Going to Manila and Other Horrible Places, Pt. 1

Barrio Dagupan, Tondo, Manila

Topic: Vacation Trips

Who am I? What would have happened to if I turned left instead of right? And where should I go for vacation? Why don’t I combine the questions and see what happens. With these thoughts, I started my big adventure in the Philippines. Let me be specific, I went to Manila, the ancestral home of the Cruz familia, and a resort island called Boracay.

As usual on my vacations, I went to all the tourist spots but always include a sightseeing tour to the worst parts of the town. I’ve seen lousy neighborhoods in New York, Miami, Chicago, and my hometown of Oakland, CA. Yes, there’s incredible poverty in Manila but I won’t bore you with the details. We have all seen these places on TV or in the movies. What you don’t see is the liveliness of the poor that the Manileños exhibit.

They are poor and will always be poor. You know it and they know it. For the most part, they except their faith and make due as best they can. I personally would wallow in my beer or start shooting people if I were in their worn-out flip flops. But I digress.

Go to the most affluent neighborhoods in America and you won’t see hardly anyone walking at night. If they are in the streets, they’re usually inebriated or expecting a mugger/rapist to jump out at any moment. We are a frightened people.

In the barrios of Manila, you’ll see laughter and life we have long forgotten. You’ll see young couples ordering some San Miguel beer they can barely afford, you’ll see shopkeepers bored but chatty, you’ll see street urchins having fun playing in the gutter. And the way they move in these crime infested slums. Yes, they can be mugged, killed, or raped but why let that stop you from living your life is what they say. Not in their words but by their action.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a horrible place (hence the title) and I thanked my father for getting the family out of there. But the people of Manila and the rest of that archipelago were fascinating.