The Vice Guide to Travel - Philippines Jeepneys Part 1

	Duration: 04:35 minutes Upload Time: 07-08-01 15:28:42 User: VBSdotTV :::: Favorites :::: Top Videos of Day
Description: To see more go to www.vbs.tv In case you're a little fuzzy on your South Pacific history, here's a quick little primer on the complex state of Filipino-American relations in the early 40s from a fresh Swedish perspective: Americans wanted back what they rightfully owned by purchase, so they gathered a bunch of Filipino troops and chased out the Japanese. This was just a couple of months before a little device called The Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, thus ending WWII and warfare as it was known up until that point. A couple years later they decided/were forced to jam. Apart from the kids born out of soldierly love, the Americans also left their army supplies behind. It would have been more expensive to bring it back home, and anyways war as they knew it was over so who gave a hoot, right? Among the stuff they left floating around were the infamous Willys Jeeps. Even if you're a girl or hate the History Channel, if you've only ever seen one war movie or flipped past an episode of M*A*S*H you know exactly which vehicle I'm talking about. Metro Manila, with its estimated 18 million inhabitants, is a transportation nightmare the likes of which my spoiled Swedish brain cannot even begin to wrap itself around. I'll start getting mad at "the city" when it takes 20 minutes to take the train across town, but who do you get mad at when there are millions of busted down old Toyotas and overloaded scooters between you and the other side of the city? Apparently, if you're Filipino, you don't. You just take whatever car you've got, rip the roof off it, then flip the roof over and graft it to the back to double your carrying-capacity and call it a bus. This healthy attitude toward open-car surgery is what spawned the Jeepney and made it a mainstay of Manila's dusty network of roads. Wherever you are in the city, all you have to do is wave and one'll stop for you. They're the perfect blend of a taxi and a bus and they are really fucking cheap. As with cars in most parts of the world, completely tricking your buscab out soon became an essential part of the equation and you will rarely a Jeepney pass by that is not covered in layers of chrome and airbrushed paint, and filled with a disco's worth of party-lights. If you look close enough, you can sometimes even make out the influence of 50s American hot rods through the piles of Filipino insanity.
Comments
HoliertThanThou ::: Favorites Ingenuity after the war? OK. I'll accept that. But 62 years after the war and still existing, Man, this is plain laziness already. You love the jeep so much, you won't let it rest. Any Filipino car version of Malaysia's Proton? Korea's Hyundai and Kia? India's Tata cars? No need to mention the Japanese cars anymore, but the Filipino has been left behind and he has not realized it yet. Sad and pathetic. 07-09-14 17:22:30 __________________________________________________
HoliertThanThou ::: Favorites Ingenuity after the war? OK. I'll accept that. But 62 years after the war and still existing, 07-09-14 17:18:20 __________________________________________________
shroomsbaby ::: Favorites necessity is the mother of invention. also, jeepneys are not your family car nor your weekend vehicle. they are operated for income, much like taxis. 07-09-11 16:03:07 __________________________________________________
elnoracomunale1743 ::: Favorites great sextapes of exgirlfriends, check out REVENGEONCAM dot COM 07-09-10 01:24:04 __________________________________________________
GGTravel ::: Favorites For More Adventure Travel: Gordons Guide . com 07-09-01 18:08:04 __________________________________________________
lightshow9 ::: Favorites why would you take a historic car apart to make something worth nothing. i do not understand the idea behind that. 07-08-23 18:16:57 __________________________________________________
voiyour ::: Favorites Early '80s, I was in the Navy and went to PI a few times. Subic city. We'd go out partying, stay in a motel, get a jeepney ride back to the ship in the morning. It was like 2 pesos (10cents US) to ride one. We'd throw them like 20 pesos ($1US), "keep the change." Locals thought we were millionaire crazy ass Americans. It was like monopoly money. 07-08-23 17:56:57 __________________________________________________
Doodsjager ::: Favorites ahhh, pimp my jeepney 07-08-22 17:22:58 __________________________________________________
woothosting ::: Favorites Wow... It been so long that I have been to the PI. After watching this vid puts me back in memory lane. Great times it was. Thanks for the vid!! 07-08-19 15:40:36 __________________________________________________
jstway2syk ::: Favorites proud to be flip i miss the Philippines 07-08-17 19:34:35 __________________________________________________