Preparation
I have heard of how wonderful Anawangin Cove is a lot of times and so to further attest to its beauty I have included it in my travel plans for this year. Yup, plan for this year, so it could be for the summer or on “BER” months, but who would have thought it would be this early. A couple of months ago or let’s just say last January, my BBFF Art called me ask me if I’m interested to go on and island hopping and camping trip in Anawangin and since I have been truly obsessed with exploring 7,107 islands in low tide I automatically said yes without even thinking twice.
I’ve have seen the Cashcash Pinoy Anawangin package Ad while browsing fb however due to lack of permanent travel buddy I was hesitant to purchase the voucher coz the fine print says the I need to purchase 4 vouchers in order to avail the deal. So I posted the deal for days in my facebook account but none of my friends seem genuinely interested. Good thing Art was able to invite 2 of his friends to join us to the trip. The vouchers validity is up to Jan 2013 that’s why I wasn’t really in a hurry to use it, but a day after arriving from my amazing Cebu Trip Art called me up to ask me if I’ve already set our Anawangin trip on March 3 and 4. I was shocked to hear it and this is how our conversation go.
Me: What!?! I just came from Cebu you want me to go to on another trip 2 weeks after my bonggacious Cebu trip?
Art(Dramatically speaking over the phone): What can I do? Leo and I have already filed our leave on the said dates. You know how hard it is for us working in our industry to file a leave. If it didn’t work we need to wait for another cut off to file a leave.
Of course me having a humble, pitiful and soft heart said yes even if it mean that I would have to suffer a whole cut off in misery and fitting into a super tight budget. And so I called, emailed and texted Amusement Island Travel and Tour to schedule the trip and Ms. Lara of Amusement Island replied and ask for some needed details and scheduled our trip. She gave us the details we needed to get to the place as well as the name of contact person to look for when we get there.
The Journey
Our itinerary says that transfer from Manila to Zambales was not included in the package so aside from the details given by Ms. Lara I also did a little research on how to get there as well as the schedule of victory liner since our time in not that flexible coz we will travel after working on friday. I was expecting to leave Lipa by 12 MN on a chop chop ride since Art told me that his sched is closing shift but luckily he was able to exchange his shift to his colleague.
We are all packed up and ready, we decided to meet at the bus station and we were almost left by the last trip but we were able to catch it. We depart Lipa at around 10 PM and reach Victory Liner Terminal in Cubao at around 11:20 pm just in time for the last trip to Olongapo.
But wait there’s more. Our 5 hours trip to Zambales is not just your ordinary road trip it is more of an adventure trip. Upon arriving a Lipa City bustop we still saw few buses that we can ride on our way to Cubao and since we think they will still wait for other passenger coz the bus is almost empty Art decided to eat first since he came all the way from work and he is starving. After eating we hurriedly proceeded back to the bus terminal and we saw the bus going away. We run after the bus with our bulky backpacks on but it seems that the driver didn’t notice that we were running after them. Good thing the guard from the nearby store who saw us running after the bus suggested that we wait on the other side of the road since the bus will take a u turn at the u turn slot nearby. We crossed the road laughing at our stupidity.
We ask the conductor to drop us at Victory liner in kamuning but I was wrong. Trip to Zambales is on another terminal across Baliwag Transit near Gran Prix hotel and so we had another taxi ride to terminal. When we reach the terminal the last trip to Iba Zambales has gone and the first trip will be on 6 am so we decided to buy a ticket to Olongapo and have another ride to Iba at Olongapo. I was asleep all through out the journey to Olongapo I didn’t even take a pee break when the bus stopped at Double Happiness San Fernando Pampanga.
We reached Olongapo at around 1:00 am and we walked around the area and ask the guard we see on the street where could we find a bus going to Iba Zambales they told us to stay at the terminal since the only bus that travel to Iba in Victory Liner and so we waited for around ten minutes then a bus arrived. Unfortunately the bus is already full, then another bus arrived and we decided to transfer but it is still full so we just ride in it even if we will be standing.
The road on the way to San Antonio is a zigzag road I had a hard time standing at the bus with all my baggage coz of the twist and turn of the road that lasted for almost 30 minutes. Most of turn were sharp curve that you really have to learn to sway and dance with movement of the bus. We reached San Antonio Municipal Hall at around 3 AM. We had another tricycle ride to Pundaquit.Here are the list of fares on the way to Zambales to sum up our expense:
Lipa City to Cubao- 132.00
Cubao to Olongapo- 207.00
Olongapo to San Antonio- 58.00
San Antonio to Pundaquit- 30.00
Total Transpo Expense per Pax (Round trip) Php 854.00
Anawangin Package tour via cashcash pinoy 799.00
Additional side trip to Camara Island 50.00
Total Expenses excluding meals Php 1,703.00
The Experience, the adventure and the blissful memory I gained - Priceless
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