So when I saw a 1990 Pajero that the company I work for was disposing for around $2,765 I grabbed it. They even allowed me to pay for it within two years (about $115 per month).

For me the ideal vehicle here in the Philippines is an SUV. One, because of the roads, and second, some drivers tend to keep away from you. If you can find one with low fuel consumption, the better. Mine chugs a lot of gas, I am already planning to have the engine replaced with diesel. But all in all, it is one tough machine, perfect for the Philippines.

About politics: If you lived in the same house for a long time, you tend not to see the flaws anymore, and when someone visits, that person will see them all. That is analogous to a Filipino’s view of the Philippines versus a foreigner’s. Things that are common to us are oftentimes shocking to others.

That is life here. Not only people from the outside are trying to survive the bus rides and the political agendas, we Filipinos are trying our best to cope up. For me, I try not to ride buses or jeeps, especially on long trips. Just like I try to avoid politics. Not that I don’t care but it is already very difficult to live the life I wanted for me and my family. So why make it harder by getting into a bigger mess?

I really wonder what it would be like to drive something like that here. You certainly would not be able to get the throttle open evry often, and you’d be ‘left in the dust’ in the continous “making singit” contests when you have to make 4 lanes out of three, or even five or six. When it comes to making time on the roads here, inches of overall width seem to be more important than inches of engine displacement.

But it surely would be a marvelous conversation piece/hobby, and you could get into any parade or offical function you cared to.

Japanese in general are fanatical about what we call here “casa” maintenance, and it’s very hard to oput many kilometers on the c;lock in Japan, so you can well imagine how good a shape some of these vehicles are in at trad-in. Remind me to tell you about my $2500 USD Lexus I drove in Japan someday. US government people have a ‘loophole’ through that law, so you can buy some really, really excellent “junk” cars there.

If they go to a ‘left-drive’ country, fine and dandy. Thery are essentially ‘good to go’, but when you start getting into side-to-side conversions, that’s where things get dicey. I even occasionally see trucks on the road here with the mirrors still on the “wrong” side … terrible.

You can always tell a new to right-hand drive person by the fact when they come to an intersection, they signal by turning on their wipers LoL. What’s even funnier, as I did once, was to walk away from someone I was chatting with in a parking lot, calmly walk to my car while still talking to them over my shoulder, open the door, get in, sit down, and find I was on the wrong side of the front seat. Oops. Looked like a slapstick comedy show as I had to get back out, walk around the car, and get in behind the wheel this time. My face must have been red as abeet. Talk about Homer Simposon and d’oh!

Aww Don’t mind me. Just one of those disgruntled citizens, who most of the time feel hopeless and impatient with change. Was thinking of joining that Moral Revolution that Chief Justice Reynato Puno just recently launched then figured I need to do a lot of cleaning in my own backyard first. LOL

If you don’t mind, I would like to troll around your site for the meantime. I have not been writing in my blog lately, as the urge seems to escape me lately.

Anyway, soapo box mode off, thanks again for stopping by.