Monday, February 13, 2006
Home of the envelope and the folder
Should I reserve my judgment of Manila until morning? After all I have only been here six hours. Is it wrong to use the term “shit hole” without really getting to know the city a little better? Maybe it was just the one road that had all the potholes in it and the slums along it. Maybe that’s the only really rotten road in Manila,… the road from the airport to the best hotel in town. Maybe tomorrow it will be better. Maybe, right now, hundreds of government employees are scrubbing and repaving and painting, so that I can wake up to a bright shinny beautiful city. Maybe…
At first glance, Manila is like a Mexican boarder town but without any of the good things. The cars run on unleaded gas and produce a smog that I haven’t seen since my childhood. I thought something was on fire! The traffic system is just this side of utter chaos. It’s a very free style, streets are crowded with cars, bikes, vans, people walking, unicycles, balloons, you name it all roughly flowing in the same direction as if someone dropped a plate of marbles down a circular stairway. The taxis are really a cross between a taxi and a bus. They follow some sort of rout and you just jump on them when they slow down. You pay the driver, while he’s driving and just kind of roll out the back when you want to get off.
Before I came I tried to find a guidebook to the Philippines, but I couldn’t find one. I checked at two of the biggest bookstores in Singapore, Nothing! I’m sure one exists and I assured myself that the reason I couldn’t find it was because it was such a popular tourist spot that they naturally sold out. Now I know the real reason. It’s because the person they sent to write the book never returned.
Next: A new dawn over a shining clean city.
At first glance, Manila is like a Mexican boarder town but without any of the good things. The cars run on unleaded gas and produce a smog that I haven’t seen since my childhood. I thought something was on fire! The traffic system is just this side of utter chaos. It’s a very free style, streets are crowded with cars, bikes, vans, people walking, unicycles, balloons, you name it all roughly flowing in the same direction as if someone dropped a plate of marbles down a circular stairway. The taxis are really a cross between a taxi and a bus. They follow some sort of rout and you just jump on them when they slow down. You pay the driver, while he’s driving and just kind of roll out the back when you want to get off.
Before I came I tried to find a guidebook to the Philippines, but I couldn’t find one. I checked at two of the biggest bookstores in Singapore, Nothing! I’m sure one exists and I assured myself that the reason I couldn’t find it was because it was such a popular tourist spot that they naturally sold out. Now I know the real reason. It’s because the person they sent to write the book never returned.
Next: A new dawn over a shining clean city.
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