Leaving Tubigon Behind

My previous article was all about our road trip from Guindulman to Tubigon. Check the article here: Let's Go To Tubigon

The photos attached on that blog were all taken on my mobile and were unedited, I never had the chance to straighten the images or improve the color grading, those were taken straight from my phone and so thus this article here.

This time, allow me to share with you our experience at the Port of Tubigon and getting into the barge ship.

After getting a meal at McDonald's, we headed straight to the port, it was already 5 PM and the ship leaves at 5:30 PM supposedly. As we reached the port, it was obvious how it was affected by Odette. The letters of the town name have missing letters. There were guards attending at the entrance, checking on tickets and directing us where to go next.

We parked at the passengers' waiting area as the husband has to pay for some fees at the nearby building. We didn't go through any scanning anymore, this is an advantage of bringing a car with you. I wonder though if the same will apply once we return back to Bohol from Cebu City. The last time we had traveled via Cebu City with a car was in 2020 and we were required to get out of the car and have all of our stuff scanned in the x-ray machine. I hope it won't be required as well, we will know it by next week and I'll update you on that.

There were many passengers, this is always the case especially when it's a Sunday. Both Friday night and Sunday afternoon are busy days at the port as people will be traveling home and back to Cebu for work.

This reminded me of my college days, I used to go home every week to Bohol but it's just so hard to buy tickets ahead of time as our place is in Guindulman. These travelers who live nearby Tubigon are very lucky as they have several options, they can either go with the fastcraft named Starcraft whose travel time is only 45 minutes or they can go with Lite Shipping or Fastcat.

After James was done with the paperwork, we went to the end of the port where Fastcat was located. I imagined a small barge like that in Loon but boy, this one was huge!

There were already vehicles inside and the passengers were already starting to get aboard because it was almost time to leave the port. We were waiting for our turn to onboard, we were just waiting for this huge panel truck positioning itself into the barge.

While waiting, I checked the other boats around. There's a barge too from Lite Ferries, that's similar to what was in Loon. There's also a bigger passenger boat of Lite Shipping.

A crew signaled we can get inside and so James drove with the windows down so he could hear the crews. James is still a new driver, he started driving when we bought our car, he was forced to drive when I became pregnant and there was a threat of a lockdown in our city back in 2020. It was a blessing getting the car a week before the actual lockdown, else, if we didn't have a car at that time, it would be very hard to travel from home to the hospital during OB meetup and even when I was advised to be admitted for labor.

So, speaking about that, James is not very confident yet with driving but he tries his best and now, he is getting better but still, he needs assistance with things like this. Gladly, there were crews who were helpful and I guess its their job as well that the passengers and drivers would be able to have a great experience in every travel chances.

I took a photo of the woman crew who signaled us to get in. It was a fine day and so I thought it would be nice to take photographs while inside the barge. Surely, the sunset view would be really nice from the boat.

As we got inside the barge, we were advised to move into the right-most corner where the motorcycles were parked. Smaller vehicles like ours will need only a small area too so I guess that's the reason why we were placed here.

There were more vehicles getting in, I realized, there's so much capacity that this boat can accommodate unlike that in Loon. But then again, we have to stay in the car because there were no more seats in the economy, air-conditioned area, or even in the business class.

But it was fine to roam around when the boat leaves the port. We can go up to the canteen area too inside the air-conditioned area. Before leaving, I already went up there to buy some cold drinks.

There were so many motorcycles too! It costs PHP 1,000+ for a motorcycle, ours, we paid PHP 2700+, the bigger the vehicle, the more expensive it is. I told James that it's a blessing we only opt for a small vehicle, we don't have to pay a huge amount for the fare. He agreed.

Unfortunately, the departure was a little delayed, I guess it was already six in the evening when the boat started moving. We were in the car and just enjoyed some music.

I am glad that we had a nice and safe trip both from the land and the sea. The waters were very calm and the skies were clear from any sign of rain. Fastcat barge looked very sturdy and safe. I appreciate that their crews were all accommodating, they were all Tagalog speakers though.

Bidding goodbye to Tubigon port! This trip was so far the most relaxed trip we had when traveling to Cebu. Before we had to travel for three hours to reach Loon, so we usually would go early so we could secure a spot in the barge as it only had limited space.

This, on the other hand, we spent only two hours on the road, and one and half hours in the waters. If it's a weekday, the ticket line would be lesser, and so securing one would be faster that's why, for our trip back to Bohol next week, we will travel on a weekday.

There are also many trip schedules in a day going to Bohol and Cebu. Traveling in the afternoon is good but we won't travel at the same time when we go back to Bohol, perhaps we will travel at the earliest time which would be 5:30 AM or anytime within the day so we can still reach Guindulman in daylight.

Again, I highly recommend traveling to Cebu via Fastcat.

xoxo,

momentswithmatti

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