One of the first things you notice in
Manila are the jeepneys. These are public transportation basically,
but we have yet to take one. We did travel by something similar in
Laos, but they were nowhere near as colourful. Jeepneys are basically
long trucks with benches inside and even space on the roof. The
drivers seem to be in competition with each other over the original
decor. Whenever I have pointed my camera at the jeepneys, the drivers
smile proudly and all the passengers wave at me.
The other things you see a lot are
motorised rickshaws with a kind of sidecar attached. I think they are
called tricycles here. We took these a lot in Sri Lanka and India,
but I don't have such fond memories. I remember being stuck in a
Chennai (Madras) traffic jam in a rickshaw being so low down that you
get lungfuls of exhaust fumes. That 45 minute journey was probably
the equivalent of smoking 20 fags a day for a couple of years.
Jeepneys and tricycles look like they
have been cobbled together from bits of army jeep, bits of tank and
general scrap metal They give the city a real sci-fi feel. In a
post apocalyptic world, jeepneys, tricycles and cockroaches rule.
Now we only take chauffeur-driven
limos. Actually, we don't – I'm kidding. The trains in Manila were
really good. Fast, frequent, cool and (from our limited experience)
safe (thanks to the security checks as you go into the stations). I
have heard how taxi drivers rip you off, but the taxi driver who
brought us to the airport had his meter on. So far so good.
We originally planned to take the train
to Naga, but were put off my a few things. It takes between 8 and 12
hours (which is it? That's quite a difference). It is an overnight
train so we wouldn't see the countryside anyway. There's no sleeper
car. There is no air conditioning. Locals pelt the train with rocks
and fruit along the way. I'm sure this can't be true, but it is
apparently the reason for the metal grills on the windows. Not
exactly the Orient Express then. That is why we are flying to Naga
this morning – it's a 45 minute flight and cost 3 pesos (plus plus
plus plus as it turned out, but still each leg was on average 7
pounds per person).
We were delayed by 4 hours in the end,
but met some nice people along the way.
