In a taxicab in traffic

As I write this, I’m inside a taxi making my way home from the airport. I had landed 3 hours ago from my flight coming from Cebu City and from the looks of things, it’s going to be around an hour and a half before I could get to home sweet home.

It’s a Friday night, the constant rain throughout the afternoon had not only caused the our flight from landing late at the airport but had brought about a horrendous traffic jam as well as flooding in selected areas of the metropolis. Out of boredom while willing the traffic to ease, I thought why not take out my laptop and write a few thoughts? So I locked the doors and turned on my clunky and very heavy laptop (which has brought me misery in my two and a half hour wait for the taxi) and thus this blog.

The taxicab that I am riding is getting more and more irritating with each stop-go situation that this turtle-paced traffic is bringing. There seems to be a problem with the clutch so whenever the driver eases on the clutch pedal, the whole vehicle jerks continuously forward. The hard headrest doesn’t help, feels like I’m being pummeled to and fro and the small legroom of the Toyota Vios keeps on cramping my legs which is already fatigued from standing in line earlier. To make matters even worse, I haven’t had a bite since lunch and it’s already eight o’clock. Wish I had more of those peanuts that they served on the plane.

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Cebu City, a few days ago I couldn’t say that the place excites me anymore. Been there quite a bit in the last half a year and though there are a lot of other places within the city that I haven’t explored, how much different can it be from Manila?

I did have a great time this last trip, though. Partly because I discovered that another fraternity brother of mine is already based there. That brings the welcoming committee up to four now! So as usual we had drinks and had many laughs, a great Thursday night, indeed!

In our conversation, they talked about other places in the province, and this piqued my interest. I have long wanted to explore the island of Cebu but the thought of having to spend loads of cash by traveling alone not only discouraged me, but because of the business nature of my trips, there is simply not enough time for all that traveling. But now that more people are here, this increases the chances of having a travel buddy to share the expense as well as the adventure.

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I’ve been eating and eating a lot during this particular trip to Cebu, taking full advantage of my boss’ presence. She has been making the rounds, holding lunch meetings and treating the people at our office there for snacks and breakfast. Of course, being her gopher-extraordinaire, I tag along and partake of these feasts. However, there has been one item that eluded me this time around, the famous Cebu Lechon. How I missed this delicacy is in part due to the busy schedule of mine that I haven’t had the opportunity to escape and troop to my favorite Lechon stand.

Somehow I don’t mind at all though, imagine how much more I would weigh now if I did have half a kilo of cruncy-juicy pork? Guess it’s something for the next trip, after all this would be the first time that this hasn’t been on the itinerary.

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Metro Manila has been experiencing rains and flooding these past few days, well there’s definitely none of that in Cebu lately. There, it’s the scorching sun all day and starry nights all night. I’ve been having sunburns just from crossing the street, while in Manila I’d be all wet just from puffing on my cigarette. I’ve been trying to decide which situation is the lesser evil but it’s more difficult than I thought.

I did come up with a winner, though. I am more likely to enjoy Cebu’s weather at this time. Rainy Manila is just too inconvenient, and with school opening and traffic worsening, it’s bound to be even more hellish than this past summer. (Oh, did I blog anything about the rainy Manila summer?)

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The taxi driver is cursing now, I’m not sure if it’s because of the traffic or his clutch. Could be both, I imagine. There’s just something about a traffic jam that amplifies even the smallest of pet peeves. In frustration, he changes the station to a more melodious one in contrast to the back and forth conversation of the AM, the topic of which by the way was about the traffic. Go figure.

Now, I’m listening to sentimental teeny bopper girl music. Taylor Swift, the Hannah Montana girl, Jonas Brothers, you know the type. I wonder how rude it would be to ask him to just change it back? Or maybe to another station? One that does not confine life to a decision on whether to dump a guy or not? Oh well.

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The traffic situation seems to be a lot worse than I had anticipated. We're about 3 kilometers from the airport (that’s a 33 minute ordeal, by the way) and people with large backpacks coming from the airport have begun to walk. No wait, they’re hailing a cab. They walked out of the airport this far to hail a cab yet couldn’t get one? So I’m lucky I guess to be stuck in traffic? For all I know I could be one of these people. And to think that it’s drizzling. The fatigue in my legs braving that long line for an airport taxi paid off, I guess.

I’m trying to figure out why there’s this traffic situation but am arriving at a big blank. The new one way counter clockwise traffic scheme around the airport must have something to do with this. The rotunda leading out the airport is packed with vehicles wanting to go in all sorts of directions. Why they changed the old rotten scheme for an even more inefficient one is open to anyone’s guess. We leave the rotunda, traffic eases a bit in our direction. Yay! Now comes EDSA, another hour at least. Think I’ll take a nap for a bit, all those kilometers of traveling and hours of standing still are taking its toll on me.