Escalante, Negros - Tabuelan, Cebu RORO trip

Until the 80s and 90s, the main ports serving the neighboring islands of Negros (Neg. Occ. and Neg. Or.) and Cebu were the ports of San Carlos City and Toledo City, respectively. Over a decade or two ago, the Escalante, Negros Occ. - Tabuelan, Cebu ports became operational.

Escalante Port, PPA and Coast Guard offices.

I took this photo last month at the Ceres terminal in Cadiz City, Negros Occ. Six trips a day, Bacolod City to Cebu City, another six trips a day coming back. Ceres buses are loaded in 3 different boats (and 3 different shipping lines?).

Here's the schedule of one shipping line.

 

Another docking station under construction, Escalante.

The area looks like a very small gulf, ideal for RORO ports as the docked boats can be protected from strong winds and big waves during heavy storms and typhoons.

The Aznar shipping line, preparing to dock at Escalante port. This is the boat that I took going to Cebu. Here it was carrying only one Ceres bus and a few cars.

We entered the boat. Huge area for cars, buses and trucks. This was later full of vehicles -- many trucks and cars and 1 Ceres bus. Passenger fare is around P190 I think, I don't remember.

The passengers area. No aircon section, just open air.

So this was my route, Cadiz to Escalante, boat to Tabuela then Cebu City. I got these two maps from the web, I did not make them.

Another map showing the other route, San Carlos in Negros -- Toledo in Cebu. A third route would be in Tanguil, after Barili, Cebu -- Guihulngan, Negros Or. And a fourth route would be Santander-Dumaguete, am not sure about this.

Tabuelan Port, Cebu. Small and underdeveloped and already busy.

See this, 3 boats squeezed with each other in a small docking area. The distance between the boats would be around less than 1 meter. Our boat is in the middle, where a Ceres bus is coming out.

I like the road scenes from Tabuelan to Carmen, Cebu. In another post.

Boats from Batangas to Mindoro, Caticlan/Boracay

Early last month, I travelled by RORO (roll on, roll off boats) from Manila to Iloilo then Negros. Plane fare Manila-Bacolod one way that weekend was something like P4,300 cheapest. I estimated that via RORO and multiple transfer would take about 26 hours but the cost would be only around P2,000 or less.

So I just took an air-con bus at Buendia-Taft in Makati going to Batangas and from there, would decide what boat to take going to Calapan, Or. Mindoro, or straight to Caticlan, Aklan.

Here are the boats from Batangas port to Calapan (Or. Mindoro), Abra de Ilog (Occ. Mindoro), other destinations in Mindoro island. During the vacation season, I think some shipping lines field more boats or they make their boats take extra trip per day whenever possible.

The RORO boats that ferry both people and vehicles, Batangas to Mindoro, Romblon, Panay (Aklan, Capiz, Antique), other island-destinations.

 I took the Batangas-Caticlan boat of 2GO, 9pm and arrive Caticlan around 7am with stopover at Odiongan, Romblon (perhaps around 3am). Tourist class aircon, P1,150 per head one way.

Passengers form two lines, one each for males and females, their bags and luggages beside them. This is for security inspection. Instead of making passengers go through an X-ray inspection, a bomb-sniffing dog just checks all bags, then passengers get their bags and go inside the boat.

So if one wants to go to Boracay from Manila, the fastest route of course is to take the plane (direct to Caticlan or via Kalibo, Aklan, then bus to Caticlan, 2 to 2 1/2 hours trip), then short boat ride to Boracay.

Another option is to take any bus from Manila/Makati/QC, etc. to Batangas, take 2GO's boat to Caticlan, 10 hours ride, just sleep and wake up at Caticlan port.
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See also:

Oriental Mindoro to Caticlan, Aklan, December 31, 2014

Caticlan to Boracay boats, December 12, 2016

Central India from the air

Last February 12, 2017, I departed Mumbai airport and flew back to Bangkok for my connecting flight to Manila. I did not go out after the Asia Liberty Forum (ALF), I went straight to the airport from the hotel. Below are some photos I took when the plane (Jet Airways) took off from the airport. Not so clear, either the plane's window was dirty or my phone camera's lens.

 

Mumbai is the commercial center of India so it has plenty of tall buildings, but also lots of informal settlements.

 

Here's my flight direction in orange line, Mumbai-Bangkok, about 5 to 6+ hours. The airline used a small B 737 (6 seats per row) plane for the flight. I got this map from the web, it shows a land route from Bangkok to Delhi (green line). I also marked (orange star) the cities in South Asia that I have visited so far -- Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal (January 2015), Paro and Thimphu, Bhutan (November 2015), and Mumbai, India (February 2017). My plane from Bhutan-Bangkok also stopped at Guwahati, India to unload passengers then loaded new passengers going to Bangkok. Us Bhutan-Bangkok passengers were not allowed to deplane, we just stayed inside the plane.

I saw many lakes, big and small, from west to east of central India. The place looked generally deforested and land use shifted from forest to agricultural and residential areas.

 

My entry and exit stamp at Mumbai airport, February 9 and 12, respectively.


Below, I got this from one report about NASA's photos of some countries at night. This is India in late 2016, getting brighter, and it is good. A poor country like India should have more power supply at affordable and/or competitive rates.

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See also:

Mumbai Airport, India, February 14, 2017

The Leela Mumbai, India, February 17, 2017

Vivere Hotel, Part 2

A belated continuation of my earlier post, Vivere Hotel, Alabang, Muntinlupa City last February 18, 2017. This is The Nest Sky Bar, possibly the hotel's main attraction -- a resto bar at the top of the building with a 360 view of the surroundings.

This is near the entrance of The Nest.

Around the hotel, looking towards Alabang-Cavite area.

 

There are not many skyscrapers in Alabang, so these structures stand out nearby. I don't know or I forget now the names of these structures.

 

Looking now towards Laguna Lake.

 

 

A concert ground and outdoor activity area right in front of the hotel. Wide area, can possibly hold 100k people.

The Nest at dawn (and night) -- nice lights, good view also of the buildings around the hotel. Crimson Hotel is huge but a bit lower than Vivere.

Early evening view of structures around the hotel.

 

 

A gym also at the top floor of the hotel.

Thanks again, Elvie. I and my family enjoyed our stay at Vivere.

Mt. Zion, Bugallon, Pangasinan, Part 2

This is in Brgy. Laguit Padilla, Bugallon, Pangasinan, about 5 kms. from the highway at Bugallon town proper, 4 kms paved/cemented road, 1 km dirt road but ordinary cars can easily reach the place.

At the end of this short road is the chapel and retreat house.

The main attraction here are the huge statues, about 7 feet tall, of the Stations of the Cross, each station about 20 meters apart going up a hill for the last station. Now the church that runs and owns the place has added this huge statue of the Virgin in another hill.

It is probably 3-storeys high from the base. Several individuals donated to build this huge statue. The workers did not use a crane or cement mixer truck, they carried the cement, sand, steel, water, etc. manually up a hill.

It is attracting lots of visitors almost daily. During the Holy Week, thousands visit the place.

The stairs going up and down the statue.

The locals from the barrio just use tricycles or this "pugpog"/kuliglig to visit the place.

One view from the statue's base.

No entrance fee, just go there, preferably with own car.


See also:

Mt. Zion, Bugallon Pangasinan, February 10, 2015

Mt. Zion Chapel and Retreat House, February 10, 2015