Summer is over (well at least for me it is) and what better way to end it than with a race around Metro Manila!

I’m a big fan of The Amazing Race and it is my dream to one day compete in it. I am very competitive and I’d do anything to win a race, case in point – the Enchanted Kingdom Bloggers Magicalympics. So when I heard that the CouchSurfing Philippines group was organizing a race around the Metro, I immediately signed up and cleared my schedule for May 31.

For the uninformed, here is what CouchSurfing is all about:

“CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.”
As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to make the world a better place, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal. CouchSurfing isn’t about the furniture- it’s not just about finding free accommodations around the world- it’s about participating in creating a better world. We strive to make a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!

So on the quite gloomy Sunday morning of May 31, I headed to UP Diliman for the race. I already had my backpack ready (with everything I thought I would need for the race) but I forgot one thing: the physical preparation. The only exercise I get is the daily walk from the office to my house (a grueling two-block walk, lol) – which doesn’t really amount to anything at all. I smoke and I’m pretty much glued to the computer whenever I am home. So physically, I was not prepared. But did I let that stop me? Of course not!

On the steps of Quezon Hall, right behind the Oblation, all CouchSurfers from all over the Philippines and all CouchSurfer guests from Germany, China, France, Hawaii, and New York were briefed about the race and were assigned teams. By stroke of luck and good fortune, I was assigned to the team composed of my blogger friends (and equally competitive dudes) Benj Espina and Angel Juarez. We called our team Team Blogger Plus One – our other teammate, Abby was not a blogger so she was the plus one.

At a little past 9:00 AM, the race officially began. Our first clue instructed us to head to the UP Lagoon theater where we would find the next clue. All teams scrambled all the way to the lagoon. Running to the lagoon seemed a pretty easy task, but finding the clue was not. All teams struggled to find the clues, to no avail. About five minutes into the search, one team finally found the clues – to the delight of many of us for it ended our scrambling in the muddy and dewy and moisty grass. Our next stop: Cubao X.

The clue stated that we needed to take a jeepney ride to the LRT station and to prove that we did, we had to take a group photo inside the jeepney and outside the LRT station (we all were required to bring digital cameras, pen, paper and money – we had to pay for all our transportation and other expenses). Finding a jeep going to the Katipunan station from UP should be easy enough – on a weekday! It was a Sunday and jeeps inside the campus were quite few and far between. I suggested to my team that we walk instead to Katipunan through Narra Hall and take a jeep from there. Luckily, an empty jeep was waiting outside Narra and we all immediately hopped in. We told the driver to take us – just the four of us – to Katipunan and we would pay for all the seats – provided he would NOT let anyone else ride the jeep with us. Unlucky for us, three other teams saw us hop into the jeepney and they all wanted to board the jeep. Initially, our team was quite mean-sprited (but I’d rather call it good strategy) and told them they couldn’t ride with us because we already paid for the whole trip. But we gave in and let them ride with us – besides, it was just the first leg.

We got off at Katipunan (where the jeeps normally take a U-turn back to UP) and ran as fast as we could to the LRT2 Station. We asked a passerby (who turned out to be a CouchSurfer race volunteer) to take our photo and we immediately headed inside to buy tickets. While waiting for the train, we saw some of the other teams and my teammates and I feigned conversation (and made sure the other teams heard us) that the photo must be taken right below the station signage (we noticed that only our team had the photo taken there – the others had theirs taken right near the baggage check). I don’t know if the others got worried about it but it didn’t really matter – Team Monica Geller (aka our team) would do anything and everything just to win this race.

As we got off the train in Cubao station, we experienced our first blunder of sorts: we lost Abby! We couldn’t find her anywhere and we didn’t have her number (over-confidence and excitement at the start of the race got the better of us and we forgot to trade numbers with her; Benj, Angel and I already had each other’s numbers). We called Ronnie, one of the organizers, and asked for her number. After about ten minutes of waiting for Abby (and her number), the three of us decided to just head off to Cubao X and get in touch with Abby there. On the way to Cubao X, she called us and she was already on her way there.

CouchSurfing race volunteers were waiting for us at The Reading Room where our next clue was handed out. In this leg, we had to look for eight different CS clue-cards posted in different shops and areas around Cubao X. These clues had letters and numbers in them from which we would form the instructions to our next stop. Once we have decoded that puzzle, we had to write it down on a piece of paper and show it to a CS Volunteer from whom our next clue would come. The answer: 22BAN CTR.

The next clue instructed us to take a train to Divisoria and head to the Prime Block and find the shop depicted in the photo attached to the clue. Divisoria traffic on a Sunday-before-the-first-day-of-school was appallingly bad so we did not have a choice but to walk from Recto station of the LRT2 to Tutuban Center Mall. Angel, who was very familiar with the place since he went to school in the area, headed to Tutuban Center Mall ahead of us and told us he would meet us there. Benj, Abby and I saw another team onboard a jeepney and also saw the heavy traffic flow so we decided to just head to Tutuban on foot. Halfway there, we saw a tricycle and took it. Two blocks away from Tutuban Center, the tricycle started conking out and the engine just stopped. We got off and headed to the mall back on foot. Inside the mall, we got a call from Angel telling us he already found the clue. We met with him there and read the next clue.

