If you are going to see a lot of the Philippines cheaply, you will use need to uses taxis, buses, and tricycle motorbikes. Because so many people speak English it is relatively easy to navigate, and most of the people are going to give you good advise. The ones that will not give you good advice are the ones that you will be paying, with the exception of the bus drivers.

Traveling by ground transport while easy, does have its pitfalls. As is true for all poor countries, they can be quite creative in findings new variations on ways to part you from your money. One of their favorites is charter rates for taxis. In Asia where they have metered taxis, they are not going to offer you a charter rate unless it benefits them financially. In the Philippines take the meter always. In the Philippines you are not required to pay any special fare increases that they creatively invent, for the sake of future travelers don't pay them unless you like to support the arts, as they can be quite imaginative.

I asked a new friend for a lift from Angeles City to Manila thinking to save a little on the trip, and get there a little faster. I made the mistake of not finding how much he was paying before we left. I could have got the car by myself for half the amount that he was suckered into paying. It always pays to do a little research.

If you can, get a few different quotes, ask the bathroom attendants, the air crews, bus drivers, Expat's or fellow travelers that are familiar with the area. Get a few different quotes from the drivers themselves. If you take the first price, they will take you for a great ride.... for them, and once they know that you are in play, they will fleece you like a golden goose.

Another great little trick that the airport taxis use is to place something over the meter so that you can not see that they even have one. If they don't have a meter, it means that you are in a gypsy cab, and you want to get out immediately, or you run a very high risk of getting mugged

In Manila especially they love to pull games like this, they also like to travel around in circles, you might want to invest in a small compass, and let them know that you know where you are going generally, and that you have been to the country before. I am not afraid to tell them the direction that they are traveling in. No compass? A good indicator is if you are making all lefts, or all rights you probably are traveling in a circle. I always keep a camera handy, and if I think that I am being taken advantage of, I will take their picture, it is truly amazing how quickly they can get you where you are going after you do this.

Buses I found were very easy and very cheap, the only problem I had with them was that they don't have faculties on board. A second little concern is the buses ride with the inside lights on at night, convenient if you want to read, a pain in the bum if you are trying to sleep. Something that I found to be a very interesting practice is vendors will get on the bus about every 5 KM selling all sorts of stuff to eat, like pies, peanuts and hamburgers. I wish some of them would sell something to drink, but maybe they don't sell much to drink as there is no place to get rid of it from your system until you get to you destination.

The Filipinos that I meet were all very helpful, and I did not feel threatened at all, saying that, you do want to watch where you walk late at night, just because you are on vacation doesn't mean you should shut your radar off.

Fred Tittle
http://www.ecosea.com