I think I mentioned before that we hate buses, but we love buses now.. alright, it's just me, because that horrendous experience in the bus station (
holy week special) was just horrible. It was the first time and hopefully the last, and I don't want that to happen ever again.. I had a broken toe nail which I noticed when we got to our friend's house, it wasn't that bad but it did hurt.. plus my nail polish was ruined. I'm not being maarte here, alright?
So we got the last trip going to Bolinao and everything went okay.. and no horrendous scenes (thankfully). I was so exhausted that I immediately fell asleep as our bus hit the road.. well, I went home from the office just to take a shower and eat and went back to road going to the bus station. There were plenty of people at the bus station going to Baguio and Alaminos and Bolinao.. we didn't expect that, but everything was fine. No zombie bus riders hungry for seats and air condition and sleep; those kind of scenes you'll just see during the holidays.
We hit the road at around 11pm and arrived in Bolinao at around 7 in the morning. After getting off the bus, there's only one thing that's on my mind.. food.
Everyone was hungry, that long trip will do nothing but make you hungry.. so where to eat? We searched for a restaurant or an eatery that could fit our budget, and we found Dora.. not the Explorer, but we didn't bother asking if the owner could speak Spanish. They offer the normal breakfast of champions; tapsilog, longsilog, tocilog, anything with log.. name it. Their coffee was in a 3in1 sachet, but they do have brewed coffee.. I had the 3in1, I loved it!
After a few, we head back to walking to find our destination, found this church and thought we must thank God for everything.
The people on the road were friendly, they told us that the place we're looking for requires a long tricycle ride (about half an hour or more) which costs Php150 per tricycle or Php30 each person.
We were 6 in the group so we had to split into 2 because their tricycles could only accommodate 5 persons. That tricycle ride was longer than we thought. And here at Bing's beach resort, we stayed over night..
The lady-in-charged managed to be as friendly as she could.. she even offered some help with regards to getting a ride going to our destinations.. but it was a bit more expensive than we thought. And the fact that the tricycle ride already cost us a lot (it wasn't on the budget), we had no idea that Bing is located that far from the town.
Still unsure if we're going to accept the lady's offer.. we double checked if we could afford it. No. You see, we have this budget which covers our everyday expenses; from fare to food to accommodation, but since we're caught up with this additional fare expenses, we got no choice but to let go of the other tours.
After the long session for budget talk, we then prepared to take off and head to Alaminos for our
Hundred Islands tour. And that long stay in our room made me notice something.. the air conditioner only cools one part of the room; the headboard. And when we're about to go, the lock won't lock itself.. the door knob was broken.
We immediately called the lady's attention, and she doubled check if we're telling the truth because we did ask to be transferred to another room. She said it could be fixed, fast, and so she sent Mr Fix it and it was fixed, and yes, it was fast. So before we could all be gracious about the fixed door, we head out to meet to the same tricycle drivers to bring us back to the town. One of them even offered a deal -- he wants to be our man whenever we wishes to ride a tricycle.. to and from Bing's.
From Bolinao, we can take a van or a bus going to Alaminos which costs Php50 and around Php45 for the bus. We chose the van because it was really hot, but it didn't help because the air conditioner was broken.
Arriving at Alaminos.. some tricycle drivers immediately offered us a ride to the port going to the Hundred Islands. He managed to fit us all in his tricycle even if its capacity is only up to 5 people.. imagine how it happened. He dropped us to this house where the boat transactions happen. So they gave us this list to choose from what kind of boat we like or the size of boat we could occupy, to the number of islands we could visit, all depends on the price, all of which were listed in this some kind of menu. This transaction lasted for about an hour or two because these people were doing the best they can to take advantage of the situation.. and they won.
The islands were very close to each other, we managed to get to one island to the other in a few minutes. But with all honesty, I could never compare it with Palawan.. but then again, I haven't, we haven't seen much of what Hundred Islands could really offer. So I do think that we must go back, and hopefully to transact with better people.. who knows better.
Long story short, we still enjoyed our island hopping tour. Hundred Islands is special in its own way, and hopefully the people would be responsible enough to take good care of it.
We didn't bring extra clothes, so we took the bus going back to Bolinao because our asses would probably get the van's seats wet. It took almost an hour or more when we got to Bolinao, then we dropped off to a nice place to eat. It was past 8 already when we went back to Bing's. Oh, I forgot to mention, the tricycle driver, our so-called man, was waiting to pick us up. He was eagerly waiting at the bus station like a mommy waiting for his babies and carry them before some hawk take them away.
And yes, there were a lot of hawks eyeing on us. They're all so friendly to give us a ride.. but not for free.
Fast forward to Manaog, where we also brought our souvenirs and have them blessed.. ate dinner, and immediately went to the bus stop, but we lost the last trip. We were advised to go to Urdaneta which was again for another tricycle ride, same price, and all of us together in one. Finally, we found our bus, and few moments passed, which was 6 or 7 hours, we're back to Manila. At 1:30 in the morning, I was back in my room.
Is it too detailed?
