I went to my hometown in Negros and spent Christmas last Thursday. It’s not a nice trip actually because I’m standing in the bus till we end up to the port of  Toledo Cebu for about one and a half hour.  Twelve hours left before Christmas and Negrenses(people living in the province of Negros Oriental) take a rush trip via the Ceres Bus in Cebu North Bus Terminal.

This ceres bus headed south to Toledo City. As you can see, it is overloaded with passengers. The schedule for this bus to depart is 5:30 am but as you can see here it is still 4:30 so we have an hour left and we’re ready to go. Wonder why I took this ride and not just find another bus?.  Three Ceres Buses were scheduled to board the Lite Shipping Vessel(The ship which we are going to board) remember it’s Christmas Rush Trip and this is a direct trip to Bacolod via Canlaon. This bus is prioritized by the Vessel (Lite Shipping) and all the passengers. All passengers on this bus already issued a ship ticket that cost P 170 plus the bus fare for 90 pesos as my destination is San Carlos City.   Therefore, when you arrive at the port of Toledo to get some ticket, there’s no need for you to fall in line with merely 300 to 500 passengers on queue at the ticket booth.  This scenario only happens when holiday season is coming because workers, students took their vacation.

We took a 15 minutes bus stop at Sangi Toledo for breakfast.  6:15 am.

Finally, I am already on board. Took my legs and feet a rest. The Ship is about to depart from Toledo at exactly 7:30 am but instead it took another hour for all those passengers line in   the ticket booth to get their passes/ticket before they can get onboard. We departed at excatly 8:30 am to San Carlos City Negros Oriental.

We arrived at our Destination  San Carlos City Port. The ship docked at exactly  9:47. Normally it only takes an hour but because of the delay it happened like this.

Right in Front of me is a “trisikad (potpot) driver”. Negreses called it trisikad because it is has 3 wheels and powered by peddling so the Visayan term “sikad” meaning step on it and push. He earns a living by taking it’s passengers between the streets of San Carlos depending on how long the destination would be. It can carry 2 persons.

In this busy street of San Carlos lines up these “Tricycle”. It has similarities with the Trisikad but this is powered by a motor and a gas.  It can carry 5 persons. Two in front, 2 at the back and one at the back of the driver.

Going back to the trip. Finally I arrived at San Carlos City Ceres Bus Terminal. Next, I took a ride to Hibaiyo which will cost only for 30 pesos about 10-20 minutes.

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