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Okay, so a quick review. Lita and I are on the way to Clark in Angeles City to try to catch a HOP out for our annual balikbayan trip. We are traveling on our first DLTB Greyhound Express Bus. In the first post (and only one so far) we made it through the ferry adventure and are almost to Pasay, ahead of schedule, but we get delayed by the accident. This is where I ended the last post so let’s get going with part 2. See I told you it’d be a ‘quick’ review.
The accident was not with us, but there was supposedly an accident down the road. It must have had the whole road blocked because the police were diverting traffic away from the area. We could not see an accident from where we were, but that’s what the scuttlebutt was throughout the bus. Of course all the talk was in Tagalog, but Lita informed me. So the bus driver went a different route. Turns out that this route was not very good. There was a massive traffic jam there too. So the driver turns the bus through a couple of lanes of traffic, they seem to give the buses room when they stick their nose in there, and went a route that was at least moving. I’m not even sure about what he did, but I think normally the bus goes to Pasay and then Cubao, but this day we went to Cubao first. Our destination was Pasay and we made it there around 11:30 am. We still needed to get on another bus to make to to Angeles City. Our bus of choice for the shorter trips is 5 Star. Not only has it been a good bus for us, the bus station we need to go to is right around the corner from DLTB, so we just walk to it> No need for paying a trike or fighting with the traffic and inhaling direct bus fumes. It’s so close in fact that even Lita can walk it.
After leaving Pasay we finally arrived in Angeles about 2 hours later. The bus has a new place to drop off there these days. It goes to a station next to Marquee Mall. After that it’s about a 10-15 trike ride to our hotel. The trike ride cost us P200. By the way, the minimum trike fare in that area is P100. I walk whenever I can. They complain about gas prices, but the prices for gas here in Samar is more expensive. The price for a trike here in Calbayog is only P10, so it’s a big rip off there in Angeles. I suppose that as long as they can get away with it though, they will continue to charge those prices.
We arrived at our hotel, Horizonhill Hotel, at around 1430, right before happy hour started at 1500. After all that traveling I was ready for a beer. I actually had 4 of them. I had 2 at the bar, 1 with the meal we ate (in our room) and then 1 more after the meal. After that it was mostly sleeping.
There was a schedule flight to Kadena the next morning with an 0700 roll call, so we got a 0545 wake up call and a taxi pick up schedule for 0615. We didn’t want to be late. We signed in at the Air Force City gate at 0625 and at the Haribon terminal gate at 0635. We were the first ones there, but 3 others showed up. I was a little worried, about 1 of the passengers that might be in a higher category than us, but I had enough time on the Cat 6 list to not worry too much about that. Finally someone showed up to process us. It wasn’t who I expected (Dave), but I found out that he now has weekends off. Good for him. That working 7 days a week was probably getting to be too much. Anyway, we were processed and were all ready to go. Since there was another flight, for active duty only, this staff sergeant (I forget his name) had Immigration come to us, instead of having to find a way to get us all to them at Clark Airport. Only problem is, the flight crew had no shown up yet and we were not really sure if the flight was going to accept passengers. There were only 5 of us and the plane was a C130, so space probably would not be a problem. So we waited and waited. Finally about 1230, we were told that the mission had changed and that they were no longer going to Okinawa. However, all is not lost yet. Another flight ‘might’ be coming in from Iwakuni and he’d let us know within an hour.
Okay, I’m ending it here with a little drama. I hope y’all will be back to read how things went for us that day.
after finding out the cost in angeles did you decide you didn’t miss some things as much as you thought.
Not really. I still got the things that I am missing down here. I just treated it like a nice little vacation. It seems that usually on vacations you end up spending more anyway.
Angeles is by far has the most expensive trike rides, probably in the entire Philippines. Anywhere else in the world this would be considered “collusion” and possibly a Restraint of Trade issue and would be illegal. The blame can only go to visiting foreigners who throw their money around because they think it is a good deal, and to local government who should recognize the problem. Then again, officials are probably being paid well! For those expats that live here, we pay the penalty!
Yeah, the local government won’t say anything. I’m sure that they are getting their cut too. It’s sad really. The Philippines could be a much better place if it didn’t have so much corruption. Of course I guess you can say the same thing about the US.
Things have always been more Expensive in Subic or Angles. Even in 60 and 70. I never bought fuel off of Base even though you didn’t know what you was getting. Paid 16 Cents a gallon for Premium but had to carry fuel filter in car when other got Clogged. Beer was 4 Pesos in Bar but if you sent Local to store and buy for you was only 50 centavos. This was when Exchange Rate was 4 to 1. Back then you could hire Jeepney Driver for 100 Pesos to take you anywhere you wanted all day. You could rent a 2 Bedroom apartment which had to be approved by the Military with Guard at night for 380 Pesos. I miss the Good Old Days. HA! HA!
You know after I went outside and had a smoke and got a Beer. I Realized that there was never any Tricycles running around town back in the Good OLD days. If you lived off of Main Street where Jeepney Ran. You either paid him a few Pesos to drop you in front of your house or you walked to where you was going. There was no such thing as Boundaries back then. They could take you where ever you wanted.
I’ve seen pictures. I’m not quite that old.
looking foward to the continuation of your trip. but i’m beginning to wonder if it would have been cheaper for you just to catch a cebu pacific flight to hong kong for a day.
100 peso trike in ac. no suprise ripping off the visitors there. but then again half the problem there is caused by foreigners they go there and throw money around like water so they think all foreigners are rich…..
Yes Roger that is the truth. Even my wife likes to give them extra money for “breakfast”. I tell her that they already charge too much, but she’s stubborn and a Filipina. As for flying to Hong Kong, well it could turn out to be less expensive, maybe not. We decided on the trip this way instead because we wanted to hang around Angeles for a few days and get a taste of the things we have been missing living here, like a mall, more restaurant choices and a decent sandwich. Figured while at Angeles we’d shoot for the Space A. It worked out well this time.