Walking Like a Baws

April 3, 2011, 7:51 am , on a hot Sunday morning, I began my expedition to the official central point of the Philippines, the Kilometer Zero Monument. From the town of Cainta, Rizal, I had to go there only by foot!

It was challenge I took on a whim. It was the previous Saturday evening, lying on my bed deep in thoughts, I was thinking of doing something cool. Initially, I thought of running aimlessly around the island of Luzon like Forest Gump, just for the whole summer. But since my health conditions won't permit such a suicidal act, having asthma that is, sadly I've lowered my goals.

7:45 am, I was ready to go. I was wearing a pair of all-terrain slippers, a knee length orange polyester cargo pants, a white camisa de chino shirt and a native backpack that definitely attracted attention. Inside my bag, I put some reading materials, and some necessary stuff. I was also plugged into my mp3 player to keep me from getting bored.

I'm very thankful there is such thing as Google Earth, where I could pinpoint my destination and plan my route. I planned to follow the LRT 2 Railway line.

Out of our village, I started to trek Imelda Avenue. Then after reaching the corner connecting Marcos Highway, I climbed up the flyover bridge to get to the other side, no, not like a chicken.

I had a stopover at the Santolan LRT Terminal Station along Marcos Highway at exactly 9:00 am. Not to ride the train but to have a snack, which happened to be a handful of orange kwek kwek dipped in vinegar and refreshing gulaman juice.

Right after the protein-rich snack, I came out of the terminal and started to walk again.

I climbed up the foot bridge connected to SM Marikina. As I passed by the front of the mall, I tried to capture a few shot of the huge amazing structure, but the mall guards just had to be rude to local tourists like me. They shouted at me at a distance, forbidding me not to take pictures. I can't blame them, they were instructed to do so, but really, I wonder why.

So I left and stepped on the bridge over Marikina river, showing a nice yet mediocre scenery of the lily-filled Marikina River and its banks. It showed the Riverbanks Center, but what caught my attention the most was the sewer with a large number of squirming janitor fishes near it. I am not really sure if it's a sewer and where the water comes from, but you can see it's right beside the SM Marikina mall. Not much of a big deal right?

Moving on, I've arrived at the end of Marcos Highway and now on Aurora Blvd. The LRT line went underground. What am I supposed to follow? My instincts, since I don't have a compass and it happened to be a blazing hot sunny day, I use the biggest one visible from earth, the sun. Well, I know I should go west, where my destination is.

So then, I moved along Aurora Blvd., passing LRT 2 station after station. I had a few stops for Gatorade and bottled water.

Then I reached Gilmore, the Computer Capital of the Philippines. I'm already halfway the LRT 2 Line, where my feet started to sore a bit. I took a couple of pictures of Gilmore.

Then I continued with my stomach starting to growl. Passing by some food diners made me stop, look at the time but refrain from giving in to the temptation. I told myself, I will only eat at 11:30 am and up. Now my feet was starting to be covered with black greasy dirt! I really looked like a hobo.

So when I passed Sta. Mesa, I saw this Jollibee restaurant beside the SM mall and had my lunch there. I was pretty disappointed with the size of the burger steaks and amount of gravy I had, compared to the foreigners who preceded me (same order). That will be the last time I will ever eat at Jollibee.

After lunch, I headed inside SM Sta. Mesa, to the food court to rest my feet and ate some potato fries. A couple of girls grinned at me, because of my camisa de chino and cool backpack, I guess.

1:30 pm, I resumed my journey. My feet were really soring but I can't let such petty reason to ruin my expedition, right? Right. Eventually, I saw this 5 kilometer stone marker, meaning I'm just 5 kilometers away from my destination. This revved me up, how could I not finish this after seeing a sign of hope?

Then I saw this sign. It gave me the choice whether I'd follow the LRT 2 line till the end which is Recto or to Malacanang Palace instead. Seeing a national landmark seems to be a better choice, so I went to the Malacanang Complex. This would become a different route, I'm not familiar with. But I thought, "I'll see".

I can't help but take notice of this interesting white walls before entering the Malacanang Complex. :

At the entrance gate, there were a classified number of soldiers stationed.

Once again, I was shouted at by a guarding soldier for taking a photo of him.

