HomeAsiaPhilippinesLuzonMetro ManilaMakati City – the Philippine’s Skyscrapercity By Marcos Detourist on May 26, 2009Back when I was in high school, I was a Sim City 4 addict. I used to spend my nights slaving over making the biggest city my measly computer can handle. There was of course the attempt of making a city that had a road layout of Iloilo City, at the time high quality road maps of Iloilo City was not available (Google Earth, I think wasn’t released yet or it didn’t have hi-res images of Iloilo City) so I started to look for road maps of other cities in the Philippines. One google search led to another and I ended up in Skyscrapercity.com. I visited the Philippine sub forum and searched through the threads.Photo from Wikipedia (I have yet to take a nightshot of Makati)During those times, my vision of Metro Manila was this bloated dirty metropolis. I was held aback after viewing the “Makati City in Pictures” thread. It was my first time discovering that there’s a city in the Philippines that doesn’t even remotely looks like a third world country. The skyline looks great with beautiful glass clad high-rises lumped in a small area and then abruptly bordered by lush greens (of posh subdivisions, sprawling malls ,and a golf course). Thus the start of my fascination with urban developments, high-rises, skyscrapers, and skylines.Makati City, I’ve learned used to be vast swamplands (like Iloilo city). Now, it is the financial capital of the Philippines. A city comparable to the capitals of other developing countries and some developed countries. What I liked most about Makati is its skyline, which is dense and clustered with a few nicely designed buidlings and no single supertall lording over all. In some angles (like ones taken with the golf course in the foreground), it looks similar to New York (with Central Park in the foreground).I hadn’t had the chance to walk around the streets of Makati when I was in high school and college because I didn’t go to Manila that often in the first place (none at all in college, actually). For so long, I wanted to see the buildings up close and personal and not in front of a monitor. My wish came true during my last trip to Manila for the Aliwan Fiesta.Makati was great. It was clean and orderly. It did not feel overly fake and planned to the core, it was quite like an organic city. Went there during a Sunday and I had Ayala Avenue (the main thoroughfare in Makati) all to myself.Ayala Avenue with PBCOM, the Philippine’s Tallest BuildingYuchenco MuseumLKG Tower and Smart TowerMakati Plaza with Roxas TriangleGT Tower by Metrobank, my favorite high-rise in the PhilippinesSkywalk with high-rise condominiumsAyala AveueThe Enterprise TowerMonument for Ninoy AquinoDon’t know that nearest tall buildingPhilamLife TowerAyala Tower 1My Sister posing infront of KPMGOutside Greenbelt Mall by AyalaInside Greenbelt Mall by AyalaNewest Addition: Greenbelt 5Don’t leave yet. There’s more!Iloilo to Puerto Princesa, Palawan RORO Ferry (via Cuyo)Aliwan Fiesta, the Second Time Around in 201010 Days Thailand Itinerary — Ayutthaya and BangkokSurvivor Palawan: A Solo Backpacker’s Travelogue6 Days Bangkok Itinerary — Siam, Chinatown, Saphan TaksinMy Photos in iTravel Mag Bacolod FeatureComments gene saysMay 26, 2009 at 3:27 pmAside from Makati, the Ortigas area also has a good skyline view. chymera00 saysMay 26, 2009 at 7:24 pmHaven’t been to Ortigas though :( Next time naman. hehe jpreyes saysJune 1, 2009 at 12:53 ambeautiful shots of makati.. nicely done.. good thing to show the world that the Philippines has much urbanity… kudos to you! gene saysJune 1, 2009 at 6:24 pmI think that the picture with the dont know that nearest building caption is Robinson’s summit Bldg. :) chymera00 saysJune 1, 2009 at 9:47 pmTsakto … it’s the Robinson’s Summit Center. Juan de Barotac saysAugust 20, 2009 at 1:32 amGreat pics! Thanks for sharing. I’m sure you’ll go places other than beautiful Makati. When you do, share them. You’ve done a wonderful job with the photograpsh and a nice narrative of Makati. chymera00 saysJuly 6, 2010 at 12:14 amThanks :) I’m sure Makati compared to other places will pale in comparison but it has its own character, which makes it special Kyle Griffin saysJuly 4, 2010 at 2:52 ami played the original SimCity in the 90’s and until now i still play the latest version of SimCity*’; Jake Lewis saysJuly 30, 2010 at 1:23 ami used to play Sim City when i was still in high school and this is simply one of the best games of all times.’`* chymera00 saysAugust 2, 2010 at 4:10 amI agree. They totally ruined the game with Sim Societies. Toby Simpson saysSeptember 28, 2010 at 11:14 amsimcity is my all time favorite game, my dad even played that game “.” Charles saysSeptember 11, 2011 at 5:19 amI like this blog site and now have book-marked it. I am going to look for go through in additional particulars on my holiday Marcos saysSeptember 13, 2011 at 4:30 pmThanks Charles! Glad you decided to spend you holiday in the Philippines :D Call of duty 2 wallhack saysMarch 20, 2013 at 4:21 amGood site you have here.. It’s difficult to find excellent writing like yours nowadays. I really appreciate people like you! Take care!! Posting of new comments is disabled temporarily.Connect with Marcos on:Detourista.comMarcosDetourist.comFacebookInstagramTwitterDetourista.comDiscover more travel guides and blogs about the Philippines and beyond by Marcos DetouristChoose your next destination: Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
jpreyes saysJune 1, 2009 at 12:53 ambeautiful shots of makati.. nicely done.. good thing to show the world that the Philippines has much urbanity… kudos to you!
gene saysJune 1, 2009 at 6:24 pmI think that the picture with the dont know that nearest building caption is Robinson’s summit Bldg. :)
Juan de Barotac saysAugust 20, 2009 at 1:32 amGreat pics! Thanks for sharing. I’m sure you’ll go places other than beautiful Makati. When you do, share them. You’ve done a wonderful job with the photograpsh and a nice narrative of Makati.
chymera00 saysJuly 6, 2010 at 12:14 amThanks :) I’m sure Makati compared to other places will pale in comparison but it has its own character, which makes it special
Kyle Griffin saysJuly 4, 2010 at 2:52 ami played the original SimCity in the 90’s and until now i still play the latest version of SimCity*’;
Jake Lewis saysJuly 30, 2010 at 1:23 ami used to play Sim City when i was still in high school and this is simply one of the best games of all times.’`*
Toby Simpson saysSeptember 28, 2010 at 11:14 amsimcity is my all time favorite game, my dad even played that game “.”
Charles saysSeptember 11, 2011 at 5:19 amI like this blog site and now have book-marked it. I am going to look for go through in additional particulars on my holiday
Marcos saysSeptember 13, 2011 at 4:30 pmThanks Charles! Glad you decided to spend you holiday in the Philippines :D
Call of duty 2 wallhack saysMarch 20, 2013 at 4:21 amGood site you have here.. It’s difficult to find excellent writing like yours nowadays. I really appreciate people like you! Take care!!