Philippines Day 14 : Iloilo – Van to Caticlan – Ferry and Bus to Manila

0630 – Reached the Tagbak in the early morning so as to get the bus to Manila that we found yesterday. However, there was something unexpected happen. It was only this Vxxxxxx Express provide the bus to Manila. A man said that the Air-con bus was fully booked and only left the non air-con bus. The man also said that if we want to take the air-con, he will provide us the seat to sit on the walkway path in the bus. Then we were like don’t know which bus to take. After discussed awhile, we decided to reject both bus and went to find the bus that can go to Caticlan as my girlfriend saw there are bus to Manila when we were there. Along the way we walked to the Ceres Terminal to get the bus, we saw there are Van to the Caticlan and the cost is cheaper than the bus which is PHP350. Then we got on the van but need to wait the van to be fully loaded before they will depart. After an hour, the van is fully loaded and we were like so uncomfortable for waiting so long. However, the van driver drove the van very fast. We reached Caticlan in just 5 hours.

Tagbak terminal, not many bus

Van terminal near the Tagbak terminal

View along the route

1230 – At the caticlan, we couldn’t see any bus to Manila. So I tried to ask the ferry to Roxas first, but there were so many people queue at the counter to buy the ticket. While queue for the ferry ticket, my girlfriend saw the bus company that provide the bus to the Manila. Hence, we just bought from them. The bus company is Philtranco which is the bus company that I found in Iloilo online and provide the bus to Manila but I couldn’t see any terminal of this bus company as the every bus company has their own terminal in every city. This Philtranco bus from Caticlan to Manila cost PHP1200 (We paid for student price which is just PHP1050) which include two FastCat ferry tickets and terminal fees from Caticlan to Bulalacao and from Calapan to Batangas. The FastCat ferry depart time in Caticlan is 3pm.Hence, we can had a lunch first. After that, we went in to the terminal which is so crowded that enough place to sit. It is also very hot inside.

So many people queuing to buy the ferry ticket. This is Montenegro counter which ferry departs at 2pm daily.

So many people in the terminal

Montenegro Ferry

No to Boracay Cable Car?

1410 – Boarded onto the ferry. This time is economy ticket and hence we were sitting on the upper deck opened air seat. After the ferry departed in 3pm, we could see the whole Boracay island from far away. The white beach is really huge and long. I also saw there were many people parasailing. After moving away from the Boracay island, there is nothing to see. Around 5pm, we could see the sunset on the sea which is a different experience.

The long white beach!

so many parasailing

Sunset on the sea

1830 – Reached Bulalacao, we were told to get on to the Philtranco bus. The bus was almost fully loaded and we managed to get the seat together at the last third row. We continued to sleep after the bus departed. At the halfway, I noticed the bus was fully loaded that is no empty seat.

2100 – Reached Calapan, we were told to get off the bus and boarded the ferry ourselves with ticket provided by the bus operator. After boarded on the ferry, the economy seats were fully seated. Hence, we had to stand and see the ferry departing. However, we saw there was passenger getting on to our bus. Then we get in to the bus and asked whether that we can stay inside. The bus operator allowed us and then we sit back to our seats and continued sleeping. Even tough the bus was wobbling with the ferry and producec an uncomfortable sound, we still able to sleep well. We don’t even know when the bus loaded off from the ferry and continue the journey to Manila. At the last few hours before reaching the Manila, I couldn’t sleep well as the bus playing the very loud musics!

Bus boarded onto the ferry at Calapan Port

0420 – Reached Cubao terminal. We saw there are a lot of Hotel provide few hour of stay and rest. We found a hotel that is cheap (PHP440 for 6 hours air con room) but not that comfortable room. Then we continued sleep on the bed since it was quite uncomfortable to sleep on the non sleeping bus. We didn’t plan to stay in Manila as we were going to take overnight bus to Vigan and visit the Banaue then back to Manila as our last station.