Mass Transit Day 3

One thing I know about myself - I adapt fast.

On the third day I was already able to develop a routine as I was at the LRT station early and for the second straight day I was able to avoid the MRT rush by arriving just in time for the empty train which I just found out arrives at 7:00am. I was at the office in record time and I didn't look harrassed despite being crunched by the MRT doors. (ouch!)

My trip home was more interesting. After work, I rushed out of the office and into the MRT station where people were boxing out the yellow markers where the train doors would align. Let's see, on day 1, I was able to board on the 3rd train while on day 2 I was able to board the 8th train. On this day, I was able to board the first train that arrived despite all the people blocking off the train entrance. The doors opened and a guy was getting off. While he was pushing people out of the way while in the train, he blocked off the people who were getting in with me alone on the other side. Once he stepped off, this thin man pushed me off so he can get into the train.

Simple physics. A thin man pushing off a fat man. What will happen?

The guy pushed off me, was knocked back and hit the crowd behind him blocking them all off. I was still standing still. I boarded the train and didn't have to push anyone. From the MRT I ran to the LRT station while talking to Jaye (who told me NOT to use my phone in Cubao) and quickly boarded the next available train. At my stop, I positioned myself right in front of the door so that I can get a headstart and avoid the rush by doing a jackrabbit sprint. I was out and greeted by a huge crowd that took 3 of the 4 highway lanes. What was this, another rally? There were no waiting jeeps or any other public utility vehicle. A jeep would come by, drop off a passenger and people would do "sabit" (hanging from the jeepney's entrance which is now prohibited by law).

Here's another interesting thing last night. People were constantly fanning and moving like one of those party shows on MTV. Suddenly, something hit my eye and it itched terribly. What was going on?!? A 10 wheeler truck with huge headlights passed and lit the entire area and I saw lots (and I do mean LOTS) of fluttering things in the air. Argh! Insects! Not sure what they were (I'm no Gil Grissom) but they were huge and they were EVERYWHERE. I now remembered that there was a creek just beside the highway and it was probably hatching season or something. Now comes the funny part, jeepneys would constantly stop at this one area where incidentally there was a high concentration of those flying things. I found out about this when an empty jeep parked there, I ran to it and was swarmed by these insects making me run back. Another empty jeep passed by but I couldn't board it because I was laughing at this sequence.

Around 20 people would be standing in the lightly insect infested area. A jeep would stop at the highly infested area dropping off one or two passengers. Twenty people would run to the jeep while waving their arms wildly. One would be able to board while 19 would run back to the lightly infested area still flinging their arms around while shouting and shrieking (and coughing).

That was F-U-N-N-Y!

After a few more minutes a jeep stopped and dropped off a passenger in front of me. I grabbed the side bars and did my spiderman swing (like the one I did yesterday) only this time, someone was also boarding the same jeepney. I (inadvertently) gave him a flying kick sending him down to the asphalt before landing on the jeep's entrance. The jeep sped off before he could even say anything.

The song playing from the jeepney's sound system? The theme from Mission Impossible "Take a Look Around" by Limp Bizkit.