20/01/2010 Bus trip from hell!

Up early as we had to get to the other side of the island to get to our next port of call. Little did we know what a day this was going to be. Out of bed 7.30 pack up and get our dodgey breakfast before grabbing a taxi to the ferry. That was about 40 pesos. Grabbed the ferry tickets….. Ferry left around 9.00am about an hour to the next island. Off the ferry and on a Jeepney to the bus depot (40p) Got to the bus terminal and a bus was about to go but was not air-con made the call to jump on. I mean after all how bad could a bus ride on an old bus with no air-con be ??? It was only supposedly a 6 hour bus trip. Well whoever made up that time did not make allowance for the bus stopping every 100 metres to pick people up or let them off. That I could probably put up with until the bus filled up and I mean filled up. We ended up sitting together which was ok until the bus conductor came up and said the seats were for 3 people and they squeezed someone in next to us. Yep they make the seats for 3 Filipinos who weigh 50 kilo’s. Of course the road was not actually too bad in spots but most of they way they were doing road works and they don’t have “stop and go” its first in best dressed so if there is 6 km’s of traffic coming the other way they don’t stop, so you have to wait, not really a great option when no air-con and bus jammed with smelly people and chickens. We were pretty much brown from the dust coming in the windows. We finally chugged into Dumaguette after 6.30pm and discovered the ferry did not go until 7.40. great !!! We got the security guys to mind our bags and went into town looking for food. Of course we turned right instead of left and missed all the real food. So it was mini bananas and bread rolls. We had a quick talk to a couple of Aussie guys at a Bar but it was too late to order food. We had to get the bike back to the port to catch our ferry. Bumpy ride in the dark on the ferry not my favorite thing to do. We finally got to the island just before 9.00pm. The Aussie guys told us the Tricycle taxis were gonna rip us off as there was no other option this late a night. Well we had to get to our resort so we resigned ourselves to being screwed over.

As we were walking up the wharf we could not believe our eyes a Jeepney with the name of the place we were staying!!! Had they sent it to pick us up??? No he just happened to be there to pick some supplies up off another ferry. About time something went our way after a hell trip that took around 13 hrs. Finally at the resort, the room looked good, clean and comfy beds we grabbed a beer and hit the pool. We were stuffed. Few beers and a chat to the owner and his mate and off to bed for some serious rest.

Coral Cay Resort, Solangon, Siquijor Island (The Visayas) Philippines