The Grand Palace - Bangkok

The Grand Palace (Thai: Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang) is a complex of buildings in Bangkok, Thailand. It served as the official residence of the king of Thailand from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. After the death of King Ananda Mahidol in the Baromphiman Palace, King Bhumibol moved the official royal residence to Chitralada Palace. Construction of the palace complex began in 1782, during the reign of Rama I.

The palace complex sits on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River. The other approaches to the palace are protected by a defensive wall of 1,900 metres in length, which encloses an area of 218,400 square metres. Further out from the wall is a canal, which was also created for defensive purposes, making the area surrounding the palace an island, known as Rattana Kosin.

Here are a selection of photographs taken inside the Grand Palace:

Once you walk through the main entrance you're greeted by this guy. From here you turn slightly to your right and are greeted by two huge statues...

These two huge statues are Dhosa Kiridhorn. They are half elephant half demon (Yaksha). They guard the entrance/exit to the Grand Palace.

Another view of Dhosa Kiridhorn.

The sunlight reflects strongly on all the gold buildings at the Grand Palace. Sunglasses were a definite necessity.

One of the many walkways of the Grand Palace that leads to various buildings.

More walkways.

Behind Aimee and I are gold statues called Kinnorn. They are mythological creatures, half bird, half man. They guard one of the entrances to a building called Phra Mondop. This building was built by King Rama I that replaced the original building that was destroyed by fire. The original Canonical Library was surrounded by water which was customary at the time to prevent damage to the manuscripts by fire and termites. Ironically, the original building was destroyed by fire on the day of its inauguration caused by fireworks. However, the manuscripts and the mother-of-pearl inlaid cabinet that contained them were miraculously saved. The King had the pond filled in and built a high platform to house the first fully revised edition of the Buddhist Canon of the Rattanakosin Era know as the "Royal Golden Edition". The revision of the scriptures was one of the first tasks undertaken by King Rama I on his accession to the throne.

The four pairs of demons that stand guard on top of the stairways, a pair at each entrance, are the work of the King Rama I period and regarded as the most perfectly proportioned of all existing classical sculptures of Rattanakosin craftsmanship. The floor of the Phra Mondop is lined from wall to wall by a woven mat from strips of pure silver.

This is me doing my best Kinnorn impression. Sadly my impression looks more like a silly rapper pose than the pose of a mythical creature.

Before you could enter certain buildings in the Grand Palace you had to remove your shoes. There is something liberating and relaxing about walking around museums and other tourist sites in only bare feet. In my mind it felt like everywhere we went was an extension of my home since home is the only place (besides the beach) I have bare feet. Try walking around a Canadian museum with bare feet. You will probably get kicked out. In Thailand, you will kicked out for not being in bare feet.

Giving myself a little blessing... I remember what I was thinking here: I was wondering why they asked you to remove your shoes where they did. It was 12 noon, bloody hot, and the shoe removal racks were placed over the top of an extremely blistering hot concrete sidewalk. I took my shoes off, squealed in pain, and hobbled up into this building. The marble flooring here was cooler than the concrete but the damage was done. I took this flower, dipped it into some water (as I watched everyone else do) and blessed myself, and more importantly, my feet in the hope the pain would go away.

On the left, a statue of Demon (Yaksha), a character from the Ramakien epic, at golden chedi. Beside him, is me, your friendly Kenniverse is Pinoy correspondent, and beside me are more characters from the Ramakien epic.

A close up of Yaksha.

Here's me with another Grand Palace statue. This one reminds me of the Davy Jones character from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The Phra Si Ratana Chedi anchors the west end of the upper terrace. It was built by Rama IV in the mid nineteenth century at the same time as the Royal Pantheon. The chedi essentially balances the structures on the upper terrace, but it also recalls the monumental chedi of the old capital in Ayutthaya. The chedi is faced with small gold mirrored tiles, making it a bit shinier than other chedis that are 'just' gilded. The chedi houses a piece of the Buddha's breastbone.

I end our grand tour of the beautiful Grand Palace with ... monks! Monks are everywhere in Thailand so no blog is complete without them.

Blood Compact Site

While in Tagbilaran City in Bohol, Philippines we visited the Blood Compact Site.

