The Great Visayan Road Trip: 1st day

Arrived in Cebu. Traveled to Dumaguete. Catch a ferry to Siquijor. Back to Dumaguete as a transit. Swim with the whale sharks in Oslob, Cebu. Back to Cebu City for the Sinulog festival. Rode a ferry to Ormoc, Leyte. City day tour in Tacloban with Jom. Hiked with Fernz for 7 hrs to a waterfall. Joined a local birthday celebration in Catbalogan, Samar. Bus to Legazpi. Back to Manila. The gist of my first roadtrip for the year 2013.

7 days. 6 provinces. 5 islands. 4 days with my sisters and climb friends. Another 3 days of roadtrip with my best friend. 10 kg of clothes and baggage.

Day 1:
Matel, Macy, Kat, Ralph and I went to Cebu, taking the first flight via cebupac and arriving at 5:30 am. We were greeted by our second cousin and we went to their house for a while. We were to rent their van to take us to Oslob but because of a long story, we just borrowed 2 of their cars to take us to Liloan port in Santander, Cebu.

We visited Mary's Castle on the way to the port where we had some photo ops. I didn't think our second-cousin Cory expected that we would take so long hehe


Anyway, we arrived in Liloan at around 130pm. We took the ferry for 30 min, it was a very very bumpy ride, causing most of the passengers to be seasick. I was a bit seasick myself so I went to the upper deck for some air.

When we got to dumaguete, we filled up a multicab to take us to Hous of Sansrival where we await the schedule of the ferry to Siquijor.

We had a good lunch with good desserts, that most of us wanted to walk for a while and digest our food. As macy mentioned, we've been traveling the whole day! We just took the 7pm ferry to siquijor and arrived at 9pm.

In siquijor, we rented a multicab to take us to the resort at Php 500, which I believe to be expensive.

Anyway, that ends our first day :)

Expenses:
Breakfast at Mcdo
Gas going to the port - est 1300/12 ppl
Ferry to Dumaguete - 60 per pax
Multicab to Hous of Sansrival - 25 per pax
Late lunch at Haus of Sansrival
Fast Ferry to Siquijor - 200 per pax
Multicab to Island Rendevoo - 500/12 ppl
Takeout food from Scooby's Dumaguete

Pictures to follow

How much of the Philippines have you traveled?

Hmmm... so I've been to a lot of places in the Philippines hehe 

I have to admit that I've been traveling a lot since I was a child, even preferring to stay overnight at my cousin's place than to go home haha Batang layas nga daw hehe

My Lakbayan grade is B-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

And by April 2015, updated:


My Lakbayan grade is B-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!
Created by Eugene Villar.

Anesthesiology

Reasons why I'm thinking of going into anes of V. Luna:
1. Because it's like intra operative I'm but with shorter duration
2. Because it's not as toxic or as on call as other subspecs with patient interaction
3. The training has q4days for duty, meaning I only get to go on duty 1-2x a week! (iyon talaga e, baka pwede pang umakyat ng bundok hehe)
4. The location is near
5. The pay is good for a residency program
6. Because I don't have to spread myself thin over the number of patients and can better give patient care
7. Only 3 years to finish and I'm already a consultant
8. I get to work while seating in an aircon room
9. I still get to see surgeries
10. I like doing skills
11. My favorite subject in med school is physiology and pharmacology
12. I may only need to work several times a week haha
13. I don't have to be empathic or sympathetic haha

Disadvantages
1. No long term follow up- may actually be a good thing esp for those patients na pasaway!
2. Dependent on other subspecs to have work
3. Dependent on a hospital to work
4. Required 1 yr service in a government hospital after training

Though I guess I could still practice as GP and put up my own clinic hehe it's just that I wouldn't be able to use my specialty to advantage

Mt Ugo Climb

Leo, Ralph and I were invited by Cy to join Mt Ugo Traverse with the Nature Trekkers Club last Nov 30 to Dec 1. We met up with them in Victory Liner Kamias. CY introduced us to her friends Carol and Marvin, but not knowing the rest of the 12 of our group aside from the team leader Suzette. We left at around 930 pm and arrived in Nueva Vizcaya at around 4 am, where a jeep was waiting for us.

