Posts tagged manila

Never thought I’d be writing anything like this.

You know how when people talk about martial arts and the question always comes up, “Yeah, but when are you ever going to use that?”. Well… sometimes it happens.

I was walking along Makati Avenue toward my hotel, back from getting some food at Yellow Cab, a local chain. It was extremely late at night, but I thought I would be fine since Makati Ave. is a major street and there are people on it 24/7. Makati is one of the wealthiest parts of Manila and all of the Philippines.
Most businesses (yes, even fast food like Yellow Cab), even when not open, have a security guard with a gun standing out in front of them. There are several 24/7 businesses along the road, it’s very well lit and maybe 5 minutes from my hotel entrance - tops.

Just a couple minutes into my walk this girl says something to me. She’s cute and rather conservatively dressed - jeans, t-shirt, minimal jewelry. I figure there’s a 50% chance she’s a prostitute (I’m near an area where that is a popular thing), 25% that she’s trying to sell me something and 25% that she’s just some nice girl - people approach me at random all the time here, even women - it’s weird and not like the US. We start talking and she seems nice enough, good English skills. At some point she asks for my phone number. Odd and forward for a normal Filipino woman - I figure there’s a 90% chance she’s just a prostitute at this point, but get my phone out anyway to get her number because it seems like we’re still in the middle of having a conversation and maybe I’m wrong. She starts telling it to me, I punch in the numbers.. I don’t get them all right it seems so she takes the phone and starts entering them herself. She calls her phone from mine so that she’ll have my number and takes a few steps back… a few steps… too far.
I follow her. Her phone rings. Ok, she’s got my number. “Can I have my phone back?” She smiles and says, “Let me just ask you a question”. Ok fine. I don’t even remember what she asked me, but it turned into her saying random shit and me asking for my phone back while she slowly walks away. Suddenly, I’m not on brightly lit, fully populated Makati Avenue anymore. I’m part way down some shady-looking side street with a million dark corners and nobody else on it. I can see about 3-5 people in the distance on another street though, so I’m thinking I’m still ok. In retrospect, I should have just left at this point.

Now she demands money for the phone. I’m being robbed. 500 pesos. Fine. that’s what.. $12 USD? I hold it up. No, now it’s 4000 ($100). I don’t even have 4000 pesos on me and I tell her that. “Well go get it”. I tell her I don’t have a way to go get it (a lie, I’ve got my debit card on me). I tell her I’ll give her all the money I have there (1350 pesos) if she’ll just give me my phone. Nope, no deal, apparently. She says, “Oh, by the way, that’s my friend over there,” pointing at some rather tall, muscular guy who is now blocking the side of Makati Avenue that we came in on. Great.

But she’s not so big, scary, etc. And I can clearly see some security guard just down the other direction. It’s lit and there are a bunch of other people with him. I start yelling at them to help me. I yelled something like, “Hey! This girl is stealing my phone and trying to rob me, can you help me?”. I yell it a few more times, no response, but at least everyone is now looking my direction. Now I’m thinking, “Well I probably won’t get stabbed.. maybe I even have the upper hand here and I can get my phone back. Nobody’s going to hurt me with all these people watching, one of them an armed security guard.” I can clearly see tons of cabs going by on the street in the other direction that is not Makati Ave. too. I start walking that way and she starts yelling at me that she’s just going to leave with my phone. At this point, I’m ahead of her, walking toward the people, waving my arms and yelling still. She shows no sign of retreat, despite her words. I look back at her to see where she’s at and I see that her big burly man friend has caught up with her and they’re both right behind me.

She threatens me. She says, “You wanna go to the cops, huh? Ok, we’ll take you there. I’ll tell them you tried to pay for me and hit me”. I am undeterred. What a bullshit idea she’s got, but still, you never know… corruption here is so significant that she might get away with such a claim and I find myself in jail. Whatever, I’m almost to the area with the people.

She grabs my shirt and starts yelling more shit about going to the cops with me. I push her away and she grabs my wrist, still yelling. Her friend grabs my other wrist and they start trying to walk me forward, toward the populated and well-lit street, of all places. At this point I’m confused and feel extremely threatened. I lost my concentration long enough with her yelling at me that her friend somehow managed to get close enough to grab me. If he’s close enough to grab me, he’s close enough to stab me. I realize quickly that I’m not as prepared for this sort of situation as I thought I was.

I break free of both of their grips and turn toward them with my hands up in front of me to keep them distanced. I yell at them to, “Stop, stay back”. I’m ready for a fight and I have them both in my sight. I keep a watch around me though because I know there might be others involved in this. They keep walking toward me and by now we’re to the area with all the people.. 4 or 5 normal looking men. Cars going by us at every second now. I’m trying to talk to the men to get them to help me and they seem only mildly interested - they can’t all be in on it, can they? They make no advances toward me though and don’t appear to know my assailants.

I feel mostly safe at this point.. I’m on a well-lit street again, cars and people around me and now I can see more than just the 5 men. Doesn’t stop this girl. She walks right up to me, grabs at my hands again and tells me she’s going to scratch the hell out of my face if I don’t give her the money (that I don’t even have). I shove her away and tell her to back off, my hands still up so she doesn’t get too close. Her friend is behind me, but I manage to keep him in sight. I’m in the middle of the street now and cabs are honking and swerving around us (normal here, really. People and traffic have a strange harmony in the Philippines).

At this point, some guy, not the security guard, intervenes - he’s clearly not on their side. He says something in Tagalog to the girl and the guy (who is now holding my phone). They have a brief conversation and I say “All I want is my phone”. A few more words are exchanged at the big burly dude hands me my phone. Magical. I hold my arm up, a cab stops and I dive in and yell at the driver to just go as fast as he can.

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I know that was kind of a long story, but it was a semi clever con done in the middle of a rather densely populated area, so I felt details were important.

In retrospect, I was way too concerned about the phone. Thinking that I could get it back, it stayed on my mind and I put my own safety at risk. I honestly was very lucky that they were only interested in the money (or so I still believe). I still don’t know what they were expecting me to do though.. I was willing to give them all my money that I had on me. If they didn’t want it, they could have just taken the phone - which was worth more. In the end, they wound up with neither.

This happened to me yesterday and honestly, I only talked to one of my friends about it, mostly because I was embarrassed about not just leaving the scene and staying safe. I broke the rules of things I used to teach. I’m lucky I didn’t get hurt or killed. Yeah, some of the stuff I did - escaping being grabbed, keeping distance, hands up and on guard, yelling for help, keeping everyone in view - probably kept me from getting injured, but I could have done a lot better by just never having wound up in that situation in the first place.

When I got back to my hotel after all that, I had stomach cramps for a few hours. I’m still a little shaky when I think about it.

There was a time where I used to teach martial arts. I showed someone a somewhat violent technique and she looked at me, disgusted and said, “What town are you from where you’d ever need to use that?” Apparently the name of that town, for me, is Makati City, Metro Manila.

I’ve noticed that i’ve gained a lot of new followers on Tumblr who are from Manila. If anyone wants to host me while I’m here in the Philippines, couchsurfing style, let me know! I’d be very much obliged. My email, facebook, etc are all in the sidebar.. or just send me an ask.

arrived in manila safely last night, took a cab and surfed my first couch here!