Philippine Travel Notes

Is there such a thing? None! But it can be done via connecting flights, without touching MNL, which is what I did! Travel time was about 9hrs, including transit time. My calculator says this would have been about the same duration if I traveled by land. But this time, flying was more comfortable, and cheaper! Here's how it went.., I took the Cebu Pacific early morning flight from Tacloban to Cebu. This photo taken at 0538H! If at 5:38AM I already clicked this photo, imagine what unholy time at dawn I must have awoken.., and what time I must have taken a bath, left home and so on! Hmm, what time did I sleep last night? Did I? At 0616H, morning still misty, my plane was already on a take-off roll. Of course I was still groggy! Oh, if you notice a pinkish glow on the left edge of the pic, it was a sleepy Mr. Sun attempting to shine! Hey, it's late at night now as I write this, and I laughed at seeing my video clip during this take off run! I will put that somewhere here wh...

After entering town , having visited the church and the municipal hall of Saint Bernard, it was time for me to move on with my joy ride ! It was getting late, and the day's final stop was still some 50kms away. But first, I made a fly-by at their downtown commercial area. Just for nostalgia's sake really. I was last here about nine years ago, and those were grim times. This here is the busiest street of Saint Bernard - actually originally four lanes, the opposite direction is supposed to be the other side of this tree-lined island on the left. This place now looks new to me. They have converted that other side of the road into some kind of a 'tiangge' or 'ukay-ukay' row of temporary stalls (I hope they really are temporary). Beyond that is their transport terminal, then there is a park, then another big commercial building. Their municipal building of yesteryears was located in this place. By the way, in these articles I wrote about Saint Bernard (this is...

Tara let's go?! The plan Catch a Ceres Bus to Tabogon, then hop to the next towns southwards, until I arrive back at Consolacion. The reason? Wala lang, joyride. Just to see their town centers. Why were the northern-most places not included? Eh, we have been there na di ba?! Bogo , San Remigio , Medillin, Daanbantayan , we have been to their town centers na. Ooops Medellin? No I haven't. Next time na. Promise! This time it was just Tabogon, Borbon, Sogod, Catmon. I even ran out of time for Carmen. Oh well, next time na rin! Actually, this was a bit of a dare to my royal self! Per plan, since I'd be departing from Lacion (not Banilad this time), I wondered how it would be to just go out to the highway and wait for passing buses, like many do. No need to start at Cebu's North Bus Terminal in Subangdaku. I was testing this theory! Going to "northbus" just to catch a north-bound bus would be backtracking by about 9 kilometers. It would definite...

Boarding We ended my previous story with this picture: That's as we boarded OceanJet 3 @10:05AM. And as I said, this was one "great ride" again, because it was "not full"; with "great views" - because this was on a bright sunny morning! Views while boarding Oy, while lining up, that above, wasn't the only pic I took. There were other views. Like these: I think I already said this before.., but no harm repeating.., that this is one reason why I'm not a fan of evening trips , midnight rides or red eye flights - since I love watching where I pass by. Imagine kung madilim, what will I see? Eh 'di rin naman tayo nakaka-tulog ng mahimbing. So, daytime travel is more fun when hopping between our many islands in the Philippines! I apply that to all types of transpo, mind you! And I also already said: even if it's a repetitive ride from Point A to Point B, there will always be something interesting for us to encoun...