Corkboard 'n Pushpins: Metropolitan Immersion

I used to think that a bus and a taxi ride or maybe the rail transit is all one has to take to get to Makati City; the country’s central business district. I was wrong. For more than a month, I had to weave through traffic of confusing instructions given by some people involved in the processing of official travels in our company and that experience gauged that my patience can go for miles although there were few times that I seem to come to a dead end and simply overheat with ire. I though all the papers involved in processing this trip would pile up as high as a skyscraper in Makati!

Jing and I are sent to Microsoft Office trainings. We are registered in 6 courses which we studied for two separate weeks; one course per day, 3 courses per week.

I had been in Makati for many times before but usually, it’s either a whole-day stay or just passing through it bound somewhere else thus this was my first time to get to stay there for days.

Week One (June 4-6)

We set off very early in the morning because the inn where we made a reservation has its cut-off time for payments by 4PM otherwise they shall forfeit our reservation. Since our training schedules are until 6:00, we just agreed to drop by early in the morning and pay the lodging before proceeding to the training center. This is just beneficial for us too because we may leave our stuffed bags there.

Along the way, we had a wonderful time chatting with our driver and as far as I recall, this was the first time that I didn’t sleep in a trip to Manila. I had the impression that we’ll be getting along well with our driver little did we know that the moment we enter Makati City, it’ll be one hell of a ride for us – literally!

“O, yan na yung Makati Cinema Square. Sa’n tayo?(Here’s Makati Cinema Square. Where are we to?)”, said he. I looked at the location map we got from the inn’s website. The map says we are to turn left to a street three blocks away but as I was explaining, he already turned right to a corner! I was stunned. My sense of direction was lost because a location map could not provide as much details of course since it’s customized to the inn’s vicinity. I took out the detailed map of Makati City and still tried to identify our now misdirected location. The problem with this driver is that he wouldn’t listen to directions. (Fact: Studies reveal than most men hate being told what to do if they’re holding the wheel) We’re beginning to doubt if he’s mastered which is left and which is right! To make our situation worse, only few people are familiar with the name of the street we’re looking for. When we asked for directions, they had to turn the map upside down according to where we were before they would know the place. For you not to get entangled with what we really went through let’s sum it this way: we had asked 9 people and the last of them was able to give us detailed directions. Whew!

We arrived in the building of our training center minutes past 8AM. The driver just dropped us off at the park entrance. We’re glad to learn that the training starts by 9:00; first hour is for breakfast.

The training approach is mentored-learning where we shall watch instruction videos at our own pace, do the exercises in the manuals with demo files stored in our computer. The proctor would just check our progress with the videos once in a while and answer our queries if we have any. With this arrangement, trainees of different tracks may be put in a single room yet consultations would still be one-on-one. Our proctor is very approachable and enjoys a fun chat so it didn’t take long before we became at ease with her.

On the second day, we had no hard time riding a taxi from the inn to Robinson’s Summit Center. The blooper was when we got in the wrong elevator just because it’s the first one we saw open. Once we’re inside and had closed the door, only then we realized that there’s no button ‘10’ in the panel and the least other than Ground Floor was floor 17. In our bewilderment we just pushed on button 32. Too good there’s nobody else in the lift to know about our blunder and that we’re wearing smart casual so it’s as if we’re working in the contact center in 32/F. HaHa! The price of ignorance…

With our instructor’s enticement and directions, we decided to show ourselves around the metropolis. We did well until we’ve crossed Ayala Avenue using the underpass but we got confused of the many exits of the HSBC Tower which she said is the shortcut to the famous Greenbelt so we retraced our way out from the building and decided to ride a jeepney. Jing discreetly inquired for directions from her seatmate and the kind lady said that it’s just walking distance. True enough, no more than 2 minutes after, she pointed our destination but since we’ve passed it already she said we could get off in Greenbelt 3 across The Landmark.

We just window-shopped in G3 and enjoyed the luxurious interior and exterior of the place. Although I know how to conceal my awe so as not to look deprived of civilization, it became more intense when we entered G4 where the big names of apparel are housed: Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Louis Vuitton among others which I could only afford to look on in magazines; I was dumbfound with such extravagance!

Day three is just another day in the training center. Tough times struck again when we got out of the building and had a hard time getting a taxi back to the inn where our driver was waiting. Another discovery: Makati’s business hours are from 9AM to 6PM hence rush hour is around 8:30 and 6:00. For 20 minutes we failed to get a taxi hence we had the dilemma of braving the streets or waiting ‘til 911 rescues us. Since we recall from Day 1 that from that street (which we later learned to be Salcedo), the taxi just went straight ahead and turned to Rufino; we just have to get to the other side of the avenue and so we searched for an underpass. We’re still reluctant with the idea of walking hence we would stop occasionally and try flagging down a taxi. Then we would continue walking while relying to our map even if it still has the former names of the streets. Just imagine our joy when we caught sight of the gasoline station which served as our landmark. Hallelujah!

Unfortunately, our misguided driver seemed to have failed to take his supplements again and from the back of the van, we heard him asking people for directions frequently. I was just too tired to navigate for him again especially that it’s already dark thus I just slept. How long were we lost? Imagine: average travel time from Subic to Manila is 3 hours but we arrived home at 12 midnight.

Week 2 (June 21-23)

We’re more at ease traveling the second time; at least no more getting lost or even if we did, it wouldn’t take that long to find the right track. We crossed our fingers hoping to get another driver and thankfully our prayer was answered. We were assigned a different driver although he was misinformed by their dispatcher of the departure time thus he came an hour late.

Fortunately, this guy is really good in his job. He knows the interlacing streets of Manila hence we took shortcuts and was able to avoid traffic. We arrived just right on time. We stayed in a different inn, more spacious but cheaper, but it is in the same street.

We came to New Horizons (the training center), logged in and said “hi” to the receptionists who became close pals too. We’re assigned a different room and a different proctor but the training was just as worthwhile as the previous three. We got a little used to the routine by now. In fact, we would joke that the man in the tutorial video, Chris Paynes, is our best friend because he was the mentor in 5 of the 6 courses which we took. (We love this guy HeHe)

Just like in our first week there, Day 2 is “Exploration Day” for us. This time, we’re more confident of the way and had successfully reached Greenbelt. We just passed through it and agreed to shop for some stuff in The Landmark and meet after an hour for dinner. As expected, traffic’s heavy again and we have to walk around the mall to get to Glorietta where it still took us long to get a taxi.

No much trouble for us the last day because it’s a Saturday and Makati is not in its usual bustling state. We’re able to get out of the center earlier than usual and return to the inn where our trusty driver is waiting for us. Our trip home took us a little over 2 hours only.

Aside from the technical learning I derived from the training, the whole experience taught me significant lessons as well including lessons of patience, alertness, budgeting and others. Although I maybe called a primitive on the modern facilities in Makati, I’m proud to have survived the challenges of staying in the place although in the back of my mind, I wish I had also learned how to go around riding jeeps or buses alone and not taxis. Both our adventures and misadventures are just fun to recall. Sometimes, getting lost has its benefits too!