Space Available Travel From the Philippines
Just this week we had some visitors from Calbayog City and we sized-up some Space Available opportunities while here on Guam. Reminded me of this trip my wife and I took last year.
We left Calbayog City, Samar, late on Monday afternoon on a DLTB Bus (Del Monte Transport Bus - Greyhound series complete with Comfort Room) and arrived in Manila at the Pasay bus terminal early the following afternoon (about 20 hours). We walked about a half block to the Five Star bus terminal and immediately picked up a bus heading for Angeles City in Central Luzon, or Clark Field... sight of the old U.S. Air Force base that serviced this area for many years. There we had hoped to catch a U.S. military space available flight out of the country (they still fly in and out under an agreement with the Philippines government).
Once we arrived in Angeles City, we grabbed a cheap hotel room for the night, and the next morning (Wednesday) we took a taxi ride (P300 or $6.25) to the Haribon Passenger Service Center (PSC), which is located at the apportioned Philippine Air Force base at the renamed Clark Airfield/International Airport. We were there in time for a 7 o’clock roll call for a flight to Kadena, on the island of Okinawa, Japan. I was going on about 7:40 am when I became convinced that there was going to be no flight that morning. Nobody showed up to open the Passenger Service Center Office (PCSO) and there were no planes looking to land or take off with passengers, as far as I could tell. There were two U.S. Navy P-8’s on the tarmac and the flight crews, who were hanging out in the passenger terminal building, assured us they were not taking passengers anywhere! I think I knew that anyway. The 3 other passengers that showed up for that flight were a little tardy as they had just arrived via a flight from Tacloban (Leyte) to the Clark International Airport and walked the 2 kilometers to the Haribon PSCO. After checking the telephone recording from the night before, it was learned that the flight to Kadena, Okinawa that morning had been cancelled. After all 5 of us acquainted ourselves and learned that we all lived in the same neck of the jungle (Eastern Visayas), we all decided to hang together until the next day when another 7 o’clock flight was scheduled for Kadena.
We all headed out together and found comfortable and clean rooms at the Hotel SoGo in Dau, on the north side of Angeles City. After settling in and all enjoying a short nap, we all decided that it was going to be dinner at the Angelese City VFW. After all, it was Steak Night there! From our hotel we were to come and go, and as it turned out, for the next several days… as each new day brought more flight cancellations - a total of about 4 cancellations over the next 3 days. The very next morning (Thursday), after learning that day’s flight was cancelled, we all decided to rent a van and head down to the old Navy town of Olongapo City at Subic Bay for a day. There we drove around, had a great lunch at Texas Joe’s at the Freeport Zone, re-visited the ole Cubi Point Naval Air Station, Barrio Baretto, and other memorable places of interest. We had all been stationed there at one time or another. By nightfall, we were back in Angeles and learned that the next days flight for Friday, had again been cancelled.
As a result of all the cancelled flights, Saturday morning now had 5 flights stacked up all going to Okinawa. By the time noon rolled around on Friday, that number was down to three flights. Teri and I decided that the odds of successfully securing our seats on any flight were dwindling fast, and that we should just head to Manila for a commercial flight to Guam. So we all had lunch, we purchased our United Airlines tickets, gathered ourselves and boarded a Philtranco bus headed for the Pasay bus terminal in Manila. Our new acquaintances decided to hang one more day to try their luck with a flight to Kadena, and as we found out later, they did not get out and subsequently headed back home to Biliran Island, Leyte.
We left Angeles City at about 1:45 pm and were in Manila hunting for a taxi to take us to the Ninoy Acqino International Airport (NAIA) at around 4pm. As a permanent resident of the Philippinesand, and holder of an immigration ACR-I card, I was curious as to the departing procedures from a military base and I guess I just missed out on the chance to test out Immigration system when departing from the Haribon terminal. I knew I would definitely have to pay the P2,880 departure fee to Immigration when I departed Manila commercially.
