Homeward Bound: RORO From Tubigon To Cebu

Farewell Tubigon and farewell Bohol. I know I’ll be back (again… and again)! So I silently whispered hehe. On to the waiting area we went (the only real building of the pier) but not after queuing up at the crowded terminal fee booths. Golly what a crowd! All seats in that pre-departure lounge were taken, and all aisles or vacant spaces were planted to human feet. Ack! And it was a din in the whole place we needed to raise our voices as we talked. We followed some folks who inched their way towards the outside of the building’s door on the way to the boats. I smiled realizing I could smoke, and so I did. Waiting… waiting… for the boarding call… there was none yet. I looked at another person’s watch, it was already 11:38AM, so we thought there was some delay. So we stood there waiting… good it was not raining…

THAT, until we saw 5 people run past us and hurry on to the RORO! Wheh?! We just looked at each other and immediately started walking towards the ship. Hmm, no one tried to stop us, so we continued onwards. Gosh! We saw that most everyone were already on board and the crews commenced loading vehicles. We were not the last humans, though we were one of the few to board last. And we were all the while waiting for a boarding call or announcement. Golly gee gee mon yo! I guess this is a 'board-at-will' kind of ship hehe. Unless they announced the boarding call just once and they probably did it 2 hours ago hehe. Yep, we did merit some curious looks from all those who were already merrily settled aboard the RORO hehehe. They were probably saying ‘ay nauna kami sa kanila’ whaaahehehe! So, like everyone else, we looked for our “sitting only” assignments, placed our backpacks there and excitedly waited for departure!

Why were we ultra-excited for this ride? My golly-lee! We were riding the RORO on a daytime. Oops, no no, make that we were riding it on a high noon! Instead of our way to Tubigon which was a midnight, remember?! This trip meant we could see everything and everywhere the ship would be passing. Yey! In fact, the view of the hustle and bustle down at the port was even already amusing for me. Vehicles coming and going, vehicles allowed or not allowed to go beyond the gate or some point within the port, people walking, people running, people walking. Ah, I did notice, you must be able-bodied riding those crafts. It is such a long walk to and from it.

Then there were the arrivals and departures of other boats. Interesting still! There arrived a ‘Starcraft’. Yep, one of the fastcrafts. It was/is rather tiny compared to our RORO. Passengers disembarking were a merry mix of people vacationing and not. Some were like families wearing the same type of “I heart” shirts, some were traveling alone, some were carrying SM shopping bags, some had umbrellas while others didn’t, some carrying cake boxes, some were like newlyweds clinging to each other, and hey, one hunk was even carrying an electric fan! Yeah, the desk type fan, and it just came bare without a box. Hmm, I noticed most were wearing closed footwear – meaning no slippers, tongs or the likes. Ah, they came from Cebu hehe. Then passengers were boarded. Most folks were wearing shorts. Many had sandals or slippers on, and ironically there were more bringing plastic bags than those that just arrived. Ah, pasalubong am sure! Next thing I knew, the same ‘Starcraft’ departed. Wheh?! All that while our dear giant of a ship was not even showing any hint that it was about to move. Oh well…

1224H, already past noontime and we were still not moving! Then came another boat! I tried zooming the camera and learned it was the ‘famous’ Jadestar. Wow oh wow! Even before it could reach the port to dock, departing passengers were already marching towards it (it’s a long walk anyway). And yes, at the same time, we could see that passengers aboard said boat were already hustling their way towards and positioning themselves to create a bottleneck of humanity by the ship’s exit point. Wow. How many passengers can that ship take? I know this was the cheapest we heard about earlier… but OMG, it was like 2 battalions that came marching their way ready to hop aboard. And there were as many ready to jump outa it! I wondered, and I still wonder! We joked that there must have been at least two pickpockets in that throng of humanity – one for each floor at the very least hahaha!

Then our dear RORO started to move! Yeheyyyy! It was finally “so long Tubigon, ‘til my next visit”! Ah, the Jadestar was still being simultaneously deboarded and boarded. Gosh! But off we went and how nice it is to look at Tubigon and eventually the whole island of Bohol slowly drifting away from our sights on a midday. Really! And I told myself, I wont ride a midnight RORO again. Its just plainly boring with nothing to see beyond the ship but pitch black darkness. This noontime trip was exactly the opposite I even mused I wouldn’t need my seat at all until we reached Cebu!

Ah and my focus shifted from Tubigon to the views inside and outside of the RORO. Let’s do it with pictures as I don’t have many things more to say, aight?!

Here I go…










































If you want to read the chronology of all stories on this tour, click the following:
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