Travel day today. From the island of Logon and the town of Malapascua to Cebu. We have a plane to Dumaguete tomorrow and we must overnight in Cebu because the trip from the north is too long and we would not make the flight.
When we left Cebu a few days ago we took a bus to Maya Port. It happened to be a local bus and it stopped for anyone that wanted to ride in that direction. It let people off anywhere along the route. This took a considerable amount of time but hell, we were not in any big hurry. We arrived at the port in 5 hours.
The boat ride to the island was on a standard boat and we had to wait until there was enough people to make it a worth while venture for the boat owner and then we left.
On the return trip today, we again took the standard boat across the channel. At the Maya port on the main island we then sought out a shared van for the road trip south. The cost was marginally more, 30 php, about 75 cents CAD. The van still stopped to pick up and drop off people but the stops were much faster. The driver was a little more impatient and we arrived in 3.5 hours.
All of this is good fun, seeing how the people from the Philippines go about their daily life. We could have booked private transport both or either way but it was quite a bit more money and it is such a sterile way to do things. For heavens sake…. don’t rub shoulders with the locals! You might actually meet one of them or maybe even another tourist.
The driving in the Philippines is much more organized than most of SE Asia. The talking horn is much less prevalent. It is used but with a bit of restraint. The lane lines actually mean something and for the most part the people drive in the lane. Signal lights are more than an ornament. They are used to indicate the driver’s intention to turn a corner or change lanes. Our van driver today drove quite fast and did a lot of passing. He used the dotted passing lines and waited until the vision was good before he passed the car/truck in front of us. I mentioned this before but drivers respect pedestrians somewhat. At least they don’t purposefully take a run at you. The traffic lights control the traffic and the walk and wait lights control the pedestrians. It’s still a bit crazy to us North Americans but I think I at least understand the ebb and flow of the system. Some places you have to be born there to understand how the driving system works.
Sometimes it is good to pull the ‘old’ card out of the deck and use it. Today we were at the supermarket picking up a few things and being Friday there is a line up at all the tills. There is one till designated for ‘seniors’. It’s clear of people. So being old, I sidled up there like I knew what I was doing, paid and managed to skip a 5-minute wait in a line.
So we made it to Cebu and are sitting is some fancy hotel across the street from the airport so we have easy access tomorrow.