Driving in the Philippines.....

[fred]

Alan.. I think I have scared immunity syndrome now..
The motor bikes here turn off their lights at night because they think they save petrol!
Just missed an oncoming one a few nights ago as I was overtaking a multicab..the motorcyclists passenger was carrying a metal frame 6ft X4 ft so in effect he was about as wide as the multicab I was passing..
No lights of course...you just couldnt make this stuff up!

[fred]

was your ignition swithed on there fred

Very funny steve!!

[alanmf1]

@Fred... you are so right.
The vehicle i hired was a nice banana yellow Suzuki SUV.... im sure you have seen it in the city..... It has the widest wheels known to man............. not ideal as they make the car twice as wide as it needs to be................ just what u need with trikes and cabsters and jeepneys and buses so close.....

and as for the steering well it must have had about 90 degrees of free play in the steering box!!!!!!!!!!

I survived..................

Im just guessing though Fred some of the fishing boats & bancas are just as bad!!!

[Englishman2010]

Being a bit of a sports/supercar fan, wherever I go in the world I look out for exotics. Before my first visit to Manila, I foolishly thought it would be a bit like Singapore with lots of expensive metal outside the upmarket hotels. How wrong was I Still the go faster stripes on the Jeepneys and plastic fake mag wheel covers on the trikes do tart their vehicles up a bit

[grahamw48]

Being a bit of a sports/supercar fan, wherever I go in the world I look out for exotics. Before my first visit to Manila, I foolishly thought it would be a bit like Singapore with lots of expensive metal outside the upmarket hotels. How wrong was I Still the go faster stripes on the Jeepneys and plastic fake mag wheel covers on the trikes do tart their vehicles up a bit

Yep, chavs from here would go orgasmic seeing all that tat.

[fred]

I doubt it's Japanese imports Andy, it must be purpose built Japanese right hand drive cars, LHD cars are banned in the Phils you would never get one past customs, remember Japan is LHD the same as us.

LHD motors imported from Japan has always been big business here..The government have made it a lot less profitable because of the new import duties and registration laws. They convert them locally and dont always do a good job..My neighbour in Cavite has been doing it for years.

[JimOttley]

LHD motors imported from Japan has always been big business here..The government have made it a lot less profitable because of the new import duties and registration laws. They convert them locally and dont always do a good job..My neighbour in Cavite has been doing it for years.

I should have known I was simply thinking along the lines of common sense and the horrible complexity of the conversion, never stopped to think that in the Phils it just has to be good enough to go

So the lovely yellow S2000 (just like the one I used to own) I saw in P.Ocompo in 2007 was probably a death trap.

Also just realised that I got my right and left completly wrong in my first post (and I spent time trying to make sure I got it right too )