My Iloilo Airport To City Travel (Nostalgia)

Similar story as the previous one: while I have been many times to Iloilo City, I have never really gotten to note places I happen to pass-by on arrival. Either because I would be busy with something else, or it is still dark (early in the morning), or already dark (as in gab-i na)! Taking the usual route for granted.

So, like I did in the previous story where I paid attention to airport arrival details and proceedings, this time, I intently noted my travel between the airport (in Cabatuan & Sta. Barbara towns) and city proper.

This was my view as we exited the arrival area...

We're turning left to the city, while straight ahead, that big roof on the right side is the cargo terminal or cargo building.

Oh wow... Sta Barbara Heights...

A high-end residential commercial village says my driver. "But that portion is not really the village yet, its just an advertisement", he says. Well, if my bearings are right, that (in there) should be the Sta. Barbara Golf & Country Club. Anyway, because of this airport, Sta. Barbara seems to be nearer nowadays. When I was younger, going to Sta Barbara was always excitedly like going on a vacation abroad for us!

I am still familiar with this intersection, even if it has been spruced up...

It now looks like a tollway interchange hehe. That going left (where tricycle is going) is where you turn towards Cabatuan town proper, correct?! Yes, it is, or even circling the runway which should be somewhere or near Maasin! Ah, I remember the devastation in those places during one typhoon (Frank?) years ago.

Look! The highway is 6 lanes (3 on each side)...

Way far from those days when two vehicles couldn't pass each other without the other making a full stop. Good some of those big trees are still around. There were so many of them in the past, that this place was why we loved going to Sta. Barbara (Iloilo Golf).

Ah this intersection? Straight ahead (well it curves bit) is to city proper!

To the left is Sta Barbara town proper, while to the right is another way of going to southern towns like Oton and Tigbauan. Even San Miguel (I think). And the driver tells me, dira pakadto sa Sta Barbara Heights. Oh okay... if that was the way to the golf club since years ago, I swear it has changed a lot, and I could easily get lost here!

This place has suddenly bloomed to become somewhat urban. I'm sure mainly because of the transfer of their airport from Mandurriao to that place where I just came from. Hmm, Mandurriao? Ah, this ride is incidentally on the way exactly there!

Whoa, I am starting to see the long jeeps with front hoods shaped like AUVs!

Yes, most of their jeeps here, at least in the metro Iloilo area are veeery long and low. Hoods are shaped not like your usual Sarao but more of like the recent "faces" of SUVs!

We are entering the town of Pavia...

I remember how many times I have been corrected by a friend, that this town's name is not pronounced as "pa-vya". It is "pa-vee-ya". Okay ah, so ari na kami entering paveeyuh!

I remembered that this town has a "People's Terminal" so I watched out for it. Ayan!

See that? I like the creativity of naming it "People's Terminal", not just the usual so and so town's transport terminal. Me dating yung "people's" di ba?! Not just that. Eto pa...

They have very clear Departure and Arrival areas...

No, not an airport, but their land transport hub - "People's Transport Terminal"! O di ba?!

I don't know yet where the jeeps or buses "go to" or "come from". I have a feeling not just the city proper. And I am curious how vehicles move. They unload passengers at the arrival area. Then? They drive to departure area so they can board passengers? Ganun? Very cleverly orderly! Paano if transit ka? Cadillacad? Layo! Well, parang NAIA T3 lang!

And then ayan na, sabi ng mga pulitiko, welcome to Iloilo City...

Mailagay lang ang pangalan, pati "welcome" pinapatulan! Ah politics & politicians 'no?!

Oh my service was very fast, but I think that church on the right is the USA Extension

Not an extension of America! I mean the University of San Agustin Extension Campus!

Okay now, I said I was going to Mandurriao, right?! So, here I am already in it...

That tall building, Injap Tower, is my destination for this 17++ kilometer road trip from the Iloilo International Airport, which took me exactly 28 minutes!

And, for the unfamiliar, this busy place to the right is SM City Iloilo. Behind it is/was the runway of Mandurriao Airport. Beyond that are more buildings (hotels, convention center, etc.) being constructed by Megaworld. Hey, I do hear that they are not tearing down the old control tower - for the sake of history/nostalgia, for those who remember!

Okay, ituloy ang nostalgia..!

Did you know? That this place, where Injap and SM are now firmly planted, was formerly the 'paradahan' of the Manila-bound Philtranco Buses?! "Paradahan" lang since there was really no building or anything to make me call it a "terminal" hehehe. And it was muddy all over this place! I did not ride them, but I saw this place many times in those days!

Eto pa: there was a time not long ago, if you took a taxi from the provincial capitol or Atrium (there was a hotel there) going to the airport (Mandurriao), the taxi driver would always ask "sa diin maagi, Molo o Jaro" which was rather irritating for me hehe. One morning, as I sat on a cab at Amigo Terrace Hotel (is it still alive?), I immediately said (in English) "don't ask Molo or Jaro, just bring me to the airport"! Talking to the bellman, I heard the driver said "tikalon", but I did not say anything anymore hehe!

One more thing about Mandurriao... there was a street named "Airport Road", and there was even a barangay named "Barangay Airport". I wonder now, did they rename those?

See?! The many times I have traveled that distance from Iloilo Airport to city and vice-versa, I busied myself with many things other than the memories, even histories! Thanks to those who requested that I make a "blow-by-blow account" of traveling that distance hehe. It was not as detailed a "blow-by-blow account" by my standards. But...

I had to do melancholy pauses many times, as I wrote this, looking from my lunch table at the 21st floor of Injap Tower, down to what once was the airport and the runway of Iloilo city...

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