The Pasig River Esplanade Is a ₱32 Billion Bet That Free Space Still Matters
The Pasig River was declared biologically dead in the 1990s. Manila is now spending up to ₱32 billion to bring it back — here’s what that actually buys.
All posts filed under: Elsewhere
Elsewhere — travel stories based on actual, lived experience. Narrative essays anchored in a place and its socio-economic trade-offs, rather than a straight itinerary, paired with the Economist Traveler video series on YouTube, where the same trips get told again in a different medium. I call it Elsewhere instead of Travel on purpose — the point was never the packing list, it’s what the place is actually about.
Escolta Is Rotting on Purpose. Almost Nobody’s Fighting It.
The heat hits you first. Diesel smoke, damp concrete, and the low, heavy hum of a city moving too fast. Step off the LRT-1 — the Light Rail Transit Line 1, the elevated train that’s been cutting through this part of Manila since the 1980s — at Carriedo, and the crowd swallows you whole. This line alone moves several hundred thousand riders across the city every day, and a good chunk of them funnel through this exact station on their way to Quiapo, Divisoria, or Chinatown, none of them looking up at the old buildings, all of them chasing a clock. This used to be where the money lived. Decades ago, this stretch wasn’t just prosperous — it was the financial heart of the Philippines, nicknamed “the Wall Street of the Philippines” back when the Philippine National Bank ran its very first headquarters out of the Masonic Temple a few blocks down. But capital is restless, and the banks eventually packed up their vaults for the air-conditioned towers of Makati and BGC, leaving these blocks …
Cebu Pacific Is Raising Its Hand-Carry Limit to 10kg — And Filipino Travelers Have Been Waiting Years for This
Cebu Pacific’s hand-carry limit jumps from 7kg to 10kg on September 15 — after years of viral gate-side frustration, and pulling ahead of PAL and AirAsia on the one number budget travelers actually track.
Venice Grand Canal Is Manila’s Escape That Doesn’t Need a Passport
Venice Grand Canal in McKinley Hill gets loud on weekends. On a quiet weekday evening, it’s something closer to what it’s actually selling: an escape that doesn’t need a passport.
Arca South Used to Feed the Country. Now It Sells the Feeling of One.
Before it was Taguig’s newest Ayala mall, this 74-hectare estate was a Marcos-era food terminal built to stabilize prices for Filipino farmers. Here’s what replaced it.
Inside Parqal, Where Half the Visitors Are Trying to Leave the Country
Parqal in Aseana City was built as a five-star green mall meant to make people linger — but Building 5 houses a visa center, and not everyone there wants to stay.
BGC Is a Bubble. The Subway Might Be the First Crack.
Nearly every guide written about BGC uses the same word: bubble. A subway now under construction beneath it might be the first real crack.
Why Zambales’ Black Sand Beaches Are Worth Visiting Off-Season
Off-season Zambales trades Boracay-style white sand for black volcanic beaches — and a quieter, cheaper coast worth the detour from Manila.
Marriott’s New Face Is Alex Eala. Ours Was a Room-Service Bill.
Marriott just made Alex Eala the face of its biggest regional campaign. We’d already tested what that promise feels like in Manila — solo, unsponsored, at full price.
The Philippines Is Losing the Tourism War. Here’s What’s Changed Since We Said So.
A new tourism chief, BINI and SB19 as ambassadors, a domestic-travel rebrand — and the real question of whether any of it closes the Southeast Asian arrivals gap.