Blogging Miles Around the Metro

Sitting in the passenger seat of my friend Bernice’s car, the scene up ahead took a while to register. Not until Jing in the backseat mentioned that the guys on the motorcycle up ahead were paranoid did Bernice and I pay attention—and burst out laughing.

The two men on the motorcycle were holding a car bumper. And the rest of us thought that helmets were the standard protection for cyclists.

If the Big Mango—as Dev calls Bangkok, is known for its colossal traffic jams, the streets of Manila (no particular fruit comes to mind), I think, would be known for its crazy drivers (though we did have the mobile urine-kit thing going for us here a while back too). The term defensive driving here would definitely be an understatement. The Manila driver’s pastime is skipping around potholes and ducking into side streets while dodging fleets of street vendors (who sell anything from candy, newspapers, roses, light toys (yeah, the ones that flash and sparkle), children’s toys, towels, rags, food and car chargers, with car radios blaring, and oftentimes engaged in conversation with either fellow passengers or via SMS or mobile phone (jeepney drivers manage to do this while collecting, calculating and giving back change to their passengers). Couple this skill with a single-minded objective of getting from point A to point B by hook or by crook, and you’ve got one of the wildest urban jungles out there.

To quote an internet article on Pinoy drivers, “Jenson Button, the famous British Formula One racer, once visited the country and went away saying he would not drive in a jungle like Metro Manila.”

‘Nuff said.

Photo taken with Yelle’s camera phone along Ortigas Avenue.

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