Travel time is estimated at 10 hours.
Good thing we were riding the most comfortable coach to Bicol, otherwise I would have whined and complained relentlessly the entire 400-500km stretch. The trip to Bicol was fine, just slept the entire trip. However, the trip home was not so comfy. More of that later on. :)
We arrived in Legazpi City at around 5am, 10 1/2 hours after we left Manila. The tricycle driver informed us that shuttle trips to Sorsogon are stationed in Daraga, about a few kilometers from the terminal. So we contracted his services, and about 15 minutes later as we arrived in Daraga, he charged us a whooping P100 for the fare! That rip-off. He should be condemned to hell.
There were no shuttle trips yet available at that early hour of the morning, so we decided to look for any store that sells Oral B toothbrushes as I left mine at home (what a girl scout I am!). No, they only have
Springmaid, the brand that shows no mercy to your gums til they bleed like no tomorrow. During the hunt, we came across this young whino who seems to be more interested in getting a piece of me rather than finding something to fill his stomach with. He was maliciously reaching for me despite Sig's attempt to bribe him with food. God, he must've been only 10 or so. I pity that boy; imagine what he would be like 5 to 10 years from now. Tsk tsk tsk.
But I won't let that ruin our vacation, of course. After chatting with some of the shuttle drivers and evaluating whether we can endure a jeepney ride up to Sorsogon, one of them offered to drop us off at our destination, regardless if there will be other passengers boarding the same trip. So off we go, amidst the lush hills and forests with tamed clearings of rice fields, we reached Donsol.
Ah, Donsol...not so developed. Yet. In fact, half the road to the Whaleshark Activity Center is being rennovated to accomodate tourist inflow in the area, so as expected the traffic was hilariously present in that quiet town. Booking boat trips for diving was a mess...the coordinators lack coordination in themselves, and we had to wait for an hour or so to actually have a boat that will take us to the dive site. And...I DIDN'T SEE ANY WHALESHARKS GODDAMMIT!!! That was a waste of my P600, and I'll just have to take Penha's word for it at how marvelous the sight of a
butanding is. Darn, better luck next year for me. :( Bought some souvenir shirts (which by the way are rip-offs as each shirt costs around 190 to 200 each. Same shirt quality are available in Galera or Boracay for P100). Then we had a late lunch at the site, which may be the culprit in upsets stomachs later in the afternoon as the food racks were
infested with flies. Oh hell, as the saying goes,
mas madumi mas masarap.
Back at the lodge, we actually had to wait 30 minutes for housekeeping to clean our room. Hmmm the room...not so worth the P1,500 they charge us for one freaking day. No hot water, the bathroom not so neat, not much privacy (the doors have grills at the bottom, the type you see in office bathrooms), no TV, and no ref. Other than whaleshark viewing, there's not much to do in Sorsogon as the beaches are not that pretty: imagine black sand with grass overgrows and pebbles and dirt. Good thing the resort served us nice
tinolang manok and
tortang alimango for dinner. This was the only consolation for me here, I guess. Btw, we stayed at Casa Bianca resort. Don't say I didn't warn you.
The next morning we headed back to Legazpi City for some city touring. We booked a hotel for P1,500, same charge as in Donsol but the amenities are waaaaaaaaaaaay better. There's hot water, clean bathroom, cable TV, and free breakfast (which sadly we had no time to consume the day after as we were scurrying to our trip back to Manila). However, the hotel had an eerie feel to me...eerie like Hotel California-ish. Who knows what happens in those other rooms? It is in this hotel that Penha first made me cry. Don't ask why.
Basta.Ok, now this is when I started to enjoy this trip. After paying for our way-home tickets, we went to the best mall the city has to offer. Took a light meal at McDo (wee I ate at McDonald's Legazpi!), scouted the stores for short/pants for me as I didn't bring enough clothes that will last me the entire vacation, and bought Penha's economics book that he seemed to have lost years ago. After that we took a jeepney ride to the Cagsawa Ruins and the famous view of the Mayon Volcano. Yeah yeah, the volcano looks majestic enough as expected (
see related pic here). Brought chaos to the souvenir shops around the area, and i got myself a nifty
abacca bag for P170 and
sinamay fabrics for, er, I forgot. Entrance to the park is P5, which I think is fair enough for my share of groundskeeping as I left my tissues and ice cream wrappers in the nearest ledge coz there were no trash cans around. There were a lot of tourists viewing with us during that day probably because of the vacation that is Holy Week. I had an unforgettable moment here, I'll write about that later. :)
And of course, authentic Bicolano food. Our trip wouldn't have been complete without tasting the native delicacies the place has to offer. After Cagsawa we hopped another jeepney that will take us to
Camalig, the place famed for selling the best
pinangat and
tinulmok.
Pinangat is a bundle of dried taro leaves, coconut milk,
siling labuyo, meat and shrimp, doppled with crab fat and steamed to perfection.
Tinulmok, on the other hand, is coconut meat mixed with meat and wrapped in dried taro leaves, also steamed. This and a serving of
bicol express, paired with rice, and I was having a disco party in my mouth. Yum yum! We actually had to buy frozen portions of these goodies to take back home.
The trip home was...forgettable. As in we'd rather forget about it. The space, the passengers seated beside us, the stop-overs, the traffic, all 14 gruesome hours of it...
qui horror!All in all, this trip is one of the best backpack trips I've ever had. Exploring unknown territory, utilizing public transportation and guts to get around, and having fond memories of your companion...priceless. :)
Labels: wanderlust
