Are we there yet?

Netnet Camomot

WE can accept traffic when we’re in Metro Cebu or Metro Manila—they’re much bigger than Cagayan de Oro, with more cars, more residents, more tourists, all that and more converging in one place, traffic is a given.

CDO, on the other hand, is a small place. Hey, it has no “Metro” yet! So, when it takes almost an hour to travel from uptown to Limketkai Center downtown, we’re tempted to ask, Are we there yet? Same question a child may ask his parents when they’re traveling by land from, say, the west coast to the east coast in the US.

I now tend to check out Facebook whenever I travel from uptown to downtown CDO. Hmmm. Might as well adopt that as a rule: Facebook instead of asking, Are we there yet? Instead of looking at the time, instead of wondering if we’ll arrive at our destination on time, instead of regretting why we didn’t leave uptown at least two hours earlier.

It’s worse when rain, flood and rush hour are having a convention, and they’re inviting landslides to join them near Pryce Plaza.

If traffic is bad now, you can probably imagine how it will be once SM CDO Downtown Premier opens next month. You’ll have to float above the cars that are all going towards the new mall.

Downtown CDO has also welcomed at least five condominium buildings that are still under construction or being readied for occupancy—once residents start calling them as their new home, well, traffic pa more!

But the expected traffic does not dampen the Cagayanon’s excitement over CDO’s new skyline. Progress means more opportunities for career and business. Homegrown stores and restos will now have branches at the new SM whose other establishments will also need more staff and stuff.

Malls and retail stores will never go out of style in Pinas, thanks to the humidity that encourages people to prefer air conditioners which malls provide for free. Er, for free if you stay in there for hours without spending a single cent—you know, parang “namamasyal pa sa Luneta/Nang walang pera,” according to Rico J’s version of “The Way We Were.”

Rico J? “The Way We Were”? Okay, I get it—you’re too young to know. That’s Rico J. Puno, a popular Pinoy singer once upon a time. More particularly, the senior moment’s time. “The Way We Were” is a Barbra Streisand song, but Rico J has his own version.

Barbra who? Kind of Rico J’s batchmate. Moving on…

The malls in Pinas are the Pinoys’ Luneta, but with air conditioners, where they can sit for hours and do nothing. Unless you call watching other people as doing something.

It’s a different story, however, in the US where the cool weather acts as air conditioners. US retail stores are now closing shop at a fast pace, resulting to almost empty malls. Imagine your favorite mall here with only three stores open—that kind of empty.

Way back in 1981, Faith Popcorn called it “cocooning,” this preference to stay home, away from the madding crowd. Who would have known then that 36 years later, Americans would rather shop online than go to the mall where it may mean driving for miles in the US. Even my CDO-based family now shops online –I’m the only one who has remained old school when it comes to shopping, I still prefer going to a bookstore to inhale a book’s aroma before buying it. Yes, a book has an aroma.

Amazon, however, has learned to hit two birds with one stone by opening the Amazon Pop-Up store where a potential online shopper can see, feel, and smell an item before it’s delivered to him. If you’ve been suffering from trigger fingers caused by heavy shopping bags, there’s your cure.

Hotels in Pinas have also learned to tempt the cocooning Pinoy to a staycation, with a package rate for room, meals, swimming pool usage, and other perks.

But the best staycation is still the one you enjoy at home, and last Black Saturday, Jay Oesja made a video and posted it on Facebook, complete with Imagine Dragons’ “On Top of the World” as background muzak, to prove that indeed there’s no place like home. The video features his home’s bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedrooms including that of his grandma, also has what looks like a lumberyard or bodega for a grocery store, and him on a motorcycle pretending to be traveling to somewhere. It’s funny but also a wakeup call to those who joined the madding crowd that rushed to vacation spots for the Holy Week.

If only the Internet connection in Pinas could also be as fast as that in the US, then, the Pinoy shopper may finally prefer to stay home, thereby, easing the traffic congestion.

Now, whenever this column has a “thereby,” that means it’s serious with its, Are we there yet?