When we arrived at the jump off point, it was around 530 to 6 am. We had breakfast and packed our lunch, fixed our things, and gave some of our things to be portered. Our group wanted to take our time taking photos so we volunteered to be the sweeper.

The trek consisted of a 2 to 3-hr hike uphill, then we had lunch in a barangay arriving ahead of schedule. We, Cy's group, went to a nearby hill where we can have our photos taken. Then it was a relatively easy but longer trail ahead of us to the Domolpos Village. Easy because it was flat with some trees for shade. The guide said that there will be a road soon so that the trail will only consist of 3 hrs to the school and will skip the first harder uphill part of today's trek.

Of course, there's no mountains without any elevations

A very long dry road (about 2 hours of walking like this) in this hot sun 

You're going to pass through Mt. Samiento first (O diba? Two mountains pala ang Ugo)

Mountain ranges. Lots of them in the trail.

Enjoying the view while resting

Anyway, due to our excess photo shoots, we somehow lost them along the way and followed another group which was going to camp at the summit. Their porters pointed us to the right direction, which led us to the village proper and finally to the school, where we spent the night. There was water, cr, and our dinner was served by the villagers, boodle-style containing tinolang manok and red rice. We had dinner at 5 pm, had socials at 6 and lights off at 8pm because we were to start our trek at 4 am.

At the school where we slept

Only some joined the socials, so I still don't know the other 8 members of their group. At least 4 of them did the socials with us. They bought 1 bottle of gin cuadros and it was a good thing we have some sachet of juice as a contribution. When we consumed it, they slept already. But we were still restless so we went outside for a while, appreciated the moon and went back inside after about 10 to 15 minutes, especially when Ralph developed fever.

I was awakened by around 1030 pm because of the cold, gathered my jacket, and fell promptly back to sleep. I was awakened at 1230 pm, and couldn't sleep again after that so we just talked and helped cooked breakfast of corned beef, spam and hotdog at around 2 am.

At around 3:30 am, our trek started. It was still a relatively flat first hour, but then there was about a 30-40 minute assault to the campsite. We reached the campsite a few minutes prior to the sunrise. It was beautiful :) Since there were also some trees, unlike in Pulag and in Apo, it was also a bit dramatic hehe

The nice about-to-rise sun

Sunrise in Mt. Ugo with a sea of clouds

Enjoying these raisinets with the sunrise. Yummy! 

Siyempre, photo-ops with the sunrise, solo-solo, then by group hehe CY's group went to a fallen log somewhere in front, and generally had the rest of our photo shoots there, despite the other views hehe Then it was 7 am already, so we had to go up to the summit, had another set of photo-ops with the Mt. Ugo marker, then started our descend a little before 7:30 am.

Mt. Ugo

The descend was steep (some saying it resembles Akiki trail), and it was a really good thing that I have a trekking pole. (Yes, it was really really useful for this mountain!) After about 2.5 km of steepness, there comes a relatively easy flat but longer trail. I feel that we could trek continuously throughout the end, but instead, we stopped at around 11 am in some dry pine forest where we can lay down in the cool shade. We left at around 12:30 am, and continued the hike from then, which was really, an easy trail for me. So from the back, I was able to catch up with a lot of them, until I reached Nilo who was the pacer. We rested in the 5 km marker, where there is another steep descent coming. Aside from the descent, it was also very exposed to the sun, so it was also very hot and dry. The dry loose rocks where the ones that made the descent hard and slippery. After that part, you will reach the water source, and it was another relatively flat descending trail. According to the porter, it was about an hour's trek if I were fast enough. Eventually, there's a small gate, ascend again for about 20 minutes, then another flat trail. And here is where people got lost hehe

On the way down, there would be lots of pine trees (route looks like that of Akiki)

Since I was way ahead of CY's group, I wanted to lay down under a big mango tree or in this shady downhill part, where I get to see a view of the mountain ranges and the fields. Unfortunately, I can't do that because I only have less than 200 mL of water left at the time. So I just went ahead. But maybe, if only I didn't lack water, I would have stayed up there, enjoyed the view, have photo-ops by myself hehe
zzzz

At around 3 pm, we reached the sari-sari store where people can buy refreshments. After which, there is only about a km left going to the hanging bridge and to the road where the jeepney is waiting, usually takes 20-30 minutes according to the guide.

