Gas, break, dip

I feel like I am over overdue on shedding some light on the world of transportation in the Philippines. This place is nuts. There are few similarities to driving in America and driving here in Manila.

To name a few;
-There are no stop lights (ok, there are maybe 3 but no one obeys them)
-There are no stop signs
-There are no crosswalks ("you just have to run for it"-every time)
-There are no seat belts (in the backseat, pssh no big deal right?)
-There are no designated lanes
-There are no street names

I have 2 personal drivers here who take me to and from the Alabang studio; Bong and Rally. Neither of them speak very much English. Mainly we get by on the following 3 words; "Alabang?" "Apartment?" and "Traffic". Bong normally turns on some cuts for me though. There's a local radio station that plays all the club/dance hall hits which I can get down to in the backseat. Rally just smiles and honks a lot. They both have their strong points.

Rally took me to the local post office today which is no where near where I live to pick up my books that Powells shipped to me, finally. What can I say about the Taguig post office? First of all, it's on a street with no name that is filled with unemployed locals. If you're not selling mangos, rice or hand-made brooms your sitting on the street people watching (in the shade) attempting to avoid being run over by a jeepney/3-wheeler. There are no americans in a 15 mile radius. The post office is lined with half-asleep Filipino men who I am pretty sure work there but just don't have anything to do, so they bake in the heat and watch people go by. As soon as I walked up a man ushered me into the back room w/o saying anything where there were packages piled up to the ceiling (that wasn't finished, I could see through it). There was a desk and a chair and a calculator that he went on punching for a good solid 3 minutes until he announced I was to pay him 1,329 pesos to claim my books. Are you fucking kidding me? That's $30. I already paid $100 to buy/ship them to this miniature post-office. This is where the corrupt Filipino politics comes in. I don't speak the language, therefore I cannot argue, only roll my eyes and cough up all of my cash.

Yeah, I got my books but hot damn.

Side note; JEEPNEYS. I don't think there is anything I am more fascinated by here than Jeepneys. Leftover from WWII, the US military left/sold a bunch of jeeps that Filipinos transformed into public trans units that cart approx 15 passengers. Jeepneys are personally decorated (just like taxicabs) on the inside AND the outside. It is the owner's pride and joy. I have made it my official pastime here to Jeepney-watch instead of people-watch. I am fascinated by what the driver chooses to paint on the outside as it represents their beliefs (political and/or religious). Most common figure painted on Jeepneys in Manila is Guadalupe.

(Jeepneys, errywhere)

Apparently I taught a Filipino celeb last night at my class in the Fort. Gretchen Barretto. Tiny, botox and bling. Apparently she's dropped some albums and hosts a game show? Somehow I missed the bodyguards standing outside the studio...

(Gretchen Barretto, Filipino celeb)

Alright ya'll after teaching my 12th class tonight I am ready for a Red Horse and some Tucker Max. Oh, a client who went to UW invited me to a tattoo convention at the Mall of Asia tomorrow night....Do I go?