I took a boat to get to work. Well, sort of.

One of the best things: the online Metro Manila Traffic Navigator
courtesy of the MMDA and Interaksyon TV5.

Here is one thing you need to know about Manila: you need to be dang creative to get through the traffic, to get to wherever you need to be. Manila drivers normally use the following words to survive the jam: shortcut, side streets, back roads. I use the term "secret passage"; now that I think about it, the "passage" is not so secret but it beats honking along with the mainstream. Ooh, how indie.

So this boat? It crosses Pasig River, between Mandaluyong (where I live) and Makati (where I work). The first time I heard about it was in 2007 when I met this volunteer tutor in an NGO/youth center, and somehow we talked about our living arrangements as mine was pretty interesting at that time. That was the year I first moved out and roomed with randomness in Mandaluyong. I asked her where she lived; she said that she lived in Makati. Then I think I mentioned something like, "Oh, it's not too far" and then she did say she took the boat. A boat? The only passenger boat I knew that treads Pasig River is the one along it, from the far east portions of the metro to the Old Manila proper. Then she said that she would take this small boat, made of wood, and that the boatman would pull the boat across the river via a rope that hangs between a post in Mandaluyong and a post in Makati.

Say what?

But of course, things have changed. Now the boat moves with the help of a motor and it takes less than a minute to cross. They charge you Php 4.00 for helping you avoid the traffic jam that is Edsa or the option to cross the bridge on foot via the Makati-Mandaluyong bridge. It normally takes me more than an hour to get to this part of Makati via a bus on Edsa and almost two hours to get home. This "side street-river route" is more expensive because I had to take more rides but it cuts time significantly. I was at work in less than thirty minutes.

Crossing the Pasig River via this medium was a bit exhilarating at first. The boat rocked and the massive clumps of water lilies can move fast, and I know of the tricky undercurrents of this river. But I have to say that the last two times I took the boat the river was not necessarily dirty. It's not the cleanest river in the world, but it's no longer what it was before. Well, at least the part between Makati and Mandaluyong. We wish for the same for its entire stretch.

When I rode the jeepney and thought of those number-coding days in the coming weeks, I had to think of other routes. I have another two up my sleeves, but in the meantime I am thinking that this route is the fastest one so far.

Then again, why not save up for a bicyle?