Thursday, March 27, 2014

What the hell happened here?

While sightseeing around Metro Manila on Google Maps I found this bizarre monstrosity just east of SM North EDSA in Quezon City.

View in Google Maps
How did they get into this situation where the have this wild mishmash of irregularly shaped buildings of different colored roofs and no apparent roads? It makes me dizzy just looking at it, like an M. C. Escher optical illusion. The roofs overlap and slice through each other, with buildings ending arbitrarily and giving way to a spattering of slums.

Is there some inherent inability for Filipinos to think in straight lines?

As a remedy, I flew over to Ontario, CA, in an area dominated by business parks and warehouses.

View in Google Maps

 Ahh... much better.


Sunday, February 9, 2014

Philippine High Speed Rail Map

Here's an imaginary map of a high speed rail network that spans the Philippines, connecting all the major cities from Laoag in the north to Tawi-Tawi way down south, and even the Tubbataha reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea.

This is not a real thing that exists, or a thing that will ever exist. But it is something to feed our dreams.


Inspired by the various world metro maps out there on the internet.