Dear Manila,

Greetings from the island paradise of Boracay! It's only been two weeks since I've seen you last and already I miss your smog and your traffic and your krispy kreme. Anyway, I just thought I'd write to you a little about this small provincial place that I've left you for.

Its been a little over four months since I've moved here and I think, by virtue of the number of choriburgers I've eaten and the motorbike rides I've taken, I have earned the right to call myself a local. As such, I've noticed a couple of things that might have escaped the eye of the many tourists that come visit and I feel duty bound to report them to you para hindi ka masyadong mainsecure na parang mas mahal ng tao tong islang eto kesa sa syudad mo.

1. Gas stations. There are no neon lights, no treats or selects, no gas pumps here. What we have are nipa huts that line the road with different sizes of coca cola bottles filled with pink gasoline. As your tricycle pulls up, a helpful attendant in shorts and sando (sometimes) rushes to greet you and take your order. Your driver chooses between the one liter, 1.5 or 2 (it also comes in sakto sizes for the poor) and your eager attendant gets the order, opens your gas tank and fills it up. Miski hindi high tech, full service pa rin po naman. So okay na rin.

2. Safety is not cool. Especially not when you're riding the motor. Please note that it is not cool to hold on to the driver (and also very gross). You just hold on to the thin metal thing at the back with one hand and pretend you dont care that the driver is probably violating 24 safety violations. And you know, just yesterday, I rode the tricycle with 8 other people. Can you imagine cramming 9 bodies into a 1.5 meters by 1 meter piece of rusting metal running 20kph?

3. paranaque is to taxi drivers what angol is to tricycle drivers. Paranaque is where i live in the city and taxi drivers avoid it like the plague. Angol is where i live here and tricycle drivers avoid it like the plague. What the fuck man?!?

Anyway, I dreamt of you again last night. You're airport has drive-through ticket sale booths na raw. I wouldn't be surprised if thats true. You have immense potential manila. yuck.

Anyway, i miss you and I will see you soon.

Love,
ettie

P.S.

Ilan beses na kitang iniwan
Nilayasan at ibang pinuntahan.....