Holy week…holy traffic!! …or, my latest adventure in Quezon
Easter is a BIG DEAL here in the Philippines. So much so that the entire country gets two whole days off work and (gasp!!) the Malls close for two days! Amazing, right?! And it’s a serious religious holiday…people leave Manila in droves to go home to the provinces and hang with family, make pilgrimages to religious sites, visit churches (7 or 9 is the traditional number, I’m told) and generally observe the holiday.
So Jing and I joined this mass metro exodus and headed to Quezon province for the long weekend! We headed to the JAC liner bus station in Pasay City (near Makati) and hopped an aircon bus to Lucena. Jing had called the bus company earlier in the week and they estimated it would take about 3 hours to reach Lucena. We figured there would be lots of traffic, so we caught the 7:30am bus (there’s one leaving every 20 minutes, so we didn’t have to wait long, and the seats were quite comfy, which turned out to be a very good thing!).
We hoped to beat the traffic, but I think everyone had the same idea we did, as traffic was alive and well from the get go. We quickly realized that 3 hours was not very likely, and indeed, after 3 hours, we were barely to the end of the SLEX (which should have taken roughly 45 minutes!) Around hour 5 we broke out some dried mango and fried corn nuts, and we finally arrived in Lucena about 7 and a half hours after we’d left. That’s right folks–7 and a half hours!!!! The pic below was before we got into the really heavy traffic…
Once we made it to the terminal in Lucena, we started looking for a jeepney to take us to our final destination in Tayabas. One very eager driver herded us toward his jeepney…Jing was trying to find us a direct-to-Tayabas jeepney, but this driver insisted that wasn’t possible, so we gave in and climbed aboard the jeepney (which was already jam packed, but somehow we managed to fit…this is a common theme in my Philippine travels…I often think “we’ll never all fit in there” and then viola! we do somehow…it’s a mystery!).
The first jeepney took us to the terminal in Tayabas proper, and a nice lady (who informed us that there was, in fact, a direct jeepney afterall) helped us catch the jeepney that ran past our resort. So after squeezing into yet another packed jeepney, we finally arrived at our resort, Nawawalang Paraiso (Paradise Lost). Only 9 hours after we’d left…whew!
We were starving, so we hit up the resto at the resort for a late lunch of Kinilaw Tanigue (this weekend could also be known as the weekend o’ kinilaw…mmmm) and Tilapia sisig. Excellent choices.
(kinilaw tanigue)
We were planning to do a short hike in the afternoon (back when we thought we’d be arriving closer to 11am than 4pm!), but decided to push that back to the next morning since we only had a few hours till sunset. So instead we hopped on yet another jeepney and headed for Lucban, a nearby town. We rode the jeepney all the way through town, then hopped off and went exploring. We found a spiffy old moss-covered church (complete with mass on-going), lots of little shops and older houses, and the original Buddy’s Pancit (a noodle shop famous for selling pancit noodles on a banana leaf, no utensils!).
(judging from the hanging microphones, I’m placing bets on karaoke happening here!)
(an oooold church)
(the church in question)
By the time sun set, we headed back to the resort for dinner and some much-needed rest (it’s hard to keep going all day like that!). On the way to Lucban we’d passed the Kamay ni Hesus area, which was is a major religious site in Quezon…it was packed with people, so we were kind of glad we’d pushed it off till the next morning…and at least we knew to expect still more traffic! We snagged dinner at the resort (more tilapia sisig and fried fish) and then snagged some sleep!
(tilapia sisig)
The next day, our first stop was breakfast (the classic combo of fish and rice and egg, naturally!), then off to check out the Kamay ni Hesus (which translates as Hands of Jesus, I think). We hopped on a passing jeepney and then sat in traffic for about thirty minutes, inching the two or three miles to the statute gates. When we got off the jeepney, we fell into line and hiked along the side of the road (a narrow strip winding between the traffic in the road and the vendor stalls alongside selling everything from pancit to woven hats to souvenir rosary beads).
(lots of traffic of all sorts!)
You couldn’t really see much from the road besides the crush of people, but once we got inside we could see what all the fuss was about…
(the line to get up to the statue)
(lots of people going to the statue!)
It was hot and there was a huuuuuge line for the stairs to climb to the top of the statue, so we opted to view it from the base and wander past a few of the other statues before heading out. The place was set up for pilgrimage, for sure…lots to see, lots of steps to climb, and even a Jollibee on Wheels inside the shrine!
