American Taxi Drivers in Isabela

This has been going around in Facebook for a while now but it's so interesting I wanted to share it here in my blog as well.

The caption for the video reads thus:

Turock (aka Tory) and Jason have been running their taxi in the Philippines for the past year. They both lost Jobs in the USA and picked up and moved to the Philippines to look for jobs. Jobs in the Philippines are scarce but starting a taxi service made sense.

This is a video of their very first run almost one year ago. They are running a taxi in the province of Isabela thru to Cagayan. Their route starts in Santiago and makes stops in Alicia, Cauayan, Ilagan, Tuguegarao. They only charge 30PHP per trip, MAY AIR CON PA! So the next time you are in Isabela sana sumakay kayo sa taxi nina Jason ni Tory

As I watched this video, a number of questions entered my mind (as did a number of people of FB), like: how did they get work visas, and didn't they know there's a dress code for drivers? You can't wear sleeveless shirts.

Questions nothwithstanding, it is very amusing how one of them (Turock, I Guess?) is able to speak Filipino quite well. I feel that he must have had spent some considerable time in the country previously. And in local driver "tradition", he even has paper bills looped around his fingers.

Understandably, they weren't able to get passengers because Filipinos generally stay out of extraordinary things, and Americans plying a taxi route is extraordinary indeed (as Americans are generally thought to be well-off). But if they spent some time in the area and are generally known to the locals, then they'd have a better chance at it.



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