MANILA, Philippines - The tricycle goes by many names in the Philippines trisikel, trisikol, trisikad (the first syllable in each rhyming with try), pedicab, motorela, or rela.
However we call or spell it, this vehicle is a major means of transportation in the provinces.
Where I come from, in Naga City, a trisikel is a motorcycle with a sidecar. But sometimes the sidecar is missing a variation known as habal-habal in tradpol forsaken areas.
A colleague from Davao told me that habal-habal is a sexual intercourse position.
Maybe that's why conservative parents prefer to call it the Skylab, that American bit of space junk that fell from the sky decades ago.
Skylab?
It's not hard to see why the habal-habal is also called Skylab. Instead of having a sidecar, the habal-habal has a wooden seating plank balanced perpendiculary to the motorbike.
In Davao, the trisikel is called a pedicab. Can you guess how they call their pedicab drivers? Pedicabbers.
In Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City, they call it motorela or rela. I wonder how they call their drivers.
They don't call it tri-whatever because it has more than three wheels. It has four two at the motorcycle and two at the passenger car at the back which makes it look like a mini jeep.
If habal-habal has no sidecar, a tri-sikad has no motor. The motor is the driver himself.
I saw the very first of this variation in the '70s in Tabaco, Albay, where the bikes are bigger than the junior-size ones in Metro Manila.
My Tabaco experience with the tri-sikad was also my first eyeball with a product of pure Pinoy manual labor in this semi-feudal economy.
Sidecar variations
Speaking of sidecars, there are also many types. There is the all passenger-facing-front type. This one can accommodate three adults. The back space is for the baggage. This type used in Naga.
In Koronadal City and Sogod, Leyte, the side car is baliktarin. Passengers can ride facing the front and there can be two passengers facing the back.
There is also the Manila-jeep-type sidecar like the motorela of Bukidnon. Passengers ride facing each other.
When I saw the sidecar of a trisikel at the Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, pier almost touching the ground, I guessed that the design might have something to do on how they use their trisikel in their flat environment.
They imitate the design of sports cars that is almost kissing the earth. I think they want speed from their machine, aided by a very low center of gravity.
The side car of a trisikel in San Jose, Nueva Ecija, is very high from the ground � perhaps avoiding the frequent floods of the Central Luzon riceland.
Regional differences
Traveling from Luzon to Mindanao, I got the impression that the trisikel has many variations adapated to suit the culture, environment, and perhaps to local rules and regulation.
Yes, looking at the uniformity of trisikel's color and styles in some towns I get the impression that there are still Pinoys who follow rules.
There is the red and white colors of Echague in Isabela, the all-red of Tacloban in Leyte, the all-white of San Jose in Antique, and the yellow trike of Gapan, Nueva Ecija.
My guess is that the patron saint of San Jose, Antique, is the same as the patron saint in San Jose, Nueva Ecija, but they have different trisikel styles all white and uniform in Antique and bara-bara style in Nueva Ecija.
I once thought that the jeep was to the King of the Road until I saw a trisikel in Masbate with a horse inside it. It was a combination of shock and amazement for me. The driver was transporting the horse to a market, perhaps to a slaughterhouse, for profit.
With that image, I had to put the trisikel on a pedestal.
I was just so amazed how they could tame a horse enough to put in a trisikel. It needs a lot of science, geometry, and imagination to do that.
That incident got me into this hobby of taking pictures of trisikel and all things Pinoy mountains, crafts, smiles, and imaginations wherever I go.