Philippines – Down The Road

Jump in a taxi

I felt a curious internal warmth during the early morning Air Asia flight from KL to Clarke International Airport in Pampangas, Philippines. A warmth, I think, derived from pleasant memories of previous trips to Manila and the friendliness of almost every acquaintance I have made in that heavily populated, hot, busy, polluted city.

Previous visits had either been made on business or to stay with friends. This visit was going to be different. Situations change. My close lady friend of previous years had chosen to find a marrying type and another friend had finished a work contract and downsized accomodation while he looked for another work opportunity in the region.

I was an independent traveller again fending for myself completely on the transport and accommodation scene in Manila.

I had pre-booked the first night at the Isabelle Royal Hotel which is actually more of a Condotel at the northern end of Makati Avenue.

From Clarke International airport the routine is straightforward. 350 peso secures a comfortable seat on a Partas or Philtranco bus terminating at Pasay. About the nearest point to Makati on the route into Metro Manila.

The fun starts at Pasay. There is no shortage of taxi drivers desperate, for some reason, to take me to my desired destination. I have two simple questions for them. Can you take me to Isabelle Royal Hotel, Makati Avenue and will you use the meter. The answer to the first question is always yes. The answer to the second question is either 200 or 250 peso. So I walk away from them. One youngish Manny Pacquaio look alike (they all try, but this one seemed more successful than most) came after me calling ‘Sir, SIR’.. I looked round and he said ‘OK we use the meter’. In the car he is less than amiable presumably because he has to use the meter.

I don’t think we did a particularly long, round about tour of Metro Manila to arrive in Makati Avenue possibly because I had make a couple of remarks designed to suggest I knew where we should be going. As the 20 minute journey progressed it appeared I had more idea than he did of the area and location of the Isabelle. He tried so hard to be unhelpful it was laughable.

We got to within what I thought was a couple of streets of the hotel location and I said ‘stop please, I’d like to get out here’. I knew we’d never actually get to the street where the hotel was. The meter showed 150 peso and I didn’t feel the slightest inclination to give him a peso more. Unfortunately I was not well prepared and the closest I could get was a 500 peso note. Manny went one round ahead. He has no change of course. ‘Never mind… Hang on’ was my response and grabbed my valuables bag but left my clothes bag in the taxi and visibly enquired at a couple of the nearby outlets for change of my 500 peso note. The first couple of enquiries couldn’t help.

I heard a car horn and the taxi was trickling toward me with another fare on board, possibly a stooge. The nearside front window was down and I looked in to see wad of notes in his hand. Manny said ‘200?’; I replied..’the meter said 150′. He said ‘ok’, took my 500 note and passed me four notes in change… three hundreds and another note tucked in between the hundreds. I opened the door and took my clothes bag from the front passenger seat with a ‘Jeeez, I don’t need this shit’ air about me. I dropped the bag to the pathement and peered down at the cash through a haze of carbon monoxide exhaust gas. There was 320 peso in my hand! Manny wins on points. My internal warmth had evaporated. Welcome to Manila from your average Philippino taxi driver.

Isabelle Royal was around the next corner and twenty paces down the road. Please let this be a pleasant experience.

Manilan, Philippines observations.

A Philippine shop worker/sales assistant in Manila earns around 50 peso and hour and works 8-10hrs a day, 6 days a week making a gross income of around 12000 peso a month or 150 UK pounds.

A four station trip on the Manila MRT will cost around 10peso. A taxi ride for a foreigner for a similar length trip is likely to cost around 200 peso.

Taxi’s use a meter system that appear to be operational most of the time, however be prepared for the taxi driver to ask for the meter plus 50 peso in heavy traffic which is most of the time in Manila.

San Miguel Pale Pilsen beer costs less than 30 peso for a 320ml bottle in the supermarket. The same size bottle will sell for double that price in an average bar/restaurant. Still good value and a third to half of the cost of a similar amount in Malaysia.

Air pollution in Manila is high. There are no vehicle exhaust regulations applied that I know of. Grey sticky bogies testify.

Manila weather in June is variable with frequent high winds and heavy rain. June is the middle of the three or four month typhoon season. I recall visiting via a flight from Malaysia at this time of the year a few years back and feeling increasingly nervous as the pilot saw fit to abort not one landing attempt but two due to high winds and torrential rain at the airport.

The people are vibrant, energetic and happy. There is a clear live for today and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow mentality.

