When Loverboy woke me up in the middle of the night, pulling me out of bed to exercise I thought he had lost his mind. Exercise?? Now??? Are you kidding??? But up I got, put on shorts, tee and sneakers, and off we went at 5:00am. He didn’t warn me about the amount of people who were there, and me thinking that we would be walking around this track alone in the middle of the night, figured my Loverboy had lost all sense of what it is like to live in the land of reality. So we drove down to the Arena in Marikina, his home town, to exercise. It’s only a 15min drive from our condo. When we entered the downtown Marikina area, now mind you it’s now 5:30am, I was astounded at the hustle and bustle already underway. If I didn’t know the time of day, I wouldn’t have believed it. People EVERYWHERE. Rushing, traffic, amazing. When we got to the arena my eyes popped open to see hundreds of people already walking around the track. He loves to get me that way. He gets a kick out of seeing my reactions to these things. He said he was amazed when he first saw it too.

So there we were, walking together around the track watching the sun rise. It was fun, I have to admit. We had a lot of fun walking together. But since this sedentary writer is unaccustomed to daily exercise, I was only able to go around 6 laps (1.5mi.) that first time. But I improved. Loverboy dangled pancakes in front of me and I eventually worked up to 16 laps. Good thing. I gained 8lbs on this trip, can you imagine if I didn’t walk that damn track a few times a week?!

Here’s some pics I shot with my cell phone. It was after sun rise so the crowd has thinned. But you get the idea.

Secondly, Loverboy got his required sinus infection days before we should have been leaving. (He gets one on every trip due to the pollution). He had fever for a couple of days and needed a course of antibiotics. So we hung in the Philippines. No problem. I absolutely love it there despite the congestion. I really do. Not too many people know that it is the largest English speaking country in Asia.. For anyone who has difficulty with languages other than English, it is an ideal place to visit. Everything, including signs, ads, menus, etc., is in English. Many people are surprised about that.

Manila is both a very beautiful city and an extremely congested and polluted city. It is crammed with millions of people and an indescribable amount of vehicles clogging the streets and roadways 24/7. Driving in Manila is certainly a challenge. Rules of the road are merely suggestions. Red lights and intersections are generally ignored and intersections are mostly a game of chicken. There are a disproportionate amount of taxis, jeepneys, buses, pedicabs, and other vehicles competing with the individual cars and SUV’s, all for the same patch of street or road. Pedestrians cross anywhere and everywhere, taking their lives in their hands and assuming that the mere gesture of holding up one’s hand to stop traffic makes them an immortal. Manila has more pedestrian deaths than anywhere else in the Philippines. Apparently they are not immortal.

Pollution is a sickening fact of life. Gasoline is unleaded. Emission control is virtually non-existent. Many people you see will be walking or riding the open jeepneys with rags and handkerchiefs covering nose and mouth. Many vendors soliciting motorists between traffic jams and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) street cleaners will have towels and shirts tied around their nose and mouth much like outlaws, wearing long sleeved shirts and large hats (mind you it’s no cooler than 80F) to protect them from the dirt and smut from this smog laden city. Rush hour begins way before the sun rises, usually around 5:00am, because it takes most workers several hours to commute through Metro Manila to their jobs. I am still fascinated at how this entire society rises at an average of 4:00am to start their days. You see women at crowded markets, people exercising, kids off to school, etc., as early as 4:30am. I give them all a tremendous amount of credit for sticking to a lifetime of that daily routine. But I suppose if that is how one always is than it is not such a big deal right? Spoiled American me.