Philippines - Jeepnys

Number of fatal accidents I have seen in the past 2 days: 2. This makes me slightly worried about the amount of time I spend zipping about on the back of Budoy's motorcycle. On the other hand he's a good driver and if we drink we take cabs, so I feel a bit better, but I do really need to get a helmet or something. But on to the main subject of this post, which is.... JEEPNEYS, the main mode of transportation in the Philippines. They are bus/car hybrids that are usualy lavishly painted and decorate with either "god is good", or Kobe Bryant who apparently is tantamount to god in reverence since he is painted on jeepnys.  (The kobe brayant mobile used to be my jeepny of choice to get into the city).   

Basically no one can afford cars in the philippines so three quarters of the vehicles on the street are jeepnys which will pick you up at any location and drop you off at your destination for a mere 7 peso, or roughly ten cents.   You just wait by the side of the road until you see the right number jeepny (all have the route number marked clearly on the top).  Until you know the correct number you are doomed to ride around in circles or look like a tourist and have to ask one of the passengers in which case they wonder why a tourist would ever be riding a jeepney anyway and be too shocked to answer you.    Basically you just flag down your jeepney, climb in the back and pass the kid hanging off the back your seven peso. Then, when you reach your destination you hit a coin on the metal bars above your head so that the drive hears you and slows down to let you off.   Because of this jeepneys are definitely not the most efficient mode of transportation since they stop to pick up and drop off every few seconds, but they certainly are cheap and have lots of character.   Below are some pictures I took of the ones on my route. 

Cebu from a Jeepney window 

The sides are all open and they're pretty long, you can squish at least 10 people on each side, and they definitely pile in as many as they possibly can

This is the dude that hangs off the back and rustles up fares, a lot of times by yelling the destination as loudly as he can

Other jeepney art:

Apparently: "Australia, the legend lives on" who knows......