The corresponding developments are deemed to be classified.

Finally, I was able to get through the gate. I took the opportunity to take a picture of this historical building. - Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino.

Moving along, I got to see the rear outside of the Malacanang .

The fence of the palace were awesome itself, beautifully ornamented with dozens of flags of the Philippines.

I saw the back of the Malacanang Palace, I was warned not to take pictures.

I realized, the current president isn't even living in that majestic mansion at all.

I finished the 1.7 Km Dr. Jose P. Laurel Sr. Road that led to Ayala Bridge, realizing I actually took a shortcut to my destination.

Then I saw SM City Manila, I just went through it though. Then I walked along the Taft Ave., beside the Manila City Hall where I saw the 1 Km marker! That's when I can barely walk, my walking speed slowed down obviously.

I was in front of Rizal Park already, I would just cross the pedestrian lane of Taft Ave.

Exactly 3:00 pm - I stepped on the Rizal Park pavement.

Just a few hundred meters away, my feet where giving up. I really had to sit, it felt like my legs were turning into jello. Around 15 minutes of resting in the main park, I finally reached my ultimate destination! The Kilometer Zero! I actually forgot to touch it, too bad.

I actually had a second optional goal in mind, to get to glance at Manila Bay. But before that, I had to sit around and read for a while.

Then some 30 minutes after resting, I walked South along Roxas Blvd., passing by Museo Pambata and The Embassy of the United States of America. Again, I was shouted at by a security guard of the embassy for taking some pictures of the front.

Finally, I can smell the foul sea breeze of Manila Bay. I took some pictures of the ship filled horizon and some young seaside folks posing in jejemon style. Baywalk really seems to be cool except for the foul stench.

I was like "Objective Complete, Mission Accomplished!"

I walked a total of 20 kilometers for about 7 hours.

Here's where I walked - the red lines :

Why Filipino?

To tell you the truth, I myself am not good at the Filipino subject. I struggle pronouncing endless tongue twisting words when reciting and I keep on asking questions on what's the meaning of this or that, etc.

Lots of American students hate the English subject though they're still good at it; different from me, I'm not good at Filipino at all. Being ridiculed by my classmates when answering in Filipino with a weird accent (not bisaya), I always feel a little embarrassed.

But still, I don't hate the Filipino subject. I got this Filipino blood that runs through my veins which I will never take for granted.

Now in this modern age, our language has evolved for many centuries, adapting lots of foreign words mostly from Spanish and English. It has grown worse that a teenager today with a person a hundred years ago won’t be able to understand each other. It doesn't matter now, they're all dead.

Well, having been able to speak the "Universal Language", that is English is a nice trait for a country and reaps a lot of benefits. But, it does not make a country great for making a foreign language as an official language. It's not that I oppose it but the thing is, our own culture is deteriorating, our own Filipino language is being considered as a commoners' language for today's society. We tend to look down on our own culture and praise foreign stuff.

Like our national hero once said,

“Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika,

Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda…”^[2]

-Meaning to say, those who don’t love their own native language is far worse than animals and smelly fish.

Have you ever heard the phrase “Something smells fishy”? It means something seems not right; hating your own language is the same, it’s damn wrong!

We know how a dead fish smells, it’s hideous. Just go inside a wet market and you’ll know what it means.

He may not be aware of it much but Dr. Jose Rizal’s quote doesn’t just apply to humans. But, to the creature which he mentioned too.

As far as I know there is a biblical evidence that fishes of the seas were the first living creatures to use their own distinct language, at least before humans.^[3] Since most fishes are social creatures,^[4] they use a certain form of communication that is the “body language”.

If you’ve seen a live fish out of the water and it’s wiggling its tail, it could be translated into “help me!”. If the fish stops doing so, it’ll die and slowly rot, thus producing a foul stench.

And there comes “Pilosopo Tacio” saying, “Duh, I’d just use some deodorant”.

The point is we should make good use of what we have and be proud of it. The Japanese have their Nihongo, the Koreans have their Hangungmal, the Germans have their Deutsch, the French have their français and we Filipinos have our Tagalog.

References

^[2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa_aking_mga_Kababata

^{[3] -} Genesis 1:21

^{[4] -} http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/freshwater-beginners-archive/16832-fish-social-creatures.html