"At night I'm a badass cop, by day I give tours — purely for fun. I never sleep. But don't worry about me, I'm used to it," the young man tells us, after making us guess his profession first. Then he leads us into the slum.

Slum life looks rough to us, but Filipino faces don't show it. Our guide has his own way of putting it: there's so much in life you can't control, he says — and no point wasting your energy on what you can't change.

Filipinos have this warmth about them — it's probably why so many foreigners end up staying. There's a café owner from New York, sun-tanned and clearly at home, who just shrugs: what's not to love, he says, when the sense of community here is this strong. In one of the crowded neighborhoods, we meet a former professor from the University of Vienna: "I'm retired now, I can live wherever I want. Maybe I'll even end up in Estonia someday."

I make myself a promise: to be a little happier, every day.