The Four Corners of Manila

Finally my first day of work. It was a relief to finally get that first all nighter over with. A few laps in the pool later and a some fruit and sushi at the breakfast buffet, time for bed…at 7:30am. Since the moment I got here eight hours of sleep finally seemed within reach. Until someone misdialed my room four hours later. Doh! There was no turning back at that point. Oh and for the record Owskey that stand right there is a Balut Eggspress stand. For the Balut lover on the Go!

As a consolation I had received an email from my main Philippine contact Mr. Trevor Browne. So I hailed a cabby and off I went. This was really the first time I had taken a lengthy cab ride in the caldron of workweek rush hour traffic. Not for the faint of heart.

There were about five dozen various close calls. Any one of which, had it occurred back in Portland, would have been something you would definite tell your friends about over a beer as some major event in your day. Here you breath deep, hold on tight and keep your mouth shut. For my mother’s sake I’ll note that I’m not referring to five dozen potential head on collisions. More like bonehead moves, clearing other cars by a hair and merging into vehicles on purpose.

After a 30 minute cab ride and some pleasant cabby conversation I had arrived. Dampa. A fish market/neighborhood. At 2:30pm I am the only foreigner in the market. Check that I’m the only shopper period. To say I attracted attention from the fish merchants would be an understatement. On the plus side I saw a lot of scrumptious fish. There were the ones I recognized like squid, oysters, ahi, lobsters and crab. And then those native to SE Asian waters.

The charm of Dampa is that you can buy then have any one of a dozen little restaurants cook it up for you to eat right then and there. A necessity for someone like myself living in a hotel. I had chosen five good sized prawns and a ½ kilo size local fish (pic attached). Being the only one in the restaurant I had the full attention of the two very pretty male servers. They took turns dropping off literally every utensil, dish, cup, drink, ice etc etc. By the time the prawns arrived each had visited my table six times. Now that’s service with a smile…and blush…and eyeliner. As for the food, exquisite. I was expecting it to be quite tasty but this was top notch.

As is my nature I’m going to try and fit too much in one day. I’m in another cab headed to the complete other side of town….in very rough traffic. The last cabby told me I was crazy to try and go Makati to Dampa to Univ of Philippines to Makati during the day. So be it! As mentioned my end destination is the Univ of Philippines. Particularly ‘Sunken Field’ a place of protest and a place of Ultimate Frisbee. It’s about damn time I found some Ultimate around here.

Sitting in this taxi surrounded by this mayhem I’ve thought of a better way to describe the traffic here. I don’t think it’s necessarily even as bad as say Los Angeles in terms of time and gridlock. It’s just crazy. At this moment of the five lanes on this massive freeway only maybe 50% of the cars could be considered anywhere near being fully in their lane. Ande I’m not just talking about lane changes. Right now my driver is straddling the hash marks at 40mph looking for any sign to go one way or the other. Wild.

Finally we arrive. The campus is quite extensive and dense with palm trees and other forestry. I’m definitely digging it. Somehow my driver weaves his way successfully to Sunken Field. Sure enough there is a large group of college students tossing the disc around for warm up. I approach and ask if I could join them this evening. “Of course” they say. A few who speak more fluent English ask if I am a professor at the University. When I tell them I am working in Makati I got the sense that they were impressed I was willing to travel so far just to play Ultimate. That’s what us Die-Hards do. ☺ The game was fantastic, I really needed the intense cardio that only Ultimate can offer. I must say I’ve never played in such humidity, I must have sweated out a gallon of water during that hour. When I took off several of them mentioned that I was welcome anytime. I assured them I would be back.

Another hour long cab ride back to Makati and I am rapidly trying to finish this before heading to work. For the record I wrote most of this in a journal as sort of an experiment. Writing on the go versus just summarizing at the end. And I kind of like where it went. Hope you enjoy the stories and the pictures. Take care.