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Being from Canada I find it interesting how the Philippines is such a country of extremes.

It seems that all the bugs are either very, very small or the size of a small volkswagon beetle. Combined with the fact that it is so warm here all, and I do mean all, the bugs travel at a surprisingly fast pace.

In our kitchen are these teeny, tiny little bugs that run around the counters and cupboards … basically everywhere. They are super fast but are so small that even after almost 4 weeks here I am still unsure if they are a type of ant, a fly, or some other bug better left unknown.

Today I went out and ‘walked the towers’ for exercise … basically walked to the top of our highrise, back down … then did the same on our ‘twin tower’ as I live in a connected twin tower condo. It is good excercise and much needed for what seems like a typically ‘fat’ North American … a least in comparison to the typical filippino. I live on the 6th floor and the top floor is the 32nd and there are 20 steps between each floor. The connecting floor is the fourth so all told I walk up and down a total of 56 stories or 1080 stairs. All in all a decent workout in a pinch.

Tonight I was half way to the 27th floor on the second tower when I suddenly realized that a large black mark had moved on the very next upwards step… Yikes ! It was a cockroach with an impressive body length of 1-3/4″ to 2″ long. Oh my god! I stomped my foot near it on the step above and it didn’t even flinch.

Since it was in the same tower as I lived in I considered the potential consequences of leaving it alive …. I can tell you right now that I would be screaming like a girl if I woke up with that brute on my face one night !!!

So, I took a quick assessment of the situation. The Roach was on the kick plate of a stair part way between floors so there would be no fast, easy stomp to kill this babie. Oh no, it would have to an awkward kick while I balanced on a concrete step. I figured the consequence of missing or worse yet just wounding my opponent would likely result in a full arial assault .. I shuddered to think of this thing flying at my face. One of my room-mates had taken what seemed like great pleasure in telling me that these giant cockroaches both fly and BITE !!!

I figured if worst case happened I would likely end up leaping backwards in reaction and with my luck would trip over the stair railing and plunge 25 stories to my death … killed by a fracking Roach !!! No sir !!! Not gonna happen.

Instead I did what any sane white boy does here in this situation. Acted like I do when I come across a bear back home … slowly back away and hope it seemed like I’m not afraid.

I had seem a smaller brother to this one about 2 weeks ago on the street one evening. I was surprised when it darted out and it took a second to even register what is was. The thing with these roaches is they run like the wind and to make it worse they run with completely random right-angle turns all over the place … making them seem insane to the casual observer like myself. Now I can tell you, it doesn’t matter how big or small something is … when it appears insane you just naturally want to back away before it turns those crazy little beady eyes your way!

In the end I now understand why my room-mates refer to these giant cockroaches as’Those Demon Bugs’ … well, that and another term which I shall refrain from writting here, lol.

Another form of Transportation which seems to be the most commonly used by locals is the Jeepney. It is like a private form of public Transportation where the driver owns the vehicle and drives a route. There are Jeppneys everywhere and they seem to travel quite a long route.

They are very economical to use … the price is 8 pesos and what you do when you get onboard is you pass your money forward. Each person keeps passing it forward until it reaches the driver. Basically it is a flat rate just to board the vehicle and you can stay on as long as you like. One problem with using Jeepneys is that during the normal ‘rush hour’ times they are just packed … I’ve even seen brave souls hanging off the back. I travel to and from work with a large, loaded laptop case and it would be quite tricky with the Jeepneys I’m thinking.

The key to Jeepney use is to understand their route info. If you look closely at some of the pictures I’ve got here you will see a yellowstrip on the side of every Jeepney. This is the route, for example Pasig to Mandalloyung … I’m not sure how to interprete what the route is that the vehicle takes and it might be that the locals just know which Jeepney goes along what street.

This is quite likely as every single Jeepney has a custom and unique paint job done up by the owners. It isn’t just paint that is custom, often they will have flashing lights and sirens too. Many times what I have thought to be a police vehicle turned out to mearly be a flashy Jeepney.

I have taken Jeepnes once and it was great. It was off time and we were just returning from Badminton .. we walked up to Shaw Blvd and immediately caught a Jeepney. Passed our 10 pesos forward and enjoyed the feel of the wind passing by because the Jeepneys have long window openings down each side … but no glass in the openings. You would think this would make it easy to tell where you are but I found it tricky to tell that we were near where I wanted to get off.

To get off you mearly knock on the roof and the driver swerves towards the road edge … they never really get there and ALWAYS stop anywhere they want. I think this practice is what makes the traffic so slow everywhere but on highways.

A Taxi is the most common form of transportation I use here second only to my own two feet. The taxi’s themselves as very much as I expected them to be … 4 door sedan with air conditioning. Typically the driver will only turn on the AC when he has a passenger … I suppose this saves money when there is no passenger.

