Quiapo Capers

Quiapo is a well known place of Manila located inside the old city. It is congested and full of life. Not just human life but some life that shouldn't be alive like rats and bugs (at least in my opinion anyway). Quiapo is well known for all the wrong reasons though. It may be full of history, have horse and buggy (known locally as a calesa), China town, the Church of the Black Nazarene and the largest Mosque in Manila, but all that is forgotten in light of the corruption that is rife within it. And not necessarily of the officials which seems so prevalent in this country, but of the horse and buggy drivers. It’s probably the greatest tourist attractions in the area, but is also the greatest scam. Let me share a story I heard from some friends of mine who were visiting from Australia not too long ago. He’s a photographer so he wanted to get out and see some sights in the old city. He and his wife hopped in one of the horse and buggies started to trot around town. The guy was nice and gave them the history of the area, but then volunteered to take them to some other areas. They accepted his offer for an extra 50 pesos but that’s when the story turned bad. They were lead down winding alley ways and got totally lost. Then the guys demanded 50 dollars instead of 50 pesos! In the end they managed to get back out to the main road and then got out of the carriage. The girl then ran off with the camera gear and the guy was there by himself trying to deal with the two demanding drivers. They insisted that he had to pay 50 dollars instead of 50 pesos or they would beat him up. So like any good Aussie he squared up to them ready for a fight. In the end he got out of it with his life by saying he only had 100 pesos, which was true, for one wallet. The other wallet had everything else in it. The moral of the story is carry two wallets (one with money and one with very little and never catch a ride with the horse and buggies, no matter how cool it looks or how good the deal seems to be. I tell you this story so you don’t make the same mistake and because it’s an area I go to quite often because they have heaps of fishing farming gear for sale there.