Culture shock??

It's great to travel, but what is not great are massively long flights. And add on to that taking buses and just waiting... soooo much waiting. By the end of it I thought I was going to go nuts. Getting through customs in Manila was aggravating, there was a massive line up. Line up is actually the wrong way to describe it. There was a solid block of people, trying to get through a limited number of customs gates, with no discernible line. It took well over an hour to get out of the airport, that was almost the breaking point as I had not slept in over 36 hours. Remember that guy who got tazer killed by the RCMP because he was going crazy in the airport... Try travelling like that and you can relate.

I did not spend long in Manila and am fairly happy for that. It is just a massive sprawling urban nightmare, with absolute poverty everywhere. It makes you sad but there is nothing you can do about it. Little children come up to you and beg for money... like 5 year old children. But giving them a few pesos isn't going to get them out of that situation. It makes you feel kind of helpless.

I am in Cebu now, another sprawling urban nightmare with absolute poverty everywhere, but not as bad as Manila. I haven't seen much of it yet and I don't know how much I will see. My main focus is to get out of cities, they just make you kind of sad. Like I am sitting in a fancy Internet cafe in a mall, more posh than any we have in Ottawa, yet two block away there are people living in shacks and washing their clothes in sewage water. I saw a woman sleeping face down on the sidewalk with her 2 year naked baby playing in filth beside her. Less than a block away from that was a Starbucks, exactly like any you would see in Canada... The class gap here is massive. Being homeless in Canada would be a blessing compared to here.

One thing i find particularly funny is the driving. The traffic is crazy all over but what is really funny is the honking. Everyone honks at everything all the time. I think it devalues the point of a horn. At first I was looking all over the place when I heard a honk. But you are literally hearing: honk honk honk honk honk honk... all the time, so you just stop paying attention to it.

I am just suffering culture shock in general.