Manila - Day 2 - The smoggy city (part 2)

I don't have the words yet to properly convey going for car ride on the roads here. I'm probably gonna dedicate a whole darn post to it sooner or later, but, for now, you'll just have to be satisfied with my earlier analogy of a roller coaster. However, pretend that you are vaguely afraid of heights and the roller coaster you are on has been known to derail. Just think about it.

So, the rest of my first impressions of Manila.

Lots and lots of large advertisement signs. These things are posted on everything from skyscrapers to overpasses to cargo containers stacked up high. I can't really read what most of them say, but the titles are readable enough. I'll post some of the more interesting ones one of these days.

Lots of tree tops. Remember that whole paragraph on the on-ramp? After the smog I noticed tree tops. Noticed them again this morning. I haven't seen the roots of many of these trees, but they gotta exist. A bunch of them are palm trees too, but it definitely does not make you feel tropical. I mean, the weather is warm and you're looking at palm trees, but it doesn't feel like "hey, I'm in Florida" or "hey, I'm at the beach." It's more like "hey, how the hell do those survive?"

Oh yeah, while writing the next paragraph you are about to read, I realized I didn't quite describe the highway here well enough. Do not think American highways. Yes there are some on-ramps, yes there are some off-ramps, yes there are overpasses, yes it is a divided highway. However, there are also roads that intersect. It's a T-intersection with the highway being the top-guy...meaning the roads dead-end (or start) from the highway as you can't get across it without an overpass. There are no lights at these intersections either...you just slow down and turn off the highway. Don't get me wrong, there are parts that feel like genuine highway, but it turns into more of a road at points. So just keep that in mind.

The directions to get my place of work are fairly straightforward. Drive up 3 flights of basement parking. Take left out of main hotel thoroughfare. Take right on main Ayala Center road. Take immediate left on-ramp to the main highway (I still don't know what it's called). Take this highway for about 3 miles (make sure to change lanes at least 52 times). Take right into what seems like a back-entrance to warehousing area, but the warehouses are really tall buildings. Veer left at construction site of huge dirty apartment refurbishment. Take left halfway up hill permanently covered in water. Welcome to my office building.

On that 3 mile stretch, you pass over a river that, quite frankly, looks like a dirty version of the Willy Wonka chocolate river. I mean, don't picture edible grass on the sides, but the dark brown water is pretty spot-on. Kinda disgusting but America has some pretty nasty rivers going through cities too.

I also remember reading a sign on this building to the right that said "female only housing available." The wording is probably off but that was the gist. Don't really know what to think of that. In addition, that sign as well as all the signs you see near the road are so caked in dirt and grit that the original coloring is probably impossible to see or forever altered. Just adds to the feeling.

Anyways, I'll stop typing random stuff. Just wanted you to get a feeling of the one-part confusion, one-part curiosity, one-part different, and one-part overload it was that first morning.

I won't bore you with work stuff as I probably shouldn't write about it and it also wouldn't make much sense regardless. The one thing I will say is that my coworkers are very interesting and nice people. I do hope to become friends with them over the next couple of weeks.

One thing I will tell you that I learned on my first day at work was that security is a big thing in Manila. I hadn't really digested that fact until a day or two later, but there are security guards everywhere. I'll write about it one of these days, but you should know that it definitely stuck out in my mind that first day though I didn't realize it.

I also ate Chinese for lunch. Go figure.

Oh yeah, I also got a sim card for a phone a coworker leant me. It's one of those old Nikia's. It's pretty sweet. Anyways, I didn't ativate it until the end of the day to contact my taxi driver. This detail is pretty crucial in the story to follow.

So, here's the deal with my taxi service here. The hotel provides car service in the mornings for me during the weekdays. You schedule this with the front desk daily. Work uses Hertz to provide a taxi service to get me home each day. This is the same people that picked me up from the hotel...as in the same guy. His name is Elviro.

So when Elviro dropped me off the night before from the airport I told him to pick me up at 6pm from work. I thought this was pretty descriptive. This is my first introduction to the language barrier between non-corporate Phillipino's and the Phillipino culture of just smiling and nodding.

So, like I said, after work I activated my phone to contact my taxi guy - Elviro. Well, I failed to mention that I activated my phone only after standing downstairs in the pickup area for about 30 minutes. So I called him and he's like "I'm on the 6th floor. Ascott. I'm waiting." He sounded like he was flustered and in a rush. Well, it makes sense. He didn't know what room I was in and he didn't have my phone number. Yup, that's right, he's at the Ascott.

Guess I should have been just a bit more specific about where to pick me up.

So we cleared up that minor oversight. Sadly, even though the hotel is 3 miles away, traffic being what it is meant waiting for 30 minutes. Ah well, what're you gonna do? Internet that's what.

I did end up getting back to the hotel fine, it was just kinda funny.

I was pretty exhausted after my first day. Remember I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep in a bed in the past 40 hours. However, I made myself go to the grocery store and work out. I will be dedicating a whole post to the grocery store because there's nothing like a different culture's grocery store. But I will list out what I purchased:
- 2 packets of instant-noodles
- 1 1.5L bottle of Coke Light.
- 1 box of Oatmeal squares cereal
- 1 box the flakey, clustery, dried-fruity kind of cereal
- 1 1L box of Vanila Soy milk (local of course, I'm in Asia you know)
- 1 packet of dried Mango
- 4 things of yogurt
- 2 1L bottles of water
- 1 case of San Miguel Light beer

Not really that glorious, but it did remind me of what I typically buy at any given Lindy Hop dance event (minus the dried mango of course, though I totally would if we had it). Hard to break habits I guess.

All of this was purchased at this place called SM. SM is a massive department store. It's 4 floors (5 if you count the food court) with a Super Market on the bottom floor. Yup, that's right, SM is actually short for Super Market. Interesting.

As I walked out the door of the department store (note, also on the bottom floor was a clothing section of the department store, so you had to walk through it), I realized I looked pretty funny. They put everything in these bright yellow plastic bags, not that this made me look unique or funny as many others had them, it's just that I'm the only one with 4 fairly heavy bags of them in my left hand and a case of beer in my right. Remember I'm also white, with a beard, and taller than the majority of the people. This appearance immediately called over a child who begged for money. Even though I commented on how sad this was, I've still never been one to give money to someone on the street. The kid was insistent, but I'm pretty stubborn.

I tell you this because it was a first for me but a fact of life for the people here. Countries like Manila have pretty huge social gaps and I can easily see why Americans are considered rich and targets for theft. If you're American and you're over here, you can afford losing some money, especially relative to the amount of money that can make a difference to some of the "street urchins."

Anyways, the walk from SM to my hotel is about 1 block (though my arm did tire a bit from holding the beer). I went and worked out then had a bowl of cereal for dinner. I actually worked a bit more but man I was tired.

Time - 11pm. I went to bed.