🇵🇭 QUEZON CITY • Cubao Tricycle Commuting & My First Month in QC

I'm already staying in Cubao for more than one month now. This has already breached the record—my longest stay in Metro Manila was my 4-week hospital internship in various hospitals way back in college.

✈ If I could survive the challenging chaos of Manila, then I would be able to survive living anywhere else in the world, an ultimate dream for the outgoing Ilocano in me.

✈ It's a city exploration thing. I love the new things I'm learning here, significantly different from the place where I grew up.

[Quezon City, National Capital Region, Luzon Island, Philippines]

| 1 | [QUEZON CITY] ► IT'S MY FIRST MONTH IN CUBAO.

I'm considering leaving Cubao now but this area created some sparks. Now I'm interested to explore and discover more the heartbeat and lifeblood of Cubao. Indeed, there's no 'bad' destination. All you have to do is to unveil the beauty of it. It's a city exploration thing. I love the new things I'm learning here, significantly different from the place where I grew up.

As I left my millennial lifestyle, of being self-entitled, selfish, self-centered but "palamunin ng magulang", I'm now embracing independence, a concept my mom used to frown because she never wanted me go away from home (except for her dream of me to work abroad, it's ironic). But I'm growing older, still a millennial technically but I would like to consider living the old school independence. I think Manila is a nice training ground. If I could survive the challenging chaos of Manila, then I would be able to survive living anywhere else in the world, an ultimate dream for the outgoing Ilocano in me.

| 2 | [QUEZON CITY] ► TRICYCLE QUEUE AT MONTREAL STREET

I'm already staying in Cubao for more than one month now. This has already breached the record—my longest stay in Metro Manila was my 4-week hospital internship in various hospitals way back in college. It was required after all. After that, I've never attempted to stay longer. I only used Manila usually as transit point. I've already played a tourist role in Manila though but never did I stay here as a tourist for more than 3 days. I didn't like staying here for long. I got stressed and I hated the rush.

Anyway, I've already mastered how to commute using a trike here in Cubao. Basically, it' a 24-hour service—for the trike terminal near the Nepa Q-Mart at least. Each street that crosses the Aurora Boulevard to the Araneta Center has its own TODA (an organized group of trike drivers and operators). The trike queue is just located at the corner of every street with Aurora Blvd as the reference point. There is also another one at the corner of New York Avenue and Montreal Street.

| 3 | [QUEZON CITY] ► RIDING A TRIKE AT 03:30 AM ON MY WAY TO AURORA BOULEVARD (HAVE YOU WONDERED WHY I'M TRAVELING THIS EARLY?)

| 4 | [QUEZON CITY] ► TYPICAL INTERIOR OF A WHITE CUBAO TRIKE

Public utility trikes in Cubao are usually painted in white (these are the legit ones). There are also some painted with other colors like red, yellow or green but I think these are either colorum or from a smaller TODA.

If you want the more trustworthy ones, pick the white trikes because they're the established operators with franchise number posted on its body. However, I don't want to assure everyone that all trikes are trustworthy. I also do not want to ignore the fact that not all trike drivers of smaller TODAs are not trustworthy. In every rule, there's always an exception. Always apply your Manila hypervigilance with street smartness.

| 5 | [QUEZON CITY] ► A TYPICAL WHITE TRIKE OF CUBAO

Trike fare is 18 pesos if you picked a tricycle that's in queue. If you waved for a moving tricycle then it stops to pick you, then pay only 10 pesos. Schedule of fares are applicable within Cubao area. If you are already familiar in the every corner of Cubao, then tricycle is a cheap way to move around. Taxicabs may be convenient but expensive. Tricycles are cheaper and more fun. So far, these are my initial stories for Cubao. I won't promise I can do more because I've already said many promises to write but until now I never fulfilled them. However, I hope I could write more about Cubao because there are just so many stories I want to tell here. | end |

▼ MORE STORIES COVERING CUBAO

▼ | 2 | Cubao LRT Station: My First LRT Station In PH

[QUEZON CITY] ► Cubao LRT Station: My First LRT Station In PH | I was with fellow nurses. We were going somewhere, a place where we could do the first step of maximizing the potential of our nursing career and this LRT station was part of that journey.

▼ | 1 | Cubao Tricycle Commuting & My First Month in QC

[QUEZON CITY] ► Cubao Tricycle Commuting & My First Month in QC | You are currently on this page.

Map Showing the Location of Quezon City

► FOOTNOTES, DISCLAIMERS, ACKNOWLEDGMENT, ETC

✈ This post was filed under the category "Travel Diaries." See more posts related to this below.

✈ The maps I used on this post are from maps.google.com.ph.

✈ All photos are mine.

✈ The insights, condition, and name of places or properties I mentioned here are based on the facts and situation on the day of my visit. Take note that you may have a different experience when you try or see the properties or places mentioned here. Names of places and properties may also change by time so it's not my responsibility to update all the information on this blog because once published, I already consider it an archive and I won't update my narratives because I want them to become my references of what have happened in the past. I'm very particular of the dates because I want my amazing readers to understand that I am writing stories based on my perspective and insights on the day of my visit. You can see dates almost everywhere on this blog. Exempted from this rule are my travel guide posts that need to be updated.

UPDATE HISTORY FOR THIS POST
► 08-March-2019: Cover photo and lay-out for subheadings modified.
► 04-February-2019: The label "[Metro Manila]" was removed from this post.
► 28-January-2019: Lay-out modified. Added additional lay-out features at the end of the story to interlink with stories relevant and relative to this post. Caption was added to the cover photo. Numbers on photo captions added.
► 01-January-2019: The fare 17 pesos was updated to 18 pesos.
► 01-January-2019: Lay-out for photo captions was modified for better user experience.


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