SOLACE-SEEKERS beware: The streets of Manila are not for you. It's not the roar of bumper-to-bumper traffic that has the sound-sensitive reeling, but something more disturbing - karaoke.
Day and night, in living rooms, shops and offices and on radio and television, Filipinos - microphones clutched firmly - are singing their hearts out.
The amplified results are sometimes pleasing, often average or just plain irritating - such as on a recent Sunday afternoon at the busy Ever shopping mall in suburban Quezon City. In a courtyard was a coin-operated karaoke machine with hideously powerful speakers. A snaking line of would-be pop stars waited for their five minutes of fame. They weren't concerned that the person at the microphone was tone-deaf or that the sound shuddered through all four levels of the shopping complex.
Annabelle Bulacas, a 24-year-old maid for a family in nearby Diliman, was out with friends on her day off work. The 10 pesos (HK$1.80) she would put in the machine was just a fraction of her 1,650-peso monthly salary.
'I'm shy to sing to so many people, but my friends are here,' she said.
'I think I am a nice singer and maybe there is someone from a music or television company shopping today.'
The scene is repeated at malls throughout Manila - with the exception of the city's biggest, Megamall in Cubao, where those who just have to sing can do so without disturbing shoppers in glass-walled, sound-proof cubicles.