Manila is an incredibly welcoming city and cheap to live. Accommodation in ultra luxurious condos is reasonable foot massage whilst tapping out emails (£7 per hour) makes working from here a no brainer. Agree living in the Greenbelt area is a no brainer. Vegetarian choices can be limited in some places but excellent (and so cheap!) Delivery services are available, including diet chef stuff which is unaffordable anywhere else. The streets feel safe inside Makati and the areas around greenbelt and I have never felt uneasy in good areas, which is not the same as London where you are constantly feeling at risk. Bureaucracy is tough in Manila though. Just chill, queue, take your laptop to keep you busy, and remember to be unstintingly polite - locals do not deal well with confrontation and you do well to empathise with them rather than get off by being "right" .