I have finally stepped out of my sheltered Makati life.

Well for a day, at least.

It was like one of those trips you take in high school where you visit the elderly or an orphanage or do an outreach program, you know you'll see the real side. And things are not as pretty as a Rustan's window display.

Welcome to Manila.

Where the air is so polluted, you inhale solid matter and China-made goods thrives the bangketa economy. Wholesale is the order of the day.

But yet the street food is so ghetto you simply close your eyes and sink into a trance, silently murmuring a short prayer that your immune system would prove you true that day. So far, it did.

Took a jeep ride to the LRT station, which lead us to Carriedo. Just as soon as you dismount from the sweet ride, you can't help but smile at the Willy Wonka's Pirated DVD factory. There were just tons of movies in this labyrinth. I have just realized that the people from Makati Cinema Square have been overpricing me with their DVDS. While I usually movie house ticket as a standard in purchasing movies, but damn, Quiapo people sell 3 DVDS for 100. My hidden mental abacus did some major racking.

After combing through the stalls, stores and what have you, we finally ended up at the Quiapo Church. As opposed to the gradient of people coming in to hear mass, Mama Marie made a bee line to Madam Rosie. A rastafari fortune teller who told her things she already knows, for a hundred bucks. Sheesh.

It is quite ironic how two celestial standards co-exist in one plaza just a few meters from each other. When one does not get an answered prayer from the Church, they purchase their miracles from a bottle full of weird wood chips right across the street