I Don't Wanna Come Home to Manila

My mother was in a car accident this morning while she was working in Manila (she goes to Manila every two weeks to work as an insurance agent). Other than the fact that her only two year old Nissan Orvu minivan (I bet the mileage only recently ran out on it) was completely wrecked, she only had a few bruises on her thigh and upper lip. It's safe to say that'll get us some money off of our car insurance (ironic, isn't it?).

The thing is, it happened in Manila, the place where I was born. That sorta thing, I know, is supposed to be common in Manila, but still, it's just wrong nonetheless. I'll go ahead and say, that in the next few months that I have left in high school, I'll dread every bit of going to Manila. Why, exactly? Well,

1. Check the shanty towns. They look like they came out of a dog's ass. Quite a few (thousand) of the buildings contain stuff that literally did.

2. The city air is a giant fart. My father, returning from an overnight visit to Manila was bedridden for about half a week because he spent a few hours on the street.

3. The only nice places to visit are the malls. Every other place is either a seedy nightclub, a high-rise or a place of historical value about to be turned into a mall (take a look at Fort Bonifacio, now known as the high end shopping center, The Fort).

4. The prices are outrageous. Some restaurants sell bottled water for about 45 pesos. That's just about the same amount a grande bottle of beer costs here, and anything that kills brain cells is supposed to be more expensive than anything that doesn't.

5. The traffic is mind-numbing. I live in Lanang, and it takes me at most 35 minutes to get to school. In Manila, it took that much time to cross about 3 city blocks at 7 in the evening.

6. Bombs hit harder. In Davao, the streets are more or less vacant, so if a bomb were to blow, only few would be affected. In a crowded place like Manila, putting a bomb on the street would be like mixing vodka in with water. The device would blend in to the point of transparency, but the effect on the crowd would be devastating.

So I'll just go ahead and say, thanks for all the cool stuff, I could buy, Manila, but in the end, you ain't nothin' but a bitch of a city.