Makati City, Philippines street videos

it's been a long time since i last posted...and of course a lot has happened...

the pandemic has made life more real and harder to some.
being a wife and mom in an average Filipino family has made me realize some things and face life's hurdles in ways i thought will not be my "true-to-life like TV drama."

before the pandemic, i rode on different modes of transpo on my way to work each morning. here is a video taken after i got off the van near Pasong Tamo Ext. formerly Chino Roces Ave. near Makati Medical Center.

i am sharing the following videos, wala lang, just to give you a glimpse of the morning in Makati, Philippines. a lot of people are rushing to their work. I tried not to focus on their faces.

intersection along Amorsolo St. near MMC 

taken on my way to work along dela Rosa St., Makati

Video 2

Makati Medical Center (MMC) is the building on the left, that walkway is for doctors and patients of MMC doctors clinics at the opposite building

taken on my way to work along dela Rosa St., Makati

Video 3

de la Rosa St. in Makati is one of the busiest in the city. a lot of workers walk and run to their respective companies along this street. The Makati Medical Center's back entrance is along thst street, Restaurants, cafes, fastfoods, and jollyjeeps can be seen along the way.

on my way to work along dela Rosa St., Makati

Video 4

the street at the end of this video is where CEU has one of its Makati campus

on my way to work along dela Rosa St., Makati

Video 5

i made this video to document how i go to work and what i pass on my way. the Centro Escolar University (CEU) also has a campus there, I can't recall the street now but I will go back and edit when i see it.

i will post more videos of this walk in the next post. when the quarantine is lifted and we are allowed to work at the office i will surely post other videos of walks around Makati or where I may go in Cavite, or you may suggest by giving me a note.

Google Analytics =paste the ff. code in every post you want tracked

Philippines during the Pandemic

The pandemic experience is different from one person to another. I know its weird but I have been feeling that something is about to happen whenever I was in Makati. The company I work for is in Makati, the business capital of the Philippines. I am just a regular employee who works the 8-6 grind.

I pass this place on my way to work, this is far from my workplace though

I can't explain it but I have shared this "weird feeling"  with some officemates during lunch outs. That Makati have this"apocalypse vibe" for months from 2019 to the week before the lockdown that closed majority of business in Metro Manila. I laughed with my officemates while we talked about the "apocalypse vibe" I've been having then. But that feeling did not go away. So when the news about the Wuhan virus infection broke out, I was thinking that some tourist may bring it here. Which happened.

I took this picture inside the P2P bus that I usually take to go home before the quarantine period. The fare was increased so it took them longer to fill the bus, and only a few did not wear a mask.

And now people are suffering from the economic hardships brought on by the pandemic. 

Google Analytics =paste the ff. code in every post you want tracked

Korean tourists, students?

Going home is such a pain *@#!*;!
I had to take a bus, fall in line for more than an hour, and wait for my chance to board the bus (sometimes decrepit looking, probably bought from Taiwan, Japan, or Korea's junks, where cockroaches can be seen darting to and fro) and endure an almost 2 hours traffic inside a stiffling bus.

My nerves were wracked from trying to think of reasons why @*%$!?! bus owners in Cavite torture passengers who are loyal to their decrepit buses. The Dasmariñas passengers (Makati area) have to fall in line parallel to the Ayala Parking Area near MRT-Ayala. We have to endure the thick black smoke belched by vehicles plying EDSA. Whenever I have to take the bus, I always feel as if my skin is pasted with black dust and my lungs have had a smoker's fill equivalent to 10 packs of cigarette! My clothes and hair smell different. The bad air conditioning system of the old buses further aggravates the "EDSA feel." To think that passengers of the said buses pay the same amount as those who take the better and more "modern" Dasma buses.

I noticed that Korean residents (not sure if they are students) also ride on those decrepit buses. I noticed them laughing, lucky teens. What with the Korean stickers still adorning the buses, it must be related to routes that the bus took while it still ply Korean roads. You won't see such old decrepit buses plying Korea's streets! Even those buses used by the actors of Shining Inheritance were a lot better!