Not being terribly religious, we decided to skip the climb to the top and the rest of our day consisted of resort hopping. We took another jeepney leaving Kamay ni Jesus (and got to ride up front for the first time!)
The driver kept asking for a dollar (apparently I’m easy to peg as an American!), but all we had was pesos…he seemed kind of put out as he dropped us off at Graceland, an Elvis-themed high-end country club/resort. We had to walk up a long driveway from the main road, then sign in at the guard shack and leave our IDs as collateral, then walk down the main road to the front office to get our visitor passes signed. At first they didn’t want to let us in (apparently it’s kind of exclusive if you just want to wander around rather than pay for day-use!), but Jing was able to talk them into it somehow, so all that paperwork got us a 15-30 minute pass for sightseeing (yay!).
It was a swanky place, with downright manicured grounds, a couple restos, a driving range and putting course, and some really swanky looking townhouses.
(giant plant!)
(medium giant plant!)
(seriously, who wouldn’t want to live here?)
Especially considering the WWII jeep collection. Yeah, that totally makes sense!!
(WWII jeeps)
We spent about an hour exploring before stopping at the Memphis cafe for some drinks to cool down…pineapple shake for me, and a mango shake for Jing!
(because everything tastes better with a paper umbrella!)
By then we were getting a tad hungry, so we headed to another resort, Kamayan sa Palaisdaan for lunch. The spiffy thing about their restaurant is that it consists of thatched roof huts floating on a fish pond! And they have excellent food! We had sweet & sour fish and chop suey and relaxed in the breeze on our little raft.
(loved the little raft tables!)
(the buko looks better than it tastes…no that it’s bad, just kind watery)
After our long lunch, we hired a tricycle and headed for Mainit Hot Spring.
(tricycle!)
It was a solid 45 minute ride and we arrived a few minutes after 4pm–bad luck for us, because they closed at 4pm due to the holiday…booo! On the way back to our resort, the tricycle driver pointed out a few sights that we passed…there was a brick bridge that dated back to 1840 (the Spanish era)…it isn’t considered safe for traffic any more, but our tricycle driver pulled off the road so we could walk out across it and see the plaques. It was pretty amazing to stand on a 150 years old bridge, and the river below was pretty, too!
He also pointed out the power station, which is where Manila gets a lot of it’s electricity (now I know who to blame for those rolling blackouts!)
It turned out that our driver and his wife both worked for the Kamayan sa Palasidaan resorts (apparently there are 3 branches, each a little different), so before taking us back to our resort, we stopped at the swanky new branch for a tour. I liked the statue holding the san mig!
I should point out that resorts in the area were kind of like a combo of day use/public area where you had picnic tables and karaoke machines and then hotel…you could pay to use the facilities for just a day, or get a room or a tent spot for the night. Kind of different than resorts at home (I think…not a big resort person, myself!)…so it was a day of resort hopping, for sure!
We finally headed back to our resort for dinner (which consisted of more fishies!! and the local pancit!). One of Jing’s friends had decided to catch a bus from Manila and join us, so she arrived later that night. She really wanted to go to the statue, so she and Jing decided they’d go really early in the morning (I decided to sleep in…4am sounded a bit early to me!).
The next morning they headed off to the statue as planned, then Jing and I headed back to the hot spring that we’d missed the day before, which turned out to be another resort…we’d thought it was more of a natural hot spring, which we did see (safely boiling away behind a concrete fence!), but there were a ton of swimming pools with so many people in them that it was pretty much standing room only! We took a quick tour and then headed back to our resort to check out.
We stopped by Kamayan sa Palaisdaan’s floating restaurant for another tasty lunch before heading back to Lucena to catch our bus back to Manila. We were hoping to miss traffic by heading home on Saturday instead of Sunday, and it sort of worked…it only took us 5 hours to make it home instead of 8 (that’s progress, right?!)
I kind of like traveling by bus in the Philippines…it can be crowded, sure, but so far I’ve been lucky enough to always get a seat and not have to stand for hours on end. It’s easy…you just show up and get on the bus. Once you’re underway you just tell the ticket guy where you’re headed and he punches out a ticket for you:
(tickets to and from Quezon!)
And then you just settle in and chat with your neighbors or sleep or read or whatever to pass the time. A decent way to travel!
Sunday I spent just hanging out and recovering from all my travels (OK, and I might have soaked up some sun by the pool while I was at it…gotta keep my freckles up!!)…all in all it was excellent to have a 4 day weekend, and I’m glad Jing and I got out of the city for a little sightseeing and relaxation! Good times & excellent company!