So a few rules on Taxi’s:

1. Stand on the roadside and put up your arm to flag down a taxi - pretty much the same as back home.

2. Don’t expect an empty Taxi to stop for you, some drivers don’t seem to like to deal with non-Philippino’s and just keep going as thought they don’t see you.

3. When a Taxi does stop, open the door and tell him where you want to go BEFORE you get in. Talk slowly and clearly, say the city and spot. If the driver doesn’t know it and you can’t explain it so that he seems to know where to go … it will likely not be a good cab to take. Manila is HUGE and if you can’t give street by street directions you really have no way of knowing where you will end up.

4. When you get in make sure the cabby actually turns on the meter. It has red numbers and is easily visible. Sometimes the driver will try to get away with not turning it on, and at the end of the ride will ask for some outrageous amount, usually at least double what it should be. You don’t want to get into an argument over the fare because most cabbies are reputed to carry something for protection and for all you know may have a gun.

Now don’t get me wrong here, the Philippino people are fabuous and very friendly, but it is a third world. Any white person is seen as ‘rich’ by default and I think that many of the poorer people see us as an opportunity to get a small amount of extra money from us. To them this seemingly small amount can be quite a lot.

I took cab yesterday and I swear to god he was the worst so far. I actually had to put my elbows on my knees because the cab seemed to be in a constant state of accellerate-brake cycles … almost to the point of feeling a bit like whiplash. The corker to the whole thing was this was at about midnight and I could see NO cars ahead of us … and he still drove the same. You’d almost swear the engine was constantly stalling and then surging back to life .. lol

He got pulled over by the first cop I’ve seem for an illegal left turn. It took several minutes to sort out and he had to pay a fine on the spot … all while the meter was running of course. I only cost me a few extra pesos … about 10 of 15 cents really so I wasn’t too worried.

Right now you have to pay an extra 10 pesos over the fare … I believe a rate increase came into effect but is not yet implimented. My fare was 100 pesos and I gave the driver 110 … he was hinting the whole time about the fine he just paid but didn’t seem to have the nerve to actually come right out and ask me to pay the police fine as well … but he certainly hinted at it !!!

All in all, if your taxi driver seems to drive smoothly and way too close to the other vehicles in your opinion … then you have a good cabbie.

Crossing a side street in Manila

 
Ok, this video is me crossing a typical small side street. I had just come out of ‘Mega Mall’ and was crossing a side street on my way to Shaw Boulevard.

This crossing went very smoothly and is quite typical. I usually try to be in a group for safety sake but this time was out in front so that I could video it all. If I was crossing a large road I would normally get to the center yelow line and then have to wait for a seemingly safe break in traffic in order to start negotiating my way across that side.

As you can tell here it is very typical that neither pedestrians nor cars, trucks, etc every really stop to let each other past … instead it is an orchestra of milling people and vehicles. In the end I always seem to make it across and still have not heard or seem a single accident. It likely helps that the typical speed is abour 30 Kph. You can also see that I used a pedestrian crossing here … normally people just cross where ever they like and it goes pretty much the same as this.

The heat is high enough here on its own but with such a high humidity as well it is crazy some days. I’m lucky though because I’m fairly sure it is actually ‘winter’ here … lol

Winter means it does not get to 40 degrees, only 28 to 35 degrees with near 90% plus humidity. Bottom line here is that you sweat. All the time. Well, I mean you sweat your butt off really.

Now sweating here is definately NOT the same as sweating in Canada. Here I can easily end the day with 4 shirts literally soaked through and through .. not to mention your pants and several hand towels that everybody caries to wipe their faces. I tend to use many hand towels … lol

One great thing is that labour is so cheap here by our standards that it is super cheap to get your clothes washed, dried, and folded for you. Well, that and the fact that our Condo doesn’t really have proper facilities to do the drying part … we have a washing machine … this tiny little thing, but it does the job. Drying on the other hand would be out on the high-rise balcony. Definately not ideal here. So … laundry it is … and it is priced out by the Kg … about 35 pesos per Kg. Typical price is about $4.00 Cdn per load.

The interesting thing is that they weight it in, count how many pieces you bring in, and weight it out. However, you are charged by the weight from the weight in … and mine is always 1/2 Kg lighter afterwards. Not because I get fewer items back but because they are no longer ‘damp’with sweat.

I figure that I pay an extra 20 pesos per load due to the weight of the sweat in my clothes. Over the course of being here 10 weeks that is going to be an extra 400 Pesos just ot have my sweat washed … lol

The nice thing is 400 pesos sounds like a lot more than it is … its only about 10 bucks.

