Today, I have one of my favorite all-time Jeepney pictures! This photo was taken in North Cotabato Province. The Jeepney is an old one, just look at the wear and tear, it has certainly seen it’s better days.
On top of that, the jeepney is fully loaded. Lots of people (even riding on top), and also lots of “stuff” loaded aboard. And, additionally, the jeepney is crossing a river! How cool is that? Well, I like this picture a lot, and wonder what it would be like to hop aboard that jeep? I bet it would be an adventure! I wonder if a foreigner ever rode that jeepney across the river? 😉 Maybe I could be the first!
Do you ever ride the jeepney when you are in the Philippines? If so, why not tell us about it. I enjoy riding the jeepney, although I have never ridden across any rivers yet! Might be quite an adventure. Many Philippine rivers, especially here in Mindanao, have crocodiles, though… would not want to pick up an extra passenger while passing through the river! 🙂
Love it, and if you look real hard at the hood, there is someone there as well. Oh to be young and limber again. . . I’d be up on top with you . . . .Looks like fun, but I bet the driver worked his magic.
Hi Terrence, it sure looks like fun to me as well. For the people on the jeep, though, it’s all just a regular day!
Go ahead and ride it Bob, and please send me a picture!
It is pretty far from where I live David Thurber. I wonder if they would let me be the driver though?
That is a cool picture. Only in the Phils.
Indeed.
So many of the Filipinos face so much adversity every day and yet they are always smiling.
That is true, Rock. Happiest people in the world!
wow
Hi Bob
Sure is wetter in Bankerohan than I remember! LOL
Hi Malcolm, how are you?
That is not in Bankerohan. 🙂
We care fine Bob, not sure when we are coming to Davao again, maybe early next year.
You got any plans for a visit to the States?
Okay, here is my comment! That jeepney is not a passenger jeepney! It is one that is owned by a private user and uses it to transport goods. You can see that inside! Therefore all pasengers are on the roof as there is no space for them elsewhere! This is typical in the Philippines and in any country of the developing world, Asia, Africa and south America! So that jeepney was heading out to the fields or coming from there.
Last week I had to go to the mountains to rescue one of my pineapple hauling trucks. I started over a bridge that wasn’t sfe enough to walk over and backed out. I had to make a river crossing like this in my pick-up.
Yes I used to ride on those Jeepneys. When I was growing up in Leon Iloilo. It’s dangerous when crossing the river.
My youngest daughter after college she decided to come with me to the Philippines and one day we went to the beach and we hired the jeepney to take us to the beach. Will my daughter think that it would be fun if she ride on the top of the jeepney with all of her cousins. Will her cousins had to teach her how to duck low when there’s some threes approaching the way, so she won’t hit by the branches of the tree. I was terrified that she was up the roof of the jeepney she said it was so much fun but scary.she’s planning a trip to Philippines again this time with her husband and a daughter.
Hi Mila – What a great story about your daughter’s experience riding the jeepney in the Philippines. Thank you for sharing!
Only in the Philippines, I’m loving it!
Very typical scene, hey Bob get a picture of the Jeepney covered with hanging white chickens….
I live in Australia , in the 60’s we , mum, dad and 5 kids ( 14 down to 2 ) travelled 1200 miles from Bundaberg to Shepparton ,and back , to do the fruit season in an Austin A40 pickup ,,, mum , dad and the 3 little kids in the front , my sister and I in the back with all the goods and chattels . And thought nothing of it,, how times have changed 🙂
For sure, Rusty… times are different now!
Yes ,, and not 4 the better I feel
I’m afraid I have to agree on that one, Rusty Martin!
Most Filipinos have no fear because they believe that God will protect them. Wish I could have that mindset.
Perhaps someone can explain to me in my ignorance why the engine of the jeepney can function when (as it seems) it is under water.
I was wondering the same when I saw the ending appeared to be underwater, Steve!
The Jeepney probably has a snorkel of some type on it since they use it to cross the rive.
Hi Scott – I was thinking the same, but I have never seen a jeep with a snorkel (although pickup trucks with snorkels are very common here). Also, no snorkel is visible in the photo… but you are probably correct.
There are some snorkels that hide inside fender or in the Cowl of the vehicle. Not the best place for it but it would work. There really is no way of telling how they did it. I would love to know, I have see some really inventive stuff done by Filipinos.
That is interesting, Scott, I didn’t know that. The ones that I have seen are quite large and snake up the side near the windshield and up to the roof area.
How does the motor function after it has 70 billion kilometers on it? Don’t most jeepneys look like they were produced during WW2?
Rusty
Yes, WWII style is definitely the jeepney in-fashion-look, not to be too far diverged from.
The new electric tricycles the municipalities are buying look really cool though.
