Monday, August 15, 2005

The End is Near (part 2)

The Fourth Sign: The Outsider

Last weekend, my stateside-based tito, tita and cousins visited us for a family reunion.

Showing the usual filipino style hospitality, our family offered to treat them to the best of our native delicacies.

Typically, pinoy cooking can be summed up as follows: The more cholesterol, the better. Roasted pork, molten sebo, deepfried parts, or basically anything that sizzles and crackles and your meal is good to go. Heck, even our veggie dishes are full of oil, meat or chicharon.

However, this post is not about the typical pinoy cooking.

For some reason, my Dad suddenly had a craving for something... exotic. Yes. Something more exotic than even balut (steamylicious aborted baby duck eaten in its shell) and dinuguan (chewy pork liver bits in blood stew)...

He craved sawa (python), bayawak (monitor lizard) and locust. Deep fried of course (Best with san miguel). And to my horror, my Tito agreed.

Thus we found ourselves on the way to Balaw Balaw restaurant in Angono, Rizal, the most famous source of these holy grails of Filipino food. Angono, by the way, is commonly called the Artist's town because of its colorful culture (not just Balaw balaw), and because a lot of Filipino National Artists took up residence there.

However, this post is not about the Balaw Balaw restaurant nor the quaint little town of Angono.

This post is about Jeepneys. Yep. The icons of Filipino ingeniuity, whose very drivers have transcended the limits of multi-tasking by not only texting while driving but also looking each passenger in the eye (via the rearview window), coordinating where each one should sit, counting change by the use of touch alone, and with his free hand, smoking out the window.

Of course, with everything else going on, something's gotta give. Jeepneys are absolutely the WORST drivers in the Philippines. They cut, they swerve, they stop and even go on reverse in the middle of the street with reckless abandon.

Sort of like a woman driver, but more aggress... Oh wait... Sort of Like a woman driver.

Anyway, this post is about how on the way to Angono, I finally saw a Jeep that actually signalled to switch lanes, and slowed down before stopping at the road's shoulder to pick up a passenger.

The end is near.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh. my. i could understand your disbelief. i'm a jeepney driver hater myself. dat was... exceptional.

first to praise you again? hehe.

the_artist said...

Lol. Be careful about the driver comment. Never know who could be watching. :p

*nervously looks around to see if any of them are waiting with whiffle bats*

bella said...

the day jeepney drivers start following proper road rules is the day I'll start taking a bike to work.

wytchgurl

super inday said...

what's that about female drivers?!?!

Debbie said...

'Sort of like a woman driver'? I think more like, sort of like you aids! :P

markku said...

The woman driver thing I gotta agree with. ;) May part 3 pa ba to?

Anonymous said...

Nice little tangent you wrote down man. Thanks for that lil' bit of info. And I must remind you that maybe the only reason that the driver did that was due to the rain?? Remember it rained heavily on the road back from Rizal. I only wish I coulda seen the look on your face when you had that ephiphany.

Btw, maybe one day you can have some real fear factor food like ipis, or rat or even gecko. Hehehe it all tastes like chicken in the end ;)

Conrad

Unknown said...

what's another sign the end is near? you only update your blog once a month. hehehe...

Alina said...

He was new to the job, I'm sure!

Tobie said...

Coolness.
Love reading this.
Hmm..

Anonymous said...

I love your blog! I also have a site about wakeboard handle
. You can check it out at wakeboard handle
.

Also, as a special bonus for your visitors, i want to tell you about a site that is giving away a FREE Sony DVD Handycam! Just click the link below and enter your Zipcode to see if you qualify.

FREE Sony DVD Handycam

Anonymous said...

GROW IT YOURSELF!