The Blood Compact Site commemorates the spot where Datu Sikatuna, a native chieftain, forged a blood compact with Don Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, representing the King of Spain, for the purpose of fostering friendly relations between the two countries. The blood compact on March 16, 1565 is considered as the First Treaty of Friendship between the Filipinos and the Spaniards. This statue represents a very important piece of Filipino history. What I found perplexing about the Blood Compact Site was the total lack of information concerning the history. There was no plaque, no guides, no signs, no write-ups whatsoever that informed tourists why this statue (and the event it represents) is so important. The information I wrote here I had to research later on the internet because the site itself told me nothing. So odd. Come on Tourism Philippines, get with the program. Inquiring minds wanna know!

I wanted to get involved with this Treaty of Friendship. With my imaginary cup in hand I rewrote history - in my own silly image. I stood back away from the statue because I wanted to respect this important piece of Filipino history. After this photo was taken though I notice a few local Filipinos jumping up and down on the statue and practically sitting on Don Miguel Lopez de Legazpi's lap. I felt, if the locals can get close so can I...

This time I posed and pretended to drink from his cup. Sadly there was no wine, only a dead spider.

Aimee was so jealous of my superior posing that she had to get involved as well!

Ati Tribe

Back in Bohol, Philippines ... yeah, I know I promised you upcoming blogs about Thailand and Singapore but for now we're still talking about Bohol.

When we arrived in Bohol by ferry we were immediately approached by several drivers/tour guides trying to sell us their services. We needed a driver so we spoke to one, negotiated a price and then hopped into his van. In the morning he took us to see the tarsiers and the Chocolate Hills (previous blogs) but once lunch was getting closer we asked him if he knew of a good place to eat. He replied simply with, 'floating restaurant'. Okay, sounds interesting; off to the floating restaurant we go! Once we arrived at the floating restaurant we noticed all the staff there seemed to know our driver. I figured this was one of those circumstances where the tour guide brings tourists to certain places and then gets a cut of the business. Normally I don't care about this as long as I feel I'm not getting ripped off. In this case, the buffet lunch was reasonably priced and after looking at the food we felt it was good enough to fill our bellies after a busy morning of monkey watching. We paid the lunch fee and walked towards the floating restaurant.

Wow, it really is a 'floating restaurant'

As you can tell by this photo it was jam packed with people; mostly around the buffet table. This floating restaurant consisted of a bar, a buffet table for the food, and tables and chairs for the guests. Do you notice there's something missing here? A kitchen! I had no idea where all this food was coming from. It was certainly wasn't cooked on the boat. It must have been coming from somewhere close though: the hot food was still hot, and the cold food was kept cold. Maybe there was a hidden kitchen in the forest?

While eating I heard the coughing sounds of a small gas guzzling boat motor. I turned my head in the direction of the sound.

Okay, what is this guy doing? He attached his boat to our floating restaurant. Before I knew it, the whole restaurant was floating down the river (incidentally, it's called the Loboc River).

As if on cue to the boatman stealing the floating restaurant with all of us on it this man pulled out his guitar and started singing overly happy American songs from the 1960s. Was he trying to distract us while the boatman kidnapped us? The songs were so happy and the singer was so overly animated I found myself wooed into his playful sing song. I wasn't alone, one old lady after dancing at her table for 10 minutes started dancing around the floating restaurant trying to get everyone into a congo line.


The boatman drove us up the river for about 15 minutes.

Along the way I noticed some interesting vegetation growing alongside the river banks. I saw no land, just giant palms that seemed to be growing directly out of the water. The water colour here was unnaturally blue. This photo is a pretty good representation of that colour.

Suddenly I heard drums in the distance.

I ran to the front of the boat/restaurant and saw this in front of us. Were my eyes deceiving me? Could that possibly be a tribe in grass skirts? The boatman parked our floating food festival at a small pier. Most people looked pretty confused; I was one of them. After several minutes of confusion the congo line lady grabbed her camera and got off the boat. Everyone, including me, followed.

The pier brought us to a small path. The path brought us to this sign. 'Welcome to ATi TRIBE". Wow, it really is a tribe. Perhaps a long lost tribe of Filipinos lost in time and forever waiting to be rescued by the floating god known as 'Restaurant'. Our short walk down the path was complimented with the loud banging of tribal drums. How authentic. How primitive. My first lost tribe. A new experience in pinoy-ness.

The path ended and I was standing in their village.