Saw that in the Cordilleras in Ilocos Sur, Luzon. One Jeepney road through the mountains had to cross the river six times! Most had bald tires, many had to be pushed up out of the water on the opposite bank, It was the only way for people to go to market!
Ha ha.. it’s always more fun in the Philippines, John, don’t you think? 😉
Do they only change tires when they pop? Why in the states to they always use 50/50 coolant? However, here I’ve seen them pouring just water into the radiator?
Rusty
Yes, northern climates use 50% ethelyne-glycol for the strange event called “winter” which has a far different definition in places where the temperature drops below freezing. When’s the last time the coolant in your radiator froze here in the Philippines, even if it’s 100% water?
Back in Canada we’d put a case of warm beer out on the back porch in Feb, and enjoy the resulting frosties half an hour later. Rescue them within the hour though or you have 24 exploded bottles. That frosty trick just doesn’t seem to work here in Phils. Wonder why? 🙂
LOL. Yup your right Ed. The water/coolant doesn’t freeze here. I wonder why? By the way what do they use in my radiator? I’d assumed they used coolant.
But how about if I traveled to Baguio? Do those cars/jeepneys use a 50/50 mix?
Rusty
Rusty, I don’t know about Baguio, but I still doubt that it would get down to below about -5C for long enough to cause any real damage. A few minutes of frost doesn’t matter much to a radiator, soft plants are way more susceptible to frost. Otherwise you wouldn’t be buying “Baguio beans” at your local palengke. 🙂
Why is it that new jeepney tires between 7k and 15k depending on size immediately become bald within the month of purchase, and even faster if you install them the day you pay? That’s new tires. Don’t even ask about 3k retreads.
Really, 7 to 15K is the cost for a jeepney tire? No wonder they wait until they pop to replace them.
July 29 2015, 14k to my wife for 2 new tires – the smaller variety, don’t offhand know the size, she buys them, I just fork up the cash. That is however way less than the 13.5k we were paying 3 years ago for the very same size and I did see the receipts back then and a few times bought them myself so I know the price was true – I checked all the alternatives at the time. They’ve come way down in price lately, same suppliers too.
Ed,
You’d know since you buy them. Here I thought 4 to 5 K was a lot for a passenger car tire.
Rusty
Yes, passenger car tires are way smaller and thus way cheaper than jeepney tires. Even for a 4×4, “expensive” tires were in the 5K range. Put those up beside a jeepney tire and see the difference and thus the difference in cost. Bottom line is that a PUJ costs way more to maintain than a car or even a private 4×4. Makes us wonder why we even bother, other than Pinoy “math” is really REALLY bad.
I had no ideal that Jeepney’s cost so much to maintain. They certainly are old. I seldom, on the island of Bohol, see a new jeepney.
Rusty,
Rusty, further to your comments (abbreviated) “they wait until they pop”, some points of note:
– the driver and conductor are rarely the owner.
– the driver and conductor do not want to jeopardize their income by pointing out to the owner that the tires paid for last month are bald *again*, since that makes the owner wonder about their skimming income and payment of expenses and repairs.
– tires are just a set of way too many things to constantly repair. For example, by the time it’s installed, 30k this week for a *surplus* I-beam assembly for 8-hole. Huge never-ending repair list. Expenses aren’t regulated, only income is dictated, and in general employees aren’t always particularly honest. Nor for that matter the party directly entrusted with the cash who _should_ care about the family.
This is scary like hell. I was once sitting besides the driver while crossing a creek. In the middle of the creek, the truck suddenly sunk one foot deeper and we got water on our feet. The driver kept his cool and we plowed through.
On the way back, the same thing happened but even deeper. This time the water almost reached the top of seat.
That was when I decided that I’ll never cross that creek again.
Ha ha.. not only is it more fun in the Philippines… it’s more thrilling too! 🙂
I always find it an adventure just riding down town in Davao in a jeepney. People sitting on top of each other, banging your head on the roof, watching the driver handle the fares and make change while driving. Good fun.
I find it an adventure as well, Nick! When people are packed in tight, that can be OK depending on who is tight against you… or on your lap!
I would be more worried about China selling over 190 billion in US debt….and more to come….
Not sure how the foreign debt is related to a jeepney crossing the river.
Maybe once they clean up their own mess, the Chinese will provide financing with some of those billions for agricultural efforts on the other side of the mountain streams? Sadly Philippine banks don’t entertain or support enhancement of our agricultural endeavours.
Our much larger jeepney has forded rivers (actually those are more properly just large streams) many times, though not as deep as in your picture, and I have myself a few times in our 4×4. During the years of construction of the new highway up into the mountains in North Cotabato there have been times when that’s the only way to get across. Old crossing gone, new bridge not ready yet. Not as bad as the mud-pits which are much harder to traverse after periodic deluges. FYI, rumour has it that highway will eventually provide an alternative circuitous route through to Davao.
Interesting, Ed
Do you have any photos of that crossing?
Sorry Bob, no pics of those events. The times I was in the jeepney I was a passenger and the 4×4 times I was driving
Sounds pretty cool, Ed.
I’ve crossed rivers in jeepneys in the province of Antique a number of times, but they weren’t that deep or fast.
It sure looks pretty deep, Rease!
At 6’1″ I have a hard time getting on jeepneys…and my upper body is where my height is…so once on board I have to on most bend down to avoid having a concussion when they hit a bump….trikes are even worse…but I manage….paradise ain’t perfect….
Hi Will – Yeah, sometimes my head will bump the ceiling in the jeep too, but usually not too bad. I am only 5’10”, but with very short legs, so I sit quite high. I am already used to getting in and exiting the jeeps, I ride so often, so that is not a problem for me.
The same here. 99.9% of the time we take our car, However, When I take a jeepney I always ride up front.
Rusty
So many times back in Cavite just before becoming a “senior” would I run to catch a jeepney that might accomodate, throw the groceries inside, then hang off the back along with as many other Pinoys as could fit on the back ledge without us all falling off. Fish for coins to pay while hanging on going over the broken roads! Bayad ho! Salamat!
When we’re too old for that, move way south to the middle of nowhere and buy a million-peso jeepney and spend another million for repairs, upgrades, etc. Then try to catch it when it’s “route-day” When you pay the driver and conductor and for the jeepney earning them a living, they find room for you. 🙂 Then again, conscience may cause asking them to let (paying) “lola” sit comfortably and we squeeze in somewhere for a few hours.
Heck, I’m only 5’9″ and I have the same problem!
Ha ha.. I am 5’10” and have experienced such problems. But, I ride the jeepney so ften that I have been able to adjust and get to where I am comfortable.
Jeepneys here in Cabanatuan City are mostly for travel to the other towns. Not sure how it is I where you are, but they don’t have the Jeepney routes here like I’ve seen in Olongapo. If you’re going somewhere local, it’s gonna be a trike!
Unless you provide your own transportation (eg, feet), you’ll likely be taking a tricycle here inside Kidapawan.
Coming into town from the mountains means a very-early-morning jeepney if on the far end of the route (or wait until tommorrow), Going back is typically between noon and 2.
Alternatives are … well I don’t climb up and down mountains very well on foot at my age especially up where the air is much thinner; plus it’s just way too many km too far. Alternative#2 – back of a motorcycle, which just doesn’t work well for me for hours especially if 20 sacks of fertilizer are involved.
So – catch the jeep, and it’s _your_ jeep remember that your route is limited to once every 3 days (or whatever your location dictates).
Hi Douglas Thompson. Here there are lots and lots (thousands) of jeepneys for local travel to different parts of town. There are also some that go to out of town spots as well, but most of the City to City travel would be via the bus. All jeepney travel here is via routes which are strictly enforced. Tricycles are not allowed on City Streets, only inside neighborhoods and subdivisions.
Ummm, Bob, you may want to qualify your comments are being specific to Davao City and perhaps a few other cities, but certainly the opposite of reality in most more rural cities. 🙂
The *only* jeepneys here in Kidapawan are those taking people and supplies in and out of the city to … further elsewhere than anyone wants to walk up and down the mountain passes carrying 20 sacks of fertilizer (read: impossible) or even just one bag of groceries. I’ve never tried such a 40km hike and likely will never at my age, these days I can barely manage to gasp my way across town unencumbered on foot in the heat of the day. Better I save up the 8 pesos for a tricycle intown and not be “koriput” expecting a 1 peso “senior discount”. Out-of-town, pay the neighbours jeep or wait until the day our own too-expensive and mega-crowded jeepney has a route day. Heh, when we have a route, I can ride “free” having already paid out a couple or more million for it and more every time it needs 30k or 100k of repairs – again.
Hi Ed – re-read my comment… I did say that my specifically applies to Davao, what is available “here” where I live.
Oh my…I only WISH tricycles weren’t allowed on city streets. Actually, from what I’ve been told, they actually aren’t allowed, but that is NEVER enforced here in the self-professed tricycle capital of the Philippines!
That is so true. When there is a tricycle on the only major highway, on the island of Bohol, the traffic moves at a snails pace.
Rusty
All laws are very strictly enforced here in Davao. Davao is very unlike any other Philippine City that I am aware of. This is a real law and order town! Crime is low, and people follow the laws strictly, or they will end up in jail. The police even stand out on the streets with speed guns, and they give traffic citations when needed! It is a lot like US enforcement here.
I wish that were true in Tagbilaran, Bohol. Nope. We need your mayor. Actually he was in Tagbilaran (he has relatives here I guess) and he offered to help out the Tagbilaran mayor. Nope. Too bad.
Rusty
Sorry to hear that, Rusty. Mayor Duterte has done a good job here, if he wanted to pass along some help, I am sure it would have been worthwhile.
Strict to the point of death squads! Actually, I wish your former mayor would run for President!
There are no death squads in Davao. I am talking about the present time. Rody Duterte is not our former mayor… he is the current mayor of our city.
There was previously death squads right? Or is that just rumor?
I don’t have any first hand knowledge, Rusty. This is not the place to talk about that topic.
At 5’9 I ripped the back out of too many expensive brandnew “polo” shirts while getting in and out of jeepneys back in Cavite and Manila. I’ve since learned:
– crouch very abnormally painfully low getting in and out
– only wear 25+year-old t-shirts transiting to rags anyway
– buy a very large million+peso jeepney hybridizing a bus and an 8-hole “sadam” truck in construction
Save on shirts.
Mostly stay home looking after the kids.
All of my river crossings were on motorcycle.
It was fun.
When I ride motorcycle, I’m usually the driver.
Being the passenger in the Philippines was a new thing for me.
The driver insisted that I stay on rather than wade across.
I have only ridden on the back of the motorcycle one time… and I didn’t enjoy it! 😉 That was on Dinagat Island.
Motorcycles here are just so dangerous. I am glad I didn’t buy one for my son.
Motorcycles here are not dangerous at all. They don’t hurt anyone while parked.
The problem is that it seems that in order to buy one in the Philippines with even 1 peso downpayment you must prove that you are a kiddie with no clue how to drive, what the rules of the road are and that you definitely absolutely have no respect, discipline, or care for proper driving and are an accident looking for a place to happen. The larger the urban area, the more exacerbated that.
I am not a motorcycle guy either. The only reason I rode that one time was because it was the only type of transportation available in the area where I was. If I did not ride, I would have been stuck on the island and could not have caught my boat ride home.
Filipino exports??? Looks exciting and dangerous.
We rode jeepneys until we bought a car. There people are friendly. I found out that the foreigner has to be the one to start the conversation. Sometimes only a smile will do the trick. Many Filipinos are to shy to carry on a conversation. They just don’t want to or think their English isn’t good enough.
We bought a car for convenience sake. Life is too short to skimp by because jeepneys are so cheap.
Talking about cars why do they sell anything but multicabs? The engines are rebuilt. They get great gas mileage. They aren’t monsters like the trucks/SUVs that are sold.
I owned a car for my first 15 years or so of living here, but then I decided that I really did not need it, so I sold it. Now, I ride the jeepney about 80% of the time, and taxi about 20%.
Right and SMART DECISION Bob!
Nobody really needs a car in a city here.
I am seriously contemplating the same and I live in REAL BOONIES.
I am planning to use a small native boat for transport.
The roads are mostly empty here, no traffic, but those.few drivers are riding like kamikaze.
Trully scary…
Yep, it is a decision that I have never regretted.
Haha that is awesome, thanks for sharing
Glad that you enjoyed it.
When i was in the Marine Corps there were fording kits on our vehicles for going in water, especially when we made a beach landing with an amphibious landing craft. Now that was fun, especially when the boat couldn’t get close to the beach and you had to step out into the water holding your rifle above your head. I think i would pass on the jeepney going in deeper water like that. Jeepney’s wouldn’t be bad if they wouldn’t belch out so much smoke. It’s especially bad since Anne has Asthma and has to use a nebulizer often.
Interesting story, PapaDuck.
Thankfullly, I have not seen a smoke belching jeepney in years here in Davao.
In the video i link below you can see a line of jeepneys crossing the river, maybe it’s the same place where the photo Bob posted was taken.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWsdAs_U5-0
Hi LB – How are you… I watched the video… but hard to watch! So much out of focus! 🙂
when I was growing up in the 70s to 80s, when monsoon rains brought floods to our town/barangay, the wooden bridge was one of the casualty. when the floods subside, the brave jeepney driver/conductor would brave to cross the still swollen river because they know it would take a couple of months for the DPWH to make a new wooden bridge again. and if they are the only game on the other side of the river, God knows how much they could make from the commuters stranded from the other side.
of course we who live near the river would also make a killing ferrying the passengers to the other side.
I did not know that after 30+ years, this problem is still exists in most parts of our country. the wooden bridge in our town was finally concreted in early 1992/93.
and to think that Marcos poured a lot of money for Mindanao in the 70s to the detriment of poor provinces in Luzon.