San Antonio (Basey) To Tacloban By Boat

I was with a colleague at Barangay San Antonio in Basey this afternoon. We were just passing by after checking on some work-related 'work'. Yes, me ganun! The son of a beach in me kept inching towards the sea, especially that it was going to be sunset soon. And voila, from their little wharf, I could clearly see Tacloban City, even if it was already a cloudy gloomy afternoon with an 'about-to-set' golden sun!

Oh ha?! Note: the orangey tinge on foreground is because of the setting sun to the right in this picture.

Aside from those four, there were many big boats that did not seem 'for fishing' as they were so clean and colorful than usual, and big but empty without fishing nets and gears. I asked people around this wharf what the boats were for. They told me those are 'commuter boats' - for passenger transport.

"Commute to where" I asked. And they all said the very same thing - "McDo"! I further asked "so meron McDonalds dito sa Basey"? My colleague butted-in to educate me saying she has a church-mate who is from Basey and works in Tacloban, commuting daily from this place to McDonalds and back. Wow!

So it is the McDonald's branch at the port in Tacloban. When I asked how long it takes for these boats to travel from San Antonio to "McDo", no one could give me a "numerical" answer. All I would hear was "madali la" (sandali lang). I asked a boatman how "madali" it is. His reply: "diri maiha" (not that long)!

Argh! And we all know, that in the rural areas of this country, references to time and distance is always relative to the mindset of the speaker (not according to established scientific or educated facts), that could be from "just beside you to kilometers away" or "a few seconds to hours or even days", right? So I said, there's only one way to find out. That is.., ride the boat to McDonald's myself. Yes, ako mismo!

I asked my colleague if she was 'game' on the idea. She almost jumped in glee, as she said she had to be back in the city as early as can be (for an evening prayer-something with her youth churchmates). I also asked the driver if it was okay for him to drive back to Tacloban and meet me at McDonald's. He said it would take time (about an hour) and I could get bored waiting for him. I said I will wait anyway!

Therefore it was a go! These are the kinds of little adventures I find joy when traveling!

So we asked which boat was departing next.

The answer was... whichever boat docks at this little pier, that is next to go. Wow, very organized!

No wonder all the other boats (except that red one) were just out floating and bobbing on the water!

We went to it, but.., you may not board, unless a boatman asks passengers to do so! Okay ah!

Look! As we waited for the boat to get boarded, it served as play area for two girls (twins probably?)!

When the boarding call was on... (boarding shout actually), we were first to hop-in whohoooa!

A boatman (one of three), congratulated me I was able to shoot this pic. He intimated that boarding is not this "calm and orderly" especially in the mornings, since people here don't know how to fall in line!

About 2 or 3 minutes after we boarded, the boat surprisingly started to push back from the wharf...

We did not expect this as the boat was still practically empty - with just 5 passengers and 3 crewmen!

Look! This was how inside the boat looked like when we departed from the San Antonio wharf!

At lower-left corner of this photo (only her hands and bag are visible) is my colleague; those two boys are passengers too (students going to their evening classes in Tacloban); the man in the middle of the boat is the engine guy (driver); there's another man at the rear section, attending to the boat's anchor; another passenger and the boatman who pulled the gangplank were behind me when I took this shot.

Those were all of us on board when this big boat departed. Notice there's a plank laid across the boat. There are many of those. They are supposed to serve as passengers' seats. But there was no need to do it this time as there were only 5 of us passengers, and we opted to lean on the boat sides instead.

Of course I asked why there were virtually no passengers, yet the boats were all big. Ah, the students and the boatmen took turns educating me that... 1) the throng of passengers at this time (afternoon) would be students and workers coming from Tacloban going to their homes in Basey; and that all the chaos happen in San Antonio every morning - when these same people would be going to Tacloban!

I also asked why the boats at San Antonio departed one at a time and in an orderly manner, when they aren't waiting for passengers there as their load would be coming from Tacloban. Why don't they just all go to Tacloban and one by one get filled with the throng of people intending to go to Basey? Reply: 2) there is no space at the Tacloban port, so it will be harder for the boats to queue-up or scrimmage among themselves trying to get passengers; besides, "parking fees" there are ridiculously expensive!

And I said "ganun naman pala, very systematic, very orderly"!

But the boatman in charge of the "damyo" (gangplank) surprised me with his comment saying "aw sir, it masamok ngan waray batasan dinhi mga pasahero lugod nga nangingiskuyla o college graduate"! Ah, that was quite a mouthful and a revelation. Let me attempt to translate that... "aw sir, unruly and ill-mannered passengers here are [instead / in-fact] students or college graduates"! When I prodded why that is so, he told me to just watch "them" (students or college graduates) as we dock at "McDo"!

Wow! And I really had to anticipate that chaos hahaha! Anyway, and meanwhile...

This is a 'closer look from the sea' at many of the edifices lining Tacloban's Magsaysay Boulevard...

Let me describe them as (I think) I already know these places by now... Behind that left edge (it curves to the Cancabato Bay) is what has been the handsome Balyuan Theater that has yet to be repaired (if at all it will be) after it was ruined by Yolanda. Across the road and on a hill would be the City Hall and the Madonna of Japan Shrine beside it. All those are not seen in the picture. I am just imagining them!

That greeny hedge at left is the UP Tacloban Botanical Garden/Park - that is not anymore open to the public as it was closed sometime in the late '80s after it became a "rapists' lair" and "urohan" of some!