The drumming was coming from these guys banging on this bamboo log. There were girls in the background doing an odd dance that involved them wiggling their hips and looking bored. The whole thing was pretty amazing. It really did feel like a lost civilization. I see the village even comes complete with a traditional tribal tip box.



Here's a video of our bamboo drumming tribal friends.



Some of the tribesmen were impressing us tourists with displays of their brute strength. Imagine breaking open a coconut with your bare hands? Impressive, even if it does take you at least ... four tries.

After watching this I walked around the little village a bit. It consisted of two huts, a broken cage that read, 'Beware the Tarsiers,' and around 25 tribes-people. I took some pictures, tossed some peso into the tip box and walked back to the boat. I thought to myself, what a truly amazing and authentic presentation. Maybe they really do live like this still? No phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury!

I got back to the boat and noticed congo line lady was behind me. I saw everyone else was walking back to the boat as well. I don't know if they were following me or congo line lady. I think it was probably the congo line lady because - wait, she deserves capitalization - Congo Line Lady is a natural born leader!

The boat coughed on its motor and after a huge disgusting cloud of black smoke engulfed the restaurant we were on our way. I took one last look at the ATi TRIBE. The men (and boys) were still drumming on the bamboo log and the girls were still dancing their bored dance. I was about to look away when I saw something at the back of the village. It was hard to see because it was hidden behind the trees. Can this be? Are my eyes deceiving me again? Can this possible be a little house with people sitting on a couch watching TV? What? TV? If it wasn't the TV that opened my eyes about this less-than-authentic tribal village it was the Radiohead t-shirt hanging on the clothes line beside a drying grass skirt. Bah, the tribesmen tricked me! I debated on swimming back and taking my pesos out of the tip box but figured, fake or not, the villagers put a lot of effort into this tribal experience so they deserve it!

We floated back to where we first started. Along the way our overjoyed singer once again grabbed his guitar and began his onslaught of pleasing American classics from the 1960s. I leave you now with a little entertainment...



Sing it for me my Pinoy Brother!

Temporary Passport

I was issued a temporary Canadian passport. What is a temporary passport you may ask? Good question; a few weeks ago I didn't even know they existed but now I was forced to use one. The Passport Canada website says this about the temporary passport:

Description

To meet immediate needs of Canadians, Passport Canada has introduced the temporary passport, a highly secure and internationally respected travel document.

The temporary passport is an eight-page, machine-readable passport issued by a Canadian Mission for urgent, proven travel situations or residency requirements. It is not intended to replace a regular, diplomatic or special passport; it is designed for interim use only. The decision regarding issuance of a temporary passport lies solely with the Government of Canada Passport/Consular officer.

The temporary passport features a white cover, a bio-data page, four visa pages, a digitized image of the bearer and various security features.

A white cover? It looks pretty fake. But why did I need one? It's a silly story: A month ago I saw that my passport was getting dangerously close to that six month expiration time. Most countries will not allow you beyond immigration if your passport expires in less than six months. I thought, now is the time to renew and get a new one. I filled out the passport application form, collected my requirements, and took everything to the Canadian Embassy in Manila. According to the application the embassy requires 15 working days to get your new passport to you. I checked my calendar and noticed I wasn't leaving the country again until 20 workings days. So with this knowledge I knew the embassy had plenty of time to get my new passport to me.

Within 10 workings days I was called by the embassy informing me that 'there's a strong possibility the passport will not arrive within the 15 working days. There is also a strong possibility it will not arrive within 20 working days.'
'But I'm leaving the country in 20 working days,' I said.
'No worry sir, we can offer you a temporary passport for your travels for an additional 70 Canadian dollars.'
'But,' I asked. 'Why should I have to pay when it's not my fault the new passport is going to be late? And where is the real passport?'
The consular replied, 'It's policy sir and your new passport is still currently somewhere in Ottawa.'

currently somewhere in Ottawa.

