mindoro: the trip to the island

as promised, i will be posting about our mindoro trip. pero one day at a time lang, ha?

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early dismissal kami sa office nung holy wednesday, april 4. buti na lang! at least, we were be able to leave early for mindoro. ang nag-aya, si lorryle, yung company nurse namin. dun kasi ang province nila, so sila ng mom niya ang mag-iikot sa amin. magkakasama kami nina ms. maggie at nel. sumama rin si richard, yung isang messenger namin.

by the way, here's how my bed looked like while i was packing that morning:

ang gulo, no? crammer kasi ako sa pag-iimpake, e.

nel was on leave that day, so she just met us at the office. after we left the office, we passed by allied bank (for money, of course) first then mercury drug (for batteries). after that, we rode a jeep to buendia-taft to get to the bus that would take us to batangas pier. ang swerte namin kasi may RRCG bus na nagsisimula pa lang magpuno. here's nel and i while waiting for the bus to move:


i just borrowed the digicam from my cousin, ate belen. during this time, hindi pa ako marunong maglagay ng flash. hehe...

sobrang naaliw ako sa ticket! digital na pala. they have this small machine which prints the ticket right then and there on thermo paper. cool! the fare was P146.45 pesos.

traffic pagdating sa laguna, at sa labas ng batangas pier. when you come to think about it, it's not that far, but because of the traffic, the trip took three hours.

when we got to batangas pier, we ate dinner first. simple lang ang kinain namin, pero ang mahal! for one, i ate lechon kawali and 1 rice, pero umabot na ng P60. mas nagulat si ma'am mags, kasi P100 ang inabot ng kinain niya, kasi may gulay at saging pa. sabi ko nga sa kanila, expected ko na mahal ang pagkain, kasi mahal din yung carinderia na kinainan namin ni daddy dati noong papunta kami ng albay. oh, well.

we bought our tickets after eating. dahil inaantay pa namin si tita lolit (lorryle's mom) at si obet, yung kasama niya, we bought tickets for a ferry that would leave at 11:30 from besta shipping lines, even though it was only a few minutes past 10. the name of the ferry was MV baleno, and the ticket was P160.

sa loob ng pier na lang namin inaantay sina tita lolit.

the blue bag with the orange zipper is mine. hehe...

gusto sana mag-coffee ni ma'am mags, kaya umikot muna kami. she decided against having coffee a little later.

akala ko, mababagot ako sa kaaantay, pero hindi pala. ang bilis lang ng oras! we boarded the ferry in what seemed like less than an hour. grabe, unahan ang mga tao! buti na lang, mabilis si tita lolit, kaya nakakuha pa siya ng upuan. wala na nga lang kama. sayang.


pangit yung ferry, overloaded pa. we found out later na cargo ship lang pala yun dati ng asia brewery. maliit lang, kaya ramdam na ramdam mo yung alon, kahit nakadaong pa. just see how blurred the pics are, even though my hand was perfectly still:




pero kahit na blurred, i still like this picture:


medyo kinabahan ako sa alon, kaya kahit hindi ako biyahilo, i asked lorryle for bonamine. i was not able to bring water, so i had to take it with the sprite that was left over from our dinner. it was lorryle who gave me the bottle. konting ikot pa lang ng takip, pumutok na! sobrang lakas, nakakahiya! people were actually looking in my direction. lumipad talaga yung cap sa harap, but i was too embarrassed to bother getting it. not to mention that the sprite was drenching my right hand in the manner of bubbly champagne that was just released from the prison of a bottle and a cork.

supposedly, the ferry was to leave at 11:30, but it left at 12. i don't know why there was a delay. throughout the trip, i tried to sleep, but without much success. i think it was at around past when i felt so bad, i threw up. luckily, i had a plastic bag with me.

we arrived in calapan port a few minutes before three.


we rode a jeep for over an hour to get to pinamalayan, to the house of lorryle's relatives. they gave us some pancakes, then accompanied us to our rooms. i was so tired that i slept immediately, without bothering to wash my face, change clothes or remove my contacts.

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up next: it's water fun day!