Even in shopping malls, it seems that more and more Koreans frequent the malls. This shows that a lot of them reside in Dasma. A lot of them hang out or shop in SM, Waltermart, and Robinson's. In SM, I was surprised to notice teen Koreans eating and shopping on their own. They seem to be that adapted to the place, no older Koreans clucking over them. When we were still new (8 years ago) in Dasma, Korean students were already a usual sight, more so at De La Salle. There are other nationalities but the Koreans stand out due to their number.

I did not bring my camera so I can't post a shot of our Asian neighbors in Dasma, maybe next time...And maybe some Korean food in Dasma? hmmm...


Google Analytics =paste the ff. code in every post you want tracked

to Greenbelt

the sight of plants relaxes me

From work, Greenbelt is about 2 to 3 minutes walk lang. And along with some officemates we usually go to Greenbelt during lunch break. More so when work is neck deep, we just have to go down and try to absorb some oncogenic sunlight and inhale some of Makati's vehicular pollution.

Here's another shot of the same park (SyCip Park along Legazpi St.).

I was pleasantly surprised when I first passed by Greenbelt 5 (G5), and saw the 2 pools (low lying "fountains"). Those pools gives the shopper or passersby a refreshing view amidst concrete and glass structures. You can see beyond the pool the pocket garden in the middle of Greenbelt. The pocket garden is surrounded by G3, G4, G5, and the Greenbelt chapel.

Here's another shot where you can see G3 beyond the greens.

Next are some shots of the path to the Greenbelt chapel from G5.

The Greenbelt chapel. I sometimes spend some of my time here. The chapel's location is very convenient for Makati workers not to mention the serenity it imbues to whoever seeks solitude inside.

buhos

There are days na I can hardly raise myself from the bed or rouse myself from deep slumber. Maybe, yan ay dahil sa distance ng work ko from our house. Imagine I have to travel from Monday to Saturday(half day lang naman) from Cavite to Makati. At first I can hardly raise my head from the pillow, ganun!

my cluttered desk at work

I have often contemplated leaving Makati and work in Cavite near our home(of which I did job hunt, unfortunately karamihan grads of IT courses ang preferred, heheheee).

And there’s the horrifying traffic scheme in Cavite – daily travelers refer to it as “buhos.” Buhos works like this – Cavite’s traffic enforcers stop the Cavite bound vehicles at Longos (bottleneck area at the flyover sa bungad ng Emilio Aguinaldo Highway) and they let the Manila bound vehicles occupy both sides of the road. The Manila bound vehicles roar onwards like scurrying wildebeests (ngek, exagz!). Bohus for Manila bound or Cavite bound vehiclesmay last up to 5 to 10(?) minutes then the ongoing vehicular flow is stopped then yong isa naman. Kaya kung ang sinasakyan mo (Manila bound) at di nakalampas sa SM Bacoor ng quarter to 7am at pa-Makati ka well bukas ka na lang pumasok. 'Coz the vehicle flow creates a bottleneck traffic at Niog on to Talaba and again by the tollgate or at the MIA road parallel to Uniwide Sales Coastal Mall. Whew!

Fortunately, it seems that Cavite's traffic management partnered with the MMDA in the current road widening project along Emilio Aguinaldo Highway. The last time I looked the spray painted structures and "USLI" posters has reached Dasmariñas, Cavite. Yeeey!

park in the middle

The Washington SyCip Park is a refreshing green island in the middle of Legazpi and Gamboa Sts., near Greenbelt 1.

On this huge rock and on two other huge rocks at the other two park entrances, the park's name were hammerred.

The entrance to the park from Legazpi street.

One of two gazebos inside the park. Beside this gazebo is a pond populated with kois. Fountains and an artificial waterfall aerates the pond water.

I like walking through this park when I have the time, it somehow gives me the feeling of being transported somewhere far from the city.

Here are photos of other parts of the Sycip Park.

Here's an interesting structure, a mobile sculpture, it rises in the park's center



Here's another sculpture, well I'll take a better shot of this, so for now I think this will do.

And here's what welcomes you at the Gamboa street entrance of the park, a cute big stone tortoise(?)