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After leaving the Manila Hotel we didn't want to walk back to the ship or to the mall, it was much too far and too hot so we went to the street to find a Jeepney. In Manila a Jeepney is referred to as the “King of the Road”. Bill offered to pay for a taxi for us but I wanted to try local transportation and that meant riding in Jeepneys.
The American military left a lot of jeeps in Manila after the war and the people who bought them took good care of them and kept them running. Then they got the idea to make them longer so they modified them so they had 2 long side benches in the back to hold about 12 people with a tarp/canvas canopy over the top. This become such a popular way to get from one place to another that they called them Jeepneys and opened a factory and started making Jeepneys.
The Jeepneys are pretty beat up and most look like they've been on the road since the war although that is not likely although some of them are very old. Some are fancy with a lot of chrome and some are painted military style.
There is no schedule - they always seem to be available, the wait never seems to be more than a minute, or until a traffic light turns from green to red. There are also no routes. If the driver wants to go straight, he goes straight. If he wants to turn at the next corner, he will turn and if you want to continue going straight you have to jump out and catch another Jeepney. Where each Jeepney goes is all at the discretion of the driver!
To use a Jeepney for transportation you have to go the side of the road, usually a very busy road, where there are often 7 or 8 in a row side-by-side in different lanes of traffic. Every time the light turns red there were always several parked for a few minutes waiting for the light to change. The sides are like the sides of a pickup truck and there is a gap between the side and the bottom of the canopy so you can see if it is full or if there is room for more people.
If they are in the right hand lane they are going turning right. If they are in the left lane they are turning left. If they are in one of the center lanes, they are going straight. If you want to go to the left you walk across the lanes in front of stopped traffic and quickly jump into the back of the vehicle before the light changes. Same thing if you are want to go straight – you walk across the traffic lanes where vehicles are stopped for the right and get one the Jeepneys in the center lane before the light turns green.
We walked to the middle of the road jumped on one going straight and asked the driver if it was going to the Robinson mall. The driver said he was going about 8 blocks and turning so we could get out then and find another Jeepney.
Bill paid coins to ride (it was really cheap – about a quarter American) and we got out at the corner where that Jeepney was turning because we wanted to continue going straight for a few more blocks. The next time the light turned red we jumped in the back of another one that was going straight, paid our coins and rode in it the rest of the way to the mall.
The transportation system using the Jeepneys is to jump into the back of one going in the general direction of where you are going, then jump off and find another, and then to keep changing Jeepneys until you reach your destination. They say it is not uncommon to go several blocks or a mile or 2, jump out and get on another if you want to turn or if it turns and you don't want to. It's not unusual to ride 4 or 5 Jeepneys to get 3 or 4 miles. There is no schedule whatsoever but every time a light turns red there are always Jeepney's stopped to jump on.
We rode two Jeepney's to get from the Manila Hotel and the Robinson Mall and the total cost for both of us was $1.00.
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