Bicol 2016

Roaming around Naga City

April 8-12
Naga/Legazpi
This trip has been a dream come true for me as it's in my bucket list, I wanted to visit both our parent's hometown, and although we weren't able to get to either Sorsogon or Catanduanes (where his parents/my father grew up),  I was still grateful being in this place. So here I am reliving that moment.

DLTB
We only had one week of planning for this trip so air transpo was out of the equation.  We sought for bus scheds with routes going to Naga/Legazpi so  we chose DLTB. They have branches in Pasay and Cubao and although we're near Pasay, the time sched that we felt most convenient was in their Cubao terminal. After work we headed straight to Cubao. We left Friday evening 9pm, I chose that time because the idea was to sleep our byahe away as I am the undisputed byahilo queen.

We landed in Naga after 10 hrs (7:10am). We proceeded to secure our tickets for our departure on April 11 but we were told the only available time was 5:45pm (had we known,  we should've bought it na) and we were also advised that to get an earlier time that's convenient to us they said, we could get our tickets on the day of our departure because most scheds would only be confirmed on the day itself. We heeded.

we had our breakfast at the terminal

San Francisco Parish
after breakfast, we got on a tricycle (fare: special P40 otherwise P8 each) to bring us to Quince Martires Park, a walk away from our first church visit, San Francisco Parish.

Naga Land Hotel

From San Francisco church, a few steps away is where we'll stay for a few days. We dropped by to ask if we could leave our baggages and we were relieved they were accommodating.

Metropolitan Cathedral
from Naga Land hotel after leaving our bags, we went to our second church visit. The churches in Naga City abound that's why we alloted our whole Saturday morning to pay a visit to four of them. We were in Metropolitan Cathedral.

Our Lady of Peñafrancia
another P8 tricycle fare from Metropolitan church is Our Lady of Peñafrancia. You will  marvel at how the ceiling's so beautiful.  Just perfect.

Basilica Minore Nstra Sra de Peñafrancia
Our last stop for the day was the Basilica, again another tricycle ride to get here because they said that if you choose the pedicab instead, it will be twice the drive pa. Another P8 fare. This basilica is beautiful inside and out.

After the last church visit, we got back to our hotel at around 11:30 am and they were so kind to let us check-in early.

SM Naga
Under the heat of the sun, we sought refuge in the nearby mall to find us a place to eat lunch.  The mall teems with the usual fare we see in Manila, well atleast your usual suspects. We had lunch at 1st Colonial Grill.

Camsur Watersports Complex
By 3pm after a little rest and a quick shower, we headed to CWC.  From the hotel we rode a tricycle going to the terminal and then ride a bus (ordinary, P10) going to Kadlan. From Kadlan another tricycle ride (P40 special) to bring us inside the complex.  I was expecting a lot of people as it's summertime but not many people there so we got to explore the place a little bit longer. Foreigners were the ones busy showing off their wakeboarding skills, it was nice watching them do some complicated stunts, on the other side though were the ones who are still trying to get the hang of it, it was also refreshing to see them as you get to see the basics from them newbies. Getting out of the complex, some random motorcycle guy asked us if we wanted a ride going out, since we saw lots hiring habal habal  and since it's also P40, we gave in just for the heck.  After the fun ride (fun because I was silently screaming at every turn), we just retraced our steps back to Naga terminal. We had dinner at Bigg's.

Cagsawa Ruins
We spent the entire Sunday for our trip to Cagsawa because going to Albay from Naga they say,  will take us 4 hours. But we also learned that if we get on a van instead of the bus, the trip will be cut short from 4 to 2 hours. From SM Naga, go to Van terminal, a walk away but the sun was scorching hot so we rode a tricycle (P8). Then we hopped in the van that would take us to Legazpi, we kindly asked the driver to drop us off at Cagsawa. Fare is P140. Fyi, the driver issues receipt if you ask for it for reimbursement purposes.

You know you are on the right track as you will see the welcome sign that greets you upon getting off the van. In line are tricycles that will get you to the Ruins (P8). Entrance fee was 10 pesos per head.  Welcome to the most photographed man-made structure in the Philippines. After the photo op, we bought souvenirs at the stalls nearby.