I was asked to 'wait and see' because there was a slim chance the real passport would arrive in time. A week later I got another call from the embassy. They told me the passport has left Ottawa and will arrive in Manila on the Saturday - the day I'm leaving the country. I got excited because my flight wasn't until the evening so there was plenty of time to pick up the passport. Guess what? The embassy is closed on Saturdays so although the passport would be sitting there screaming out my name there was absolutely so way I could pick it up. The solution: the damn white fake looking temporary passport. I went to the embassy the next day and sat in the waiting room listening to the same four Lorreena McKennitt songs played over and over. My number flashed on the screen and I walked in the consular office. I grumpily paid the 70 dollars Canadian and within 30 minutes received my temporary passport. 30 minutes! You can get a temporary passport in 30 minutes but a real passports takes almost a month. Doesn't seem right does it? I left the embassy and wondered if the two countries I was going to, Thailand and Singapore would give me a hard time with this crazy cartoon passport. What ended up happening? Well, amazingly enough, everything went fine. Thailand let me pass through immigration with no problem. Singapore, on the other hand, held me back for 10 minutes while they tried to figure out if the temporary passport was allowed. Eventually, none of them could decide so they just let me through (thankfully it wasn't, 'none of them could decide so they just threw me into a prison cell).

My trips to Thailand and Singapore were amazing experiences. I'll be posting blogs about both in the coming weeks.

As I type this I have my shiny new REAL passport sitting beside me. It's a beautiful thing!

Chocolate Hills

Bohol is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region. Its capital is Tagbilaran City. It is the 10th largest island in the country, located in the heart of the Visayas. To the west of Bohol is Cebu, to the northeast is the island of Leyte and to the south, across the Bohol Sea is Mindanao. Besides the tarsier (see my previous post), Bohol is also famous for the Chocolate Hills.

The best viewpoint for the Chocolate Hills is located at this tourist spot. You have to climb 210 steps to the top.

Once you reach the top you're greeted by this sign explaining what the Chocolate Hills actually are and how they were formed.

The Chocolate Hills are composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres. They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.

There are a number of geological proposals regarding the formation of the hills. These include simple limestone weathering, sub-oceanic volcanism, the uplift of the seafloor and a more recent theory which maintains that as an ancient active volcano self-destructed, it spewed huge blocks of stone which were then covered with limestone and later thrust forth from the ocean bed.

Geologists have actually long debated about the formation of the hills, resulting in various ways the origin of the Chocolate Hills are stated or explained. The one written on the bronze plaque we saw eariler states that they are eroded formations of a type of marine limestone that sits on top of hardened clay.

The plaque reads:

“The unique land form known as the Chocolate Hills of Bohol was formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion.”

Whatever the origin might be...

...the Chocolate Hills are an amazing site.

Aimee agrees!

Tarsier

I spent some time on the Philippine island of Bohol. While there I had the pleasure of finally seeing the Philippine's only species of monkey, the tarsier.

Tarsiers are the world's smallest primates. They have enormous eyes and very long hind limbs. Their feet have extremely elongated tarsus bones, from which the animals get their name. The head and body range from 10 to 15 cm in length, but the hind limbs are about twice this long (including the feet), and they also have a slender tail from 20 to 25 cm long. Their fingers are also elongated, with the third finger being about the same length as the upper arm. Most of the digits have nails, but the second and third toes of the hind feet bear claws instead, which are used for grooming. Tarsiers have very soft, velvety fur, which is generally buff, beige, or ochre in color.

They're cute in a furry alien kind of way. They are nocturnal creatures so I was able to sneak up to them while they were sleeping. They heard me approach, opened their eyes, stared at me for a few seconds, then closed their eyes and ignored me. I've never been ignored by something so small before. Silly monkeys.

Manila Metro Rail Transit System

The Manila Metro Rail Transit System, popularly known as the MRT, Metrostar Express or Metrostar, is part of the metropolitan rail system in the Metro Manila area of the Philippines.

Now you're probably asking yourself why I'm doing a blog about something as common as public transportation. Especially something as common as a subway system. You may be wondering what's so special about this train system. Every major city in the world has one. What makes Manila's system worthy of a blog? Well, the only reason I'm writing a blog about it is because I've never been on it. I've been coming to the Philippines since 2001 and I've never, ever, taken their train. I just think this is odd since every other major city I've been to in the world I've always made the effort to take the train. So here I am, living in the Philippines, my new home turf, and I've never taken the train. Well, today, I've decided to fix this problem! I'm taking the train!

I bought my ticket from the teller. The route I chose will take me from the first station all the way to the end. That's a total of 13 stations and 16.95 km. How much did the ticket cost? A mere 15 peso (that's 13 cents CDN. Wow!) My travels start at Taft Avenue Station.

