Quentin Tarantino was forced to hop into a pedicab to escape gridlock on flooded Manila streets Wednesday as he made his way to the presidential palace to receive a film award. Tarantino's limousine had been stuck in traffic for about 2 1/2 hours on a bridge close to Malacanang palace when Filipino filmmaker Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz suggested they take separate pedicabs (cycle rickshaws). About 15 minutes later, they reached a street corner near the palace gates where a car picked them up, Tarantino said.

"It was a lot of fun. It's the way it is, I guess. ... It was wild," he told reporters. "No worries. I've done more serious things than that."

Tarantino was 40 minutes late for the ceremony but 30 minutes ahead of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Pounding rain from Typhoon Sepat flooded parts of metropolitan Manila, prompting authorities to suspend classes, briefly stopping a commuter train and slowing Arroyo's convoy.

Tarantino, director of "Pulp Fiction" and the "Kill Bill" movies, wore a traditional Filipino formal shirt and sandals.

He was handed size-13 black leather shoes because sandals and rubber shoes aren't allowed inside the palace during presidential ceremonies, said a staff member of the National Commission on Culture and Arts.

Tarantino, 44, was among three Lifetime Achievement award winners in the 9th Cinemanila, a film festival featuring foreign and local movies.

He is writing a book about Philippine films, particularly the horror and action movies he saw in his youth.