There is a strong Latino element in their inherited character producing much musical talent and dance desire and ability.

There are over 7100 islands. If the question of precisely how many islands make up the Philippines is asked of locals one will often receive the reply of.. ‘when the tide is in or out?’

The food grows on you and deposits itself within you being wrought with saturated fats due to pork and pork skin and fat content. Pinakbet, sizzling sisig and adobo dishes are musts.

Rice is the backbone of the Philippinos basic diet.

Alcohol consumption is unlimited.

Philippine Shopping Mall mentality leads Asian Shopping Mall mentality. Operations like the SM Megamall in Ortigas and the Roxas Boulevard Mall of Asia are pristinely presented and attract huge numbers of people.

Walled and guarded communities are a way of life. Poverty and city ‘street people’ are also a way of life hence the walled and guarded communities.

The many beautiful locations away from Manila are not easy to get to requiring many hours of overland and ferry travel even after internal flights of which there is a wide selection. A natural deterrent for the foreign short break tourist and a natural aid in maintaining the final frontier feeling of many of the locations.

The US occupation of the country has helped to create the most ‘English’ speaking nation in the region.

Low cost travel or trickery?

Yo Yo provide a bus link from Bercham in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia direct to KLIA main and LCC terminals. At RM43 for the one way ride it’s an ok deal. The buses are clean, spacious, well maintained and cool. The trip takes about 2.5hrs and Yo Yo recommend allowing 3 hrs to make the trip. So I did and it meant leaving Ipoh on the 1am bus to arrive in KLIA LCCT at around 4am in the morning in readiness for a 7.20am Air Asia flight to Manila in the Philippines. I slept lightly on the bus and ate (Mc D!?!?) to relieve boredom at the airport. Check in opened at 5.30am. With my bag despatched to the dungeonous mysteries of the KLIA conveyors and a boarding pass tucked into my passport I left the main concourse for the departure lounge and a singular duty free task. Terry’s gin aka Gordon’s Gin upon purchase at the duty free shop is sealed into a specimen bag large enough to contain a gaggle of such bottles.
Air Asia have finally ditched the free seating approach to loading the plane. Their reason I guess they would argue is that it’s more orderly to have seats allocated at check in although I don’t think you can request a particular seat or even location such as window or aisle at the check in process. I have however noticed that there is now an opportunity to add Rm10 to your fare for the priveledge of selecting a preference seat at the internet booking process. Low cost travel or trickery, I occasionally ask myself.
I was fortunate enough to have been allocated an aisle seat, allowing me to thrust the parts of my European form not easily located into the pen between seats, out into the aisle. This irritates the stewards endlessly who counter attack by kicking and wheeling trolleys into me at every opportunity. The seats recline one inch in the interests of economy. As if in compensation they are leather and much is made of this in the amateur banter attempted by the leading stewardess in attempts at lifting the moods of passengers depressed by the overpriced, undersized, taste free food portions and the hand dry towels in the toilets that regress to multiple white tacky globules once moist and in contact with skin. Dry your unshaven face with the hand towels in Air Asia in flight toilets and you will appear to have contracted an in flight mucus that if managed properly could do more for the amusement of other passengers than any banter over leather seats.
The eventful three and half hour flight to Clarke Air Base (a hangover from the American occupation of the area) in Pampangas Philippines was concluded with a smoothe landing on a wet runway. As usual people are out of their seats before the plane has come to a halt, hauling heavy and fragile bags out of the overhead lockers and then stumbling with them as the pilot finally hits the brake pedal. One industrious Philippino was fighting his way up the aisle from a point beyond the wing exits to acheive pole position on the start grid for the door openings. Smile I did when it was announced that we would be departing from the rear of the plane to facilitate a bus service laid on to keep us dry in our passage to the immigration and customs area.
The Philtranco coach to the SM Megamall in Ortigas, apparently the closest stop to Makati cost me 300peso. Alighting from the coach was comparable to being submitted to a bear pit. I fended of the frenzy off taxi drivers who are intent on not only capturing my fare but partaking in conversation about where I’m going before I even make eye contact, My God! I recovered my rucksack from the hold of the bus and walked away from the drop point in the opposite direction to that of the taxi rank.
I sweated a little as I walked away but fell on my feet when in conversation with a street vendor discovered that there was an MRT station on the other side of the Meagamall building. I think it was Shaw Boulevard or Shaw Station and the fare to Ayala was 11peso. A bargain compared to the 250-300 that I would have been paying in a taxi.