Metro Manila

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Metro Manila! I've noticed that using the word metro makes any place sound like a cool place to be. Metropolis sounds like a bunch of boring cities, but metro brings to find hip-ly high-styled youth with well-fit clothing and whimsically-original shoes, riding atop a high speed train that darts to and fro within the millions of ultra-cool stores. Whatever the case, Manila was a good experience for entirely different reasons.

It was probably 2AM when I took the taxi to Friendly's guest house, one of the few backpacker-friendly places in the metro. I slept there in Malate for literally only a few hours, and then went to Robinson's mall nearby to meet up with a couch surfer. He found me pounding back my second and last cinnamon coated donut and we talked it up for a while. Originally, we were just gonna meet up and hang out, but he said that he had arranged I could stay with him at his parents place. So I made the transfer. Pawie was only a few months away from being a graduated chef, so he was very accommodating (thought his aunt cooked most of our food). He was a great host to surf because we had great discussions on nearly everything, specifically music, food (and the remaining value of fast food!), Christianity, movies, etc. I was originally supposed to stay only two nights, as I had two personal friends to meet up with and one more couch surfer, but Pawie said I could stay there even if I wanted to go meet the others. That was a big help to me, on top of his constant instructions on how to get from city to city, disctrict to district, right down to the bus stops, bus names and MRT/LRT routes. Pawie's great taste in music led to a music exchange between us, which he couldn't stop thanking me for. Pawie, I hope to come visit you again some day.

Then I went to go meet my dear friend Aurora in Makati, who is both a senior graphic designer as well as freelance on the side. Makati is the business district of Manila, but a city in itself. We went to this place that she had gone the weekend before. I forget the name, but the theme was japanese burger joint. To my surprise, Japan has burger, and they have their own, unique style. This place was good. My burger made Burger King's fatties look neat, as the signature Japanese meat sauce on top ran down my fingers and onto the wrapper. I also tried a cornflake shake, something delicious and easy to make at home (there's a lot of things I'm gonna try to make at home by now). We then walked around town in search for a park, but they were all closed, so we went to a coffee shop (I think it was Malay, because I was able to, and did, order a coffee with bits of jelly in it). One of her friends joined us towards the end when he came to pick up some coffee for his video-gamer roommate. His name was Kenji, and we hit it off pretty well. Because I would have had to walk 8 blocks just to get to the bus station, he offered to take me there. What a good guy he was. It was an awesome night and I will miss hanging out with Rory and hope to come back. Perhaps by the time I come back the Christmas ball designs that I created the inspirational atmosphere for will be complete. Also, she whipped up a tattoo design for me.

The next day, I met up at another mall with Merlie, someone who I sometimes chat to on the Internet. I went to her place for supper, and karaoke and general banter ensued. General homey hangout was the mood, and I met most of her family as well. It's a little weird meeting somebody who I talked to over the Internet over the course of a year and had never met, but it's like resolution to an unfinished case. The typical text on the screen becomes a surprising voice, two-dimensional pictures become living, walking, and talking people, etc. I've now met several people that I learned of from the Internet (all others from CouchSurfing, and it's always been fine. It's kinda funny how the newspaper only publishes the bad experiences. I mean, if you're meeting up with someone 30 years older than you, with whom you have no common interests, and they can't show you a photo of themself, you're obviously pretty foolish to just show up and ride in his car. Kids have been saying "no" to rides from strangers for years, why can't people seperate legitimate people from utter strangers on the Internet? Good or bad experience, it was on my list of things to do to meet someone I first met on the Internet at some point. I can't say it's that very thrilling or that awkward. It's different, and I can fairly judge this sort of thing, now that I've experienced it.

On the final day, I met up with Ronnie from Quezon city. He let me stash my backpack and stuff in his car at the repair shop, and we headed to Manila, Manila. This is the centre of the metropolis, and the original old part of town. This is the rough part of town, near legendary dumpsite/housing area Smokey Mountain and many squatters houses. We stuck to walking around China Town, which was only slightly less busy than the streets near public market, which was most intensely pedestrian-filled street I've seen yet. We stopped for some grub at a random Chinese place. I ordered duck noodle soup. I tried a bit of Ronnie's sweet'n'sour chicken feet and century egg (that black fermented egg) and both were actually tastey. I had 3 slices of the century egg and would order both of those foods again. Ronnie also has good taste in music, and we both agreed on The Streets' 'Original Pirate Material' as our driving music while he so kindly fulfilled his suggestion that he drive me to the airport for my late-evening flight to Bangkok.

Traveling past midnight in the metropolis (specifically Manila) is one of the most dangerous things a white person can do. It's what I did alone several times while in Manila, but I developed a set of precautions for myself. Perhaps my path didn't cross with any shady characters, but I'd like to think that my paranoid surveillance of everything around me was all as effective as it felt. I felt pretty "metro" jumping from overhead rail transit to jeepney, to bus, to jeepney, to tricycle just to get home by the hour of 2AM. My time in Manila felt cut-off, because by the time I flew out of the giant, I was just starting to understand the transit routes and ways to go from Paranaque to Quezon, from Malate to Makati, etc.

I have set my heart on returning to the Philippines some day and making my rounds to visit old DTS friends and new friends in Manila, and of course more strangers. ;c)

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