Flight Travel Inquiry Manila to Bali + Jakarta to Manila.
Hi guys,
Please respond only and PM me please if you have traveled these routes recently and know about the smaller regional airlines. I am looking for Philippines Airasia (subsidiary of Airasia formerly Zest) or any value-priced REGIONAL airline (not PAL) for DIRECT (non-stop) flights to / from these locations. I know that Cebupacificair has direct flight Manila to Bali but the times suck. Experienced replies appreciated.
"Filipino time": moved here from the Makati thread
[QUOTE=Lefeu;2134343]I arrived last night from Angeles City for a 3-night stay in Makati. The drive from AC took almost 4 hours, most of it stuck in Manila traffic, for a 90 km ride. Mind boggling! My taxi driver seemed resigned to it, as it is his job. But I could not help but wonder if I can handle a job like that. You can label me spoiled but that's a brutal way to live one's life.[/QUOTE]You would handle it. If you had grown up and lived your entire life in Manila, you wouldn't know anything different. In fact, Manilenos have built up many cultural and linguistic practices around these traffic delays. Meetings often start late--sometimes because of participants' late arrival due to traffic delays. The locals have learned to exploit the situation to justify arriving late. Even some expats and frequent foreign visitors join in this exploitation. I am one of them.
The conventional justification upon arriving late is, "the troppick was very heavy today. " Some shorten it to "it was very troppick today," or even "very troppick today"; the adjective "heavy" is not essential to convey the argument. A close reading would suggest that "today" is also part of the manipulation; since the traffic is slow and heavy almost every day, it should be possible to plan for delay and leave earlier for your destination. So the reference to "today" is sort of a lie that everybody buys into, and since not causing others to lose face is an important Filipino cultural practice, people are beholden not to challenge those who use the traffic excuse.
Another related linguistic convention is the question, "will the meeting push through"? Since, for any given meeting there are late arrivers--because of "troppick," those who host meetings are often pressed to determine whether to continue with the meeting, given the late start time. Hence the question, "should we push though with the meeting"? Perhaps Brits and Aussies have a different experience with this, but in the states I have never heard this combination "push through" used in this way. So, since Filipinos got their English primarily from Americans, it appears they invented this expression. Is this too a product of Manila's heavy traffic?
Meetings starting late and a set of linguistic and cultural practices built around traffic delays obviously are consistent with the much slower pace of activity referred to as "Filipino time." Here then is the upside to heavy traffic and late meetings: life runs more slowly and all the locals are content with it. I have learned to cherish this slower pace of life, and I experience a bit of remorse every time I leave it behind when I return to the states. How can this possibly be worse than the rat race that most of us accept in our Western lives? So, perhaps the frustration Lefeu describes about Manila traffic is as much a product of his own embeddedness in the Western rat race as it is a result of Manila traffic conditions. Next time Lefeu, just take a nap in the taxi; it'll get you recharged that much more quickly for the next round of horizontal recreation.
Within a few years the cross-city elevated skyway may become a reality, connecting the Northern Expressway in Balintawak with the Osmena Highway and EDSA in the south. This may cut down travel time between AC and Makati and get Manila a little closer to the Western rat race.
