Philippines

English and Filipino are both official languages, and you'll find signs written in English.

Look for signs of Jollibee, the Philippines' biggest fast-food chain.

Public transport like jeepneys and buses carries yellow plates, while private cars are usually white or pale green. Right-hand driving with distinctive vehicles and yellow/white/pale-green plates points to the Philippines.

In Asia, red-and-white chevrons show up mainly in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Road surfaces are often concrete.

Roadside poles and fittings are often a rusty reddish-brown.

Tagalog speakers are concentrated in southern Luzon and around Manila.

On newer motorbikes, the plate's color stripe can sometimes reveal the region.

A tricycle with a stepped roof means the north.

A tricycle with no step in the roof means the south. Sometimes it's completely flat.

A motorela has seating in the back and can carry more passengers than a regular tricycle. It's common in northern Mindanao — per Wikipedia, especially around Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon.

In the heavily Muslim northwestern part of Mindanao, many tricycles have a cover on the back seat that hides women's feet. Women's clothing is also distinctive here.

The Cordillera range in northern Luzon. Some areas apparently have rice terraces that are tourist attractions, but there's not much Street View.

If large-scale plantations of bananas at even spacing in neat rows go on and on, it's southern Mindanao.

If spiky leaves line up over reddish-brown soil, it's a pineapple plantation. There are huge plantations in Bukidnon and South Cotabato.

If rice paddies stretch to the horizon across land so flat that no mountains are visible, it's the central Luzon plain or the Cagayan Valley to the north.

Crop distribution differs by region. Oil palm is concentrated on the southern islands; sugar cane centers on Negros Island.

Corn fields are common in the Cagayan Valley in northeastern Luzon and in Bukidnon in central Mindanao, among other places.

A distinctive landscape of over 1,000 dome-shaped limestone hills of nearly the same size: the Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island.

In the mountains of northern Luzon you'll find "Chile poles." It feels like about 80% of them are in the mountains around Baguio.

Among flat-roofed tricycles, if it's a bit rounded, made from especially black material, and has car-like taillights, also consider Palawan.

Knowing the names and locations of the regions and provinces helps pin down a location.

Construction signs are common and often spell out the city name directly.

ATM signs for major banks like BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, and Metrobank often carry the town or region name. Ordinary shop signs frequently list an address too.

Around Sabtang Island, between the main island and Taiwan, there are stone-built houses. It's rarely asked about, but missing it costs you dearly.

On Corregidor Island, WWII-era barracks and tunnels remain as ruins. The Google Car is visible.

There's a road up to Mount Pinatubo, which erupted violently in 1991. Getting a 5K here is nearly impossible, so it probably won't come up often.