Transportation . . .Choose your poison

Here in the Philippine there are many modes of transportation that Filipinos use to travel around whether it is a ten minute ride to the market or a 12 hour ride to nation’s capital. Because of the costs to own and maintain a vehicle, cars are not as prevalent here unless a person is rich.  Not to mention most cars can not fit down certain streets/unpaved roads and the weight limits on bridges or ease of maneuvering through traffic. The vehicle of choice here in the Philippines is the motorcycle.  Everybody and their mother (literally) owns or has access to a motorcycle.  Some of them are mopeds in style but still serve the purpose of getting from point A to B.  Most people ride without a helmet and carry their babies (toddlers) on the motorcycles with them.  About 3-4 people ride on the motorcycles.  They ride on the local roads as well as the major highways.  Accidents happen very frequently with motorcycles.  In fact one of my co-workers is out of work for the next 2-3 months because he was involved in an accident as he was driving his motorcycle.  Volunteers are not allowed to ride motorcycles for safety reasons as mentioned above.  There are many times when people ask if I want to ride and I advise them that I can’t and will not.  There was one occasion in which I thought I would have to ride a motorcycle as a last resort.  It was a late night like 1 am and my co-workers and I went out to a local bar.  We rode a tricycle there but on the way coming home the tricycle caught a flat.  So we sat in front of a vulcanizing shop but no one was able to help us. Then my co-worker turns to me and says “Rina we will have to ride a motorcycle kasi there are not any other options to get home”, I told her that I did not feel comfortable riding a motorcycle and we sat for another 10 minutes until the motorcycles returned.  I then prayed “Lord please help me, I already know what I shouldn’t do but YOU direct me on this one”.  So then I asked how far was her house from where we were and she replied 10 km.  I didn’t know how far that was but then I said, well I can walk. She said okay (turns out the house was far from where we were in fact it was about 1 hour and half away by foot!) So another guy that was with us offered to walk with me.  We hadn’t been walking 10 minutes when a tricycle pulled up next to me with my other co-workers in it! God is good! I was happy with my decision because as much as you quote someone policy they want to see what you will really do in that situation.  Not to mention my co-workers respect my integrity to do the right thing even more and have more trust of me with the clients and projects.

            Next you have the tricycle which is a motorcycle with a side car attached to it.  It is very efficient in getting you from point A to point B.  It’s not as fast as the motorcycle alone but is safer.  You can ride on the inside of the side car, outside on the back of the side car, in front of the side car or behind the driver.  The size of the trics differs from region to region. Some fit as many as 5 or 6 Filipinos on the inside and others fit only 2.  We Americans take up most of the space on these things. We can ride in these. Similar to the tricycle is the pudyak which is a bike with the side car.  The men bike you around a central area like the market if you have a lot of things or don’t want to walk the distance.  This has to be a tiring job to drive one of those. Next we have the Jeepney which is an old U.S. military vehicle (During the 1940’s a surplus) which has been transformed into a commercial vehicle for transporting passengers.  This vehicle operates similar to the Van in NYC.  You get on at a loading point and when you are ready to get off you yell “para” or knock on the roof.  In NYC you would say the street or “at the corner”.  You then pass your fare up to the driver or sometimes there is a conductor who will collect the money and advise the driver to stop.  Inside of the Jeepney are two long benches that fit about 25 people on average.  Adults typically will have children sit on their lap to have more room.  Once the inside is filled you see men standing on the outside and even on the roof of the Jeepney.  Some jeepneys are beautifully decorated and have music inside.  Some look horrible as hell and you wonder if you should ride in it.  Everything comes on the Jeepney from ducks to roosters in a box, to all of the groceries purchased from the market. Ugh it gets so packed in there and getting out of it without tripping over someone’s rice, vegetables or sili is like impossible. The key to faring well on the Jeepney is to get a seat toward the back of the Jeepney by the exit so that you can easily get out.  You pass your money up by saying “bayad daw po, paki abot”.  Next we have the van and charter bus which get you to your destination at a faster pace if you don’t care to wait.  A van goes straight from the loading place to the next city without stopping to pick up other passengers.  The aircon buses are nice and clean and have DVDs on board to watch.  This is similar to Mega Bus or China bus.  Most of the routes are driven at night when there is less traffic and that is the best time to do long trips at night! Though the bus gets cold and the drivers drive super fast. The bus typically does not stop but there are times when it turns into a Jeepney and picks people up on the side of the road.  All of these modes of transportation have a specific route without specific stops unlike the buses in the states that stops at certain streets.  One thing that irks me about the Jeepney is that one person will get off and then two minutes later someone is trying to get off. Like you could have walked! Omg but that in a nut shell is the transportation here in Albay.