Philippine Travel Notes

They’re everywhere! From Legaspi to Naga or even Manila. From Cubao to Sorsogon, Iloilo to Kalibo and onwards to Caticlan, Davao to GenSan, SM Cebu to Cordova, Tacloban to anywhere in Samar or Leyte etc etc! These vans as a mode of transport in trhis country must be taking a toll on the business of buses and jeeps. Well, they better hehe! The FX and Adventure era is slowly dissipating especially in the provinces. Different places call these different names like V-Hire, Shuttle, L3 (even if not) or just plainly van! Why are many commuters patronizing these vans – even preferring them to other modes of land transport? I have lately been observing these during my travels and my take is… - On some routes, vans run non-stop without picking passengers along the way - If they do, just a few stops as the capacity is less than a bus or jeep - They're faster than jeeps and can compete with a bus that stops everywhere - Many are (still) air-conditioned unlike the jeeps or multicabs ...

Ah, I don't know about yours. But this trike was my ride from the Ceres Bus Terminal in Dumaguete City on the way to Harold's hehe! And there really is such a name! A tricycle builder, no less! Mind you, if his two-syllable name means something to us in Metro Mnaila, ask the Visayans to discover that it also means something still funny for a name! Hmm, maybe the trike maker is a brother of Toto, anak ni Tata! Oh well, the Filipino nicknames of our times...

Discovering Negros Oriental: My Final Word All done and happily home! For our mutual benefit (yep, yours and mine), let me do a rundown of things worthy of note about this wonderful ‘all-the-way’ sojourn. My summary is not only for you my dear readers, but also for me, myself and I to remember when I grow older or when things change as they always do! Here I go… Land Transportation Like Cebu and the geographic Northern Mindanao (not the political subdivisions) from Surigao to Dipolog, Negros Oriental is easy to tour even on a DYI as all places are easily accessible via regular (ah make that frequent) scheduled bus trips on Ceres. I will assume this is all the more true for Negros Occidental and Iloilo provinces where Ceres also has a major presence. I have attempted doing this on the small province of Bohol and it didn’t work out quite well. Why? Because of accessibility issues. Same with Leyte, Southern Leyte and all the three Samar provinces. Biliran and Siquijor are in a different l...

My Negros Oriental Tour: San Carlos City to Cebu City I wanted to make the rounds and see whatever I could in this ship, right?! So I did! Here are some of the things I saw: too few passengers, Manong is very busy... watching TV! 1st class, business class, low class, high class, wa-class whatever you paid for, you can go and sit anywhere a view from the RORO, the passenger terminal another class of service, hey there's even a table! our bus on queue, waiting for its cue to ride the RORO beds of the same leather... hehe up, down, front, back, side, center... take your pick! down at first level... hey 562 is my bus! all clear, ready to go, yey! 'bantay dagat' is a localized version of 'coast guard' hehe yeah, I could see the top portion of the church! Sipaway Island on the other side... nice views, right?! so there we went... so long San Carlos, farewell Negros! I'll be back soon to roam the rest of Occidental. Promise! uh-huh, there's a canteen... ARGH! ...

My Negros Oriental Tour: San Carlos City to Toledo City A wonderful lackadaisical afternoon ride at sea. Yes this is, especially on an almost empty ride! I’m not new to RORO (roll-on, roll-off) rides as there are quite a number of these in the islands. But this one was more fun to me as the waters were very calm, the trip did not take so long AND there were few passengers so I had the chance to go just about anywhere on the ship to check things out! Here are my notes… and thoughts of course! Bus entered Toledo port’s gate and stopped near the guard house and conductor did some paperwork over at a small office. A port staff came to collect the P12 terminal fee from each of us passengers. When he got off, guards waved for the driver to proceed. So, we passengers did not anymore go to the passenger terminal – that means I wasn’t able to see the insides of it hehe. But judging from its externals, this fairly new passenger terminal would probably be a bigger version of that one in Liloan, S...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bacolod City to San Carlos City, NegOcc Homeward bound,yey! To Cebu that is hehe! As expected, at 30-minutes to departure time, I was sure any of the four front seats would have already been occupied. Yep, they were. So I settled at the next available that was right window side of 3rd row. I was not as excited about the scenery along the way since I passed by them yesterday anyway. Ows?! Really now?! Hehe, okay half of me was disappointed I didn’t get a front seat! Yes, I have seen them wonderful views yesterday, but somehow, I still wanted more on this return trip. “Sir, are you going to Cebu?” came a slender southpaw gay asking. I answered with “yes, why?” and the reply was “boat fare, sir”. Oh okay, so I learned it is paid in Bacolod, on the bus, before departure, even if the ferry crossing will happen yet at San Carlos! I looked at the amount, so I paid P170. I noted too that my seat number on that ferry boat was #175, gosh whatever that was hehe! I have a ...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bacolod City, NegOcc Yes very briefly hehe! I left San Carlos at exactly noontime and was just about checked-in at Bacolod Pension Plaza before 230PM. That means travel time was faster than 2.5 hours. Probably because there were not so many passengers getting on and off our bus, or probably because there were not so many vehicles along the roads to block our way, or both! Immediately after dropping my things in the room, I opened the box of Napoleones that I picked over at Robinson’s and devoured its contents I finished two bottles of coke to down them all! Pigged out? Hear this… after that a-la tazmanian devil bolt down, I slept like a log and woke up at 8PM hahaha! So I asked around as to where I could find Pipeline Bacolod. Of those I asked, no one could specifically tell me where that place might be. Some even asked me back what it was! So I txtd a crew over at Pipeline Cebu and she told me details. It was actually easy, just took a cab to Rolling Hills (Ba...