbay” (Bombay scent) which Filipinos detest. Add to that the apparent obsession of Filipinos when it comes to taking a bath, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and another one before going to bed. If the country is that humid, then I suppose that makes a little sense.
Finally, I hate to admit, but “Indian” is a verb in Tagalog. If you hear someone telling you that somebody “Indian-ed” him/her, that means that that somebody stood him up. The verb “to Indian” means that you do not keep an appointment.
Ah, a little correction is needed. Tagalog, as much as I want it to be, is not the national language, if I remember correctly, but Filipino. In essence, they are the same, but Filipino is more inclusive, since Tagalog primarily pertains to the language (and the people) that inhabit the area around the capital city.
Oh, and bicycles? I would bet you wouldn’t find them at all in the city. Given the traffic situation, nobody would even dare to ride their bicycles or else they might be run over.
And that is the first time I saw somebody prepare sinigang na baboy with tofu. Eeeewwwww! Usually, it has, aside from the pre-requisite pork and tamarind, it has Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, radish, and some other vegetables, like okra or string beans.
All in all, I think it was a good approximation, I’ll give it 89% out of 100%.
Thanks LIW, that was a comprehensive analysis.
Very interesting information about stereotypes. I personally do think that more showers wouldn’t hurt
, but our water supply systems are nicely mismanaged. As I said to Anil above, the negative connotation of the word ‘hindi’ might have a psychological effect. Are you refering to the same word or is there another word called ‘indian’? 
I hope not! Also it sounds like Indians are what the Jews of pre-Hitler Europe were. Loan sharks on streets of Manila? I thought this was history. Are proper channels of financing (banks, etc) still inaccessible to poor people?
Oh and I didn’t know Tagalog and Filipino were different languages! Look I am so wiser now!
Finally, 89% is not bad considering the adventurous social observations I rambled about!
I have never associated the word “Hindi” (no) with “Hindi” (the language, and my guess is that most Filipinos don’t even know that that is a name of a language in India. The fact is, they are spelled the same, but pronounced differently, with the word for “no” being pronounced more like [heen-de], with the second syllable rhyming with the first syllable of “enter”, followed by a glottal stop (where you close your vocal folds abruptly, as in the British pronunciation of “bottle”).
And yes, the exact word “indian” (pronounced [INN-john] not [INN-dee-uhn] is a verb in colloquial Tagalog/Filipino, meaning to break an appointment. Here’s a conjugation series.
nangindian “(past)”
nangiindian “(present)”
mangiindian “(future)”
inindian “(past passive)”
iniindian “(present passive)”
iindianin “(future passive)”
nangiindian-indian “(habitual)”
pinag-indianan “(locative past)”
As you can see, Tagalog/Filipino makes good use of reduplication. And speaking of Tagalog/Filipino, as a linguist, I believe that they are just the same language, and being a speaker of the language, I do not consider myself speaking a different language if it is Tagalog or Filipino. It’s all a matter of political correctness and nomenclature. Other people, namely politicians and language planners, on the other hand, think that they are different.
Finally, I never understood the loan shark thing. I have memories of seeing them, but we never made use of their services. They always have a motorcycle whenever they are around, and yes, they always wear turbans. I think physical accessibility to financial institutions is not the issue, but more of a cultural/social one. Literacy isn’t a big thing yet, so established urban financial institutions can be intimidating to the rural folk, and to those that don’t have enough cultural capital to be confident in these things.
Thanks for the explanation Jeruen! I see that language is used as a tool for political gains in several countries (including Canada)!
As a Filipino, I agree to what Linguist in Waiting is saaying. Any Filipino who will deny this is a hypocrite.
There’s this song by a comedian called DJ Bumbay. Most Filipinos find it funny though even I’m not Indian I find it disgusting as it is culurally insensitive. But the song sums up the Filipino stereotype. If you’re curious, search for “DJ Bumbay” in youtube but be prepared to be offended. It is really offensive.
Isn’t it odd that despite the obvious Indian inluence in the native culture, most Filipinos are so cluless about India. I guess, for the past centuries Filipinos have been preoccupied by fascination for Europeans…now it’s the fascination for Korean pop culture.
BTW, there’s also this stereotype in the Philippines that Indians drive scooters/motorcycles and are notorious money-lenders, locally known as “five six”
In addition to that I think most Filipinos assume that every south Asian is “Indian”. So, the Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Nepalese all become “Indian”. I think it’s because of physcal imilar appearance. Just like how many Filipinos lump whites to being “American”
Hi Camille,
Thanks so much for the comments! I checked the video but didnot understand anything because the lyrics were not in English. I’m trying to find a translation or ask a Filipino friend, probably the Lingust.
This is a lovely idea Priyank! Sapnomein Philippines ki sair
yes indeed!
Great post and info again. have you ever been to China, I would really love a tour on China from you? If you haven’t been, is there any chance in the future?
Hi Bob, unfortunately I haven’t been to China yet. So I am banking on you for the tour!
Very very creative!! I dream of visiting numerous plans and plan trips in my head, but you put it down on paper.
Wonderful!
I once saw a presentation about Manila’s transportation plan and I have to say that traffic is worse than bad…especially at peak times. Downtown was very developed, much more than any Indian downtown, but the rest of the country is quite poor.
Glad you liked it!
I’ve heard stories of stark contrasts and rich-poor divide in the Philippines too…
[...] been to but the other has to compare our perceptions and expectations with reality. You can read his first 24 hours in Manila and later this month he’ll dissect my trip to St. Petersburg. Here is Part 2 of my imaginary [...]
[...] to, but the other has, and compare our perceptions and expectations with reality. You can read his first 24 hours in Manila and later this month he’ll dissect my trip to St. Petersburg. Here is Part 1 of my imaginary [...]
[...] Read my previous post: WOW Philippines Part 1/2 [...]
I too echo the same..this is very creative, mabrouk!
Now for part 2.
Shukran!
[...] did this with Final Transit a few weeks back. I wrote an imaginary trip to St. Petersburg and he wrote one on Manila (we split them up in 2 parts). The following week we wrote posts comparing the others’ [...]
[...] did this with Final Transit a few weeks back. I wrote an imaginary trip to St. Petersburg and he wrote one on Manila (we split them up in 2 parts). The following week we wrote posts comparing the others’ [...]