Manila

The Philippines is a place that I would have liked to stay much longer to explore the full extent of the culture. I only got to see a glimpse of it, and my experience was limited to that of a business traveler. However, the last 4 days had been quite an adventure in and of itself, leaving me with much to say about the people and the culture.

The flight from Hong Kong to Philippines is approximately 2 hours, making the travel bearable, even in economy class. The weather was at 30-degrees C, sunny, with a smudge of humidity. I was half distracted, though, as I stepped off the plane. I had not paid attention to the news, so it was only through the Tuesday newspaper on board the plane that I had learned about the Valentine's Day bombing in Manila.

Terrorist threats had been made to President Arroyo for the last couple of weeks, and two buses had been blown up in Makati and Davao, killing 7 and injuring 140 on February 14. What alarmed me even more was the tightness of security in Manila. My bags were checked at every hotel, mall, and business office, and other safety measures such as metal detectors and drug-inspection dogs were at all entrances.

However, if you ask the local Filipino, they will tell you, "This security has been in place since the bombings a couple of years back. Now, the terrorists have to resort to buses because they can't get into major buildings."

The traffic is unpredictable in Manila. I was told that a cab ride to downtown Makati can be anything between 10 minutes to an hour from Pasig City, where I was staying at. The inefficiency arises from congested traffic and the pedestrian norm of crossing wherever they want to.

I had been forewarned about the poverty in Manila but encountered much less than what I had expected. Children will rap at the car windows, asking for money or food. I also saw children (5-7 years old?) who were begging on the streets. Personally, I choose not to give money to beggars because I believe that it is unproductive labor. But feeling more charitable than usual, I bought a couple of bread and water. When I returned to the spot where the children were, they were gone. Instead, I saw them on the sidewalk, talking to a 15 year old who was looking into their cups. I sighed and hesitated, but gave them the bread and water. My behavior, in general, is not something of kindness but of ambiguous cruelty. Being rewarded for begging only induces the behavior and brings disincentive to find a better way of living. Oh well - they at least ate something that night.


Religious remarks are made at large in the Philippines. This was from a building near the hotel.


Staying at the Shangri-la la la. Nice :)


McDonald's delivers!?! - boy, they are really trying to make people fat.


Supermarkets seem well-stocked - but the display of it all was a bit overwhelming. Neatly placed and most things seem to be on the shelves by the hundreds.

Found

At the Mandarin Oriental wine & cigar bar

My trip would not have been as enjoyable if I did not know anybody. The Philippine office manager was too busy this week to go out with me, so I was pretty much on my own. Fortunate for me, I had a couple of contacts up my sleeve.

By chance, Gaurav happened to be in town on his regular commute between Hawaii-Tokyo-Manila. It was great to catch up with him. Work. Planning to build a house on Borocay. Partying like crazy in Roppongi. Bay Area days living with trainees (btw, our two Sri Lankan trainees, Dilantha and Dilantha, recently became fathers-awesome!).

It was nostalgic to look back, but also exciting to see how far all of us have come. Chau & Jim are a power consulting couple, working for BCG and Accenture. Sudhir is at the Kennedy School in Harvard. Donata and Tariq are in Dubai. Scott is in San Francisco at a CSR NGO but is temporarily stationed in Guangzhou. BeeLee is in a lucrative financial position in a Texas industrial cement company. Calgary is in Germany. Vishen and Cheong are in KL starting up their business. I'm in Hong Kong at a Fortune 500 company, and Gaurav is a successful office manager in Asia for an HR and Marketing company. It would be extremely difficult to get everyone together in one place again, but it's oh-so exciting to know your friends have dispersed around the world.



The next evening, I called up Bart, a Polish trainee I met in Hong Kong who is now stationed in Manila. I also met his boss, and we all had some good laughs over cold San Miguels out on the terrace. Bart's boss raved about AIESEC and wondered why he had not found it earlier. Bart and I just smiled. I learned some slangs in Tagalog from them and played (or tormented, depending on your POV) with the turtle.

It's a hard life...

Office Culture
I really enjoyed the office culture in Manila. I don't know if it was particular to our company, but everyone was so lively and friendly. By the end of my stay, I had a personal superman, whom I went to for all sorts of technical issues. He would drop everything to help resolve all sorts of things without a single frown.

The office, in general, was much like the Drew Carey Show. Filipinos love to sing and they would break into song, taking others along in the sea of karaoke. Employees were also listening to Linkin Park, Alanis Morisette, and Def Lepard at their cubicles, as they typed away on spreadsheets and reports. "Your job is to stare at the computer screen all day. You need something to keep you on your toes, right?" said the manager. He listens to classical music in the morning and occasionally jams on his guitar in the office. He has a fantastic voice too (this, we confirmed when we took him out to karaoke in HK).

It's such a shame that I only had less than a week in the Philippines. I haven't even been to Cebu, Borocay, or Cebu! I had such a great time, and I would definitely love to go back to the land of colorful Jeepnies, hamboogers, dalandan, green mango smoothies (yum!), Bohol monkeys, and amazingly nice people.