Filipino Driving

Driving in the Philippines

Well, as i'm sure a lot of you might have guessed. driving in the Philippines is quite different from the west. The driving style is very defensive, expect people to cut you off and expect just about anything that doesn't follow the rules in your own country to happen! Prepare for big traffic jams in some places and probably lots more pollution and noise than you are used to.

Thats why use extra caution when driving, not only are there lots of cars on the road, but you'll see a lot of other strange and wonderful vehicles, such as jeepneys, tricycles (motorcycles carrying a passenger in a sidecar) and various other modified bikes, motorbikes and even horses (calesas).

Driving updates:

In the past 2 years, I noticed a lot of strange things in the Philippines when it comes to driving. Two of those things are now classified as illegal since President Noy-Noy declared that the existing law will now be fully enforced.

These 2 things are:

Use of Sirens on non-police vehicles to get through traffic (known as wack-wack, the sound of the siren)

The second one is counterflowing traffic, basically driving on the other side of the road.

Of course not only are these both unfair to other drivers, but they are dangerous too. In the case of the sirens if people don't know who the Police are, Meaning they aren't going to bother moving when there is an emergency such as an ambulance trying to get through with a sick patient in the back. Crossing onto the other road speaks for itself, as you can imagine the possibility of head on collisions is a big factor.

Luckily this seems to be reduced now and the road is a little quieter.

Rules of the road:

Driving rules are generally the same as the US such as turning right when the lights are red. The Philippines drive on the right side of the road also.

If you're a foriegner wanting to drive you'll need an international drivin license, but when living here for a while you'll need to goto the LTO (land transport office) and get a filipino driving license, which you can easily get by providing your original license and undergoing a drugs test.

Factors in driving:

The key skills are patience, not taking things such as beeping too seriously and one essential item is air-conditioning (it gets really hot most days, especially sat in traffic)!

Beeping/Using the horn:

Well people will beep at you for just about anything, to tell you to go, to tell you they are overtaking, out of anger because you cut them off, to pick up passengers (taxi/jeepneys) or in some cases I can't even determine the reason. Me and my friend actually timed how many seconds between hearing a beep on the road and hearing the next beep, we never once got past 30 seconds.

The horn is a valuable tool in the Philippines, since it seems people don't use their wing mirrors much. Using the horn can prevent a collision if you are overtaking. Its a strong contrast to the UK where I'm used to hearing a horn about once or twice a day.

Bearing this in mind, remember also if you're looking for property in the city, might be a good idea to look for one away from the main roads to avoid being woken up all night (Aside from horns, a lot of engines are really loud especially tricycles). So if you're a heavy sleeper like me, you've got an advantage here!

Cutting off:

Try driving here and no sooner have you set off on the road, someone will try to cut you off. Its not that this driver is trying to annoy you, this just really is the way things work in the Philippines. Hesitate in a traffic jam and i'm sure that a jeepney, taxi or car will be turning across your path into the empty space.

Well this is just a little bit of information about driving here, remember always be safe and wear a seatbely. Speeding is not recommended, especially in places where there are lots of pedestrians and very few real crossings available.

Related articles:

• 253 sirens confiscated, surrendered in less than a week (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• New Philippine leader sits in jams like other folk (dailycaller.com)
• House bills filed vs use of sirens (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• Aquino vows to wake up early to beat traffic (newsinfo.inquirer.net)

Rain in the Philippines

Since its getting to rain a lot more these days (rainy season has begun).

Heres a few things that get affected during heavy rain:

Traffic - Increases a lot when its raining, seems almost instant, the moment a rain drop hits the ground everyone jumps into their cars and hit the road (or so it seems).

Electricity - Expect some brownouts in a heavy storm, most likely from either lightning causing a generator or transformer to blow out. Usually temporary though, but in heavy typhoons, it might be a few hours.

Internet - Internet usually becomes slower/ disconnected. My estimation for this is either the quality of the lines fitted (if some are damaged might cause water to get inside) either that or people are just unwilling to go out and use the net more causing slowness in service.

Flooding - Those in low lying areas can easily be affected by flooding, sometimes flash floods. Usually these are just inconvienient (making it difficult to go out/ get home), but sometimes they can be worse!

Transport

Taxi rates - In rain everyone wants a taxi, and taxi drivers know this.. everytime I've tried to get a taxi in the rain the rates were really high!

Buses - Buses are really really crowded in the rain, in fact if you're on EDSA especially its almost impossible to find a bus with seats if its rush hour.. I was once waiting at magallanes for a bus in the rain for 2 hours!!! I did manage to get one eventually but was almost crushed because of the amount of people on it, besides that i had a comfortable position stood right in front of the leaking doors.

