FN Blog - Seven heads are better than one!

It’s a city of contrasts and ironies, where crass mixes with class to make a delightful brand of cheesy goodness and kitschy cool in true Manila style. Your existence in this city can range from humdrum and monotonous to eclectic and surreal, depending on what you’re up for at the moment and what you’re willing to do about it.

One day you’re making tusok-tusok fishballs and choosing between three trademark sauces in garapons (Hepa A, Hepa B or Gastro), the next day you’re sipping mimosas at Sunday Jazz Brunch in your metallic Havaianas the morning after a glamourous night out on the town. Today, you’re hobnobbing with Quentin Tarantino at a film festival, the next day you’re reading about him wading in the baha on Arlegui and getting into a pedicab to meet PGMA in Malacañang.

If a non-Manilan ever asks you, “What’s Manila like?” you will most likely be stumped for an answer, for you cannot characterize the pulse of the city in a nutshell. Many a foreigner will inevitably be daunted by the alarming spread of urban decay throughout the metropolis and that clear and present danger constantly earning us bad press and frightening travel advisories in the First World. Tourists are always shocked to see little pockets of a First World lifestyle and culture thriving in a Third World reality. But whatever you say, unexplainably, life in Manila, no matter how short, will always bring a happy, exciting vibe you can’t seem to feel anywhere else in the world.

“Manila is so much fun—you’ll never know what to expect,” is a safe answer, and is also what seems to be the common theme for travel writers like Pico Iyer who devoted a whole chapter about Manila in his book Video Night in Kathmandu, describing, among other things, his crazy experience of watching the GMA Supershow and meeting pop stars Pops Fernandez and Lilet in the 80s.

More recently, when writer David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Holidays on Ice) was in Manila last year, at the top of his must-experience list, based on prior research, were:

   1. To eat in Jollibee
   2. To see Makati Cinema Square
   3. To watch Wowowee live.

It seems that Manila is famous not for any breathtaking or picturesque sights, but for its surreal, you-have-to-see-it-to believe-it experiences. Of No.2, everybody’s favorite haunt for crazy bargains and the oddest doodads he amusedly said, “It’s like a mall with cancer. I love the juxtaposition of a ballet supply store right next to a store that sells guns and other firearms!”

Photo of Makati Cinema Square by Tammy David

So, if a picture paints a thousand words, then here’s a little bit of what I have to say about the city where I was born, grew up in, thrive on and will keep coming back to:

Carriedo fountain, Binondo, taken during my Holy Week ’05 expedition with friends

Remnants of an old building, somewhere in Binondo.

5 a.m. view from my balcony, Makati

“Envy”: Manila girls, taken July 2005

Kalesa queue, Binondo, April 2005

“What a tangled web we weave,” Binondo, April 2005

Look up, young man, look up, Binondo, April 2005

Makati Skyline, Legaspi Village, April 2005

“Waiting game,” Chinatown, April 2005

“Lord, give me a lover!” May 2004

“Barney Likes to Read,” Glorietta, October 31, 2004

“Ms McDonald Meets Harry P,” Greenbelt, Halloween 2004
Ms McDonald is a.k.a. FN Blogger Genie

Gallery at Saguijo, 2004

“I’ve Got All My Sisters With Me,” Government, 2004

“The Well-heeled,” Embassy Super Club, 2005

Cool Cat Sax, Greenbelt, 2006

“Wawi Twirls,” Taguig, 2005

“Apres-Show,” Shangri-la Makati, 2004

Hed Kendi, Taguig, 2004

Lumiere, 2005

M Cafe, 2006

Hydrant explodes, 5 a.m. at The Fort, July 2005

“Say, Say, Say,” Ayala Avenue, 2004

To complete your virtual Manila experience, let me leave you with your own private cheesy sing-along experience of the Manila Sound by the Eraserheads (couldn’t find a nice enough video from the original Hotdog Band):

Manila
By The Hotdog Band

Maraming beses na kitang nilayasan
Iniwanan at ibang pinuntahan
Parang babaeng mahirap talagang malimutan
Iisa pa lang ang aking binabalikan…

Manila, (Manila), I keep coming back to Manila
Simply a no place like Manila
Manila I’m coming home

I walked the streets of San Francisco
I’ve tried the ride in Disney Land
Dated a million girls in Sydney
Somehow I feel like I don’t belong

CHORUS:
Hinahanap-hanap kita Manila
Ang ingay mong kay sarap sa tenga
Mga jeepney mong nagliliparan
Mga babae mong naggagandahan
Take me back in your arms Manila
And promise me you’ll never let go
Promise me you’ll never let go

Manila, (Manila), I keep coming back to Manila
Simply ain’t no place like Manila
Manila I’m coming home

(repeat chorus)

Manila, (Manila), miss you like hell Manila
No place in the world like Manila
I’m coming home to stay