A day of truly nightmare public transport!!

Street Parade

Street parade

Therefore, it took quite a while to navigate our way through the town and find an ATM and then a bus to Baguio. Once we finally found a way out and a bus to Baguio it was only supposed to take 1 1/2 hours. However, due to the parade and the bus refusing to leave until it was full, meaning that it took twice as long to arrive there, which wasn't good as we had another long journey of 7 hours ahead of us!

Rice and plenty of it

Once in Baguio it was really hot and humid and we had to navigate our way to the other side of town to find a bus to Sagada. Luckily, there was one just about to leave, so we begged them to take us as well fearing it may be the only bus that day and after a bit of persuasion the conductor said there were only two seats left, so gratefully we took them.

Feeling delighted that we made it with only seconds to spare we climbed on the bus and we didn't see any seats at all. Thinking they had made a mistake we spoke again to the conductor and showed us our allocated seats, fold-down ones in the centre aisle right at the back!

Not only were they broken so every time we turned a corner they snapped into place; we were going to be driving through the mountains on tiny, bumpy, windy roads. I swear the journey only got worse and worse though.

Only got centre seats, comfy !

To my left, there was a newborn baby fast asleep that I had to try not to bump into and as I was squished this proved difficult. To my right there was a diseased person who was coughing constantly. Behind a guy sneezed on my back, and yes, I could feel it. Then finally, in front a poor child vomited the whole way. NICE! Also, why do Filipinos get so cold when it is boiling hot? The windows were closed the whole way and as we were in the middle, there was nothing we could do about it apart from drip with sweat.

On the bus thru the mountains

So much for taking this journey to witness the beautiful scenery around us when we couldn’t even see a window and why have all of our short journeys have been in comfortable coaches. So unfair!

Charly with new friend on the bus

About 10 minutes before it was our stop, finally 2 people got off so we grabbed seats quickly and forced open a window and finally saw some of the amazing mountains that friends have told us about!

The mountains of Sagada

One of the many amazing views

View from bus enroute to sagada

So when we finally got off the bus we were truly ecstatic! Sagada is a cute town and we found some fantastic accommodation for the cheapest yet. Think we may just stay here for a few days!

written by  chrischarly on March 19, 2011 from Baguio, Philippines
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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