Part of my day job is to tour a visiting foreigner in Manila where the area has been covered in the business. Last Friday, it happened to be with an Indonesian.

After business and I was about to take him back to his hotel, he requested if I could drop by for some mementos for his friends and wife back home.

If you think about it, a lot of similarities can be found between a Filipino and an Indonesian in terms of culture, values, some words even. I had trouble thinking where else we could go where he would say, ” Ah… this is different.” I brought him to Tiendesitas thinking he could find something to bring home to his wife — handicrafts and home decors were the intended stuff to buy.  ”Our offerings are pretty much the same,” he remarks after strolling through Antique and handicrafts section. So we ended up buying dried mangoes instead. Dried mangoes appear to be a favorite memento among my Asian colleagues.

At least there’s one uniquely Pinoy discovered that day. “What else is ‘only in the Philippines’? I asked, explaining that I haven’t been to Indonesia yet. To which, these are what he had a few to mention in the three days he’s been in town:

  • The sight of jeepneys
  • Taxi drivers who say “it’s up to you” when you ask how much you need to pay for the fare especially since he did not switch on the meter.
  • Taxi drivers who peg dropped dead rates especially during rush hours.
  • Malls that do not have taxi bays hence the customer who has running /marathon skills will catch the cab first and not the one who lined up first.
  • Drugstores that keep even over-the-counter medicines behind the salesclerks area so it’s off limits to customers.

I could not argue as I have observed all he mentioned for myself too. It looks like I can only be proud about the dried mangoes and the sight of jeepneys out of all of what he said.