Monday, February 17, 2014

Transportation

Greetings from Manila! If you are reading this, we have safely landed in a new country, moved into a house, received our shipment from home and successfully set up the computer without killing it on the 220 power. YAY!

Moving to a new country requires a great deal of transportation. We traveled by car, by plane, by the great help of family, by rented van and now by a lot of taxi's. Sure, we have plans to get our own vehicle at some point, but that requires a drivers license, and funds and trusting ourselves to not get completely lost. So for now it's taxis'. Taxi's to and from home, to church, to the grocery store... you get the point.
So for my first post, I bring you Taxi's of Manila!
This is a taxi, most look similiar to this, sometimes the name is red or green, but most are black on white. Occasionally you will see an all red vehicle with white writing... but this here is the basic look of a taxi in Manila. The thing about the taxi's is that they are largely one man operations, you get a car, make a name and get a license and a meter. So the names can be interesting. I started making a list and am pretty happy to share them with you :)

Common large franchise names include:
MGE
EMP
BISDAK
BASIC

and after that it gets interesting:
Taksicab
Xaviersville
Rattle and Hum
Princess Ken
Envirocab
Sturdy
Spoiled Child
Safety Board
Speed o Care
Trafalgar
Absolut
Da Vince
YES transport
Sunflower
7th of September
Mild
Chrysler
Pearl Jasmin
2/14 Kids
Active One
King and Queen
24/7
Lady Queen
Wildflower Taxi
Golden Boy
Stealth
Swim North
5th Sunday
Modern Chariot

for the religiously inclined you can find:
Jesus is Lord
James 4:7
Our Lady of Light
Jesus
God Message
Charisma
Prayer Partner
Philippians 4:19
Gallant Godsend

I though you might enjoy, as I did, seeing some of the more creative taxi titles.
I suppose you are wondering if there are any we might consider "normal" in the states... well I have seen a Yellowcab, they make great pizza :)