Traveling by bus is still very popular nowadays in the Philippines as it is still considered one of the cheapest as long as you are patient enough to go through the hassle and bustle before you reach your destination especially during the peak season. I planned "my" trip to Vigan 2 months in advance so I won't have a hard time fighting over the internet in booking accommodation and so on. As it is my first time to go to the other side of the Northern Philippines, I wanted to book my bus ride in advance as well. I tried using online booking but it didn't allow me to book. It says, there's no advance booking from December 21st until January 2nd hence I asked my husband to stop by the bus terminal when he went to the city, unfortunately, it was the same. He was told passengers will just have to go to their terminal and wait for buses. Being said, I gave up my thought of not having an agonizing time before reaching my destination.
A fellow passenger waiting for his bus number to be called |
December 29th came and since my husband decided to come along, I was wondering if he will be able to take the surprises in traveling the North by bus. I know I should have chosen to take the plane but I love the stop overs when going north. We traveled from our place to Cubao station for 6 hours because of the heavy traffic. One agonizing experience down! We reach the bus terminal at 9 pm and we were both expecting to get on the bus by 10pm but it didn't happen. Talk about expectation is the fruit of all heartaches, ey?! The guard on duty gave us a stub with a number, 1543 and 1544, that means there are so many people ahead of us! The number being called was around 600 plus.Based on that, we estimated we will be able to get on the bus by 3 am the next day. I can see on my husband's face that he's getting impatient every minute and it almost made me give up and say, go back home as I hate people complaining on such terrible state! Good thing there was a restaurant at the terminal and it's kind of easy for us to go eat in case we feel hungry while waiting. It's almost midnight and the calling of numbers stopped! Our 3 am expectation failed again. By 1 am they started calling the numbers again and it became smooth as a a delicious leche flan! By 6 am, we were finally called to get and pay for our bus ticket. It's a good news we got the deluxe one.
This was almost 6 am at Cubao station |
This is what you call, at the end of any suffering, there's happiness and yes it definitely was! The bus ride was awesome as it was super comfortable! We can recline our seats to have a better sleeping position. Good thing my husband followed my advice to bring his jacket if not he could have frozen because it was super cold!!! I couldn't wake myself up during the stop overs because I was too sleepy and I was totally knocked out! I just got off one stop over to use the rest room. It took us 10 hours before we reach our hotel. We both couldn't wait to feel the bed on our backs. LOL!
The inside of the bus, pardon my husband, he was totally surprised! |
Traveling back to Manila was way easier. Our waiting time was just for less than an hour. However, we got on an ordinary air-conditioned bus. It's narrow and not so comfortable just like the buses I took when I was still a student going back to my hometown. Oh well, it's okay as long as we reach the city earlier so we can get on another bus going home. The travel time was only for 6 hours so we reach Cubao station at 2:30 in the morning. Just in time for the 3 am bus going Batangas.
Overall, we charged it to experience. I suggest not to travel north by bus during the peak season especially if there's no advance booking as you might experience the same thing. I hope next time, Partas will offer better service especially the holidays. Even so, I will still use this bus the next time I travel north.
2 comments:
Travelling with you is enjoyable and full of adventure.
Great to know that darling! I would love to go traveling with you more this year ;)
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