So I probably didn’t mention the incident last weekend when three Smart Broadband employees came and sat at my house and watched files download. I was demonstrating to them how slow my connection is, and the fact that it is impossible for me to download any large files, or watch any streaming media. I’ve been complaining about this for the last 5 months, on and off, so I was delighted to finally get some response. Read the rest of this entry »
Taxis in Manila do one of two things: If you’re standing there waiting for a taxi to appear, they hide. Sometimes they’ll drive by with the light on, but they won’t stop, because that just means they forgot to switch the light off. You can wave your arms around, shout, whistle, whatever you like, but you’ll be waiting quite some time.
However, if you have no need of a taxi and are just walking down the street, they stalk you. They drive past and honk, slow down and crawl past you, and (especially irritating this one) if you try to cross the road, they’ll actually stop in front of you and block you from crossing, under the misapprehension that you want to get into their cab.
So, if you’re waiting for a cab, start walking and one will find you soon enough.
I’m not even going to bother mentioning the bargaining and fights over whether or not they’re going to use the meter. Oh no. Suffice it to say if a taxi driver uses the meter without arguing, I give them a tip. If they haggle, bargain, whine or try to cheat me in any way, they get no tip at all. Except if they do that “pretending not to have change” routine. Grrrr.
I was in Church the other weekend attending a mass. As I’m not a religious person, my attention was beginning to wander. Some birds had taken up residence in the roof, so I was watching them for a while, which struck me as mildly odd.
Then the choir started up to lead the congregation in a hymn. The words to the hymn appeared on a vast screen suspended from the ceiling, so that the congregation could follow along with them. As I watched, a dialog box popped up, suggesting that the virus sofware was out of date. Someone hurriedly dispatched it. It appeared again, suggesting that the trial period had expired and that it might be a good time to buy the software. It was dispatched again. Oh for a camera.
I did wonder if the congregation would start singing along with the words on the AV dialog box, but unfortunately they remained focused on the words of the hymn. Admirable. But broken.
I was walking back from the supermarket yesterday and saw a guy relieving himself against a fence. OK, so it was broad daylight, and its not an altogether uncommon phenomenon here. However … the fence was a chicken wire fence, and it separated him from a busy road – the one I was walking along. Everything was out on display.
He still had his shoulders hunched against the prying eyes behind him though …
So, if you’ve been following along, you’ll remember that the villain of the last piece, Smart Telecommunications — wait, let me try that again — “Smart” Telecommunications, have a sub-standard internet service. I also have my mobile phone account with them, which could come under the category of having all your eggs in one basket.
3G, doesn’t work. That’s pretty much it. For the first three months I was here, whenever I was at home, I couldn’t make or receive calls, or send or receive SMS. If I stepped out of the building and into a different cell zone, everything was usually dandy, but at home, where I spend most of my time, nothing. I spent two months complaining several times a week at their office and over the phone. However both these approaches were fraught with difficulty – in their offices the 3G signal was perfect, of course, and to complain from home … well its pretty hard if your phone doesn’t work. My girlfriend’s phone (also a Smart subscription) also didn’t work in my apartment despite both phones having a 5-bar signal. Read the rest of this entry »
I here the phrase above so often in the Philippines I can barely believe it. Replace the word ‘Internet’ with almost anything you use in daily life, and there, in a nutshell, is life in Manila.
I should have started this blog a long time ago when I first moved here. At that point I was still incredulous and I would doubtlessly have filled many pages with examples of inefficiency and brokenness in this country. I may still fill in some of the more memorable examples at a later stage, but to kick this blog off, my main beef at the moment is the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »