Asia 360 - Philippine Jeepneys

When visiting the Philippines, if you venture around, one of the things that would surely arouse your interest is the jeepney — it's the most popular means of public transportation in the country.

Wikipedia has a good entry about jeepneys, but here's a unique way of describing it, from http://www.sagadasolutions.com/html/about_us.html:

...the Philippine jeepney [is] a symbol of Filipino ingenuity. The jeepney is a small mini-bus, a public transport vehicle used throughout the Philippines. It started out as a modification of the American Jeep, of which plenty were available after World War II. The jeepney is a public utility vehicle, moving people and goods who cannot afford to buy their own vehicle. Although it is not as fuel-efficient as a bus, it is capable of plying routes that are too short, with roads too narrow, or too lightly-trafficked for buses to be practical. It is the best possible middle ground between a car and a bus.

I took the photo above somewhere in Binangonan, Rizal, which is about 1-2 hours away (depending on traffic) from Manila, the nation's capital. Men hitching on the backside is not uncommon. I've counted as many as ten people hitching, without people sitting on top, which is sometimes done too. It's just too bad I wasn't able to take a picture.

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