Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Sunday 10th June 2007 - Managing motorised movement in Manila
Jeepney at Mines View Baguio Jeepney and Tricycle
Sunday 10th June 2007
Did very little this morning but we are all going to a Mega Mall in Mandaluyong for bowling this afternoon, Yaaaay! It is an upmarket mall with many designer name outlets including Rolex, Armani, and Body Shop (just kidding). We go to the bowl and pay Peso 140 per game £1.55. Lu had 129, 142 and I had 168, 202. We were joined by Ate Bever, Ate Roma, her foster daughter Daniella, Sheila and Rain who all didn’t bowl. Had a long shop and then ended up having pizza dinner at an oulet called Shakeys. Went back to Hotel Encarnacion via Greenhills accidentally and we watched video of A night at the Museum.
Daniella is a small 7yr old girl whom Roma has fostered from an extremely poor family they met whilst holidaying in one of the provinces. Her family including 7 other siblings were existing by eating rice, chillies and salt and not much else. Daniella, had not been to school for some time as her parents did not have the money to pay for her educational uniform and equiment and she spent most her time helping to look after her brothers and sisters. Her family agreed to her being fostered to enable her to receive a good education which in turn would increase her chances of finding well paid employment in years to come. This would then benefit the family as, in common with most educated and well earning Filipinos from poor families, they send most of their earnings back to help them survive. Daniella was badly undernourished and small and short for age. She is 2 years older than Rain at 7 but is lighter and shorter. She is bright as a button, very caring of her Tita (aunty) Roma and learning to speak English quickly, as Roma and the extended family generally only speak to her in English. Here’s a funny thing. Both Daniella and Rain, quite independently of each other, would not talk directly to me for the first few meetings we had. I found out later it was because I spoke English “in a funny way”! Their English teachers are Filipinos whose first language is Tagalog and therefore speak with their native accent. To hear pure spoken English (well in the context of never having heard an Englishman directly) was confusing and in their eyes not right. But they overcame their shyness eventually and I am now Tito (uncle) Derek. Roma has a son PJ who is 24 and training to be a doctor and I think she has high hopes for her little foster daughter too. I’ve been looking around at Manila during our stay and I have to say it is not a city that would appeal to everybody. Mini facts on PI say there is approximately 84 million inhabitants on the 1701 islands that make up The Philippines. 30 million of those live in the capital Manila. It is a vast sprawl of houses, industry, commerce, shanty towns and shopping. Shopping comes in 2 basic sizes. Small, that is very small, one man or more accurately, family businesses selling anything from fresh veg, fish or meat to junk. Then there is large as in mega large which is the super malls. These are built by large investment companies and fitted out just like our bigger shopping centres. But these super malls have food halls unlike a lot of ours. The food halls usually take up one floor similar to say Meadowhall or Thurrock if you’ve visited them, only much larger and with almost infinite choice. Rice booths, noodle bars, sea food, kiosks specialising in Chinese style, or Filipino or Malay or Thai or, well you name it and many you can’t name will be there. How about Kenny Rogers‘ (yes the C & W singer) Roasters which is a carvery style restaurant or The French Bakery which specialises in French pastries and crepes. Or how about Balut, which is chicken eggs boiled and served as an appetiser or accompaniment to beer. Sounds good huh, a nice firm boiled egg with maybe a dash of pepper, a little salt and yum. Well not quite. You will find yourself eating the egg yes but the embryo has begun to grow and form, so you still have the white or albumen, and the yolk but also a partly formed and growing chick in the middle. Enjoy your dinner!
Anyway back to the malls. They also have huge cinemas, usually on the top floor with many screens and showing all the latest Western and Asian films. Some malls have tenpin bowling centres (bowling is very popular in PI) and supermarkets, many the size of a Tesco Extra or Asda. We talked to some of the shop assistants on our wanderings and they said that they earn the daily minimum wage of Peso350 and work a 6 day week. Nonetheless, they are helpful, polite and almost always beautifully dressed and made up. We braved a tricycle which originally was a pedal bike and rickshaw style assembly but they have modernised slightly and are now 100cc motorbikes with a covered sidecar 2 passenger seat attached. Quite a bumpy and uncomfortable ride but cooler than walking and with prices in the 20 or 30 Peso region you can’t go wrong. They do not travel too far so sometimes the taxis are better. However you can often do better than a taxi by taking an MPV taxi with up to 11 or 12 other passengers but be sure to make sure you stop the right one. They tend to only do specific routes and destinations so always check. They tend to have to and from routes printed on the body work. Alternative to that is the Jeepney. A frequently highly individually decorated form of transport similar to nothing else on the road. Made in PI and I’m led to believe pretty reliable mode of transport. Looking at the condition of many of them I am sceptical. Finally buses. Every one tells me that they should be avoided totally. That goes, not just for travelling on them but for sharing the road with them. The drivers are regarded by everyone else as illiterate as far as road signs go and illegitimate as far as road craft and courtesy goes. Seriously though do not use them! You have to see them to believe me. There is also an MRT or Metro Rail transport which we did not use. It doesn’t have a great city coverage but is efficient and cheap. Well that’s what Kuya Guy said but he’s biased. They pay his pension as he worked for them for 35 years.
