FLOATING DOWN THE PASIG RIVER

Today, my friend Tillic picked me up and we took a cab to Quiapo - to Ilse D'Touls (Sa Ilalim ng Tulay) - where you can buy handicrafts dirt cheap. You must haggle even though their markup isn't that high. The shopping area is under the Quiapo bridge and near the famous Quiapo Church with the miraculous Black Nazarene statue, object of veneration to so many people that they have stampedes during the feastday of the Nazareno.

Back to the shopping center: outdoor stalls with quite a lot of shell craft, bamboo items, capiz shells, weavings, leather items. You can find lamps, bags, shell hanging dividers or wind chimes, tablecloths, napkins, knickknacks, carved wood, embroidered items, the list is endless. I picked up a lovely Filipina dress: handpainted kimono with skirt and panuelo for P1,500 - that's around $38; a nice beaded bakya (native wooden clogs) for P250 ($5); ebony back scratcher; shell pill boxes, woven purses, etc.

The best part was returning to Makati because we took the ferry down Pasig River. The ferry service is only two years old and it was the first time Tillic had taken it. It was wonderful! The terminals (except for Quiapo) were all quite nice, the ferries were clean and new, with a large screen for those who wanted to watch movies. I spent my time looking around because I'd never seen Manila from this vantage view. I'd read about Pasig being a major thoroughfare in the 1800s. In olden days one could take a boat all the way to Laguna. Jose Rizal writes about such a voyage in his famous novel, Noli Me Tangere. There are antique pictures showing the Pasig River with boats; the ancient steps on the banks are still there! There are also some old houses on the riverbank. And the ferry passes right by the Malacanang complex - that's all quite handsome. So, as we floated on Pasig for about an hour, we saw the Malacanang complex, warehouses, refineries, slums (yes, that too), and now and then some surprisingly intriguing mansions. Tillic was fascinated by the white birds that could fly forever that looked like small seagulls. They kept pecking at something on the water. I don't know if they were fishing, but we did see people fishing from the river banks, and also some children swimming. When we were young, the Pasig River was so polluted it had no fish; it was covered with green plants and a lot of garbage. To swim in the Pasig was tantamount to a cholera-sentence. Now, it's obviously cleaner.

So very fun! I highly recommend it, but don't have your hopes too high. It's not yet Bangkok, but I can see how in 5-10 years, this Pasig ferry will be quite a fashionable way to travel in the Metro Manila. Think of it: no traffic, no pollution, low stress - really you could take a nap, you could read, you could watch the movie - you can't do these things in a jeepney or taxi, you just can't because the frenetic Manila traffic is just too over whelming.