Manila the ugly
Entering and leaving big
cities by bicycle is rarely a pleasant experience and Manila is not
the exception. Actually it is the perfect expression of the immense
stress that involves such process. Manila is a huge sprawling city of
millions of inhabitants and for both entering and leaving we had to
ride all across it. Like it's always the case with poor countries, it
isn't a city of harmony but one of huge and harsh contrasts. There are no
greys in Manila, it is rich or poor, it is immaculate or filthy, it
is spacious or crammed, it is ostentatious or plain misery and
unfortunately, the negative connotations are the ones that
predominate in the virtually infinite horizons of this huge
metropolis. The fact that a big city has big contrasts and negative
connotations isn't a surprise, especially in Asia, but many of them,
despite having them, they still preserve some kind of hidden beauty in them, some charm, even when poverty and misery is what
predominates. Manila doesn't even have the slightest appeal, it is
simply ugly from wherever you look at it, from wherever you walk on
it or cycle on it.
