Letter from Manila - Santol - of course!

I was really hoping no-one would ask that!

Beginning of last month, the Transport Secretary stated that he wanted our project to start within February. All that was needed was another ratification by the PNR board. They had a meeting and the matter was considered so vital that two of the members never showed up!

So that was the February theory done with.

The upshot is God knows what's happening, I don't. I've heard nothing for three weeks.

Crazy bit is that it is now government screaming it should happen, but at the same time being the ones holding it up.

I was thinking the other day, in the ten years it's taken the Philippines to talk about their rail projects (not this one) the Malaysians have pretty much completed a double tracking and electrification programme on their west coast line, introduced a new fleet of trains, built extensions to two MRT lines, built and now opened a completely new MRT line and started work on two more.

The Filipinos really are their own worst enemy!   

I'm guessing you're right.

Must have been a damn sight worse for the poor guy up there as well.

At least for me and the pup, we had room to dance around, providing we didn't get mown down by a Jeepney, of course. The poor guy on the cherry picker (may even have been up a ladder) would have been attacked in his upper regions and any dancing would have seen a 20' fall, then getting mown down by a Jeepney.

Yes, the big ones I can see coming aren't a problem but these sods, if they were scaled up to car size, probably knock on 150mph*

* the author submits no factual evidence to back this figure up whatsoever!

For those of you who still actually remember what we're supposed to actually be doing here, I found this clip on YouTube

So this last weekend has seen the 2017 run of the awe inspiring Manila Bay Sea Sports Festival. This should have the lot. A seafront along which runs a wide paved corniche, the Baywalk – painstakingly put back together after Yolanda, plenty of parking nearby, free entry and one of the biggest static populations in the world.

So why did only ten people turn up? Okay, I exaggerate but not by much. Well, let’s have a look at some possible reasons.

Last week, probably around Tuesday or Wednesday whilst out with Pup 1, I noticed some temporary construction going on. Hello, I think, what’s happening here then? I have a look on the web and the Philippine Star tells me in about twenty words that the festival is on and some unspecified stuff might happen. Nothing further and all the other news outlets just re-print the article.

Then, on Thursday, I see a sign hanging from a lamppost, Mussolini style. It goes along the lines of, “March 18-19, Manila Bay SeaSports Festival. Some stuff will happen. Come along, if you’re not too busy or have something interesting to do. What’s that? You can spare half an hour? Are you sure? Haven’t got to prune the roses? That’d be lovely, we’ll look forward to seeing you, thanks ever so much.”

Seeing this I fire up the internet. There’s a Facebook page and it looks like this:



As you can see, that’s grabbed your attention hasn't it? .See? There were 11 'interested' and 23 'went'! It is assumed that the “Formula” and “Stock” bits are relating to the racing Banca’s (of which there were around six) and made no mention of the Dragon Boat racing, which actually made up the major proportion of the festival events with numerous races over the two days.

Couple this with a stage upon which a guy screeched into a microphone all day accompanied by curse word music, no food or drink stalls, absolutely nothing else going on whatsoever and you’ve got all the makings of a weekend to rapidly forget.

The paper had also told me that there would be a concert on the Sunday evening to wrap up, but I assume that as the few remaining spectators, having looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders in bemusement, had all wandered off, there wasn’t.

To be fair, the Aristocrat restaurant across the road seemed to be doing a brisk trade as, obviously, the opportunity to pay inflated prices for indifferent food had way more allure than the festival.

I remember back to doing the Menai Straits Raft Races a few years back. There was all sorts going on, plenty of food and drink available, RNLI and Air Sea Rescue doing a bit of showing off, crowds everywhere, market stalls, some shore displays, a real good day out, but this?

Apart from the secrecy, I think the other problem is the Baywalk itself. At around 2.5km in length, it runs from the US Embassy in the north to the Manila Yacht Club to the south. It’s all beautifully paved and should be a real feature. Put it this way, a couple of years ago, they allowed a few bars and restaurants to be built and it was a huge success. People flocked down and it was a very pleasant spot to have a few cold beers as you watched the sun drop over the Bataan Peninsular across the bay. Then, just prior to the Pope’s visit and after only about four months, they were ripped down again with no explanation.

