We left San Pablo this afternoon (goodbye safety and all things somewhat familiar!), and drove into the madness of Metro Manila traffic. Even though there are signs everywhere stating you can make advanced reservations, the person at the counter politely told us that tickets wouldn’t be available until an hour before departure. While we originally planned on taking the 8pm overnight bus, we opted to take the 7pm instead as we’ve already been waiting at the station for a while. When we asked about the arrival time, two different agents gave us two different answers. Apparently we will reach Vigan anytime between the hours of 4am and 6am. Good enough.
BUS FARE:
Partas to Vigan 7pm Deluxe overnight: 805.00 pesos per person.
(Time of writing equates to $US 18.05)
UPDATE: we made it to Vigan (about 3 hours early). The bus may have been the most posh and sleeper friendly bus ever except for one minor flaw: too much air con.
I wanted to make this update so I can start noting the over AC’ing that goes on. Apparently AC is a big deal in a place that gets really hot; so big that it’s advertised on the side of each bus and factored into the pricing. Tonight was not very hot but the AC was cranked so high that every time I looked people were in hoodies and blankets. Is this all a show of how badass your AC is? At a rest stop I saw two other people on a bus looking so cold and miserable. I eventually tied the curtain over the AC vent as a temp fix but still froze most of the way.
At least the coffee is only 12pesos here at the Vigan bus station. We’ll keep drinking it as we wait for a decent hour to call our contact here.
