Baler - Surfers Paradise (Part II)

  

                                                            Manila-Cabanatuan-Baler

We were all set for an eight-hour drive to Baler. Once the clock struck

midnight, we took a taxi going to the bus terminal at Genesis Transport

in Cubao. I thought that traveling earlier in the morning would minimize my

chances of being caught up in traffic, but I was wrong. We were not able to

catch the first JoyBus trip, a direct non-stop-over trip to Baler. We walked a

few blocks away from the Genesis Transport to another bus terminal and found

one departing right away for Cabanatuan City direction halfway to Baler.

It was a comfortable four-hour drive arriving early at the end station

My eyes were searching the bus that will bring us to Baler for another

four-hour drive. When our baggage was on top of the roof of the bus, one of the

conductors put a piece of wooden box before its doorway so we could climb up

easily.  It shocked me to see some passengers sleeping horizontally along the

aisle, roosters were crowing in their cages “cock-a-doodle-doo” and the only

seats available for us were in the last row.  I stared at mom's confused face,

and she whispered to me to go back and wait outside, while she will look around

for rental vans. Luckily, she found one. I thought I would stay on that bus forever.

I ran to the van thinking that my struggling from that place was over, but since our

luggage was already loaded on top of the bus, the conductor refused to bring them

down. He said that the driver of the van is the one responsible of bringing it down.

They were both arguing, while the van’s driver left and went back to his van without

our baggage.

My mom whispered to me "Why don't you go up there yourself and get them for us?

I thought, "I can't believe I'm going to do this!" I still did it anyway. It was smoothly

done, together with my sister’s help. I swear that bus frightened the life out of me.

Good thing we got a van, and so we set off to Baler.