Hello Homer,

Trikes have no routes in Dumaguete but they like to gather at the Market. It is normal to have them ask double fare. you are glad that he only asked double - fare. as a newbee you can expect that the drivers ask 50 peso and more.

It also depends on the time of the day. From 4:30 to 7:30 pm you will have problems to get a trike for regular fare to a remote or uncommon destination. The driver rather waits 10 minutes and stuffs 7 people in the trike who all pay regular fee instead of having 1 paying double but to a place where they don't get another guest on the way.

 

Eight pesos, get a life Homer! If you are that worried about getting ripped off, buy your own scooter.

 

hehehe 8 pesos x 2 = 16 pesos? thats just fair enough, imagine the 40+ pesos per liter gasoline now, you can imagine how much the poor driver set aside for his sweat.

 

The 8 pesos was a triviality except that it told me that I didn't understand how trikes worked here.

I'm attempting to understand how the trike system works because that's what my left brain does in it's spare time. It also might make it easier to find a trike to an outying barangay during times when most of the trikes are full of people. I think that would be useful.

From what others have said the system is random. So if I want to head away from town to a specific barangy it doesn't matter from where I start. Returning to town it doesn't matter where my destination is. In both cases the ride is possible it just comes down to a negotiated fare and what the driver's preference is. Right?

Except, obviously, there is some undefined distance or area where a basic fare applies and thus there is no need for negotiation. I think it would be useful to know what that distance / area is so as to avoid wasting my and the drivers time negotiating while traffic piles up behind me when he's stopped to pick me up. I also don't like to get on any public transport anywhere unless I can pay the fare without asking the driver to break a big bill.

The desk girls at my hotel say that in the downtown area any ride is the basic fare. If that's true I don't see how I got a 5 km ride for the same amount.

 

its not.. only like that... most of the time the tricycles driver are so snobbish, its hard to catch friendly tricycle driver...

sorry to say.. but its happening... and each school days we have to pay... 25peso to 30 peso from saint Luis school don bosco and if we're not lucky to catch friendly tricycle driver.. we sweat a lot and get iterated, and pay 35 peso just to let this driver bring us home...
a lot of drama...
driver said its so far... add more 10 peso pls even if i offer 20peso or else he will say... the road is not good... and i just bring you to the main road ok??? no need to bring where your house is... for 30 peso... and some time some of those drivers they just go away.. and don't answer just passing.... rode talaga....

 

Understand this: there is no trike system in Dumaguete. Unless you're a foreigner. Then the system kicks in, doubles, triples the original rate they had in mind. Try learning the basic phrases for hailing a cab, pointing out your destination, and get that nonchalant look of a foreigner gone local, and you may just get a cheaper rate. But if 10 pesos is too high for you, maybe you ought to go someplace where your dollar gets you sack loads of the local currency.

 

As a former computer systems analyst I apparently use the word system differently than you do. In my former line of work any set of human behaviors can be seen as a system, up to and including Total Chaos.

>Try learning the basic phrases

Got that. I been in country for a while.

>But if 10 pesos is too high for you, maybe you ought to go someplace where your dollar gets you sack loads of the local currency.

I didn't complain about the money. In my second post I clarified it by saying the double fare told me that I didn't understand how trikes work. Lets see if I can make this clear: It's not the money and it's not the principle. As a foreigner I expect to get overcharged. I want to know how trike drivers operate so I can achieve that state of:

 

I agree on that! Welcome in Dumaguete.