Before there were cellphones, the Internet and Wii, there was piko, sipa, tumbang preso, lakad lata, Chinese garter and patintero.

Byahilo jumping over the Chinese garter

Havaianas turned part of Bonifacio High Street into a playground for kids and the kids at heart, with game stations for different Filipino games that we played when we were kids. It was a great project, since we hardly see any kids playing these games in the streets (then again, Metro Manila’s streets aren’t the safest place to play in). It made me smile seeing young kids learning about these games, adults reliving their childhood and enjoying the games they used to play, and this one Caucasian mother with her two children, having fun playing Filipino games.

AJ and Marc racing at the lakad lata (walking on cans) station.

I’m not really into these games when I was a kid (really, I hardly went out of the house to play when I was little), so I just stood in the sidelines, taking photos and videos of my friends having fun. Things were just getting interesting over at the lakad lata section, when the guy taking videos of the event started directing the players where to go. The same thing happened in the patintero section, where he proceeded to order everyone around and telling them to let the other team pass. I can sense that the players only had fun during that brief 1-minute of play when he wasn’t ordering them around.

Eric keeps a tight watch over Fritz

All in all, it was a great and fun event. A good time was had by all, players and gawkers both. I hope Havaianas would have another Playback sometime soon. And maybe next time, we can play without a pesky cameraman directing how we should play *annoyed*

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Just to remind everybody, I’m currently running three contests on Justwandering.org. You can win a Mother Earth bag, a Wii Night at Redbox or a bag from Bratpack!