Cruising cross-country Day Three: Sightseeing in Tacloban; sleeping through Ormoc Bay

We woke up to a beautiful view: A silver blanket

of sea calmly taking the touch of a drizzle.

We woke up to a beautiful view: A silver blanket of

sea calmly taking the touch of a drizzle.

MacArthur Park Resort & Hotel in Palo, Leyte, enticed

us to linger, perhaps put off the cross country drive.

The hotel, operated by the Philippine Tourism

Authority sprawls on a 15-hectare property beside

the beach. It has 63 rooms with airconditioning and

hot-and-cold water baths.

Aside from the beach, the blue water of a large

swimming pool just outside our doorstep started some

loose talk about taking a dip. Anyway, the ferry in

Ormoc that would take us to Cebu City will leave at

midnight.

I didn’t think that would be a good idea. After that

anxious experience in the dark, rutted road from

Catbalogan to Tacloban, I said we should now avoid night driving and follow our

itinerary.

We left the MacArthur Park Hotel at 9:30 a.m., our tripmeter reading Km 910.

It was easy for us to go around the city for the pictorial with the help of Anjo Perez’s

father-in-law, Pete Basilio, who lives in Palo. He was only too glad to show us his

hometown and its “secrets,” one of them a restaurant by the sea which serves the

fresh catch of the day.

When in Tacloban, it is a must to visit the MacArthur Memorial for a Fulfilled Promise

beside the hotel. Six life-sized figures, wading water, led by the famous general, have

immortalized the Leyte Landing chapter of our history. On Oct. 20, 1944, Gen. Douglas

MacArthur returned, starting the liberation of the country from Japanese occupation.

Naturally, we drove at least three times through the San Juanico Bridge which links

the two islands – Samar and Leyte – crossing the San Bernardino Strait. The bridge,

opened in the late seventies, is a major corridor that links the Maharlika Highway to

make Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao road travel possible.

We finally left the city at 1:30 p.m., filling our tank at Caltex Veterano Station. (They

have a very clean restroom.) Our tripmeter read Km 981.

At 4 p.m., exactly 99 kilometers later (Km 1,081), we were driving into Ormoc City.

We could have negotiated the well-paved winding roads to Ormoc in much less time

but two things kept us: the pictorial at the Km 1000 marker, and my driving. My

companions, Anjo Perez and Aris Ilagan, suddenly thought I should practise taking

racing lines through the chicanes, we all forgot about changing drivers.

We proceeded to the pier area where Aris processed our documents for loading the

Toyota Revo into the Cebu Ferries ship. By 5:30 p.m., we had completed the papers

so we moved into the city to kill time. The ferry was scheduled to leave at midnight.

The public plaza was full that Friday evening. A large area is occupied by food stalls

selling a variety of any part of chicken or pork that can be served in skewers: neck,

leg, liver, gizzard. The air was delicious with barbecue flavor, customers like us did not

mind sitting on plastic chairs al fresco.

We went back to the pier at eleven. Unloading had just started; we waited outside

the ferry. At midnight, we were still waiting there. There was no one to ask what we

should do.

We fell asleep while waiting; finally, it was the Revo’s turn to be loaded. It was now

12:30 a.m.

I climbed what looked like a four-storey building staircase to board the ship. Anjo

drove the Revo into the ship; Aris showed our documents to the purser.

Everyone was asleep except a cabin attendant who let out an exclamation of surprise

when I told him we had cabins 7 and 8.

We located the rooms but those were locked. Our beds had been given to other

passengers because, the roomboy explained, they thought the cabins were not

booked.

Three people were disappointed to be told that they had to sleep somewhere else for

that journey. We settled in, pleasantly surprised that the cabin was well-furnished

with two beds and a sofa. The bathroom even had an enclosed shower area. The

toilet did not smell.

A door opened to the balcony where cabin passengers can view the scenery,

especially when the ship approaches Cebu City. The ship finally left the port at 1:40

a.m. I was already half-asleep despite the clanking sound of the bathroom door which

we could not fully close. We were all fast asleep when the pursers knocked at our

doors at 2:10 a.m., to check our tickets.

In the morning, I thought about that incident. The cabin boy had checked our tickets

and found them okay. If not, he would not have sent three people out of that cabin

at midnight. It appeared to us as a form of harassment because we had displaced

some privileged passengers who paid for tourist class yet expected to spend the

voyage in a first-class cabin.

[ San Juanico Bridge Wiki ]