Today was a Tuesday. I had a nice one day break after the Sunday trek to Mount Pinatubo. I was to leave Manila and head to Cebu by flight. I thought I’d take the train to Pasay and then take a taxi or jeepney from Pasay/TAFT Avenue to the airport.
But that was a mistake. When I got to the Cubao station, first there was a line for tickets. After I got the ticket, there was another line just to pass through security. Then another line after security just before taking the steps up to the platform. Then another line to get inside the train. This was done because that’s how many people there are during morning rush hour! It took an hour after getting my ticket just to get inside the stuffed train. It was such a struggle to stand inside with my two bags but I somehow survived! I got to Terminal 3 in time… which was not that important as the flight was later delayed by half-an-hour.
Anyway, my Cebu Pacific flight landed in Cebu safely, but getting to my hostel took more than an hour due to the line for taxis, first, then the city traffic. As irritated I was arriving past lunch time, it was nice to be back in Cebu since 2011.
I stepped out soon after to first, get some drinking water, hand over my laundry, and then to have lunch. Fortunately, just across the road from Tr3ats Guesthouse were many laundry shops (₱25/kg). I then took a jeepney, paid minimum fare (₱8) to get to Fuente Osmeña circle. It was already well past 3pm and I was late for lunch as it is. I went downstairs where the supermarket and food court is.
After lunch, I went around to find travel agencies offering trips to Oslob for the whale shark sighting tours. A few of the travel agencies I visited said they need a minimum of 3 people for them to organize a tour and even if I managed to group together 3-4 people, they told me it would still cost me ₱3k or more, per person, which was way too much. Back at the hostel, the staff told me how to get to Oslob by bus (which I also read online). I convinced myself to wake up really early — like 3am early — and so I went to bed early.
April 30th, 2014 – Cebu to Oslob by Bus
I woke up at 3:30am and took a taxi to the Cebu bus station, which only took 10 minutes to get to due to the lack of traffic.
I arrived at Legazpi city around 7:45am. I then crossed the road over to the jeepney terminal and boarded a jeepney going towards Albay Cathedral. I was in Legazpi for two things: to see Mt. Mayon and to get to Donsol from here.
I hadn’t slept well the night before because of how freezing it was inside in the bus. Add to that the slight cold I already had got a little worse because of the lack of the sleep. So I freshened up, switched off the aircon and went to bed after taking some medicines Janet had bought for me.
I woke up in the afternoon and decided to step out for lunch.
I took a jeepney going to Legazpi City as I didn’t feel like having lunch nearby. Plus I wanted to see the main town area. Legazpi City is barely 20 minutes by jeepney.
After a while, I got bored as there was little else to see or do in Legazpi City. So I took a jeepney back to Albay.
I had dinner with a hostel mate from India who was in Legazpi on business. We sat down at a Japanese restaurant near Albay Cathedral.
Date: 28th May, 2013
Today morning I woke up early and took a jeepney to the bus terminal, from where I would get in a van taxi going to Donsol.
The van left the terminal only after they could fill it with as many passengers that could fit inside. Thankfully they had functioning A/C.
I hired a tricycle taxi to take me to the whale shark center (cost ₱40).
Granted, I chose to come early because I read they only have 2-3 tours in a day and some bloggers said going for the early morning tour has the best chance of seeing the whale shark. But the fact there were only cleaning staff there and one tourist — me — I took that as a worrying sign.
After an hour or so of waiting, and just as my hopes were getting dashed, an American family walks in saying they were here for the whale shark tour. Phew! My day was saved — for now.
The office staff finally showed up and told us since it was going to be a total of 5 people in one boat, the cost per person would come to ₱1000 person — which is what I was hoping to pay. But I also had to pay ₱300 extra for I had no snorkel mask or flippers with me.
The staff were insistent on reminding us there is no guarantee we would spot whale sharks. I paid up knowing the risk — as this is common place anywhere you go to see wildlife in their natural habitat. This isn’t a zoo, no animal was going to pose for our cameras.
The water did get a bit bumpy under the grey clouds. I looked down at the waves and wondered how would I even see the whale shark in such grey waters. I wasn’t going to get in the rough waters without a life jacket of course.
The seas eventually calmed down a bit, and the sun even came back out again. We went deep into the sea, more than 2kms from the coast. An hour of going left to right, going around in circles, speeding up, speeding down… nothing.
Some of the Americans dozed off as this was turning into one boring boat ride. I know I agreed to take the risk… but this sucked.
Back on the shores, I returned the snorkel and flippers I paid for but didn’t use and just left the tourist center disappointed. For those who are wondering what it must be like to spot the whale sharks in Donsol, watch this:
I was pretty hungry as I left Legazpi pretty early in the morning.
I hired the same tricycle taxi to take me back to Donsol. I told the driver I needed to get a jeepney going back to Legazpi.
One odd observation along the way was that the jeepney would be stopped at different towns by people who would collect some money from the driver. Now I assumed the jeepney would drop and pick up new passengers along the way. But the men who would stop these jeepneys would make the guy wait for quite some time before the jeepney could set off again, and the guys who stopped the jeepney looked a bit, well, menacing.
Even though I had wasted nearly ₱1500 for practically a bunch of joyrides, when I could saved it and slept in… oh well. What’s done is done. Next time, I decided I would rather go to Oslob in Cebu where it’s easier to swim with whale sharks.
I went out at night for dinner alone as the other Indian who was staying at the hostel had to return to Manila. And there was no new guest in my room.
So far my visit to Legazpi was turning out to be a dud. So I had my hopes up high for tomorrow, when I finally get to go up close to Mount Mayon.