A tour guide in the Philippines dressed up as Big Smoke from Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, and all the participants in the tour had to do was follow the trains.
According to Renacimiento Manila, a cultural organization dedicated to working towards what it called "the cultural rebirth" of the Philippine capital, they held a tour on Sunday (Feb. 4) in collaboration with the Light Rail Manila Corporation - the consortium operating the LRT-1 rail line running in a mostly north-south axis in Metro Manila - to feature the history of the rail line, as well as "the story of its trains, the story of the stations, and the landmarks and attractions located near each of the stations that were included in the tour."
The tour began at Central Terminal station beside Manila's Metropolitan Theater and near the recently-gutted Post Office Building, going southwards towards the Rizal Memorial Coliseum and the Rizal Baseball Stadium, both built during the American period of the Philippines. The tour then visited the Santa Cruz district in downtown Manila before returning to the center of the city to visit the National Museum of Natural History.
'Big Smoke' Tour Guide
In one of Renacimiento Manila's Facebook photos of the event, a tour guide named Alex Avila was snapped wearing a bowler hat, glasses, and a green buttoned shirt, with his physical appearance making him look like Big Smoke from the Rockstar Games classic GTA San Andreas.
He previously wore his Big Smoke costume during a local cosplay event in 2022.
Several social media users reflected their amusement, especially those who were familiar with the game, as well as the meme originating in one of the game's missions titled "Wrong Side of the Tracks."
Some wrote the iconic line Big Smoke said to the protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson in the comments: "All we had to do was follow the damn train, CJ!"
Others were either surprised by Avila's appearance and commended him for the look, or made jokes about it.
"Hey, it's Big Smoke!" quipped a user.
"You can't fool us, Big Smoke!" said another. "Props to him though, he knew what he was doing."
"His Big Smoke cosplay is so accurate," noted another.
Avila did not immediately respond to HNGN's request for comment.
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