of seas, winds and pirates

of seas, winds and... o, pirates

after much planning, delaying and cancelling, we've finally found ourselves in the center of vast open spaces with a sea of people.
we've made it through quiapo and back, without lost items such as wallets, cellphones and other semi-important stuff like... our flip-flops.

we took a jeep going to the LRT and from the station, we got down Carriedo Station. it was the first time since a very, very, very long time since i found myself amidst all different kinds of people. some were smelly, some wore this really really foul perfumes, and some wore flip-flops, a ragged shirt and torn jeans. the latter description was us.

we had to wrestle about a thousand people along narrow, stinky and ukay-ukay infested alleys before we could even see the quiapo church. when we got there, we had to go down to the underpass which was relatively new (but was looking realy old, or really old but looking relatively new) and go up again at hidalgo street. from there we were greeted by porn videos on the sidewalks, hair straightening and curling irons, hair scrungies, hair lice removers, whitening creams and all those unrelated merchandise (well maybe you could watch porn while curling or straightening your hair and applying whitening creams all over your face. and don't forget that the dog could gnaw on the hair lice remover, which by now, grosses me out).

so we made it through the same looking streets and pass by same looking merchandise and found the mecca of piracy. well, sort of.
i went there to buy the lord of the rings trilogy and maybe harry potter. but insistent comments from yuri to wait for the whole installment to be released or at least wait until 5, made me really not to buy it then.

man: "boss, porn, xrated!"
me: "hinde hinde, salamat."
man: "ano bang hinahanap niyo?"
me: "meron kayong lord of the rings trilogy?"
man: "ay meron, sandali lang... eto sir"
me: "magkano po to?"
man: "500 lang boss... original po yan eh!"
me: ULUL! don't you have any idea where you're peddling your merchandise?"
well, i didn't say the last one. macky and i just looked at each other and tried to give the least possible hint of a super-mega-overly-sarcastic laughter.

we then turned to manang (same store)
macky: "ang mahal naman manang! 45 lang dapat per CD to eh."
manang: " o sige na nga, 45 nalang."
me: "magkano yun? dali dali math yan"
macky: " 270!"
manang: "o sige, 270 nalang."
me: "o sige manang, pabile!"

i was amused to see macky as if a child inside a candy store. he was all starry eyed. yeah macky you were. and he can't get over the boxes that contain the same thing! after i got my lotr trilogy, i said i was done. i just scanned the whole place to see if i can give something like a cartoon dvd collection to my cousin. i did, and i bought the 5-in-1 dvd of dreamworks. with antz, shrek, shrek2, a shark's tale, and madagascar. what's great is it's only 50 pesos.

we rummaged through other stalls and buildlings to see what's different. well, there's none. it's actually all the same - just different places. and before we knew it, we were back where we started. so we charted back again to our homebase, the LRT station. but wait. macky still had other plans. he went inside robinson's mall.

me: "robinson's ba talaga to o pirated din na robinson's?"
macky: "haha gago"

so we finished our little pirate adventure and headed home around 6 in the evening.

o, i haven't eaten during the whole adventure and right before going home, i tagged yuri with me to chowking. i ordered lots. ended up in the toilet.

so, until the next post then.

ciao!