My friend Matt caught me. It must have been a VIT.

I have since returned to Manila for a weekend, so instead of hanging out at one of the largest malls in the world I set out to Pasig River to finally capture what had been burned in my mind.

Of course I didn’t find it. Who knows if I looked at the wrong parts of the river or if my mind exaggerated what I saw over the years beyond the actual sight. No, walking along the river I didn’t find the riches of the malls or the skyscrapers. What I found was even better. It was in the laughs and the basketball games and the babies and the smiles and everyone who wanted a photo. This time I hadn’t simply seen a view of a river from the highway, I had actually walked along the river.

Right at the end, right before my friend and I had to leave in order to catch our flight, I saw something very close to what I had originally been looking for, where the river itself traces the path from the murky depths to the riches in the sky.

When I got back home I decided to sit down and instead of looking for the image, to draw it out.

The “12 year old’s version” as my other friend described it:

And just for kicks, I played around with the one photo a little bit:

The whole process got me thinking. Have a goal — have some out of reach abstract destination to reach, and see where it takes me.

No one need beware this flying beast.

I came to Pasig River with a purpose: to capture an image I had seen years ago the first time I was in Manila. But I found something even better.

Even horses get stuck in traffic.

Looks like a cowboy. Outside of the Oriental Hotel.

The things you see late at night in Malate…

Not a bumpy snooze at all.

But when I think of the sea, it’s all about the cold dark rippling water.

Yeah yeah yeah, technically this is Manila Bay. But it sure doesn’t look like the ocean I’m used to.

There was one man in stained clothes walking along beachline of collected trash. Another I saw swimming out in the distance. I wonder what he was searching for.

Rain and typhoon season in Manila means you need a pretty damn big umbrella!

When getting a cab in Manila, always know a landmark destination and have exact change. If you don’t know a really obvious landmark, the driver might not know where you’re going, but they’ll start driving anyway!

There were several times when they’d even say they knew it, but ten minutes later they’re rolling down their windows asking other taxi drivers. But hey, they’re sure good at giving tours of the city you wouldn’t otherwise go to.

And of course have smaller bills close to exact change. If you have a large bill, they will almost never be equipped to handle change. At least, they point out they only have 100 pesos, so how about you just give them a 300 peso tip?

So, have a landmark. Have small bills.