Hey Joe! Tropical Island Dreaming

Well I recently returned from my stay in  the Philippines. Getting around there can be many things but it is never boring. So here are a few pictures of the transportation I used on my last trip.

I flew from Phoenix to LA to Inchon to Cebu. Approximately 24 hours of total travel time. I was fragrant upon arrival. We’ll leave it at that. A few days in Cebu where we moved around by Taxi and Jeepney then we were off to Tacloban Leyte. We flew from Mactan to Tacloban and hired a van and driver to give us a tour. (More on that is coming) We traveled around in Tacloban by jeepney and tricycle. I was told there are taxi’s in Tacloban. I never saw any.

From Tacloban we took a V-Hire to Bool Biliran. Not many tricycles or jeepnys around the town. (None) So you get around on your own motorcycle. Don’t have one? Then switch to manual mode. (That’s right we walked) It is not a large community so not too much trouble walking where you are going.

From Bool we took a mini bus to Naval. The bus drops you off in the market area and from there we took a tricycle up to the resort. We took tricycles in and out of town during our stay and when we left we took a tricycle to town where we caught another V-Hire to Ormoc Leyte.

From Ormoc we caught the Super Cat to back to Cebu our starting point. Whew.

Wait we’re not done. A few days later we took the bus to Bogo Cebu. Tricycles around the town and good old shoe leather express (We walked) got us where we needed to go. Then another bus back to Cebu.

After recovering form all this adventure it was a Taxi back to Mactan Airport for the return to Phoenix. The return took me from Cebu to Inchon. (Then here is a surprise.) Inchon to Tokyo. (always read the itinerary guys) Tokyo to LA and LA back to Phoenix. I arrive home relaxed and refreshed. (Actually I look like I was hit by a jeepny and dragged and I smelled like an old gym locker) International travel is not for the weak.

I don’t think there are very many modes of transportation in the Philippines I have not tried at least once. I even rode in one of those pony carts once. (The ASPCA sent me a letter of repremand. Apparently they think since I weighed more than the pony I should have been pulling the cart.) I’ve never ridden a Carabao. Maybe next time. Overall I had a great time and I’m going again next year.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Places I have Been. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.