Last night (October 6, 2005) was truly an experience for me.
Before I left my office on Buendia Ave. at around 6pm, I took a peek outside our window to see if it was raining. My usual routine has me looking at the neighboring buildings’ roof to see if there are puddles and look at the pedestrians on the street to see if there are any umbrellas open. Seeing none of either, I thought it was going to be an enjoyable ride home. I prepped my armor and windbreaker, planning on an easy trip using a new route home, I decided to ditch the AM radio in favor of my iPod. Rolling out of the garage with Ambrosia blasting through my earphones, I noticed a few raindrops fall, but being around 6ish at this time of year, that’s normal.
As I turned right toward Buendia, it began. Without warning, the skies decided to just open up and let it pour. We’re not talking about rain-rain were talkin monsoon. I barely traveled 10 meteres when I felt my the water seeping through my windbreaker. Being a veteran of this sort of thing, I decided, what the heck, just enjoy the ride! But not till I remove my iPod from my pocket. I frantically looked for a place to stop which, for anyone who’s been on Buendia at the height of rush hour would know, was totally impossible. I trudged along trying to hide the iPod inside the windbreaker till I got to the Buendia stoplight. There I quickly removed the connection and literally threw the iPod inside the glove box. I could live with a dented iPod as long as it worked.
With that out of the way, I set my mind to a really wild ride home. That was it. I was wet, there was nothing I could do. Every part of my body, save for the one inside my helmet, was soaked to the bone and there was nothing I could do about it. At least I was on my way home. After exchanging a couple of “what can we do??!?” laughs with 2 fellow riders along the stoplight, I was on my way again. As I was about to enter the P. Burgos area, I suddenly had the chills. This wasn’t happening. I was getting really, really cold. I was having a hard time shifting because my hands were shaking and my teeth were chattering. And to top it all off, traffic was backed up everywhere because of flash floods. I had to find a place where I could stop. I found a back street where there was light traffic and stopped under a makeshift basketball court. Mind you, all this is happening while the rain, nay, the monsoon, continues to pour. I hopped off my Vespa and got my rain jacket from my kit. I decided to wear the rain gear, despite being all wet, to help me feel warm. My outer windbreaker was soaked, my inner T-shirt was soaked as well, I needed the thick PVC lining of the rain jacket to halt the air from lowering my body temperature. Thank God I had the presence of mind to do that.
As I left the area I went along expecting a rough but relatively uneventful ride home. Feeling a bit better, because of the extra insulation, I made my way around the Rockwell maze and out to JP Rizal, and to my horror, there were floods everywhere. I turned left, flood, u-turm. I turned right, flood, u-turn. Tried a side street which was pointed out to me by the kind lady who owned the store I stopped in front of. The side street eventually came out to, what else, a less flooded street..YEHEY! Finally got on EDSA and after a few more moxious moves, finally got home.
Squisihing all the way to the shower, I took stock of what happened and said a silent prayer of thanks for the safe, albeit adventurous, ride home.
Your “drenched” story brought back many memories of life in Manila especially during the drenching monsoon rains. When my Filipina wife and I moved from Pasay to Dasmarinas, Cavite the rains surely followed us and we couldn’t use our scooter (Suzuki 125) much. I now have a Vespa GT200 and my wife has a Honda Metropolitan and we live in very dry Phoenix, Arizona. Thanks for the memories.
Hi Kano, thanks for dropping by. Unfortunately these things happen everyday now. Just last night I was beseiged by the rain again but this time there was a twist. It was really late in the night and I had my laptop with me in my supposedly “waterproof” bag…….what a ride!!
watch out for what happens here, as I do a review of the supposedly waterproof bag here.
thanks for dropping by, hope to see you around here again!
Cheers from a rainy, dreary Manila!!