The next stop was at the old PNR station near the parking area where our next clue was waiting for us. The clue stated that we had to travel on foot to Binondo Church. “Binondo? On foot? Are you fucking kidding me?” was all I had to say before hesitantly starting to walk. I’m quite familiar with the district (thanks to bargain shopping addiction and the Gay Bloggers Binondo Tour) so I knew that it was just a short trip – if you traveled by car! Benj, Angel and I started running as fast as we could but Abby was lagging behind. I told Benj and Angel to go on ahead and I’ll wait for Abby. At Reigna Regente, Abby started feeling weak and her hypertension started kicking in. I had to make sure she was alright since she was one, not feeling so well and two, she didn’t know her way around the area. When we finally got to Chuankee fast food, Benj and Angel already had the next clue and we all started going to the places stated on the clue: Eng Bee Tin, Dong Bei, Wai Ying. We completed the tasks in those places (order food, eat food and have a group photo taken in each place) then headed to Cukeng Coffee Shop where our last task in the area was and where our next clue was given, after we showed them our photos from all the Chinatown shops.

The next leg of the race was in Intramuros. We walked away from Cukeng and finally ended up in Abad Santos where we found a cab. Like contestants on The Amazing Race, we too, were faced with the disappointment of not finding cabs and having cab drivers who are insanely stupid! We gave him instructions but he wanted his way done. He insisted on avoiding Reigna Regente since he believed traffic was heavy there. We told him that it was not really heavy, but he kept on insisting that we pass through HIS way. “The fuck Manong, we have been walking and running all morning in the area. Don’t you think we would know if there’s heavy traffic or not?”, I mumbled to myself. We ended up in the extremely frustrating Rizal Avenue where traffic was a nightmare. We confronted the cab driver and told him that he should have believed us and followed our directions at the onset. He did nor budge. Out of frustration and disappointment, we all got off right outside the Doroteo Jose station of the LRT1. We took the train from there to Carriedo station, where we took another cab going to Intramuros.

When we finally go t to the destination, we received our next clue outside the Manila Cathedral and then headed to the statue of the Cobi sisters where we had another group photo taken. After that, we headed (on foot) to Casa Manila where our next clue was waiting for us. Before that clue was given, we were required to show the CS Volunteer there our group photo with the Cobi sisters.

Luneta was the next stop. We had to go to six different places and have group photos taken there: Photo with Rizal guards, photo with a calesa, photo with Lapu-Lapu, photo with Philippine map in a pond, photo with a Luneta park-goer, and photo facing Quirino Grandstand. Our strategy of starting with the Philippine map was a good one!

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When we had our final photo taken (facing Quirino Grandstand), we had to run to the far side of the grandstand where we showed the CS Volunteer all six photos. We then received our next clue which instructed us to head to SM Mall of Asia (MoA) – the final destination.

We had to have all 12 of the photos required to be taken throughout the whole race developed/printed and then present it to a CS Volunteer (Rachel So, whom I judged the Urban Time Icon screenings and contest with) waiting for us at the Ice Skating Rink. When we got to MoA, we went to Kamera World – the first photo-processing shop we found but were dismayed to find out that the fastest they could print our photos was an hour. We stepped out and headed to the Concierge to ask where Photoline or Island Photo were. We found Island Photo and saw another team walking out of the shop. After we had our photos printed out, we went to the Ice Skating Rink thinking that it was the final pit stop.

We got the next clue, but it was not the final pit stop! The clue stated something like: “Congratulations, you’re almost there,” and all we could say was “Fuck! No!” We were instructed to find an Internet shop and log on to the CouchSurfing Philippines Manila Summer Scramble thread to find our next clue. We headed to Netopia, logged on to the CS group, read the thread, went to Ronnie’s blog, decoded the password based on the photos shown in a blog entry, downloaded an excel file via Rapidshare, opened the file and got this final clue: “Meet us at the northern end of San Miguel by the Bay, we’re waiting for you there.”

This was it, the final pit stop! We knew we were not going to finish first, possibly fourth or fifth (since we already saw a few teams go ahead of us), but we did not let this stop us. Adrenalines high, we walked and jogged and ran the whole stretch of the bay walk (we could have taken a cab!) until we found Ronnie and the other teams waiting for us. Much to our surprise, we finished the race in third place!

Race Map (courtesy of Greg Galang)

Members of the first two teams were already rested and relaxed (socks and shoes off, shirts changed, sweat dried up, mouths puffing on cigarettes) and so we followed suit. We waited for the other teams, but after Team Number 5 arrived, some of us decided to go to Krocodile Grill to eat and DRINK WATER! It took quite a while for the other teams to arrive but we did not really care. All we cared about was that we have finally eaten lunch (breakfast for me and some others), abused the bottomless/refillable iced tea, and guzzled on booze.

It was such an exhaustingly fun race and I must congratulate all the organizers and the volunteers of CouchSurfing Philippines Manila Summer Scramble 2009! I must also commend the other teams for being such great competitors! Most of all, I’d like to congratulate and give thanks to my teammates Benj, Angel and Abby! We rocked this show!

My muscles are sore. My whole body is aching (even if I already had a massage last night).

Would I do this race again? Fuck yeah!

(Head to my Flickr site to view more photos!)

Also thanks to Columbia Sportswear for my outfit (Shoes, Socks, Shorts, Shirt, Extra Shirt, Extra Socks, Cap and Backpack)

My CouchSurfing Profile: http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/ajkenji/