Drivefool

Initially appeared on doktorko.com and vox.com 5/22/2008.

A few years ago, I was at a party in Chicago with some other Pinoys chatting with someone who had just been in the Philippines after two years of (unsuccessful) job-hunting in the US; apparently, while in Manila, he had tried to drive and realized that he had completely forgotten the way we do it back home.  "Ang hirap!" he remarked.  "Ang gulo!  Nakalimutan ko na!"

I was skeptical of course.  If you spent most of your driving years in the RP and just a couple in the US, how can you forget what it was like so easily?  But almost everyone else since then has had the same sentiment.  When discussing our plans of vacation in the Inang Bayan for two straight weeks, the conversation would invariably turn to: "Magda-drive ka ba?  Nakalimutan mo na yun!"

Still, pasaway as i am, i couldn't resist getting back on Philippine soil and exercising my powers of diskarte once again.  The first thing on the itinerary was a visit to the LTO to renew my driver's license (an adventure all in itself)... and from there on to the mean streets of Manila.  After all, how hard could it be?

Well, as it turns out... not too hard.

What they say about riding a bike applies to driving a car in manual transmission as well.  Once your left foot rests on the clutch and your right hand touches the gearshift, muscle memory kicks in and you go on autopilot.  And while the actual diskarte is a little trickier to remaster, it is eminently doable.  For the first few outings i purposely let our drayber take the wheel, just so i could relearn how to enter a rotonda without yielding, how to get through busy intersection without the benefit of a stoplight, and how to make sure you get to where you're going when three lanes suddenly become one.  Within a few days, i was at the helm, (almost) back to baseline.  Not as good as your friendly neighborhood jeepney driver, but - with a little effort - getting there, and with nary a dent nor ding.

Of course, the operative phrase is "with a little effort," which brings me to my point.  I've said it before and i'll say it again: Pag gusto, maraming paraan; pag ayaw, maraming dahilan.  I was able to drive because i wanted to.  Forget how to drive in the RP?  Bullcr@p.    Hindi ko nakalimutan dahil ayaw kong makalimutan. 

Each place has its little idiosyncracies - be it with food, culture, language, and so forth.  Driving norms are no exception.   In the Philippines, one learns to singit and weave through the interminable traffic to get to the destination.  Little dents and dings are part of life.  In the US, one learns to drive at high speeds and live with tailgaters driving six inches right behind at 90mph (144kph).  High-speed crashes and speeding tickets are a part of life.

The die-hard "American Dream" Pinoys maintain that driving in the US is so much "better" because everyone follows the rules of the road and there's no traffic.  This is absolutely false.  There's a fair amount of people who ignore stop signs, park wherever they want, and try to make gulang in traffic.  Also, go to a big-city equivalent of Manila or Makati (such as LA or NYC), and the traffic is just as bad - perhaps even worse.

As with everything, which one is better depends mostly on your point of view.

Or, for whatever reason - and perhaps more damning - the point of view you choose to take.