Walking Experience

Last Thursday, my husband informed me that Makati was traffic in its most unusual way. We have lived in this city for more than 5 years and it was his first time to encounter such traffic. Rain poured heavily the entire afternoon leaving most of the roads hardly passable due to floods and a few cars bogged down in the flooded streets.

Since I need to wake up early the following day, I was dying to go home early but was strongly advised against doing so. My husband who was supposed to drop some things at home first before picking me up took almost 2 hours to go home from the usual 10-15 minutes drive from a nearby hotel (where he had a seminar for the day) to our place. Unfortunately, all alternative roads were jammed with cars as well. I was advised to have dinner in the office and wait for the traffic to subside for him to pick me up. I offered to take the taxi home but he was hesitant about it as first. He said for me to take my dinner first while waiting for the traffic to subside. We've decided that we update each other whichever comes first - me taking the taxi or him picking me up.

Instead of having dinner, I went to the mall to hail a cab. I saw the waiting line longer than ordinary days. I tried to hail a cab in various areas in the mall to no avail. I decided to go window shopping instead. My husband updated me on the traffic condition. Unfortunately traffic going to and leaving our place worsened compared to few hours ago.

I was desperately wanting to go home and felt an initial pang of hunger as well. I don't know if it was out of hunger or out of desperation that I decided to take a walk back home as my office is just about 15 minutes drive from home. I bought a sandwich and water to go for my walking trip back home. Upon passing by the taxi waiting line, I noticed that it was short now and only 5 people were ahead of me. I decided to take the taxi instead and ate my sandwich while waiting for my taxi turn. Good thing my taxi driver was pleasant - a wonderful surprise given the traffic condition. The ride was quite smooth and fast. Only when we were a few blocks away from our place, traffic was jammed and our cab was not moving for more than 5 minutes. I knew then that this was the area where it starts to get super traffic. Remembering the traffic updates of my husband few minutes ago. I told the driver that I've decided to get down from the cab and walk towards home by foot so as not to involve him in the horrendous traffic situation. It took me less than 10 minutes to arrive at my place from the area where I got out of the cab.

It's been a few years already since I've walked "that far". I am a sedentary person and that walking experience made me realize to get into frequent walking trips these days to be physically fit and eventually lose some pounds. The walking experience made me appreciate things I normally took for granted such as my health, the accessibility and convenience of our place.