I noticed while I was waiting for the train that there is a dedicated section on the train for elderly, female, children or disabled passengers. I found out the dedicated area was implemented after several groping instances occurred on the packed trains during rush hour. Now women can be in their own section. I do wonder though if 'elderly' refers to older men as well. What's stopping a dirty old man from going into the woman's private section and start a little groping?

The train arrives and I get on.

Here's a picture of me overjoyed to be finally on the Manila train. The ride was smooth. It's a nice train system. I was happy to see me and my train whizzing by all the traffic on the street below. If you were to take this same route by car it would probably take you close to an hour and a half during normal insane Manila traffic conditions. How long did the train ride take?

I arrived at my final, North Avenue Station, stop and got out. I took this photo as I walked up the stairs to leave the station. I looked at my watch and noticed the ride took just under 30 minutes. Taking the train is definitely faster than by car. Once I reached the top of the stairs I noticed another train arriving in the direction I needed to go in order to get back to Taft Avenue. I ran down and hopped onto that train.

Here's a picture of me on my way back. It's not the best photo of me but the only reason I'm including it in this blog is because of all the people behind me. Look how they're looking at me. Isn't it disturbing? It's almost like they're never seen a Canadian guy on their train system before. Or maybe, just maybe, I've been oblivious to the stares all this time. Maybe people are always looking at me this way? Could it be possible, I've just never noticed this before? So disturbing... I feel a little paranoid. First the cocks are staring at me now the Filipinos. It's enough to make a poor Canadian guy go buggy.

When I finally arrived back at Taft Avenue Station I discovered I was able to leave without paying for the return trip. Since I never left the station at North Avenue Station my ticket still worked. That's 13 cents CDN for a roundtrip train ticket. So cheap!

Bee Farm

We went to a bee farm last weekend. The Ilog Maria Honey Bee Farm is located in Cavite. Here's some brief information about Cavite: Cavite is a province in the Philippines located on the southern shores of Manila Bay in the Calabarzon region in Luzon, just 30 kilometers south of Manila. Its capital is the city of Trece Martires. Cavite is surrounded by the provinces of Laguna to the east and Batangas to the south. To the west lies the South China Sea.

Got that? Okay good, moving on.

It was about a three hour drive to the bee farm.

Once you park your car you walk down this path leading to the house. The path is lined on both sides by bee hives. From a distance this house looks almost abandoned so needless to say my first impression wasn't a good one.

I walked up close to one of the bee hives and took this photo. I think the bees were rather annoyed I was interrupting their honey making chores. Several of them started buzzing around my head. One even flew up and head butted me. I took the hint and moved on.

Once you finish your walk down the path you reach the house. The house is actually broken up into a store, a factory, offices, and various social areas. It's actually quite busy with staff and customers moving around. My first impression about the house being abandoned was incorrect. This place is popular! Here's me standing in front of an enclosed bee hive. Obviously since these bees were behind glass I didn't have to worry about an angry mob of evil bees attacking me.

Without the glass I highly doubt I would have been able to get this close to the bee here. He looks innocent enough but I can see it in his eyes, he's evil, and he wants blood.

The path leading up to the house isn't the only place that has bee hives. They're located all over the property. This photo was taken in behind the house.

And this photo was taken along the front. The path in the far distance is the one we walked down to get to the house.

Let's go into the store.

They make a wide variety of products from the honey and the bees wax.

Among these products are a wide selection of cosmetics like the soaps shown in the photo.

They also sell a huge variety of bees wax candles. Besides the standard everyday candles they also sell religious shaped ones. Look, you can make your very own nativity scene out of bees wax candles!

As I walked around the store and picked up various things to buy I noticed one very important component to a bee farm was missing: honey. There was no honey in the store. How can a bee farm not have any honey? It defines logic. I discovered later that all the edible honey products were kept behind the counter. I suppose that makes some sense. In the bee farm world honey is your gold bullion. Honey is liquid gold! And gold needs to be locked up!

Beside the store is where the magic happenes. It's here in the factory that they make all the bee related products. These girls are cutting and packaging soap.

Besides bee products the Ilog Maria Honey Bee Farm also grows it's own coffee. They grow it, dry it, charcoal roast it, and sell it in their store. This photo shows the coffee beans, still in their skins, drying in the sun.

Remember my post about cocks? Remember I said cocks are everywhere here in the Philippines? Well, to prove it to you, look, cocks hanging out with the bees. See cocks are everywhere!