Across the road to it (not seen in pic) would be the Tacloban Hall of Justice and the UP Campus itself.

The pink and reddish structures would be all of the Leyte Park Hotel's main buildings and its Cabañas on foreground. Not seen in that picture too, but I can imagine where the two swimming pools are, and, I could also see my new Tacloban tambayan - The Veranda Cafe - 2F of that pyramidic main building!

Wait teka lang anay daw... a cargo ship is moored right in front of the hotel but we can't see it clearly :(

The greens after Leyte Park Hotel (to the right) is a hill. On the other side of that, facing Magsaysay Blvd., are Formosa (a shabu-shabu restaurant that I like), the DSWD Regional Headquarters, and the good old Tennis Courts/Tennis Club that by/in itself even also has the "province or city" issue. Haiszt!

Then there is the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, commonly called EVRMC bannered by the greenish building at right. But, did you know that those smaller structures by the water's edge are not all part of EVRMC? Some are informal settlers' shacks -yun mga nagtitinda out in front of the hospital!

And did you know too that Senador Enage St., does not stop at the corner of Magsaysay Blvd. where EVRMC, the capitol building and Plaza Libertad converge? Yes, it goes all the way down to this water's edge, even turns right to the structures you see in the pic! The hospital just closed it, but it's not theirs!

Anyway, just one picture and I already painted a thousand words hehe. Let's go back to my boat ride!

Here was our boat from San Antonio, Basey, entering the Port of Tacloban...

But that is not the dock yet. Actually still a bit far, as the boat still needed to turn left unto McDonald's.

Eto na... here we were about to dock at the back of McDonald's at the Port of Tacloban...

Mr. Boatman (in neon green shorts) reminded me of our earlier conversation by saying "kitaa na gud" (look!) as he pointed with his lips at that crowd of people already shoulder-to-shoulder and hip-to-hip at the edge, even if our boat wasn't docked yet! I just nodded in realization and agreement. OhMyGee!

These are the supposedly "educated" people but "masamok" and "waray batasan" he told us earlier!

Look at the neon-green shorts to find our boatman! He was already on ground, right? But all the while, before he even put that plank down, he kept repeatedly shouting "ayaw anay pag-sakay" [don't board yet], "pa-agi-a anay an mahaw-as" [let those disembarking pass first], he shouted that over and over.

Guess what.., once that damyo [gangplank] touched the pavement, all of those people you see started hopping, jumping, climbing, running in whatever way they can, they looked like ferocious wild baboons on a rampage up the gangplank. They had no regard, much less respect of passengers disembarking - eh lilima nga lang kami, will they die of waiting?! In that chaos of trying to disembark, I got whacked in the face and neck by some plastic shopping bag, I don't know from which of them barbaric assholes.

I now believe when that boatman said "educated" yet "masamok" "mga waray batasan". Looking at the faces in the picture, they look to me like lahat naman nakapag-aral at dumaan sa kahit konting GMRC! Yet they don't know how to fall in line or board a boat properly. Nagkaka-lukso baga gud hin ka-uultan!

When we were finally on ground, disheveled of course, we were like a chorus expressing disbelief at the pandemonium that just came our way. Even the 3 students who are supposed to be already used to this kind of barbaric chaos were shaking their heads, one of the boys said "grabe man liwat ini hira"!

To console my self, I just thought that in the past, the late '80s to early '90s, when "FX" or "UV Express" terminals weren't yet a reality, getting on a jeep ride from Baclaran to BF Parañaque was also like that - takbuhan, balyahan, unahan... until people started forming lines, "pila-pila" on the side of the streets. Let's hope these folks commuting via the Basey-Tacloban boats would find enough civility and grace!

Anyway, my colleague took a trike home and, as agreed, I waited for my driver at McDonald's...

Taking a final glance, this was my view from McDonald's, and let's describe them via the arrows. That black arrow at left points to a boat that just pushed back, going to Amandayehan - the barangay next (adjacent) to San Antonio but has a different wharf by itself. That's probably 2kms by road from San Antonio. Not where I came from, therefore not where my boat returns to with those barbaric people!

The two neon-green arrows point to two men in uniform that I think are from the coast guard - since those are not what policemen wear, and not the uniform of the common "jaguar" (gwardya, guard). I don't know their significance as to these commuter boats. They probably count passengers hehehe!

Now the black arrow in the middle of the two neon-green arrows.., it points to a red boat, that is where I just disembarked from, therefore that's where all those idiots pictured above are now happily seated.

But why hasn't it left yet, naunahan pa nung papuntang Amandayehan? "Diri pa puno" [It's not yet full]! That is what one of those uniformed men (Coast Guard?) told me when I asked him! I said "merese"!

Harumamay ka, ka mga salipungog! Waray mag-pakahulat, waray mag-linya, nalusad (na-hawas) pa kami, nag-dadadlagan na, nagkaka-lukso na hira, baga hin kauultan nga mauubusan hin saging nga lakatan! An ending, diri man ngayan puno an sakayan, so, tanan hira... nganga! Hin kamakaarawod!

Ah, that paragraph, I don't want to translate anymore. I want only the Warays to understand that!

Anyway again, and oh okay, my driver arrived at McDonald's almost an hour after my boat did. The burger set I ordered for him was already cold, the fries already limp, and the ice inside the glass of coke already melted. I told him my boat ride took exactly just 13 minutes from pushback to arrival!

Oh well, it was worth the experience. I learned things and saw educated animals hehe!