Waray-Waray in London - The Crush of Humanity

I dread the crush of humanity. You would understand it if you were of small stature like myself. Barely reaching five feet, I’m a midget everywhere I go and being towered over by a multitude could cause some serious claustrophobic experiences down there. But to London I went, and on a peak month of August to boot.

The fact that I come from an overpopulated country, the Philippines will surely cause some readers to sneer at my “dread”. But in the countryside where I grew up, there was never a dearth of space. And even if I came from a household of five boisterous children, there was always enough space to release our excess energy, if not inside, then outside. But I digress…

My previous visit was on a November month. Not at all too attractive a period to go on a holiday, but the best moment if you were keen on having space. This time, however, the big city was swarming with tourists from all over the planet! It was fascinating to hear more Chinese spoken than English. And if English were indeed spoken, it came from very British sounding people of Indian descent, or from East-European sounding Caucasians.

Another fascinating thing was that even if London City were filled with tourists, everybody was moving about in orderly manner. People queued primly, took the left side of the corridors, took the right side of the escalators leading to the tube to allow hurrying passengers to pass through on the left side, asked politely where the end of the line was, allowed others who were clearly in a hurry to cut in…

This was my second visit and I endeavored to NOT visit the same places I went to the last time. So no Madame Tussaud’s, no changing of guards, no Westminster Abbey, no Trafalgar Square, no West End. And yet I was left with a feeling that I haven’t seen enough.

Taking in the panoramic sights from the vantage point of the London Eye was supposedly the highlight of the whole visit. The Tate Modern was on the top of the list as well. Long walks along the Thames was also in order. At this time of the year, the river side was buzzing with activity. Street performers claimed their spots and onlookers watched their tricks, applauded accordingly and dropped hard-earned vacation coins into hats, towels, wooden or metal crevices where contributions got swallowed up in a jiffy.

The multitude of people with varying nationalities, diverse beliefs, from all walks of life were moving about like a harmonious school of fish, all in awe of The City. Everybody respected everybody’s space. Whenever a camera was propped up, passers-by paused or ducked or mumbled excuses and moved out of the frame quickly. Bizarrely, everyone was well behaved, except for one incident where two locals; a tall black woman and a short Indian woman had a verbal interaction over a burger at KFC. Both sounded very British and the presumably all-tourist-clientele looked on as if it were another cultural showcase we dared not miss.

Were we all in great spirits because it was summer? Were we all stress-free and thus lenient to slight discomfort because we were on vacation? Were we at our best behavior to pay respect to this holiday Mecca? Was it because anything “exotic” is a novelty before it wears off? Whatever the reason is, my dread for the crush of humanity was, at this time and place, unfounded.