Certainly there's an enormous difference between virtuality and reality. That was my case when I knew that I was going to be in Manila. I started to look for information about this city on many travel blogs, so I found a lot of facts about what to expect from that city: heavy traffic, crowded streets, in general, I had a impression that it was a chaotic place! So I arrived to Manila on January 24th, I took a flight from Dubai and I was totally jetlagged because I came from the another side of the world: Brazil. My first impression about that place, yes it was very crowded, reminded me about my online search. My friend Diego and I took a cab on Grab, that's the most popular app in the Philippines and maybe in Asia. We waited outside the terminal and we had the same feeling: Welcome to hectic Manila. There were people and cabs everywhere! As we looked foreigners, many taxi drivers tried to "make a deal" with us in order to take us to our hotel, but we had already asked for a Grab. The area where we stayed was Makati, I didn't know that it was the most touristic area; therefore, the most expensive neighborhood in Manila. The driver told us that Manny Pacquiao, the most successful Filipino boxer of all times, lived near Makati... So, it was going to cost an arm and a leg! The hotel was perfect: nice and clean rooms and there was a coffee shop ( we love coffee) just next to it! So we couldn't be happier with this gift. As I already mentioned, we were jetlagged, that's why we went to bed without hesitation. The next day, we decided to visit the most popular flea markets in Manila. Diego had already an address about a traditional place in Manila, so I asked the receptionist if there were other places near the hotel... She recommended us many chic malls, but we wanted to visit local street markets. When she found out that we had already decided to go to that local place, her reaction was very notorious and she warned me that there were many pickpockets... My inside reaction was "she doesn't know that we came from South America. The place were pickpocketing was invented". So we tooked our Grab and went to Quiapo Market. On our way, the driver also insisted on being careful as we might be robbed. Again, I told him that we came from South America. Yes, it was like those pictures about Thailand that you see on the internet: street vendors and crowds all over the place! A hint that we noticed was about the language, as locals don't speak English, but Tagalog. Then we were kind of trapped in that jungle, we realized that almost everyone on the street looked at us, but we continued to tour the market. We found traditional food and drink, we tried chicken adobo and halo-halo. It was delicious! After a few hours, we felt tired again, it was the jet lag. For this reason, we decided to go back to our hotel. We slept like five hours more... Then, around 8 p.m we were totally awake and ready for the night! We wanted to walk some blocks away from our place, since it looked like a different neighborhood at night. We saw a lot of tourists on streets, they were drinking, dancing and, of course, trying to make a deal with prostitutes, some of them were Trans. By the way, transgenders are kind of icons in Manila. On the main street, there were lots of bars and nightclubs. These places offer a lot of "recreational" activities for tourists. While I was walking, I realized that Diego had been taken as a hostage inside of a nightclub. So he needed to be rescued! That place was full of tourists and the ladies were classified by their Asian country, we just took a look and left because we were not in the mood for that kind of party. Two blocks away, there was a free concert with Filipino rock bands. We decided to stay and enjoy the music. What we didn't expect at all is that those bands invited someone from the public to sing with them. Even more incredible: some minutes later, they were singing the most popular songs in Spanish. We felt like at home in that moment because everyone noticed that we chanted all lyrics! The following day, Diego decided to look for a traditional food place from his country: Colombia. Our surprise was enormous when we realized that there was a Colombian restaurant near our hotel. Then we decided to have a typical lunch from Diego's land. He was totally amazed by the variety of food that the restaurant offered. Ten minutes later, he was talking to the manager and instantly they became friends. Colombians are like that: very supportive! The manager recommended us a lot of Latino places that we should visit before our departure. One of them was a store that sells products from Latin America. Imagine to find your preferred candy or beer in Manila!!! Finally, after the tour in Manila it was time to go back to our routine. All these sudden coincidences made me realize that no matter where you are, you'll always find a way to feel at home. It was interesting to find out that because of the Spanish influence in the Philippines, many people's and street names were similar to ours. After all, we may say that Manila is such a welcoming city that invites you to discover and feel the warmth not only of its weather, but its wonderful people.