My Thrown Up Memories

I love traveling. It’s a wonderful escape from the hustle and bustle of the Metro. I love to see sceneries and meet wonderful strangers whenever I hit the road. However, I am no wealthy individual so I do my traveling via commute which is perfectly fine for me. 

But it was not always like this.

Buses are important vehicles for the working class and for the travelers. I, myself, go to work daily riding a bus. In the Philippines, there are two types of buses: Ordinary Bus and Air-conditioned Bus.

Ordinary Bus

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

 Ordinary Bus Interior

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

The Jeepney Royalty

Riding the Public Utility Jeeps (PUJ) or jeeps has been a part of my daily life. I would ride on it every single day whenever I travel. Of course there are other vehicles that I would ride as well but jeeps have been the most frequent. It is never comfortable and I wouldn’t want to actually ride on it, given the chance. It’s hot during summer, wet during the rainy days, smoke would enter the “always open” windows, and the seating is horrible especially when the driver squeezes in the maximum number of passenger even if some of the already seated are overweight, which consumes extra space. But I don’t have a choice. Financial difficulties have declared my fate and I had to learn to love the jeeps. I still don’t.

A typical Philippine Jeepney

Photo courtesy of aboutph.com

Manila in Retrospect

I have strong interests on everything that is old. Old houses, old pictures, old things, even old music (heck I so love opera!). I like seeing things or souvenirs that have survived the tests of time and I am very eager to know their stories, why they are like that, and how they survived. I am not a fan but I like going to museums to have a closer look on the preserved artifacts that relate their own stories to us just by looking at them.

So I joined this tour that I saw in Facebook. It was headed by Rence Chan, a 20-year stamp collector and an employee of the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost). It has been his advocate for years already and he has been doing this for FREE! Pre-registration was necessary because permits were needed to be asked and an exact number of participants must be determined. I initially asked my best friend to join but unfortunately she wanted to pursue other things on that day. So I asked my officemate to join who registered at once and was equally excited as I am for the tour.

Rence, our tour guide, is the one in green shirt. ;)