The open-air vehicle that we’re sitting is says it seats for fourteen, my guess is that the sign was referring to fourteen small children. We somehow manage to fit on two benches, facing each other. The back and sides of the vehicle are completely exposed to the elements. Although incredibly dangerous, it allows for us to experience the city in a new and encompassing way. In addition to being smothered by the carbon monoxide emissions being expelled from the other vehicles on the road, we drive by many people, restaurants and merchant booths. What scents that aren’t masked by smog smell of spices and roasting meat. These vehicles truly allow for an all-encompassing experience of the city that is absolutely necessary in order to really experience Davao.
It’s impressive how many people can actually fit on a motorcycle. I believe the most amount of people that I’ve seen sharing one motorcycle is six. What’s even more interesting is that I haven’t seen any car accidents. Naturally, I expect that there are many people hurt on the road as there are so many unrestrained drivers and passengers in a vehicle or on a motorcycle. Surprisingly it’s completely opposite. Turns out, many people travel at slow rates of speed. The slow speeds significantly decrease that amount of vehicle accidents that occur. Apparently the vehicles that are more prone to accidents are the tourist utilized passenger vans— great. These vehicles are large, travel quickly and have a lot of weigh behind them. Our driver has proven to be responsible and experienced, however, so I’m not worried. 
By far the best mode of transportation are the large, slow moving, completely customized Mercedes-Benz school buses. Clearly a lot of pride is taken in these buses and in the Tri-cars that can be seen throughout Mindanao. The Tri-cars are especially unique. What started as a motorcycle morphs into a small vehicle that can accommodate a lot of people; I want to guess seven. They’re all painted different colors, have cartoon characters and a motivational or religious phrases on them too. They are so much fun!
The drivers of many of the vehicles take pride in what they have, so much so that they paint their names on their vehicles. Having so much character and creatively in the buses, ti-cars and motorcycle brings the cities and barangays to life; this creativity is one example of what makes this part of the world so beautiful and unique.
