Simon Milward's Ride in the Philippines

On Saturday 7th April Simon Milward, Secretary General of FEMA, was invited to ride with members of the Freedom Riders to see just what riding here is really like. Here is a letter from Simon with some pictures taken on the ride. His comments are especially valid as he is riding around the world on a motorcycle and has been through 27 coutries so far.
Click on the thumbnails for bigger pictures and click here for a page of pictures taken on the ride.

Dear fellow Riders,

I want to take this opportunity to put on record my sincere thanks to the Philippine bikers for such wonderful hospitality during my 2.5 week stay. Especially the Freedom Riders, Mad Dogs and the Thunderbugs, and individuals James Mirasol, Frank Woolf, Philip Garcia and Wayne Littlefield.

I am so pleased that I made the detour on my world tour to come here. Whilst on one hand it is sad to see such discrimination that you face on the expressway issue. On the other, I see the Freedom Riders' commitment and determination to right this wrong. It fills me with hope for the future of biking, not only in Manila and the Philippines, but in Asia as a whole and consequently the world. The Freedom Riders light the way for all bikers in Asia!

There is no doubt in my mind that you will succeed, since all things come to those that keep on trying. I dearly hope I will be able to join you for the victory celebrations before too long.

Now I want to tell you of my ride-out experience.

On Saturday April 7th we went for a ride out of Manila to Taal Lake and a beach. Once out of the city it was perfect riding, good roads and great scenery. But getting in and out by motorcycle is an experience that only the masochists among us would enjoy. Whilst I may be one of those, the average motorcycle rider certainly is not! At least not day after day anyway.

It cerainly drove home to me how bad the bikers have it here. No wonder that so many motorcyclists have given up riding completely. Imagine this. I had to rise at 4.30am, to meet up with James and the rest for the 5.30am leave time. This is just so as to leave the city in relative ease, which at this time of the morning took one hour. You see as soon as the sun comes up, the people come out and mayhem commences.

Riding motorcycles in any Asian city in rush hour is a challenge (except Singapore where big brother is firmly in control). But honestly Manila takes the biscuit due to the unequalled level of lawlessness. The road surfaces as bad as anywhere and the pollution is the worst I've come across. *see note below

We had to make tracks back to the city starting as early as 3pm, in order that we weren't battling through the streets in darkness, when the safety level goes down several notches. Arriving back at James' place was like emerging as victors from a battle. We were dirty exhausted and irriated. On several occasions I was frightened out of my wits and thought I was going down.

There's no mistake, Philippines must have it worse than any other country. If bikers were allowed on the Expressways, biking would boom here because you'd get in and out in 10 minutes. They are prisoners in their own city.

So I say, FREE MANILA BIKERS NOW

Simon Milward

Click this link for more pictures of the ride

*Webmaster's note: Simon has not yet visited Hong Kong where the roads and conditions are great. There are no restrictions on motorcycles but the place is very small.