Daragang Magayon
April 10 also happens to be Magayon Festival Sunday so after Cagsawa trip we headed to Legazpi City to witness the said festival. When we got there, the town was busy with Palarong Pambansa so we had a hard time wandering around, they said all routes were changed to accomodate the event so transpo system were adjusted.  From Cagsawa we get on a bus going to Legazpi terminal (P10) followed by a jeepney to get us to Kapitolyo. And then we walked and walked until we reached the city hall. We were able to witness the parade and given how sweltering the heat of the sun was, the participants should have been commended for all their efforts and performances. Some donned full on costumes and were dancing their hearts away unaware of the looming sunburns.  Some were carrying heavy musical instruments while doing dance routines. Overall it was a fun afernoon, the plaza was packed with people participating in games and activities and around it were stalls after stalls of good Bicolano food,  souvenirs,  furnitures and whatnots.  Nearby is St Gregory the Great church. They said St. John Paul held mass here when he came to visit our country.

After the parade we had late lunch in Small Talk Cafe.  We enjoyed the food so much we extended our stay and had meryenda too.

People's Mall
Monday morning when we explored People's mall. It's actually a market but housed in a bulding with 3 floors. It's a one stop shop/ market as everything you may ever need is one floor away. There's wet market for meats and fresh catches, one side are rows and rows of all veggies: gabi leaves, fresh and dry were obviously aplenty. On the third floor we saw different types of dried fish. There's even a little chapel. There were ukay ukay stores. There were seamstresses in some stalls. Fruit stores, rice cake sellers, bed linens, school uniforms,  pili candies, furnitures, there were even barber shops and salons.  Everything in that building.  I wish we had like that in Manila, you need not go any further as just about anything's under one roof.  Couldn't get any more convenient than that.

Upon check-out, our dilemma was how to secure bus ticket on the way home.  When we got to the Naga bus terminal, we learned that most scheds were fully booked already. They said that the next best thing was wait for the bus and take chance. Good thing there's a kind soul who helped us by saving two tickets for us in Legazpi bus terminal, we were ready to brave the 2-3 hr ride going to Legazpi just so we could secure tickets and be finally worry free. We arrived at Legazpi terminal around 3pm, were able to secure  a 5:30pm ticket. We still had 2 hrs ahead of us. We went to Gaisano mall which was just a few steps away. We also went to Ayala Malls where the billiards event of the Palarong Pambansa was happening. And we had early dinner again at 1st Colonial.

Tips:
For bus rides,  choose the ones with LaZboy, the difference was just 200 pesos but will surely be worth it, they have CR also so even if there were 2 or 3 short stopovers,  the convenience is still worth it. Manila to Naga will be a 10hr trip, while Manila to Legazpi 12hrs.  DLTB Naga is more accomodating than Philtranco, they'd help you and would suggest other scheds and are kind and easy to talk to. At least from our experience.

We always chose the convenience of a tricycle as it could bring us right to where we were headed and we'd have all the driver's attention to ourselves especially for tips and more questions.

Naga Land Hotel has strong water pressure and fast wifi connection.  Although their TV Set is still the CRT type we didn't mind as we were out most of the time.  We didnt have problems with the aircon unit too. The place is kind of old but it was clean. There was no tabo. We could have requested. For breakfast there was an additional fee of P50 per head per day to your hotel bill which I think was a good deal as you have a choice of either Filipino meals (the si-logs)  or Continentals with either coffee, tea or juice. I'm not sure now but I think the name of their in-house cafe's White Bean.

For souvenirs, we bought tshirts for P180 (whites) and P200 (colored ones) in Cagsawa.  Most stores priced their shirts the same but I found out in malls like Gaisano they sell it for just P99 or P150.  Look for the big store that's packed with a lot of people,  I think they sell shirts in bulk and retails. For pili candies,  they sell it a little less in terminals not in markets. P30 per piece in markets, in terminals they sell for P25 apiece.