Since we were early, we chatted for a while and waited for the others to catch up. After more than an hour of rest (it was already 4 plus), and all of them went ahead (I waited for CY's group), I trekked back again to see what's keeping them! Haha (Oo na, ako na ang mainipin!) It was about a 30-minute uphill hike for me (no bags, no stops, just two trekking poles and my belt bag) before I finally saw the end of our group. We stopped by shortly in the refreshment stand and continued the last km to the jeep, hurried them along when I realized it's 5 pm.

We passed the fields and did some photo-ops in the hanging bridge. By the time we reached the jeep it was already dark.

The hanging bridge at the end of the trail

All in all, Mt. Ugo was a great mountain to climb, with a lot of flat trails albeit longer to trek. There were always views of mountain ranges, pine trees, plains. We trekked a total of 32 km to do the traverse from Nueva Vizcaya to Benguet... and that's not yet counting the trail where we got lost hehe

Strawberry fields

Davao Side Trips

After climbing Mt. Apo, it was a loooong line to the shower. So due to random picking up of names, I was part of the first half. We showered first, ate dinner afterwards. We ate in Jenny's Fried Chicken since we learned that it was dirt cheap and because of the picture we had on our way to Mt. Apo. Then we walked around for a while, inquired on the videoke. The rest of the group already showered by this time, and we again had dinner on Bulca Chong, where they served spicy bulalo. Yum! Then we went back to the videoke for one hour of singing despite our raspy voices from the coldness of Mt. Apo.

The next day, we woke up late at around 8 am. We had breakfast in Tapsi's, looked at a few souveneirs in a nearby shop. Due to the time constraint, JM and Sha weren't able to join our city tour. We rented a jeep to go around the city for about PhP 2000 to be able to tour Eden Nature Park, Philippine Eagle, Crocodile Farm, and the Zip Line, ending with a dinner in Jack's Ridge, supposedly. Good enough since there were 10-11 of us... If it pushed through! Unfortunately, since we were late in starting, and our driver got lost, we weren't able to go to Eden Nature Park and Crocodile Farm. Though we did bought some pomelo and durian along the way. Cesar needed to be at the airport because his flight was at 8 or 9 pm.

The day afterwards, we pushed through with the Davao River Tubing, which costs PhP 500/head for an unforgettable experience and bonding! We woke up around 5 am, to get a jeep or bus going to the town (tagalang matipid ang grupo namin! Haha); It was so early, because some of us had flights at lunch and at 2 pm. LJ woke up earlier because his flight was around 6 am. We ate at a local carinderia (cheap thrills!) while we wait for the river tubes to be prepared. Then, the adventure begins! It was a blast getting washed up over and over again haha It was definitely better than river rafting that's for sure! Though people also get more accidents in river tubing hehe We missed those people who didn't share this experience with us.

Once the river tubing ended, coach took a taxi straight to the airport though he was still wet hehe He made it to his flight on time! Hehe For those leaving at 2 pm, Leo, Marlon, and Victor, they were able to try Lyndon's Ribs for an eat-and-run lunch and headed straight to the airport. They barely made it (only able to check in because they used web-check in, but the check-in counter was already closed hehe).

I was the one next on line to go the airport, with my flight at around 9 pm. We did some souveneir shopping nearby, and tried to take a nap. But found it futile, so Rose and I just went in search of Lachi's, the famous dessert place in the area. We got lost because apparently, it was moved! I almost gave up, but eventually the tricycle driver we rode on the way back knew where it was, so yey, we made it! There was no time for dinner however, and by this time, both our cash funds are low and we need to withdraw! Hehe Their cheesecake also costs less than PhP 100, and I wanted to bring home some to my family, just like what I did in Bacolod. However, I realized that I'll be bringing home Dates and Walnuts Cake from my friend who was in Dumaguete at the time, too, so I just took 2 slices of cake. (I wanted more, but I'm getting fat! Haha) Anyway, I also made it to the airport on time.

Pictures to follow