Philippine Travel Notes

This place is an inevitable headache that one must endure on the way to Calapan, Puerto Galera or the western Mindoro destinations. Expect these: Upon getting off the bus or whatever kind of land transportation you come in, you’ll be accosted by a crowd of hawkers who will pester you with their wares – generally foodstuffs that they themselves advertise as “pasalubong”. How the hell can you be looking for pasalubong when you are just on your way to your vacation? Bad trip! And mind you, they do not just yell at you for their various kakanin but they will thrust those, right to about a few centimeters of your nose or eyes. And they will follow you wherever you go – even into the comfort rooms – literally! One would think it a relief that the Batangas government or whoever is in charge in that place have fenced off their newly built building that will soon serve as a “grand” port. So, those noisy vendors will drop from your ears when you enter the fenced off area going towards the check-...

Readers should all be aware of this when going to Puerto Galera or any of the destinations en route to Batangas City! There is an anomaly that the bus company (or probably just their employees and without the management’s knowledge) has been perpetrating. Last February 25, 2005, being a holiday, I, together with three of my friends decided to go to Puerto Galera for a much needed weekend break. We decided to take a JAM/Tritran bus by reason of its station being conveniently located at EDSA near Kamuning which happens to be nearest our residences. This decision to take Tritran ruined our weekend! We were at the bus station as early as 5:30AM so we can take the 6AM trip. We happily rode on bus number 727, a yellow JAM liner. The aircon was great – even too cold and the bus was clean. It got readily full to capacity so we left by just about 5 minutes past 6AM. Upon departure, the “conduktor” distributed tickets without asking for our money yet. After he has given tickets to everyone, he c...

Yes darling, the travel industry has a queer way of writing our names and let us attempt to dissect why this is so! You will discover they have good reason to do so and the whole thing is really at times funny! Unlike in a movie house or a bus, an airline passenger ticket (or computerized reservation for ticketless airliners) must bear the name of a passenger. Why so, that is another topic we should discuss in another article! Anyway, the ticket declares whom it belongs to. The name printed in the ticket should and must be the only person using this ticket for travel. It is (so far still) non-transferrable. Any other person cannot use it (unless that other person bears exactly the same name - which actually happens!). Note that henceforth, that name on your ticket will be your name as far as the airline is concerned, whether you are at the airport or inside the aircraft. By international convention, airlines and travel agencies around the world follow a strict rule when writing names o...