F1...Philippines Style

Well, its fair to say i've feared for my life here on the roads on more than one occasion. We have rush hour at home but here they have 'lets see who can get there first and I don't care who gets in my way' hours.

The first was in Manila where we actually crashed twice on the way to the hotel. After that I just left it to fate since I had no other choice.

Another time was on the way to Boracay in the mini bus. They love to play chicken over here with full size buses and I have been known to let out a small cry a few times. I do try and close my eyes and sleep but with all the bumps in the road and swirving its just impossible. That was one white knuckle ride I had to endure 4 times. Think I might even be ready to face The Big One at Blackpool now even though I said I would never. That said, even if we did crash, we are packed in so tight that none of us would move if we were hit head on.

No shit!

We had a driver take us into Bacolod yesterday and the way home was, well, another adventure. I couldn't keep my mouth shut this time and everyone in the car was cracking up laughing, even the driver. Although, it didn't slow him down! The profanities coming out my mouth, well, its a good job the kids don't understand the words or my accent. I was laughing hysterically and they thought I was having fun and thought I was hilarious! The road was half surfaced at one points so instead of driving on the new tarmac he decided to drive half and half which tilted the car to one side!

Ok it wasn't quite this bad lol

They don't overtake here either, oh no, they overtake, undertake, drive on the other side of the road into oncoming traffic just to pass a little tricycle tuk tuk. I mean at home we leave enough room for both cars but come on a moped does not need 7 feet and a close call with the juggernaut heading straight for you jesus! Seriously if they had a Filipino driver in the Grand Prix he would piss all over Lewis Hamilton and Alonso.

All day rush hour....or as the locals see it

They also like to play a game here called 'lets see how many people we can fit into a tuk tuk or bus'. You can see the size of these little tuk tuks and i've seen at least 10 people on one. They don't have a thing called personal space here. If you need to get from A to B then be willing to sit on someone, knees, hands, feet and head.

To top it all off, all the buses, minivans and tuk tuks have a sign on the back saying 'how's my driving' and a telephone number!!