A few tips for those in rain:

Goto 7-eleven - You can hang out there for a while until the rain dies down, you can eat, buy magazines..... and something which has saved me on more than one occassion is the fact that they have umbrellas for sale!!


Dry off when you get home - this may seem like common sense, but because of the temperature changes and the common use of electric fans in homes, as well as some factor of pollution contained in the rain, you'll be better off taking a shower and changing you're clothes. Many Filipinos have told me about getting sick from the rain, which has happened to me before.

Stay Dry!!

Culture shock in the Philippines

First of all this is my first post on the new blog, i'll be putting a lot of new content from the site here along with my own stories/ information and any recent news too!

I'm going to tell you a little bit about Filipino culture, these are mostly based on my experiences, both in socializing and in stories told to me by others.. or just things i've experienced myself.

Culture shock is common in the Philippines, but those who get past it really learn to love the place, the people and everything about it.. those who simply can't will end up hating it here and probably go home telling all their friends not to go to the Philippines. Which is fine.. everybody is entitled to their own opinion after all.

The weather

The first thing you will notice, which actually isn't culture shock.. more weather shock.. is the extreme temperatures during the peak of summer (one of the 2 seasons here, also refered to as the dry season). I first arrived here around the end of march.. and it was HOT!! When I got of the plane I could feel the intense heat though the roof of the walkway as I was getting off the plane!

I thought that was bad.. then I actually got out of the airport! Now considering i'd come from England where it was relatively cold around that time of year, then landing and getting out in the late morning when its starting to get to the hottest point of the day, it was roasting hot!!

Stepping out of the shade I thought I was walking into an oven, luckily an air-conditioned car was on the way so it was only a matter of minutes before it was back to comfort levels again. It took me a few days to get used to it fully.. but once you reach a couple of months staying here, you hardly notice it, unless its a super hot day!!

More about the weather in Philippines...

Aside from the weather, what else can you expect here??

Filipino culture is interesting, as a foreigner one thing you should know about, is that most people think you are super rich.. In terms of Filipino salaries/ money you probably are especially if you are just stepping off the plane to enjoy a well earned vacation in a tropical paradise!! But just beware! On many occasions, you'll see beggars on the streets, now sometimes there are a lot of them, which is fine if they don't bother you.

But, 90% of the time i've walked past (or even been across the road) from beggars (especially kids).. they've ran upto me sometimes quite a long distance and refused to stop bothering me, even running down the street. I try to give them a few pesos if possible, but sometimes there are just so many that its better to just keep walking and ignore them.

Another kind of person who especially love foreigners are taxi drivers, if they believe you've just stepped off the plane and don't know anything about Philippine taxi rates, they really will try their luck with crazy high prices and refuse to use the meter. They'll use every excuse in the book "too much traffic", "the meter is broken" or they might just say some complete jibberish thinking if they confuse you enough you'll accept. Just refuse if the price seems unreasonable.

What is an unreasonable price?

Well, meters start at 30pesos usually and a taxi drive for about 20-30 minutes might cost you around 200+ depending on the distance. Going to that 7-eleven down the road shouldn't cost you 500 pesos! So just negotiate!

There is a problem sometimes, in that there simply isn't many taxis around and you have no choice, either that or you've stopped a few and they've all trid to rip you off. In this case you just have to accept it and go along with it.. but personally I wouldn't tip on a fixed rate fare in any circumstances!!

Language confusion

Now the Philippines does speak English thats true, but the question is at what level? Actually i'd say that depending on how heavy your accent is and how slowly you speak. Some people just can't understand more than basic level, especially those in jobs that require them to be quick such as fast food servers and bar tenders etc.

Often, i've been to places like Jolibee, McDonalds or similar, only to find out that my order from the menu was wrong.. I learned to correct this by just using the codes on the menu (for example N2 in jolibee is a chicken + rice meal) and usually ordering drinks, you might get the wrong choice. 9 times out of 10 I just accept this if its similar enough to my original order. Getting angry just makes things worse since they might be more nervous and make further mistakes. My point being, just accept that their might be a few mistakes, be polite about it and it should be easy enough to get it write! or another idea is learn tagalog (if you plan to stay for a while) to make things easier.

A few other things:

- Lateness: If you have a business or have a meeting planned.. expect lateness, its a part of the culture of things been more laid back.. sometimes its kinda nice but other times its annoying.

- Friendliness: People will be overly friendly, but for them its just normal.. compared to the west, it can seem scary.. but don't worry my rule of thumb, is with friends or people you've got to know well its fine.. but try not to go with those who seem suspicious and especially random strangers. They could be trying to scam you.

Theres so much more to Filipino culture than I could possibly write, have a look at my page on the subject on the site.

Filipino Culture