Jeepney and taxi

On Thursday night Love and Nurit, our contacts from the agency, took Mona, Amalia and I out for dinner. We went to 'Recipe" a Filipinos restaurant where we discovered some more specialties from the Philippines. Food was very good and we had the chance to discover green mango juice. Unlike the yellow mango juice which is sweet, the green one, is like a mixture of lemon and apple. Very interesting and refreshing. Love and Nurit made us a little gift to say good-bye. Each of us received a little Jeepney. Jeepneys are the most popular mean of transportation in the Philippines. They are Jeeps left by the US army transformed into a mini-bus. They go everywhere and are extremely cheap compared to taxi. Most Filipinos use them. Each driver is free to decorate his Jeepney as he wishes so each of them is different and unique.
After dinner, Nurit insisted on us taking a taxi to go back to the hotel, despite it was only 10min walk. None of us minded walking but she did, especially with the rain. So we get in a taxi whose driver didn't know how to get us back to the hotel (basically a U-turn). He got lost in the streets between the malls and took a one-way street the other way around. Of course there was a policeman at the end of the street. The driver stepped out of the car ans argued with the policeman for a good 15min. In the end he still got the ticket. At that point the 3 of us were ready to walk back, no matter the rain, but Nurit insisted saying now we will be there in 5min. Except that the car didn't start. It turned out that when the weather is wet, the taxi has trouble to start. Something to do with the battery... The driver stepped out, grabbed 3 guys on the street and had them to push the car over the hill so he could use the slope to start the engine. Luckily it worked and we ended up in a traffic jam 500m from the hotel. Once we arrived there, security asked him to open the trunk. To do so he would have to switch off the engine :) the 3 of us stepped out of the taxi and walked the last meters! In the end it took us 40min to get back. Next time, rain or not, we walk!