The Week Patrick's Summer Vacation Ended

Monday, June 6, I came home early to pack for the trip to Patrick's school the next day and found these urchins dancing around yaya Rose's unauthorized bonfire. While the neighbors' girls stayed well away, some even going home to just watch tv, these boys found long sticks and proceeded to skewer some leaves to "roast"!

Tuesday, June 7, Patrick and I left on the 7:25 a.m. bus for Bacolod. We got there about noon, jumped on a taxi and got to the 12:30 Weesam fast boat to Iloilo with 10 min to spare. In Iloilo, he looked for a "Light of Glory" taxi because he says they don't overcharge. That ride was mercifully quick, strictly by the meter, and we were each having siopao (the only food they had for sale!) and a glass of water for lunch at the school canteen at 2:30.

To make the very long, butt-numbing story short, we un-stored, un-packed his things after un-"biodiversifying" his room and closet. This included a visit to SM for what he always calls "proper food"; I didn't fancy another siopao either.

So, Patrick's always told us about the "biodiversity" at his school, and I've never quite believed it'd be so bad. That is, not until I stayed at the girls' dorm. My room had a resident cockroach (and I can show you its front door), 3 types of slugs on the walls and floor, 3 kinds of moths, some in the bathroom, the requisite mosquito by the bed, and get this, I had to shower with this 3-inch tree-frog watching me! Talk about a QUICK shower.

It was a regular zoo in there! By that I mean it was fun. Nothing like squashing the offending cockroach to give you that I-can-do-anything boost to your spirits. And people pay hundreds of dollars to vacation in places where they're close to nature, where they shower with the sky overhead. Well, those places don't have this tree frog!

Thursday, June 9. And see what I mean by "zoo"? Patrick found this baby snake next to his shower caddy. All I can say is, I'm grateful for cable tv, National Geographic and Animal Planet; he says he learned how to catch and hold a snake from all those shows. And like their hosts he then proceeded to show off the snake to the breakfast crowd at the canteen. Don't worry, he let it go in the tall grass outside his dorm... :-) I know Papa will never spend a night there, for all the money in the world. Hmmm...maybe a Picanto.

Thursday, June 9. Did the entire butt-numbing trip again in reverse and alone.

Was just wondering though, why can't a huge bus company like Ceres provide its passengers decent toilets at the bus terminals and various stops? Passengers are willing to pay for proper facilities! We're already paying anywhere from P1.00 (Mabinay) to P2.00 (Kabankalan) to P3.00 (Bacolod) for dirty, smelly, watertank-less, of-course-they're-seatless toilets in "comfort rooms" with flooded floors, missing doors, hole-y walls, and never mind asking for toilet paper.

And the Department of Tourism keeps exhorting us to travel and see the Philippines? They obviously haven't done this trip on a bus. They should make sure the bus companies provide us with more than the basic shack - for example this one in Kabankalan(left most) - with only 2 toilets which you can flush with a bucket of water you scoop up with the bottom half of a plastic gallon jug, from a barrel outside the barely-there door... Can you imagine needing to go when it's raining?

Took several photos of Bais Bay and only this one turned up with stuff that didn't look like it was in another dimension, with trees all bent out of shape and people stretched sideways.

Mt. Talinis as seen from just outside Tanjay. Isn't she beautiful? Took a gazillion shots but they were mostly marred by the ubiquitous electric/telephone/cable lines and poles....