Manila Metro Map

Travelling around Metro Manila is really a problem, much so if you're a foreign tourist. Unfortunately, there's not enough travel-friendly guides to help you (so far). Mid-Northern Manila ( along the main road, EDSA: from Makati to Quezon City) is pretty gentrified, seemingly not at all related with the areas, (Pasay City & Southern Manila), which unfortunately sorround the spots frequented by international tourists- Makati & Manila Bay area. A tourist billeted at Makati has to traverse  Pasay City to get to see Intramuros and the casinos at the bay area, and vice versa for those billeted at the budget zones of the bay area. For a tourist, that means seeing the "slums" & all that goes with the Third World myth- traffic, scattered garbage, grime, noise, pollution, street people, etc.  (They say the difference between Manila & Bangkok is that the latter knew how to hide its slums because all the action happen in its gentrified areas, while Manila has Pasay City as an ubiquitous obstacle course. Imagine if the action only happened within the Makati-Quezon City perimeter & Pasay City was constructed in Malabon instead, Manila might have had a better reputation).

Just for orientation: above is a segment of the map of the southern section of Metro Manila showing Makati, Pasay & the Manila Bay area. The most visited portion of Manila are Makati & the bay area but as you can see in the map, you have to traverse the undeveloped Pasay City in going to and fro from each area. The northern part, north of Makati up to Quezon City, unseen by tourists, is relatively gentrified.

Hope some of the things below will help a Manila visitor.

1. Taxi in Manila is relatively cheap so tourists immediately prefer to take it rather than any form of transport. That's where the nightmare begins, especially if they have to traverse congested roads outside the central business districts, as described above. So don't feel privileged by the cheap taxis. The MRT might be congested from Ayala in Makati to Taft in Pasay (on your way to Manila proper), but that means avoiding a stewing hour of bottleneck in some dirty congested street. Just take the taxi at Pasay Rotonda, then tell it to pass by Roxas Boulevard to reach Intramuros & the museum complexes, it will be less stressful. (Btw, the museums are actually awesome but mysteriously not mentioned in the guides).

2. Manila has an elevated skyway which has a direct outlet to the airport. If you're coming from Makati, tell the taxi to pass over the skyway to avoid the congestion below. You'll pay extra PHP20 but that is only 50 cents so go ahead, thank me for it- you just avoided an hour-long purgatory in some god-forsaken pit.

3. I found the metro map above in the web (no way of knowing who did it but thank you, whoever you are). It is a detailed map of the Manila commuter rail lines. If you have to cross Pasay City, the horror that greets & bids farewell to tourists because it fences the airport, use the elevated rail lines then just use taxi to move within the specific district of interest. You need them here, we are talking of a really gargantuan city.