Subic Bay Naval Base - Republic of the Philippines - Jeepney

From Storm Book

As I get time, I'll post links here to other resources, and will probably use Wikipedia.org a lot, since they've got such a great resource already!

Anyone who has been to the Philippines will recognize the Jeepney, if not, here's a little post from the book I wrote today:

DAY 223 - 28 MARCH 1991
Liberty - In Port - Subic Bay Naval Base - Republic of the Philippines
We had to muster at the ship by 1030 today, so after only a couple hours of sleep, we all gathered up and hired a Jeepney for the ride back to base. Jeepney are one of the wonders of being in a foreign country, really! Just to see that free enterprise can work anywhere! The original Jeepney was built from surplus US Army Jeeps left in the Philippines after World War II. The back half of the body was stripped off, and then stretched longer to install a pair of bench seats that faced sideways, a long metal roof installed.

Passengers enter from the back, and you just pass your fare forward. Sometimes change comes back, sometimes not, but its a pretty good bet you'll do ok. When we'd be going out on the town, we'd always have lots of money, so 2 or 3 of us would hire an empty Jeepney and get a Private ride, direct to where we wanted to go. Coming home we were usually tired and nearly broke, so we'd pile in with everyone else.

I should say also, that "a lot of money" was typically $20 to maybe $30, which was enough for more beer than you needed, some food, snacks, entertainment and usually a place to sleep that night, your body guard, and company. We often figured that we lost or were robbed of more money than we actually spent, but at $20 a night, it still didn't seem so bad, right?