Hey, what's this giant bee hive? Let's go inside and find out.

Now I know I posted a blog before about toilets so I don't want you to think I have some wierd toilet fetish but I do think this is pretty cool. A toilet in a bee hive, how original! It's like having modern comfort and the natural outdoors all in one!

When we left the bee farm and started our drive back to the Metro Manila area I saw fields upon fields of pineapple crop plantations. Along the roadside of these plantations were small stores selling the pineapples and other fruits. This photo shows a few pineapples in the foreground and the pineapple plantations in the background.

So many pineapples to choose from. We chose the best four pineapples we could find and continued our long trek back to Manila! A great day with the bees!

Cocks

There are a lot of cocks in the Philippines.
You see cocks in parks.
You see cocks by the side of roads.
You see cocks on people's property.
You see cocks in parking lots.
You see cocks on trucks.
You see cocks on public transportation.
Sometimes you see dirty cocks.
Sometimes the cocks are clean, freshly washed, and shiny.
You see cocks all over.
Sometimes you see cocks hanging out with other cocks.
Sometimes you see cocks hanging out alone.
Sometimes the cocks are tied up.
Sometimes the cocks are free.
Sometimes the cocks are in cages.
So many cocks.
Cocks all over.
You can't go through a day without seeing several cocks.
Cocks cocks cocks.
Why are there so many cocks?
Who owns the cocks?
Sometimes I get the feeling the cocks are staring at me.
Maybe they're spy cocks?
Cocks hired by the Filipino government to watch the Pinoy people.
Big brother cock.
The cocks make me paranoid.

I think all of these cocks are fighting cocks. Cock fighting is legal here in the Philippines so everyone seems to have a trained fighting cock. I don't necessarily agree with this, but you can't deny the fact that legalized cock fighting translates to a country filled with cocks. And they're all angry. Angry pissed off cocks. If the cocks were motivated enough I think due to their great numbers they could take over. A country run by cocks. Imagine that!

Don't touch the cock. It's angry!

Honking

I've written a few blogs about the insane traffic conditions here in the Philippines, but I've never written anything about car horns. Car horns are an interesting topic. The horn itself isn't that interesting but the meaning behind the honk is worth looking at.

Honking in Canada seems to be connected with aggression. People that honk tend to be annoyed, or worse, suffering from road rage. If you get honked at in Canada you tend to immediately go on the defensive. You start wondering why you're being honked at. If you can't figure out why the honk happened you automatically assume the honker is an asshole. There's no debate here, the honker is an asshole.

If horns could talk, here's what they would be saying in both Canada and the Philippines:

CANADA: "You asshole. You cut me off. You're driving too slow and I hate you. I HATE YOU."

See, it's all about aggression.

Now let's look at the Philippines:

PHILIPPINES: "Excuse me friend, how are you? I can't help but notice that you're driving a touch too close to me. If you don't mind, and if it isn't any trouble, please move slightly to the left. Thank you Sir, have a wonderful day and God bless."

If you were to do a study of traffic conditions in the world and pick a place where road rage should be happening it's here in the Philippines. People don't follow the lanes. People swerve their cars constantly. People run red lights. People tailgate. People cut you off. People block traffic entirely by doing a U-Turn. People drive slowly while texting on the phone. Busses and jeepneys stop in the middle of the road to left people off which causes huge traffic jams. All these things are incredibly annoying. It annoys me just thinking about it. But here's the funny thing: road rage doesn't exist here. Not at all. Why is that?

I think it's all about the mindset. Filipinos use the car horn as an extended form of communication. It's like a 'hello'. They honk even when it's not necessary to honk. They could be the only car on the road in the middle of the night and they would still honk. The horns add a happy vibe to your driving experience

Canadians only honk when it's absolutely necessary to honk. Someone cuts you off and you're angry. You place you hand on the horn but don't apply the pressure at first. You start debating if you're 100% correct for honking at this person. You need to be correct. If there's any doubt here, either from you or the receiver of the honk then you may, most likely, be classified as an asshole. Who wants to be an asshole?

I think Canadians need to adopt the Filipino style of honking. Sure it adds unbearable noise pollution to your morning commute but at least everyone on the road is your friend. Personally I prefer a world where I have hundreds of friends on the road rather than that one annoying asshole.