These days, the Baywalk is a two kilometre stretch of homeless people who spend their days either sleeping or begging and now smells accordingly. This means that nobody wants to go there at all, except Sunday mornings, when hundreds of cyclists descend on it as the one place in Manila you can ride a bike without ending up tangled in a jeepney’s suspension.


The typically crowded Baywalk. Is this the world's longest public lavatory?

I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff they could do to jolly things along. Room for a good few motors for people to wander around, invite a few of the car clubs over. Get the Coastguard doing a couple of displays about whatever it is the Coastguard do. Give the folk the opportunity to have a bite to eat or something to drink, there’s only so much Cobra Energy Drink the body can stand in one day. Take folks out on boat rides, especially tourists, the cityscape is actually quite impressive from offshore. Funfair? Market stalls? Do stuff that people want to see and, above all, put a bit of effort into telling folk about it. It’s not a bloody secret. You can’t just stick; Saturday – Formula, Sunday – Stock, on some random FB page and expect Mr Sanchez to take a day off rubbish sorting to come down, now can you?

It’s a total waste, the festival and the Baywalk, but why am I not surprised?

George, if you're short of work at the moment, and fancy seeing South America, there's going to be a lot of projects going on here soon, not sure if it's made the news over there, but here we've had terrible flooding and mudslides, and it's destroyed a huge amount of infrastructure, and as most of the railways run alongside rivers.. there isn't much left anymore.

I'd love a stint in South America. I may have mentioned that I did a spot of work in Chile and loved the place, and that was with most of the time spent underground!

Your floods, etc, didn't make the news here. We're too busy reading about internal death, destruction, impeachment threats and so on.


Exactly!

Unfortunately this seems to be the way here. The two race circuits on the island are the same. Look on their pages and have very little idea what their forward programme is. Then they complain about how few spectators they get.

They are both pretty equidistant from , north or south, and around a three hour drive. Am I going to load up the '38 and head off into the wild blue yonder on the off-chance that two Toyota Vios are racing(?) each other? Nah, not really. Tell me what is happening and I'll be there.

Car shows are the same, shrouded in secrecy. It's only if you happen to be passing the venue a couple of days before and spot a sign.

i guess if you can't laugh at the state of affairs it would drive a guy crazy. My own firefighting has been woefully slow, been on only two wrecks all winter. Both I drew traffic control, hard work in the dark lonely back roads. I think I directed five cars total between the two. Ho hum
At least I haven't been in any wrecks myself, had the F350 sideways on some black ice at about 50 mph the other morning coming down the mountain on the way to work. It'll wake a guy up better than coffee that's for sure.

We get $10 a call
But that's probably pretty good money for Manila

Crazy? CRAZY? Never!


I guess that would do it.

When I was in the UK we had a particularly heavy snowfall up in the Pennines and I was out in my Range Rover, coming down a very steep hill and locked down in 2nd, low box. Come round a corner and there's an asswipe in a brand new BMW, elastic band tyres the lot, sideways across the road. I watched his eyes get wider and wider as I bore down on him, stopping about a foot from his window. Think he needed new Pampers, not coffee.




They get paid, just in stuff that needs "evacuating"

$10 per fire would see the whole of Manila razed in around a fortnight.


I'd like to introduce the two together, see who wins!

Yup, gotta be one out there. If not,I'll model it!

Anyways up, things are changing...

My apartment lease is due in May and I was told yesterday that they want GBP6,000 just to renew, over and above rent. Apparently it's a new "Policy". So being an understanding type of guy, I've told them to place their policy where the sun doesn't and I'll move ASAP and cancel my last two rent cheques.

This means, until we find alternative accommodation, we shall be residing on the second floor of the Wild Flower Water Station, Kagitingan St. Apparently, it's got a bog, kitchen, hot and cold running cockroaches and everything. It's also got a balcony. Most important. 

So from Sunday onwards, the Letter from Manila will be coming 'live' from Tondo.

Actually quite looking forward to it, I think. It'll be different anyway.