Now normally I wouldn’t read something written about such a boring topic let alone write it … but here in Manila it is so different as to be worthy of a post.

First the Traffic. There are so many cars, Jeepney’s, SUV’s, Taxis, scooters, and random other strange vehicles that what appears to be fog on the road is actually smog. When looking across Shaw blvd the buildings and people on the other side of the road actually are blurred by the smog.

Now Shaw Blvd is 2 lanes in either direction but there is almost never only 2 vehicles wide travelling in both directions. More often than not there will be 3 or even 4 wide … plus an assortment to motorbikes, scooters, and bicycles weaving around everything and everybody. While it appears extremely dangerous to my western eyes I have to admit I have yet to see any accident. However, this is little comfort when the taxi you are in does a seemingly illigal U-turn across 6 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of rush hour while you close your eyes and suddenly pray that a god you didn’t believe in 5 minutes ago will suddenly save you!

In my entire walk home … approximately 30 to 45 minutes long … I only come across a single traffic light and I walk down a major road most of the way. So, as a pedestrian there are some very unique challenges in the seemingly simple task of crossing shaw blvd.

In 2 weeks of walking around here I have come to a few conclusions.

1. Never be first or last in a group crossing any road unless you have no choice.

2. No matter where you are walking, including the sidewalk, be ready for anything when you hear somebody honk their horn. Typically the horn seems to be used to announce to all other drivers and pedestrians alike that the driver is about to do something stupid … so everybody have better watch out. Really … this is TOTALLY TRUE.

3. As you cross a major road it is really a subtle negotiation with each line of vehicles as you cross. You announce your intention to cross the road by stepping into the edge of the path of the first car. If they acknowledge you by swerving either way then you are safe to actually cross his path. But … only his path. You then must negotiate with the second line of cars now. If this car does not acknowledge you then you can either chance that you are faster or wait where you are. This means in effect that you will NEVER actually make it across in one fell swoop, instead you are always stuck part way or half way with cars and trucks whizzing by on all sides. Inevitably you feel like some portion of your anatomy is sticking out too far and in danger of being lost forever … or worse … your laptop bag !

Night makes this challenge much harder as vehicle lighting seems to mearly be a suggested practice here and when you put that first daring foot forward onto the road you had better be VERY sure that dark shadow is not actually a car, truck, or Jeepney bearing down on you. The Rule of the road here is that all drivers assume they have the right of way on the road, the side streets, and the sidewalks. It truely is pedestrian beware.

Cars and trucks are actually safe seeming after your first encounter with a transit bus! OMG … they have massively loud air horns and they ONLY EVER brake for other vehicles. The only time I have ever seen locals running is when they tried to cross when they shouldn’t have and suddenly the air is filled with a deafening thunder of horns and the roar of the bus engine as he accelerates. I swear they actually try to hit the pedestrians … and they run …. hard, for their very lives I am sure. I stood rooted to the sidewalk as the buses roared by doing about 80 kph … very glad that I had not followed my own rule of trying to be in the middle of the pack. That was definately not the pack to be in today.

I left Vancouver Monday October 6th and arrived here in Manila Wednesday October 8th to work out of our Manila office for the rest of this year.

It is definately Hot here and I was sweating just getting my baggage and getting through imigration. It was Midnight and I caught a Cab to head towards the company condo on Wack Wack road. Of course, I didn’t pronounce it correctly and the cabbie didn’t understand … it is pronounced ‘wok wok’.

Work the next morning came far too early what with a short sleep plus jet lag to boot. On the plane I had taken a sleeping pill which seemed to do absolutely nothing so I had gotten almost zero sleep on the trip.

the first work day started out with the discovery that there was NO hot water and a cold shower after only four hours of sleep was just rude.

I had exchanged money in Vancouver so was setup with about 7000 pesos to start. One dollar Canadian equals 44 pesos here. The taxi ride to the office was only 60 pesos … about $ 1.50 and I figured I was going to like that !!

 I’ve been here 2 weeks now and figured I would write about some of the things I’ve seen and done so far … then later will write as time permits and interesting things happen. I will take some pics to help illustrate my ramblings soon.

Just wanted to say hello, and we’re glad you found our site.  It has been really nice to hear from other branches of the family!  I’m sure we share common ancestors.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a huge family reunion - in Ireland!?!  If you are a member of Facebook, there is a group on there called Join if You’re a McClarty - check it out - apparently there are McClarty’s all over the world!

Anyway, we are hoping to hear from lots of relatives we didn’t know we had, so please email us and introduce yourself.

Hey, I’m blogging!!!!  Does that mean I’m cool now?  Way to go Jim - this works great!  And for the first time in my life, I can’t think of a single thing to say.

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