Catching a Bus Back to Manila

As a sequel to my previous post, here's how me and my husband managed to get back home.

After attending the wedding ceremony and reception of my college friend, we headed on to McDonalds Solano. Two Victory Liner Busses passed by, bound to Sampaloc and Cubao, both full.

Since the bus that we rode on our way here is Dangwa Florida, we decided to go to its terminal in Solano. We rode on a tricycle and asked the driver to take us to the terminal. It is located at the gasoline station just across Chowking. We headed to the office, which was closed, and on which window a note was pasted:

"Office opens at 4:00 PM; All trips on April 9, 10, 11 are fully-booked; Trips everyday at 9AM and 4PM, 9PM."

We were starting to despair as we walked towards the highway, where we waited for the next bus. And along came another full Victory Liner.

We sat along a waiting shed and had one of our treasured conversations, in the midst of the 3PM heat.

Soon it will be getting late, so when another Victory Liner arrived, we prepared to be standing!

Next thing we knew we were standing inside a Caloocan-bound Victory Liner bus.
I was the one to have a seat first, as some passengers went off at Bayombong.
My husband had his seat, and sadly not next to me, at San Jose.

It was a very long trip due to road maintenance works along the way. We arrived at Camachile at around 12 midnight. It was a scary trip from there to Novaliches Bayan, then we briefly enjoyed some hot lugaw at Janet's Pares.

It was a little tiresome but still I am thankful that we finally get to kiss our awake little angel at home by 2AM.

The Commute to Nueva Vizcaya

It has been over a year since my last bus ride to the province of Nueva Vizcaya.

I wasn't expecting much improvement since I always hear stories about the difficult experiences just to be able to catch a bus to Region 2.

Here's my own and latest account:

My last-minute decision to attend the wedding of my college friend made me and my husband "chance passengers" in the terminal of our favorite bus station: Victory Liner at Kamias. We were not able to book our tickets ahead of time so we prepared ourselves to just wait for that "chance" of getting a seat of anyone who will miss his/her reserved seat. Upon our arrival at the terminal at around 8 PM of April 9, 2015, the queue of our fellow chance passengers already extended up to EDSA and it looked so hopeless. It's as if we are not going to board a bus in time, having in mind that the wedding is at 10 AM the next day.

With the advice of my mother who is a frequent traveler just to visit us, we decided to walk a little bit along EDSA (South-bound) to see the Dangwa Florida Bus terminal. It was my first time to go there and I inquired at their office. Unfortunately all north-bound trips are already fully-booked. Seeing the dismay on my face, the clerk was kind enough to ask me where is our destination. Upon knowing that we're bound to Bayombong, he informed me that there is a bus bound to Solano and after advising that I ask the conductor, he showed me where it was. (Solano is the town after Bayombong).

I approached the conductor and asked if there are two seats left. He swiftly scanned his clipboard and answered "Seats 3 and 4".

I almost leaped for joy and we wasted no time. We boarded the bus at once. We left the terminal at around 9:20 PM and we reached Bayombong at around 4 AM. It was a comfortable trip, with a good movie playing (2012 if I remember it right). My husband watched the movie but I preferred to catch some beauty rest.

As we occupied the front-most seats, and the road seem to be next in front of us, I just prayed for our safety. 

We had only one stopover at Aritao (two towns before reaching Bayombong). I wasn’t able to note the name of the restaurant as I miss the famous CCQ. But there we ate some hotdogs and hot goto – nice foods to warm our hungry tummies.

Thank God for this trip as we arrived safely.

Standby for my next post about our return to Metro Manila.