Before moving on, it might be valuable to explain the transportation options available to a traveller in the Philippines, as they will come up in my future entries. If nothing else, the Philippines, and especially Manila, has transportation choice. There's the usual taxis and metrorail and long-distance coaches and whatnot (though come to think of it I can't recall seeing any public buses), but also a few modes of transport that are different from back home.
Jeepneys. I guess when the Americans finally started to pull their troops out of the Philippines, they left a lot of army transport jeeps. These have been re-used as jitneys (hence the name) and are distinctively Filipino both as a mode of transport and in their decoration. People often ride hanging from the outside or on the top.
Jeepneys ply regular routes that are displayed on the outside of the vehicle; you flag them down as they go by. You enter from the back, sit along one of two long benches that run along each side of the back, hunker down with twelve to fourteen of your new closest friends, and swelter until your destination comes. When this happens, you have to let the driver know to stop, and this you do by shouting "Para!" (Stop!), hissing, or banging on the roof. You pay the driver if you haven't already, and you're a free human again.
Minivans. These function like jeepneys except they go further distances, for example from one village to another. They don't have a schedule; they leave whenever they are full. This can be over an hour. People usually wait outside, but because minivans are usually air conditioned sometimes the driver will leave the motor running with the A/C on so people can wait inside in comfort.
Tricycles. These are like a motorcycle with a sidecar, each of which is semi-enclosed, but sort of separately. A picture will be clearer than an explanation. You ride in the sidecar, or on the back of the seat behind the driver (usually sidesaddle). I've seen as many as seven people in a tricycle: three in the sidecar, two behind the driver, and two hanging on the outside of the sidecar. Tricycles are fun, but they are also built for Filipino-sized people: the roof above the sidecar is about 15 cm too low for me, and the roof over the driver would be perfect for me if my head did not extend above my ears.
There is a pricing system, but if you don't know it and you look western you will be charged two to ten times more than that unless you haggle them down. And if you get in before securing the price, woe to you.
Padyak. These are human-powered versions of tricycles found in some parts. They are restricted to lesser roads, and don't tend to travel very far. I like them more than tricycles (trikes are very noisy and polluting), but keep getting kicked out of them because I want to go somewhere they can't go. They drop me off at a jeepney route or a street frequented by tricycles.
Those are, I believe, some of the more novel transportation modes, at least for me. In Manila, there are about a thousand of these in some combination in every block, often going any direction in any lane all at once. Crossing the street is an adventure, and speaking of pedestrians, just to add to the fun they are often also walking in the street because the sidewalks are filthy, crumbling, overcrowded or non-existent.
Something that I like about Philippines traffic, at least outside Manila, is that I've noticed that jeepney and trike drivers tend to honk as they approach any pedestrian or person who might be in danger. It's calm and polite tooting, as if to say, "this is a courtesy notice to you that I am approaching". Also, the traffic tends to move fairly slowly, so it works well. Planner-types reading this will probably recognize it as a sort of unplanned macro-scale woonerf.
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