My First Uber Ride in Manila

My first Uber ride in Manila turned out to be a very stressful one.
I expected my wednesday morning to be a quiet and boring day so I brought my Ipad to keep me company.
I was ready by 7 am but waited for my temporary driver from Ford EDSA.
I had to ask my daughter to get me an Uber because he was not yet here by 7:30 am.

The Uber driver arrived in about 10 minutes which was very good.
He turned right at the corner from our house instead of left. He didn’t look nor listen to his GPS.

He entered the bus lane at EDSA so the two MMDA officers waiting to bully someone had the perfect victim of the day. The Uber driver was petite and looked mabait. The two MMDA officers were kulang sa pansin. Instead of just pointing out to the Uber driver that he was on the wrong lane, they, contrary to good behavior, intimidated the Uber driver by threatening to confiscate his drivers license, and giving him a ticket that would cost the Uber driver a lot of money. They were stalling the issuance of ticket. They were even rude to me. Telling me “Ahhh mag-a-abroad ka…. Wala namang kinalaman ang pag-aabroad mo sa violation nya”. I felt like an OFW being lectured by the officers. It was a test of humility for me too. Actually, konti na lang, gusto ko ng bumaba para tsinelasin yung MMDA officer.

They kept on asking the driver “Bakit, saan ka ba pupunta? Saan? Saan ka pupunta? Saan?”
Pakialam nyo kung saan pupunta yung driver. Wala na kayong pakialam dun, ang tungkulin nyo, ipaintindi dun sa driver na nagkamali sya ng pinasukang lane, at sa susunod, tandaan nya na dun sya dapat sa kabila liliko. Eh di dapat tapos na ang kwento. Hindi sila maabala, hindi kami maabala, at hindi makaabala sa mga sasakyan na nag-iintay sa likod namin.

This particular Uber driver named Eric, is a testament to my theory that most drivers in the Philippines didn’t know the basic rules in correct driving. They didn’t have the right fundamentals. Most people learned to drive around the neighborhood, in their garage, atras abante. Most people think basta marunong umatras at umabante ay marunong ng magmaneho. They don’t know the road signs. They don’t know the meaning of the yellow dotted line on the road, the solid yellow line, the curves, the letter H, etc.
Drivers don’t signal when turning left or right. They lack defensive driving.

The Uber driver is hearing impaired so he couldn’t hear the GPS clearly. So he should not be allowed to drive the Uber. He looks at the GPS screen occasionally. When he saw the arrow pointing to the right, he already positioned the car on the right most lane where buses are. Naipit na kami dun because the buses were waiting for passengers. And where we were supposed to turn left was still at least 2 kilometers away.

Two times we came close to hitting a car on the right side because he didn’t signal and just turned the wheel to the right. The other cars honked their horn at us like crazy. #roadrage.

Along Jupiter Street, he probably anticipated that we were going to turn right at the corner as shown by the arrow. He stayed on the rightmost lane, but the cars there were parked! It took him several minutes before he realized that. He maneuvered to the left to go past the parked cars, but immediately, he stayed on the rightmost lane again. And again, there was a Ford Focus that’s not moving.

We haven’t reached my exact destination and yet he already stopped and expected that we’re there already. Lumampas na pala kami so we drove around for several more blocks until we found 1004 Liberty Building. I just helped him navigate based on the address. For the new generation’s information, we old gen babies were able to go around cities and municipalities nung araw without the aid of GPS, Google Maps and Waze.

I was so stressed out thinking that I was already late to my 9 am visa appointment. I called the travel agency’s liaison officer to inform him that I would be a few minutes late. “Mam, hindi pa naman nagtatawag ng number, kahit alas dyes kayo dumating”. Oh my God, they told me to come at 9 am yung pala pwede palang 10 am?

I arrived at exactly 9 am. The liaison officer assigned to me was not there yet! They have two other guys waiting for me. They asked me to find a plac to sit down while waiting. There’s a Figaro coffee show on the building’s ground floor so that’s where I wade it out, up to 1 pm!!!!!

Finally, I was asked to go up to the 10th floor, to BLS, the office that process the visas for Spain.

Some more waiting. When my number was called #28, they Filipina who’s accepting the application forms and supporting documents didn’t want to accept my photo.
Girl—–“Mam, kailan pa itong picture nyo?
Omb——“Oct, bago lang yan, pumangit na lang ako dahil sa stress”.
Girl—–“Kasi parang may pileges na kayo”.
Omb——“Sobra akong stress sa buhay, ngayon nga lang nai-stress na ako sa inyo. At saka, di ba merong photo shoppe para gumanda naman ng konti”.

Ay buti na lang she accepted my explanations.

And then, she rejected my application. She was looking for the Barcelona hotel booking / voucher. I thought the travel agency included it in the envelope. I told her I would call the travel agent. She said they could no longer wait becasue they’re closing. We have to come back na lang daw the next day. Queue up again!! I told myself, If I have to do this all over again, nope, I will just forego Barcelona.

I called the agent and told him “Pumunta ka agad dito at kumukulo na ang dugo ko”. It turned out that the hotel booking form was included in the stack of supporting docs but the woman failed to see it. I also didn’t see it because it was buried among the documents.

Going back to the Uber driver, he doesn’t own the car. He gives the owner 1,000 a day as boundary. He pays for the gas and whatever is left is his to keep. MInsan daw malaki more than a thousand a day.
Even if he’s earning a good keep, I offered to pay for the MMDA violation ticket. “Ako na lang ang magbabayad nito para hindi ka na maabala at magastusan”. I also gave him a 50 pesos tip. I gave the ticket to my staff and instructed her to pay it within next week.