While the Philtranco bus was supposed to take us to the Pasay bus terminal, we found ourselves dropped off at the Mall of Asia instead. The bus conductor assured us that at this spot, taxis were easy to get and would be closer to the NAIA Terminal 2, and could save us some money. When things sound to good to be true (especially here in the Philippines), caution is advised and should be practiced! There along the road, we hailed 6 different cabs…all refusing to use their meter citing heavy traffic (which is technically illegal), and all offering to take us for a flat rate of between P350-600. Normally a metered ride from this same spot would cost less than P200. About the time my blood pressure was elevating and I was feeling like ‘clocking’ me a cabbie (not that I would), an honest cabbie shows up and offered us a metered fare to Terminal 2, which upon arrival showed P166 on the meter. We gave him an extra P100 for his honesty (who says it doesn’t pay to be honest? (P266 = $5.68USD)). Normally we use ride share services like Uber or Grab Taxi when in Manila, but this day we were thinking it would be faster to hail a cab.
After checking in at NAIA several hours ahead of our flight, we relaxed, made use of the upgraded Terminal’s wi-fi, enjoyed some fresh ground coffee and snacks, and boarded our United Airlines flight for Guam at around 10:55 pm. The flight to Guam took only about 3.5 hours, and when you throw in a couple of time zones to the east, we were on the ground in time to meet the sunrise at Won Pat International Airport, Guam, where America's Day Begins (officially). We rented a car and proceeded to Denny’s for breakfast, then up to Anderson Air Force Base to check on outbound flights.
As soon as we entered the Passenger Terminal at Anderson, the departure board had one flight listed…a Navy C40 to Luzon (Clark Airfield) departing in about 45 hours (Monday afternoon) with 68 seats available. That gave us plenty of time to visit some friends and do some shopping and grab a Philly Cheesesteak…or three! We hit the base exchanges, the commissary, the food courts, and even got to bowl a few games whild on the Navy base.
We spent two nights in the always wonderful Navy Gateway Inn, and on Monday morning, we checked out, drove over to the Air Force terminal, dropped the rental car keys in the box and waited for roll call. Aside from a 6-man contingent of Navy guys in civilian clothes and a half-plane full of equipment (I could only speculate and will say no more), only three other passengers showed up for the flight to Clark Airfield. That left about 57 empty seats and made for a rather comfortable flight.
After about 3 hours and 10 minutes of flight time and back on the ground back at Clark, my wife exclaims “I thought you said it was going to take 4 hours to get there?” I told her Navy pilots are faster than Air Force pilots and she was totally satisfied with that answer as we got back much earlier than planned. Now all we had to do is call “Nick” the taxi driver to come get us. We met Nick, who drives for “Best Transport Service” when we first arrived in Angeles City and were so impressed with his honesty and his devotion to service (and low, fair prices), we actually wrote down his phone number. Once Nick arrived to pick us up, he informed us that his boss was heading to Manila in his private vehicle in a few minutes and quickly got on the phone and arranged for a P500 ride to Manila where he dropped us off at the Cubao bus terminal (DLTB). Buy the time we arrived it was going on 7 pm and there were no remaining busses headed to our destination on that day. I suppose we could have checked on Silverstar, Megabus, or another carrier, but DLTB seems to have the most leg room as far as I was concerned. We simply decided to spend one more night to wait for the right bus departing for Samar Island around 9:30 the following morning.
We checked in to a hotel just around the corner from the bus terminal and got a great rate. I will not go into detail about the room but I’ll just say it had a basic bed, basic noisy aircon, and basic running water…somewhat. Okay, it was only P599 ($12.47) and I’ll never do that again, but all we really needed was a place to crash as we were both tired. (Hint – when you approach any hotel and it smells like urine near the entrance…just be prepared). Besides, we were in no mood to be doing hotel reviews anyway. We dropped off our bags in the room and headed to the SM Mall across the street to a Gerry’s Restaurant where we ate, had a couple of beers, and then retired back to our hole-in-the-wall room for a good nights rest.
The next morning we were just a bus ride from home. The 21 hour bus ride from Manila on the main island of Luzon to Samar Island includes a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride From the Port of Matnog on Luzon, across the famed San Bernardino Straights, to the Port of Allen, Samar. From there, it is another 1 1/2 hour ride to our drop off. Our car was there waiting for us and we got home about 6:30 Wednesday morning. When we walked in the door, about all I could muster up was the thought “There’s no place like home”. I half-unpacked, took a hot shower, and took a well deserved nap. Twice!
Don’t forget when travelling in the Manila or Angeles City area to give BEST Transport Service a call. You will be glad you did!
Great story and some lessons learned in there.
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