To do something different, and due to some very strong lobbying from my wife, the family decided to go on a road trip to the province of Ilocos for the holiday break. The novelty gave me enough motivation to do some last-minute bookings thru the Internet to set up a three-night, four-day trip with my wife and kids.
We left Ortigas Center on Christmas morning at 7:30 a.m. and took the TPLEX. Traffic was light on Edsa; NLEX and SCTEX were also light, and road conditions were excellent. Except for quite a few slow drivers who like to hog the overtaking lane, it was a pleasant drive. For regular tollway users these slow pokes are irritating and can actually be seen as moving hazards that can cause terrible accidents. If there is technology to apprehend over speeding, driving below the minimum speed limit should likewise be penalized. Vehicles not fit for the highway should not be allowed in the tollways. We reached the exit at Pozzorubio in under two hours.
After exiting TPLEX, the next moving hazard that will test your driving skills and patience are the tricycles and motorcycles who have taken over the highways going 15 to 30 KPH causing hundreds of slow moving processions along the beautiful highways to the north. A classic case of the new clashing with the obsolete. These tricycles easily caused about an hour delay! The safety issues are very obvious with a couple of very close calls because of all the overtaking necessary. The roads are wide enough with nicely cemented outer lanes, but most insist on staying in the middle taunting you to pass at your own risk.
The pace drastically slowed down from Agoo to San Fernando in La Union with more tricycles and traffic as you go through each town. These LGUs should do some strategic traffic management and anticipate a growing volume of vehicles they will need to manage.
We reached our first destination, a resort in a beautiful cove in Santiago, Ilocos Sur, at 1:30 p.m., six hours after we left Pasig. According to other travelers in the resort we made it in very good time. Thanks to the technology of my navigation app, which thankfully worked all the way.
After a night’s rest, some partying, morning activities, and photo ops, we pushed on to Pagudpud before noon. The drive was nice except for again the dreaded tricycles, again the major cause of delay and hazard. As it was my first time driving through Ilocos, I was happy about the quality of the highways and how well maintained they are. The nice roads and scenic views of the Ilocos coast will have to wait for a return trip as I wanted to reach Pagudpud before dark. We did stop once when we couldn’t resist a few selfies with the fantastic vista of big waves breaking along the coast of Bangui Bay as background. We were also surprised about the strong winds and cold weather. Beautiful!
Approaching Pagudpud the weather turned grey and rainy. I needed to be extra alert to safely negotiate the wet winding roads and, again, tricycles! They are everywhere! Still, the roads are in top condition and there was great scenery all over!
Finally reached our Pagudpud destination by dusk after an estimated five-hour drive, cold winds blowing hard, and light rains, exhausted but with a good feeling of accomplishing an objective. We settled down, had dinner, some wine, then went to sleep.
The weather in Pagudpud the following morning was still wet but we still managed to snap some photos and take videos of the amazing beach scene. Locals said it had been raining for more than two weeks. The waves were big, like a scene from one of Hawaii’s beaches. There were many braving the cold weather and waves but we decided to stay on the safe side and just enjoy the view.
We left earlier anticipating the stop-overs we could take in the return trip and was back on the road by 10 a.m.
The road trip southbound was more eventful. When we got back to Bangui, the weather was sunny and perfect. We made many stops to pose with the wind turbines, the so-called wind mills of Bangui. Those things are huge! We also stopped at Kapurpurawan Rock for more pics and had bagnet for lunch. Then a longer drive down to Paoay Church for a quick prayer, photos and a much-needed coffee break. From Paoay we pushed on to our next destination: Vigan.
We encountered some heavy holiday congestion there, being a regular working day and peak tourist season. With tricycles and now trucks and tourists on the road, it was a very slow drive to Vigan. Thankfully, we were able to dodge several traffic jams thanks again to my navigation app. We finally reached Vigan by 7 PM. Settled down, we had Chinese for dinner, a break from all that bagnet and longganiza. A few shots of brandy and finally rest.
Vigan day started early with Vigan longganiza for breakfast, of course, then a whole morning of selfies, photos, and videos along Calle Crisolo. I think this was one of the highlights for my wife. I was the cameraman most of the time. After a hearty lunch, we left for what was planned to be the return trip home. This was not to be.
On the drive home we encountered one of the worst holiday traffic jams I have ever suffered in my 40 years of driving experience. Tricycles, undisciplined drivers with no sense of traffic rules or courtesy, illegally parked vehicles, all of which sound familiar. After four hours of traffic I decided to call friends for some recommendation on a decent and safe hotel in La Union. Got a few good tips but all were full. Finally, after more than six hours from Vigan we found a good hotel in San Juan, La Union with one last room quite adequate for our needs. Thank God! We caught their last call for a nice quiet dinner then went to bed. We are now accidental tourists.
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and by luck we stayed in a beach-front hotel in a town known for surfing. We went to a restaurant reputed to have the best breakfast in town and it was! Spirits were up again spent the whole morning on the beach. There was even time for a surfing lessons for my son. We had a hearty lunch before the long trip home part two, which commenced at 1:30PM.
What hit us was the perfect storm of holiday traffic jams. You name it, it happened. High volume of vehicles going north and south, even more tricycles causing hours of delay, deadly combination of slow trucks and tricycles, accidents, breakdowns, illegal parking, road construction, stupid drivers. It was agonizingly slow from San Juan, La Union all the way to Kennon Road junction in Sison, Pangasinan.
Entering TPLEX in Pozzorubio was a great relief. I was able to drive normally for a while until we reached the Mabalacat exit at SCTEX where traffic was building up. NLEX was even slower with average speeds hardly hitting 80 KPH. Why? You could probably guess. Slow vehicles on the left lane creating moving blockades with slow trucks! Where did these people learn how to drive? I knew this was not the end of it anticipating the usual traffic mayhem of a Friday payday when we hit Balintawak exit.
As expected we hit the heavy traffic of Edsa Balintawak all the way to Cubao, this time caused by no other than the uncontrollable busses jockeying for passengers. This has been a decade old problem that no government has ever solved.
We were home sweet home 9:30 PM after eight hours of hard driving. Total distance travelled was exactly 1,177.8 km. Total time excluding stop-overs was about 25 hours! Average speed a slow 47.2 kph.
As the government starts venturing into what it envisions as a golden age on infrastructure, transportation is the most urgent. Coming from the point of view of a well experienced, defensive driver who believes that discipline is key to safety and convenience on the road, I came up with the following constructive observations:
• LGUs must educate and even discipline tricycle drivers. This is an urgent issue that puts to risk thousands of lives.
• As the road infrastructure improves and expands, an efficient railway system in Mega Manila and linking provinces north and south of Luzon will be a long-term alternative to driving and commuting via the already congested national highways.
• More world-class tollways such as NLEX, SLEX, SCTEX, TPLEX should be built bypassing the smaller roads of town and municipalities. This will drastically reduce travel time and boost even more tourism and local economies outside of Mega Manila.
• The current bus system in Metro Manila must be abolished. There must be a transition to a monopolized system that eliminates the inefficiency of all these competing bus companies hogging Edsa. Only a monopoly can implement a bus network that provides scheduled us routes that will efficiently service millions of commuters of the megapolis.
Still, with a brand new year comes new hope. May the new year bring good fortune and happiness! Cheers!