Did very little this morning but we are all going to a Mega Mall in Mandaluyong for bowling this afternoon, Yaaaay! It is an upmarket mall with many designer name outlets including Rolex, Armani, and Body Shop (just kidding). We go to the bowl and pay Peso 140 per game £1.55. Lu had 129, 142 and I had 168, 202. We were joined by Ate Bever, Ate Roma, her foster daughter Daniella, Sheila and Rain who all didn’t bowl. Had a long shop and then ended up having pizza dinner at an oulet called Shakeys. Went back to Hotel Encarnacion via Greenhills accidentally and we watched video of A night at the Museum.
Daniella is a small 7yr old girl whom Roma has fostered from an extremely poor family they met whilst holidaying in one of the provinces. Her family including 7 other siblings were existing by eating rice, chillies and salt and not much else. Daniella, had not been to school for some time as her parents did not have the money to pay for her educational uniform and equiment and she spent most her time helping to look after her brothers and sisters. Her family agreed to her being fostered to enable her to receive a good education which in turn would increase her chances of finding well paid employment in years to come. This would then benefit the family as, in common with most educated and well earning Filipinos from poor families, they send most of their earnings back to help them survive. Daniella was badly undernourished and small and short for age. She is 2 years older than Rain at 7 but is lighter and shorter. She is bright as a button, very caring of her Tita (aunty) Roma and learning to speak English quickly, as Roma and the extended family generally only speak to her in English. Here’s a funny thing. Both Daniella and Rain, quite independently of each other, would not talk directly to me for the first few meetings we had. I found out later it was because I spoke English “in a funny way”! Their English teachers are Filipinos whose first language is Tagalog and therefore speak with their native accent. To hear pure spoken English (well in the context of never having heard an Englishman directly) was confusing and in their eyes not right. But they overcame their shyness eventually and I am now Tito (uncle) Derek. Roma has a son PJ who is 24 and training to be a doctor and I think she has high hopes for her little foster daughter too. I’ve been looking around at Manila during our stay and I have to say it is not a city that would appeal to everybody. Mini facts on PI say there is approximately 84 million inhabitants on the 1701 islands that make up The Philippines. 30 million of those live in the capital Manila. It is a vast sprawl of houses, industry, commerce, shanty towns and shopping. Shopping comes in 2 basic sizes. Small, that is very small, one man or more accurately, family businesses selling anything from fresh veg, fish or meat to junk. Then there is large as in mega large which is the super malls. These are built by large investment companies and fitted out just like our bigger shopping centres. But these super malls have food halls unlike a lot of ours. The food halls usually take up one floor similar to say Meadowhall or Thurrock if you’ve visited them, only much larger and with almost infinite choice. Rice booths, noodle bars, sea food, kiosks specialising in Chinese style, or Filipino or Malay or Thai or, well you name it and many you can’t name will be there. How about Kenny Rogers‘ (yes the C & W singer) Roasters which is a carvery style restaurant or The French Bakery which specialises in French pastries and crepes. Or how about Balut, which is chicken eggs boiled and served as an appetiser or accompaniment to beer. Sounds good huh, a nice firm boiled egg with maybe a dash of pepper, a little salt and yum. Well not quite. You will find yourself eating the egg yes but the embryo has begun to grow and form, so you still have the white or albumen, and the yolk but also a partly formed and growing chick in the middle. Enjoy your dinner!
Anyway back to the malls. They also have huge cinemas, usually on the top floor with many screens and showing all the latest Western and Asian films. Some malls have tenpin bowling centres (bowling is very popular in PI) and supermarkets, many the size of a Tesco Extra or Asda. We talked to some of the shop assistants on our wanderings and they said that they earn the daily minimum wage of Peso350 and work a 6 day week. Nonetheless, they are helpful, polite and almost always beautifully dressed and made up. We braved a tricycle which originally was a pedal bike and rickshaw style assembly but they have modernised slightly and are now 100cc motorbikes with a covered sidecar 2 passenger seat attached. Quite a bumpy and uncomfortable ride but cooler than walking and with prices in the 20 or 30 Peso region you can’t go wrong. They do not travel too far so sometimes the taxis are better. However you can often do better than a taxi by taking an MPV taxi with up to 11 or 12 other passengers but be sure to make sure you stop the right one. They tend to only do specific routes and destinations so always check. They tend to have to and from routes printed on the body work. Alternative to that is the Jeepney. A frequently highly individually decorated form of transport similar to nothing else on the road. Made in PI and I’m led to believe pretty reliable mode of transport. Looking at the condition of many of them I am sceptical. Finally buses. Every one tells me that they should be avoided totally. That goes, not just for travelling on them but for sharing the road with them. The drivers are regarded by everyone else as illiterate as far as road signs go and illegitimate as far as road craft and courtesy goes. Seriously though do not use them! You have to see them to believe me. There is also an MRT or Metro Rail transport which we did not use. It doesn’t have a great city coverage but is efficient and cheap. Well that’s what Kuya Guy said but he’s biased. They pay his pension as he worked for them for 35 years.
# posted by desmond22 @ 2:48 pm 
